Now available: the New Millennium Edition of HIGH WIZARDRY

by Diane Duane
High Wizardry New Millennium Edition cover

Teenage wizards Nita Callahan and Kit Rodriguez have been working the New York suburbs for nearly thirty years now, through nine novels’ worth of adventures. As the dawn of their fourth decade in print draws near, the long-planned updating of the Young Wizards series is at last underway.

Available now at Ebooks Direct is the third novel in the series, and the one that made this whole project happen: High Wizardry.

Of the initial tranche of Young Wizards novels (published between 1981 and 1994), this was the one that had suffered most from the passage of time. Written with 1987’s computer technology in the background, it had increasingly begun to show its age.

Not any more. High Wizardry, like So You Want to Be a Wizard (book 1 of the Young Wizards series) and Deep Wizardry (book 2), now appears in a New Millennium Edition that has been extensively edited and updated for the present century.

You can find out more about the update project as a whole here. All nine books will be updated by the end of 1Q of 2013, and all brought into alignment with the new (2008-based) timeline.

If you’ve already picked up copies of the first two New Millennium Editions, you can grab High Wizardry here. Alternately, if you haven’t yet acquired any of the new editions, we’re offering a three-volume “box set” of the first three books in the series at a slightly lower price than buying all three separately.


(For those who’re interested: A Wizard Abroad, the fourth of the oldest group of Young Wizards novels, will be available next week. Please check the blog or the front page at Ebooks Direct for more news on the availability date.)

A little about the story:

Magic doesn’t stop where the atmosphere does…

Don’t take shrewd, eleven-year-old Dairine Callahan for just any bratty younger sibling. Impatient for adventure, knowledge, and recognition, maybe even a little jealous of her wizardly older sister, Dairine comes across Nita’s copy of the Wizard’s Manual and reads the Wizard’s Oath aloud….

Disappointingly, nothing seems to happen. But when her family’s new computer arrives, Dairine discovers that it’s come with a whole lot more than the usual bundled software. The computer contains a beta version of the new online edition of the Wizard’s Manual. Wrapped up  inside it is a whole world’s worth of spells, secrets and magical knowledge…and it’s all hers to play with.

Never the kind to do anything by halves, Dairine launches herself into a reckless, cross-universe, high-voltage magical conflict with the implacable enemy of all wizards and wizardry, the Lone Power. It falls to Nita and Kit to track Dairine down before she gets into trouble so deep that not even her precocious brains can save her.

But by the time they catch up with her, it’s already too late. On a bleak and empty world, Dairine has already become the wizardly godmother to a brand new life-form. And the relentless Enemy of all new life is even now hot on her trail, intent on ending the threat Dairine poses… permanently.

Reviewers say:

“The sheer effrontery of the plot — coupled with the gritty charm of the characters and the sprightly dialogue of these credible siblings — makes for enormous fun.” (Kirkus Reviews)


“Duane is tops in the high adventure business… This rollicking yarn will delight readers.” (Publishers Weekly)


“There’s a pacing that doesn’t let up from the very beginning. And even more than that, there’s a Heinleinesque affection for the characters. Duane writes about people you can really care about, with lots of quirks and endearing traits that feel real in a way most writers don’t manage. High Wizardry is… high entertainment.” (Locus)


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