Dark is Rising sequence; Young Wizards; Eddings; new JohnMail

[John Walton]

blpurdom at yahoo.com wrote:

>>> From: "Neil Ward" <neilward at d...>
>>> I loved the whole set, but I did find the first and last books
>>> less enjoyable than the middle three...[snip] The second and
>>> fourth books - The Dark Is Rising and The Grey King - are superb.
>> 
>> The second book is absolutely brilliant in my humble opinion; I
>> can't count the number of times I've read it with bated breath.
> 
> Good to hear.  I've bought the first book because it looked like
> something my son might like.  He recently tried reading the Hobbit
> because his sister liked it, but he couldn't get into it and is
> rereading Chamber of Secrets again instead.  Maybe if he wants to do
> something that's not Harry Potter next (it actually happens
> sometimes!) I'll sell him on starting this series.

I simply ADORE The Dark Is Rising. It's right next to HP on my "Books I
Love" shelf. Also there are the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane, which
start with "So You Want To Be A Wizard" and are truly excellent. Different
from JKR's world in that there is quite a bit of the workings of magic in
them, but not so much as to stilt the dialogue/plot, and there are some
really nifty plot devices. It was started in 1983, for those of you who are
going "Ugh, American HP ripoff...". Plus Diane Duane is Just Great. :D

You could also try Narnia (but make sure you don't get the silly new ones
without all that squishy Lewis Christian allegory -- though I'm not a
Christian I do certainly enjoy the themes).

Another amusing and extremely well-written series is the David Eddings
Belgariad/Malloreon arcs, which consist of five books each. Though they are
aimed at adults, I read them when I was 11 and adored them. There is a
master list of Great Books The List Likes somewhere on the site but I can't
find it for the life of me.

www.yahoogroups.com/group/hpforgrownups

Lastly, I have a new email address -- john at walton.vu replaces john at walton.to
because I just acquired my *own* domain rather than a forwarding company's
domain :D I now have POP3 and SMTP! Huzzah! For those who are interested,
Vanuatu (.vu) is (a) cool and (b) reasonably inexpensive to register a
domain in their country. And if you don't know where Vanuatu is, you should
:D

--John

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 "Do not thump the book of G'Quon.  It is disrespectful."
-- G'Kar, Babylon 5

John Walton -- john at walton.vu
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