First post: & _So You want 2B a Wizard_

[brooksindy]

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No: HPFGUIDX C4897
From: brooksindy
Subject: First post: & _So You want 2B a Wizard_
Date: 7/23/00 1:30 am  (ET)

Good evening all, this is my first post. Not read book IV yet - waiting
for chance to devote quality time to it. However, a friend just got
back from London with a _Philosopher's Stone_ copy for me, so I can
compare (she also got me some Jelly Babies, for those who know *that*
reference). :-)

I want to put in a plug, for those who have found it on the list of
alternates for when you finish Harry and desperately want something else,
for the Diane Duane _So You Want to be a Wizard_ books. I discovered them
several years ago when only the first two were out - in fact i was often
chatting with Diane on Compuserve where she was a Sysop on the F&SF SIG
back then - where SIG was Special Interest Group. I very much liked them,
especially the whole concept of what the real purpose of wizards is in
the writer's universe - to slow down the *death* of the (real) universe.

And for those of you who are Pern/Anne McCaffrey fans, you should look for
the book that comes after the main _So You Want to be a Wizard_ trilogy,
called _A Wizard Abroad_. Nita, heroine of the trilogy, is packed off to
Ireland to visit her aunt - and those of us in the know, will realize from
the description of the aunt and her home, that the aunt *is* McCaffrey.

I am enjoying the posts in this club. Even the ones from the 'not so
grown-up' members read as well thought-out and worthwhile.

Another plug: I am a member of the science fiction club in Indianapolis,
called the Circle of Janus.

http://www.inconjunction.org/coj/

It was our club president (the same friend who just went to London)
who convinced me to go ahead and read the Potter books. I even went to
our Borders bookstore midnight release party (our Borders store also had
two "Hogwarts summer classes", including a 'care of magical creatures'"
where somebody from the Indianapolis zoo brought out a couple of owls,
lizards, snakes and the like, and a herbology class where they passed
around a variety of plants, and discussed some herb lore.

One of the neatest things to me in the writing in Rowlings's books is
how she pulls the rug from under you at the climax, when you find out
that what is going on is, in many respects, the opposite of what you
have kind of been expecting. If you go back and re-read, you can see her
reaching her hands out to grab that rug, but you were so caught up in
what was going on that you never noticed it. It takes skill to do that
kind of 'misleading' writing well... when she finishes Potter and goes to
'adult' books, I look forward to the kind of mysteries she might do -
maybe something along the lines of "Mrs. Pollifax" books. :-)

To conclude, I will probably be a list lurker most of the time, but
carry on the good posting.
-Brooks