Young Wizards/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Trivia about Young Wizards includes:

  • Did Not Do the Research: "Cancer virus", from A Wizard's Dilemma.
  • Long Running Book Series
  • One of Us: The author has been known to edit the original TV Tropes from time to time.
  • Shout-Out: Sprinkled liberally throughout the series:
    • There is a guest appearance by the Fifth (Peter Davidson) Doctor in the third book as a good Samaritan who helps Dairine in a moment of need.
    • The fifth book has a shout out to the fifth (and unreleased in English) season of Sailor Moon, in the form of a Fan Sub being watched by Kit's big sister. (This was confirmed by Word of God.)
    • A Wizard of Mars hangs many lampshades on classic science fiction involving the planet, including Edgar Rice Burroughs' works and War of the Worlds. Nita even encounters Marvin the Martian.
    • Also in A Wizard of Mars, Ronan mentions hiding behind the couch at the scary parts of the science fiction show he watched as a child.
    • In A Wizard of Mars, Darryl mentions that he's eating Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, Calvin's favorite breakfast cereal (and the only one he'll eat).
    • Conversely, the series gets a shout-out in one of the author's Star Trek novels, where a cetacean scientist mentions the "Song of the Twelve".
    • The end of A Wizard Abroad, with Tualha becoming Queen of the Cats and vanishing up the chimney, is a shout out to the old fairy tale King o' the Cats.
  • Technology Marches On: Though the books hold up well, it can be jarring to compare the tech in So You Want to Be A Wizard with A Wizard of Mars, or even High Wizardry, especially because despite there being nine books in the series released over nearly 30 years, they've still only covered a comparatively short period of time in the characters' lives. Duane has said that revised editions of the first four books will be[when?] released in early 2011 in ebook form (with physical books to follow eventually) to reflect some of the social and technological changes since their publication.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: The early books, as noted above. Just as a minor example, Nita breaking off a car antenna for use as a wand near the end of the first book; American autos, at least, have not had external telescoping chrome antennas in years.
  • The Wiki Rule: The Errantry Concordance, an unusual case in that only the creator can edit the articles. Sadly inactive, but still a source of extra lore.
  • Word of Gay: Tom and Carl. According to a troper on this site, he "was an acquaintance of Diane Duane's before she moved to Ireland, and was present when she confirmed to a small audience at a reading that Carl and Tom are indeed a gay couple -- but added at the same time that she'd never say so explicitly in the books" (partly because they're books in the Young Adult section, partly because they're based off two straight friends of Duane's). Frankly, you could call them Heterosexual Life Partners and no one would be the wiser if all they read are the books.

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