History Literature / YoungWizards

It has a sister series, ''[[TheBookOfNightWithMoon Feline Wizards]]'', which takes place in the same universe, but concerns a team of cat wizards who maintain the [[CoolGate worldgate wizardry]] for New York City.

** ''A Wizard of Mars'' hangs many lampshades on classic science fiction involving the planet, including Edgar Rice Burroughs' works and ''WarOfTheWorlds''. Nita even encounters [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Marvin the Martian]].

Notable because magic is presented as an [[FunctionalMagic advanced scientific principle]], rather similar to the way ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'' presents its alchemy. The series also includes lots of extraterrestrials, trips to other planets and moons, and a tendency to explain all mythology as being representative or descriptive of the actions of wizards and the Powers and all language as having been evolved from a natural innate ability to "speak" the Speech. This has the effect of making the YW series feel a lot more like a hybrid of semi-hard ScienceFiction and mystic fantasy than it does pure action-adventure fantasy.

* CarnivoreConfusion: Wizards can talk to any animal and even vegetables and the Wizards Oath is about preserving life, yet wizards still need to eat to survive and cats aren't about to give up the pleasure of hunting mice and rats. Most of the time it's better not to think of this but there are in-universe justifications:

---> '''Liseed''': "Well, We are all in the ''Book'' together, after all. (...) We do what we have to, to live. Sometimes that means breaking a rock's heart, or pushing roots down into ground that screams against the intrusion. But we never forget what we're doing."

* PowersAsPrograms: see above notes under FunctionalMagic.
* PowersThatBe: literally.

* RewritingReality: what the Speech does when spoken by a wizard (non-wizardly Speech speakers are unaffected because magic only happens if The Powers will it). Writing names requires especial care. Famously, Nita [[spoiler:rewrote the name of the ''Lone Power'' while reading the ''Book of Night With Moon'', opening the chance for Its redemption.]]

* SequelGap: There's an eight-year gap between ''A Wizard Abroad'' and ''The Wizard's Dilemma'', when the series was picked by a new publishing house.

* TalkingAnimal: though still they have their own dialects. Everything understands the Speech, but that doesn't mean that it has to be their main language system.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: 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, 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 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.

* ''Not On My Patch'' - Set after ''A Wizard of Mars''. It's Haloween, a day where many wizards can get away flaunting a little magic in the open, and after what had been a rough year, Nita, Dairine and her Dad decide to have a proper Haloween celebration. It's fallen to Nita to carve the pumpkin...a rather misshapen specimen her father brought home. She ends up having a philosophical discussion with the pumpkin about its opinion on the mater, and then in a bout of odd sentimentality, decides to bring it with her trick-or-treating. Joined by Kit and Ronan, they hit the streets and visit Tom and Carl's neighborhood haunted house. All and all, a great evening, until the pumpkin starts feeling something very wrong happening in its home patch...

* ''Not On My Patch'' - Set after ''A Wizard of Mars''. It's Haloween, a day where many wizards can get away flaunting a little magic in the open, and after what had been a rough year, Nita, Dariane and her Dad decide to have a proper Haloween celebration. It's fallen to Nita to carve the pumpkin...a rather misshapen specimen her father brought home. She ends up having a philosophical discussion with the pumpkin about its opinion on the mater, and then in a bout of odd sentimentality, decides to bring it with her trick-or-treating. Joined by Kit and Ronan, they hit the streets and visit Tom and Carl's neighborhood haunted house. All and all, a great evening, until the pumpkin starts feeling something very wrong happening in its home patch...

* AnyoneCanDie: And they probably will, if they have a nickname. (Lampshaded in the short story "Not On My Patch", where Kit questions if if's really a good idea for Nita to nickname her jack'o'lantern.)

* ArtisticLicenceBiology: [[spoiler: "Cancer virus",]] from A Wizard's Dilemma.
* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: In ''High Wizardry'', [[spoiler:Peach, having been the current form of the One's champion in disguise.]] In ''Wizards at War'' [[spoiler: Memeki and Ponch]]. In ''The Book of Night With Moon'', [[spoiler:Saash]]. In ''Wizard's Holiday'', it's [[spoiler: the entire planet of Alaalu]]

* BelligerentSexualTension: Dairine and Roshaun, though they genuinely dislike each other at first; Dariane thinks (correctly) that Roshaun is a SpoiledBrat prince before she learns about his [[TheChainsOfCommanding Chains of Commanding]] and Roshaun thinks Dariane rude and uncouth.

** ''So You Want To Be A Wizard'' addresses this when Nita talks with Liseed, the backyard rowan tree, about the war the trees fought (and won) against the Lone Power to make the world ready for humans, fully knowing that humans would not always be so nice in return.

* PollyWantsAMicrophone: Wizard's pets all tend to get smarter and stranger, but Tom and Carl's prophetic macaw Peach is unusually intelligent and gifted (not to mention cranky). [[spoiler: This is because she's a mortal incarnation of one of the Powers.]]

* {{Reconstruction}}: A Wizard of Mars is essentially a study in creating a modern day story that both justifies and explains the now discredited in serious fiction "invaders from Mars" plot.

* SapientCetaceans: The series features Cetacean wizards (the Trek novel contains a ShoutOut to them). Of course, pretty much everyone and everything with more brains than a sponge has Wizarding potential in this setting.

* ShesAllGrownUp: [[spoiler: Kit and Nita both realize this about each other in ''A Wizard of Mars'']]

* AndIMustScream: The living, planet-sized computer chip on which Dairene's ordeal takes place averts this after being stuck playing it straight for untold eons.

* ApocalypticLog: [[spoiler: Nita, S'reee, and Carmela find one]] in ''A Wizard of Mars''

** From the Song of the Twelve performance in Deep Wizardry: "So rage, proud Power: fail again! And see my blood teach Death to die!"
** From The Wizard's Dilemma: "Agree to stop doing what you’re doing, or I must abolish you."
** From Not On My Patch: One of the shortest of the formal demon-management notifications: "Willing followers of the Fallen, be warned by me! We are on the business of the Powers that Be, and by Their power vested in us, unless you dispense forthwith to your own places, we will utterly undo and abolish you!"

** There's also an in-character moment of this in book seven, when Nita and Kit visit an alien world and see a recording of that species's Choice. In the recording, the whole thing goes down in about fifteen minutes, and not only does the species come out of it with lifespans in the thousands of years and without any particular cataclysm, when they die their souls stay in the world and keep communication with their loved ones. And not only does the Lone One not do anything about this, She's bound herself into the world and can't leave... so they end up ''building her a place to stay'', as a reminder of what to avoid, which mostly gets used as a ''tourist attraction.'' She's still there. They go to visit. Compared to life on Earth... [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu these guys just punched out Cthulhu]], and seem to have gotten away with it on an amazing scale. "Seem" being the key word there.

* BelligerentSexualTension: Dairine and Roshaun, though they genuinely dislike each other at first; Dariane thinks (correctly) that Roshaun is a SpoiledBrat prince before she learns about his ChainsOfCommanding and Roshaun thinks Dariane rude and uncouth.

Notable because magic is presented as an [[FunctionalMagic advanced scientific principle]], rather similar to the way ''FullmetalAlchemist'' presents its alchemy. The series also includes lots of extraterrestrials, trips to other planets and moons, and a tendency to explain all mythology as being representative or descriptive of the actions of wizards and the Powers and all language as having been evolved from a natural innate ability to "speak" the Speech. This has the effect of making the YW series feel a lot more like a hybrid of semi-hard ScienceFiction and mystic fantasy than it does pure action-adventure fantasy.

** From the Song of the Twelve: "So rage, proud Power: fail again! And see my blood teach Death to die!"

* FunctionalMagic: to the point where in all honesty, wizards seem more like the IT staff and programers of the universe than anything else. In W@W, Carl points out that "the Powers know what the universe acted like when it left the factory, but we're the ones who know the little noises it makes every day when it's running. And where to kick it to make them stop."

** Played straight [[spoiler: for the aliens in ''A Wizard of Mars,'' who got a lot crazier after being stuck in suspended animation for thousands of years]]

* ApocalypticLog: [[spoiler: Nita, S'reee, and Carmela find one in ''A Wizard of Mars'']]
* ArtisticLicenceBiology: [[spoiler: "Cancer virus", from A Wizard's Dilemma.]]

* ''Wizards At War'': A new danger appears, threatening all of Wizardry itself. Nita and Kit and Dairine gather all the other young wizards they've met, as well as some new ones, to find a way to restore the power of Wizardry before it's too late. [[spoiler:They are only partially successful, and even then only through the direct intervention of [[strike:dog]] God.]]

* GadgeteerGenius: Kit's initial affinity is for mechanical and electronic devices.

** ''A Wizard of Mars'' hangs many lampshades on classic science fiction involving the planet, including Edgar Rice Burroughs' works and ''WarOfTheWorlds''. Nita even encounters [[LooneyTunes Marvin the Martian]].

** ''Every inanimate object'' is sentient. Even food.
*** Not REALLY sentient, as explained by both Nita and Kit, several times... but they "don't mind being treated as if they were"

* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: Memeki and Ponch in ''Wizards at War'', Saash in the first ''Feline Wizardry'' book]]
** Don't forget [[spoiler: Peach]] in ''High Wizardry''.
*** [[spoiler: That seemed more like Peach going home after Descending in the first place.]]
** In ''Wizard's Holiday'', it's [[spoiler: the entire planet of Alaalu]]

* BecauseDestinySaysSo: An odd take. "There is no such thing as coincidence" is practically the wizard credo, yet their entire system is based around choice. It essentially boils down this: the ''big'' things that happen are up to the decisions of mortals. All the little things that ''lead'' to those big things, not so much.
** basically the PowersThatBe will get the right person to the right place with the right tools to do what needs to be done, the hardest part is usually figuring out how to use the tools in question.

** ''So You Want To Be A Wizard'' addresses this when Nita talks with the rowan tree about the war the trees fought (and won) against the Lone Power to make the world ready for humans, fully knowing that humans would not always be so nice in return.

---> '''the Rowan''': "Well, We are all in the ''Book'' together, after all. (...) We do what we have to, to live. Sometimes that means breaking a rock's heart, or pushing roots down into ground that screams against the intrusion. But we never forget what we're doing."

** However, the older books are being edited to avert TechnologyMarchesOn. The ebooks, first, but eventually the print copies will be changed, too.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: [[spoiler: "Cancer virus", from A Wizard's Dilemma.]]

** There's also an in-character moment of this in book seven, when Nita and Kit visit an alien world and see a recording of that species's Choice. In the recording, the whole thing goes down in about fifteen minutes, and not only does the species come out of it with lifespans in the thousands of years and without any particular cataclysm, when they die their souls stay in the world and keep communication with their loved ones. And not only does the Lone One not do anything about this, She's bound herself into the world and can't leave... so they end up ''building her a place to stay'', as a reminder of what to avoid, which mostly gets used as a ''tourist attraction.'' She's still there. They go to visit. Compared to life on Earth... [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu these guys just punched out Cthulhu]], and seem to have gotten away with it on an amazing scale.
*** "Seem" being the key word there.

* DigitalBikini: [[spoiler: The MessageInABottle on Mars communicates by creating holodeck-like simulations of fictional Marses. Kit gets dropped into Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' {{Barsoom}}, complete with GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe. Said [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Babe]] is wearing a ChainmailBikini, rather than the [[{{Stripperiffic}} jewelry-as-clothing]] featured in Burroughs' story. Kit wonders whether this is because of [[CensorshipTropes something built into the magic]] or his own mind chickening out on him.]]

* FantasyPantheon: The Powers That Be. Contains elements of AllMythsAreTrue in that the diferent gods and saints people have worshiped over the years are all different aspects of the same Powers. That includes the feline pantheon too.

* FoeYay: Dairine and Roshaun, though they're on the same side.
** So more like a very innocent BelligerentSexualTension.
* FunctionalMagic: to the point where in all honesty, wizards seem more like the IT staff of the universe than anything else.
** They ''are'' -- in W@W, Carl points out that "the Powers know what the universe acted like when it left the factory, but we're the ones who know the little noises it makes every day when it's running. And where to kick it to make them stop."
** The original simile seems to have been "programmers" of the universe, but yeah.
*** They can do even cooler stuff if they get access to the kernel, and everything is right there in the man pages. The Young Wizards universe basically runs Linux. So I guess the Speech is bash? Or Perl?
**** [[http://www.xkcd.com/224/ mandatory xkcd reference.]]
* GadgeteerGenius

* KilledOffForReal

* MagicalComputer: Literally; though Nita and Kit have book-form Manuals and the animals tend to listen to the ocean or wind or whatever, some of the newer human wizards have their manual in laptop or iPod form (a {{Mac}} laptop, no less, coincidentally. Either Duane's been paid a lot by Apple Computers over the last 20 years or so, or she ''really'' likes Macs...)
** It can give the impression that the computers in question resembled Macs mainly because of the symbolism of having their logos be [[RuleOfSymbolism an apple without a bite out of it.]] (Think Adam and Eve.)
** Notably, Dairine's Manual Spot came into her possession as an Apple [=IIe=] with the unbitten apple logo. Though given that the first out-of-the-ordinary ability Spot displayed was a backup utility which duplicates hardware as well as files, it's perhaps not too far-fetched to suggest hardware upgrades can similarly be treated like software.
** The book-form manuals have MagicalComputer functions as well, getting new info when needed, having search, calculator, atlas and spell-storage functions, etc.
*** ... instant messaging...
*** Darryl has a ''[=WizPod=]''. [[AuthorAppeal Somebody]] ''really'' likes Macs.
**** Duane herself has even done a digital image of the WizPod. Yeah, she likes Apple. A lot.

* RewritingReality: what the Speech does. Writing names requires especial care. Famously, Nita [[spoiler:rewrote the name of the ''Lone Power'' while reading the ''Book of Night With Moon'', opening the chance for Its redemption.]]

* TheWikiRule: [[http://www.youngwizards.com/ErrantryWiki/index.php/Main_Page The Errantry Concordance]], an unusual case in that only the creator can edit the articles. Sadly inactive, but still a source of extra lore.

* ''So You Want To Be A Wizard'': Nita Callahan and Kit Rodriguez become wizards and must use their newfound abilities to defend New York City, Earth, and possibly even the Universe itself from a supernatural threat.

* ''A Wizard Abroad'': Nita travels to Ireland and finds out that wizardry is somewhat different there than in the United States.
* ''The Wizard's Dilemma'': Nita's mother develops a serious illness, and Nita enters dangerous wizardly waters in search of a cure.

* ''Wizard's Holiday'': Nita and Kit go on "vacation" to an alien world which turns out to have a unique and knotty problem; meanwhile, back on Earth, Dairine has to cope with three alien "exchange student" wizards who have come to visit.

** ''Every inanimate object'' is sentient. Even food.

** basically the PowersThatBe will get the right person to the right place with the right tools to do what needs to be done, the hardest part is usually figuring out how to use the tools in question.

** ''So You Want To Be A Wizard'' addresses this when Nita talks with the rowan tree about the war the trees fought (and won) against the Lone Power to make the world ready for humans, fully knowing that humans would not always be so nice in return.
---> '''Nita''': "But...we make our houses out of you, we-- (...) We kill you and we write on your bodies!"

* DigitalBikini: [[spoiler: The MessageInABottle on Mars communicates by creating holodeck-like simulations of fictional Marses. Kit gets dropped into EdgarRiceBurroughs' {{Barsoom}}, complete with GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe. Said [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Babe]] is wearing a ChainmailBikini, rather than the [[{{Stripperiffic}} jewelry-as-clothing]] featured in Burroughs' story. Kit wonders whether this is because of [[CensorshipTropes something built into the magic]] or his own mind chickening out on him.]]

** The original simile seems to have been "programmers" of the universe, but yeah.

* KilledOffForReal

*** ... instant messaging...

* {{Satan}}: The Lone Power, though seeing as he has to trick species into accepting death and entropy, he also represents the Trickster gods of Native American legends.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: The wizard's manual describes plain old things like teleportation in insanely impossible-to-understand words. Justified in that magic is based on telling the universe what you want it to do in a very specific manner. You NEED to be able to split hairs and use precise diction. Especially when you want to do things like bring air with you on your jaunt to the moon. If you miswrite a name, the named changes to fit.
* [[ShesAllGrownUp She's All Grown Up]]: [[spoiler: Kit and Nita both realize this about each other in ''A Wizard of Mars'']]

** There is a guest appearance by [[Series/DoctorWho the Peter Davison Doctor]] in the third book as a good Samaritan who helps Dairine in a moment of need.

* VoluntaryShapeshifting

** Conversely, the series gets a shout-out in one of the author's ''StarTrek'' novels, where a cetacean scientist mentions the Song of the Twelve.

* AnyoneCanDie: And they probably will, if they have a nickname