#books about wizards

[messiahzzz]

it’s been almost a year now… is the bg3 fandom finally ready to talk about how gale’s “hubris” is the sole product of actively feeding his insecurities further and straight up denying him help & guidance when he was at his lowest and needed it most. it’s not one of his core traits and never was. he isn’t some closeted power hungry monster that is just waiting to be enabled. what he wants is admiration, recognition and acceptance. which is also what he sought from mystra before the orb disaster happened. he had no desire whatsoever to become a god himself or challenge her rule, he simply wanted to be seen as sufficient in her eyes (“to serve her better”). to be as equal as he could possibly be in a relationship with a literal deity. he has a deep passion for magic and knowledge that affects almost all areas of his life and enjoys the display thereof. he wants to be the smartest person in the room and enjoys when his work is recognized. he may be perceived as arrogant when it comes to his skill, but he IS NOT hubristic. it truly takes so little for him to be wholly content.

[wiishopchanelboots]

The Books of Earthsea Illustrations from the complete illustrated edition, Illustrated by Charles Vess [X]

[prideprejudce]

the hatred that i have for jk rowling and the absolute monster gender conspiracy internet rat that she has become is bottomless at this point

[dduane]

I just finished the audible version of High Wizardry. As per usual, the books are great. I especially enjoyed your interview at the end of the book. I loved how you talked about your friend from the navy who came to love Master Shark Ed'Rashtekaresket by the end of Deep Wizardry.

I'm so glad you've been enjoying the Audible versions! Christina Moore does such an amazing job.

For those who might be curious: my friend in the Navy (well, it had been a while since he was in the Navy) was Robert A. Heinlein. He was quite straightforward with me after he finished Deep Wizardry. "I'm a Navy man," he said. "We don't like sharks. You made me like that shark. ...That was a dirty trick!"

...I restrained myself from any kind of overt gloating until after he hung up. :)

[thistuesdaynight]

y'all, I'm struggling rn

I just read Snape's Worst Memory from canon for the very first time.

I-

[potatobugz]

greatest book ever btw. getting the audiobook was so worth it omg omg

[bimoonphases]

@wolfstarmicrofic September 14 - prompt 14: House-Elf [word count 719]

They were in the Sirius and Remus’s living room, right after Flooing back after a meeting with the Order. James was pacing back and forth and Sirius was nodding gravely even if James wasn’t saying anything. Remus raised an eyebrow at Lily, sitting across from him, and she rolled her eyes.

“James, please stop, you’re giving me a headache,” she said.

“But you heard them, Lils,” James stopped in front of the fireplace. “We’re just to what? Sit around while other people risk their lives for our world?”

“We just joined the Order, and it’s been only four months since we graduated from Hogwarts,” Remus sighed. “It makes sense they wouldn’t want to throw us right in the middle of the war immediately.”

“Oh, so we’re to let ‘the adults’ do the job again? Because that’s worked so well so far,” Sirius scoffed.

“Exactly,” James nodded. “Everyone thinks we’d just be reckless and get ourselves killed but we’d be an asset. Come on, modesty aside, we’re the most brilliant minds of our generation. We could win this if we all work together!”

“Speaking of together, why is it only the four of us here?” Sirius asked. “Where are the others?”

“Mary had a shift at St Mungo’s,” Remus said. “Marlene and Dorcas said there was no war that could stop them from celebrating their anniversary and Peter had to check on his mother who’s been ill.”

“Let it be known I don’t approve the way you three convinced him to join the Order,” Lily frowned. “Peter looks terrified all the time lately, he barely said goodbye before going today.”

“Peter always looks terrified, you get used to it,” Sirius rolled his eyes.

“We didn’t force him to do anything,” James finally sat by Lily’s side, looking outraged. “We just talked about it and he accepted.”

“You know he would jump into the Black Lake if you happened to ask him, James,” Lily took her fiancé’s hand in hers. “You’re charming like that.”

Remus looked away from James beaming and immediately leaning over to kiss Lily to thread his hand in Sirius’s.

“Relax,” he said. “The war won’t end by the time Dumbledore decides we’re ready to help, unfortunately. Besides, I’m sure there are other things we could do.”

“Like what?” Sirius grumbled.

Before Remus could think about it, a loud crack echoed in the room and a house-elf appeared right in the middle of the carpet. James, Lily and him almost jumped on their seats, but Sirius only raised a bored eyebrow as the creature turned around frantically, his hands clasped in front of him until he stopped, staring at Sirius.

“Master Sirius! Master Sirius, Kreacher finally found you!”

“What is it, Kreacher?” Sirius snapped. “Did Mother finally die?”

“Mistress is very well,” the house-elf looked outraged for a second then his expression shifted. “Please, Master Sirius, Kreacher needs your help.”

“Yeah, like that’s gonna happen,” Sirius got up. “Get out of my house.”

Remus could see the house-elf almost immediately obey the order, then his hands clasped even harder on whatever he was holding.

“Please, Master Sirius,” he repeated, evidently fighting the instinct to obey Sirius. “It’s Master Regulus.”

“What about my idiot brother, Kreacher?”

“Please, Master Sirius, Master Regulus is in danger. Master Regulus is dying.”

Remus saw Sirius stiffen. Despite all the bad blood between them, he knew the only regret in Sirius’s life was never getting to save his brother from their parents.

“What do you mean dying?”

“Master Regulus went on a secret mission, but he’s dying, and he ordered Kreacher to leave with this and destroy it,” the house-elf opened his hands to reveal a heavy locket. “But Kreacher can’t leave Master Regulus dying, so he came here.”

There was a moment of silence, Sirius getting paler and paler, James and Lily looking alternatively at him then at the locket. Remus got up and took Sirius’s hand.

“I don’t care he’s on the wrong side,” Sirius whispered. “I can’t leave him dying, not again.”

“I know,” Remus nodded. “I’m coming with you.”

“We’re coming too,” Lily and James chorused, getting up.

Sirius nodded and looked at Kreacher.

“Take us to Regulus. That’s an order.”

“Yes, Master Sirius, thank you Master Sirius,” the house-elf answered.

With another loud crack the living room was empty.

[mold-girl]

does op think that male authors who rape women dont use their money and further influence to abuse more women? does op know that the "problematic work" in question is usually portrayals of how its ok to abuse women, which takes away womens (a disadvantaged groups) social rights and is worse than wizard books?

[coffeekoe]

[nadiajustbe]

There's something incredibly strange and funny about the FIRE DEMON from Ingary who somehow managed to work at some random Welsh school for at least a couple of weeks, maybe even longer and not get caught.

Like, did WoTW just lecture ms. Angorian about stuff like printers, photocopies or, well, the whole English Literature program she was supposed to teach for a good amount of time? Or was it just a kind of scripted info for the new form the demon was taking?

And — most importantly — how did WoTW (who, again, lives in Ingary with little to no connection to our world at all) get all this info about Welsh education in a matter of days?

Wikipedia page informs me that she kidnapped Suliman to ask him about it and she did, in fact, asked Sophie about Wales as well. But I cannot believe any of this guys can tell her enough to make a whole fire demon an English teacher, unless Ben was one himself and did willingly tell her the school curriculum — wich is no less hilarious of a concept.

And If she didn't, how couldn't anyone, kids or other schools staff, notice she has no clue about any English literature besides John Dohn and one (1) poem.

I have so many questions.

[philcoulsonismyhero]

There's a lot of lines in Amongst Our Weapons that make me want to wave my arms around and yell incoherently about Peter and Nightingale and how far they've come and how much they mean to each other, but right now the one I want to yell about the most is this one from right at the end:

Image text: 'The wider the base, the greater the stability of the building,' said Nightingale. 'You taught me that.'

Because, like. Peter wanted to be an architect. The thing he always wanted to do was to build things. And look what he's built! He hasn't just rebuilt the Folly as it was, he's built something modern and completely new out of its constituent parts and he's done it by caring about people and being interested in how things work and by what Beverly jokingly calls 'compulsive networking'.

And everything he's done for the Folly, he's done for Nightingale on a personal level too.

Nightingale was So isolated when Peter first met him. His police colleagues didn't want much to do with him, his social circle seemed to consist of Molly and Dr Walid and not much more, he was completely out of touch with the modern world. And to his credit, he was the one who decided to take on an apprentice, but that was pretty much all he was planning to do. Train up a replacement for himself in case he got killed, pass on the Forms and Wisdoms properly, keep the status quo going.

But he chose Peter, and suddenly he's got an apprentice who wants to study the science behind magic and modernise the Folly's record keeping and work out better ways to liaise with other police and fundamentally Make Changes. Nightingale ends up with all these connections through Peter, to Beverley and the other Thames girls, to Lesley, to Abigail, eventually to the rest of Peter's family, to other police like Guleed and Stephanopoulos and unfortunately for him Seawoll... He has people he can rely on, and who choose to rely on him, and not just for magic -I especially love how Peter's mum eventually starts using him to babysit Peter's dad, and the fact that he helps Abigail's family with her brother. He's not alone anymore, and he goes from just living to genuinely thriving.

And it's all down to Peter, and what the two of them have built together. In fact, they've built something so significant that in a few years Nightingale isn't going to be necessary anymore. He's been Britain's Last Official Wizard for seventy years, all the weight of that tradition resting on his shoulders alone, and in a handful of years Peter has helped him to build something that'll be able to take the weight instead if he wants it to. There are people who can help do everything he's been doing alone and more, so finally he can think about what he actually wants for himself. (And don't even get me started on his arc re: teaching and discovering that it's what he wants to do for the rest of his life, I Will start yelling even more.)

And it's Peter who's taught him to let other people take the weight. That you can build something stable and lasting if you're willing to share the load. The wider the base, the greater the stability of the building.

Not bad for a wannabe architect who can't draw, huh?

[iloveyoublue]

looks at ur canon: wow that’s a lot of words bro. too bad i’m not reading them

[whoopseydaisy]

just so it’s on the record my money for Suvi’s subclass is 1. evocation 2. order of scribes

[chiropteracupola]

another take on these three, with my own designs this time!

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Never seen a homoerotic rivalry I wouldn’t ship.

[mask131]

So you want to know about Oz! (1)

Then congratulations! Welcome to this quick crash course to know everything about the world of Oz! The movies, the adaptations, the musicals, the books! Yes, books, with an S, because "The Wizard of Oz" everybody knows and love was just the first book of an entire BOOK SERIES that became the enormous franchise we know today! You thought there was just ONE Wizard of Oz movie? Think again! You thought "Wicked" was the only work that gave a backstory to the Witches? Get ready for some discoveries!

And so we begin our journey to the wonderful land of Oz...

The story of Oz begins with one novel. No, not one movie - but the novel that caused the movie... L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

Published in 1900, this children novel is still to this day one of the most famous works of American youth literature, as well as the master-piece of Baum, THE book everybody knows he wrote. Baum intended, with this book, to create a purely American fairy tale: he wanted to rival the European tales of Charles Perrault, the brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen - and he succeeded! The novel was a best-seller as soon as it was released, and is still considered as "America's greatest fairy-tale".

Most people know of "The Wizard of Oz" through its famous adaptation, the 1939 musical movie. While these two works do share a same set of main characters and a similar plot, the novel contains many, many details that were not adapted into the movie ; and, in return, the movie brought a lot of elements that were absent from the novel. Both, however, are still the story of a little girl by the name of Dorothy (she wasn't yet named "Gale") and her dog Toto, who are swept up into a tornado and taken to the magical Land of Oz. There she meets three comical companions (the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion), and together they go seek the Wizard of Oz in hope he can grant their wishes, only to have to escape from the clutches of the Wicked Witch of the West...

If you want to read the original novel, it will be very easy! Not only is it still regularly printed today, with various anniversary editions ; but it is in public domain since the 1950s! So you can go read it for free right now, without any problems!

Most people tend to stop at just this book... Not wondering if there was any sequel, treating it as if this was just a one-shot. Except, we told you, this book was a best-seller! An ENORMOUS success! Never before had a children's book brought so much money in the United-States! As such, Baum was not going to just stop there...

While he did intent "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" to be a self-contained novel existing as its own thing, in 1904 he published a sequel "The Marvelous Land of Oz":

This novel does not follow Dorothy however, but rather a very different character... A little boy who lives in the Land of Oz post-Dorothy: Tip (short for Tippetarius), an orphan boy who escapes the clutches of his wicked witch of a caretaker alongside a pumpkin-headed scarecrow he just brought to life. And the two undergo a journey to the Emerald City ruled by the Scarecrow-king, only to get swept into a revolution...

This novel was conceived in a similar way to the first one, as a "self-contained" story. While it does take place after the events of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", reuses several of the same characters (The Scarecrow and the Tin Man are part of the main party, Glinda plays a key part in the final act) and briefly recaps the events of the first novel, it can still be read on its own. This novel especially get a lot of attention today (after decades and decades of falling into pur oblivion) due to its fantasy-dissection of the topics of genders - differences between men and women, boys and girls, unfairness and injustice among sexes (the revolution in question is a "girl revolution" seeking to destroy what is perceived as a misogynistic patriarchy)... All culminating with what is still to this day one of the most famous accidental depictions of a trans character in fantasy!

But I'll return to this all in a later post, possibly...

This novel was ALSO a best-seller and a huge success. And as such... you know what that means. Yes, Baum wrote a THIRD book taking place in Oz! Well, almost... The novel actually mostly takes place in lands neighbors to those of Oz, the land of Ev and the realm of the Nome King... But all the Oz characters return - including Dorothy, who is again swept away into fairy-lands, this time not with her dog Toto, but with a pet chicken Billina.

This story is the novel "Ozma of Oz", published in 1907:

And with these three books, you have the original Oz trilogy!

"But wait, there were other Oz books, weren't there?" you ask. Oh yes, there were more books, indeed! However, I want to stop at this point because these three books do form a specific trilogy for various reasons. The trilogy of the "good" Oz books before everything went... let's say downhill (but more about that next post). But more importantly, the trilogy of Oz books most people know about!

Indeed, even if you have never read "The Marvelous Land of Oz" or "Ozma of Oz", you probably came across various elements of these books, that are regularly scattered throughout Oz adaptations and novels. For example the famous Disney movie "Return to Oz" is mostly an adaptation of "Ozma of Oz", but with numerous elements of "The Marvelous Land of Oz" added to the plot

More recently, the trilogy also formed the basis of the new plot offered by the short-lived TV series "Emerald City"!

Langwidere the princess with a hundred heads, Mombi the witch, Ozma the princess of Oz, the Nome king, Tik-Tok the automaton, Jack Pumpkinhead, general Jinjur, the land of Ev, the Powder of Life and many other names and concepts you might be familiar with come from these two direct sequels to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". Sequels which unfortunately never knew the lasting popularity of their predecessor, despite being just as famous, if not more, in their time...

Next post: Baum's downfall...