Summon The Keeper, and The Second Summoning, by Tanya Huff (DAW, 1998/2001)

Most people don’t realize it, but the veil separating our world from the countless, unimaginable horrors of Hell is a thin one, often frayed almost to the point of breaking, and very little stands between us and horrible, messy deaths, … Continue reading

Grave Peril, by Jim Butcher (Roc, September 2001)

What do you get if you cross Sam Spade or Mike Hammer with a healthy dose of magic? Harry Dresden, the only practicing wizard in the Chicago Yellow Pages. He’s a private detective and wizard for hire who takes the … Continue reading

Fool Moon, by Jim Butcher (Roc, 2001)

“I never used to keep close track of the phases of the moon. So I didn’t know that it was one night shy of being full when a young woman sat down across from me in McNally’s pub and asked … Continue reading

Storm Front, by Jim Butcher, (Roc Books, 2000)

In a world where magic is all too real, where the Unseelie Incursion of 1994 caused the entire city of Milwaukee to vanish for several hours, where a nasty drug called ThreeEye can actually awaken the user’s ability to see … Continue reading

Merlin’s Kin: World Tales of the Heroic Magician, by Josepha Sherman, (August House, 1998)

Merlin’s Kin is a clever, well-researched exploration into the theme of the heroic magician that can be found in every culture around the world. Josepha Sherman, well known for her previous folklore collections, Once Upon A Galaxy, and Trickster Tales, … Continue reading

Wizard’s Holiday, by Diane Duane (Harcourt Press, 2003)

The seventh book in Diane Duane’s long-running Young Wizards series picks up shortly after the previous one, A Wizard Alone, left off. For teen wizards Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan, it’s one of their favorite times of the year: spring … Continue reading

Wizards at War, by Diane Duane (Harcourt, 2005)

For teenage wizards Nita, Kit, and Dairine, life is never dull or ordinary. As part of a select group of magical champions, they might be called upon at any time to travel across the universe, negotiate a peace treaty between … Continue reading

The Wizard of Washington Square, by Jane Yolen, (Starscape, 2005)

David’s new to the city, so he’s quite pleased when he makes a new friend, Leilah. She in turn introduces him to the existence of magic in their midst, in the form of the absent-minded, second-class wizard who lives in … Continue reading

The Witches of Bailiwick, by Sandra Forrester (Barron’s, 2005)

At long last, the time has come for Beatrice Bailey and her friends to confront the evil sorcerer, Dally Rumpe, once and for all. In four previous missions to the Witches’ Sphere, the quartet (later quintet) of teenage witches went … Continue reading

The Witches of Winged-Horse Mountain, by Sandra Forrester (Barron’s, 2004)

Guess who’s back? That’s right, it’s Beatrice Bailey and her friends. In the fourth book in the series, they’ve been tasked with the mission of freeing yet another part of the magical land of Bailiwick from the clutches of the … Continue reading