THE WIZARD'S APPRENTICE
by S.P. Somtow
It's Hollywood, with shrimp-and-avocado pizza for those bored with the plain old Thai barbecued-chicken kind. Aaron has just discovered that his crush on the pneumatic Penelope is requited and is hurrying to the Mall doing amazing, magical things on his skateboard when Zap! chief-wizard Anaxagoras traps him in a time warp, explaining that Aaron really does do magic and should be his apprentice. Aaron is given a mirror that reveals his true feelings about what it reflects; he also learns a dragon-making spell and a magic way to unstop toilets. But dragons are the bad stuff—the mean, hateful, insecure side of a wizard. Aaron's dragon, smog-fueled, expands to cover most of L.A.—until Aaron, having discovered that he doesn't really despise himself, lets it look in his mirror and the dragon dissipates. As Anaxagoras says, ecology is a subset of magic; and as the author says, the one true magic springs from the human heart. Lots of laughs and Hollywood outrageousness; perhaps a little slick and glib, but still rather a sweet-hearted romp in the ``Dragonflight'' series, by a mainstream SF author. (Fiction. 12+)