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comes again to light
I finished A Wizard of Mars! I think I absolutely loved it; but then, at least half the time when I read a new Young Wizards book it is instantly my favourite for a while. (Deep in my soul, A Wizard Alone is still probably my favourite, even though Wizards at War is the perfect storm of everything-I-love-except-lots-of-Tom-and-Carl.) This one is way up there, though.
I think one of the things I love about it is that it is a strangely grown-up book; it might be full of Ronan and Darryl snickering in the background, and Helena's mutant theories (I am so glad we finally met Helena!), and every possible nerdy joke about Mars, but it's also ... it's kind of the balancing opposite to Wizards at War, I think. WaW was about universe-in-jeopardy high stakes, and racing against the clock, and in-your-face dystopias, and the Lone One being a giant disgusting bug, for goodness sakes. The Mars book is about your own back yard, and quiet ethical choices, and facing down the Lone Power inside yourself. Frankly I was shocked when Rorsik didn't turn out to be overshadowed, or an avatar -- and my inner adventure-loving child is disappointed, but the whole thing was very satisfying on a different level. I want to hug Tom's speech at the end.
I also just loved it on a nerdy-jokes-about-Mars level! I think the superegg wizardry would have had a hilarious time with me, because I don't have old B movies or HG Wells or Barsoom or, oh Nita, Marvin the Martian, as my Default Mars; nope, my mind goes straight to Out of the Silent Planet. I think the Shamaska would've been pretty pissed off if they had to communicate with me as hrossa.
I loved the plot on a time travel level, holy shit. I can count the number of times I've seen time travel done right, by which I mean with logic and complexity both intact, on one hand, and this book just made the short list. It's possibly the most complicated use I've seen hold together, too. KIND OF WEAK IN THE KNEES HERE.
Let's see. I was sad at the lack of Filif and Sker'ret, but I didn't really expect them to stay around forever; and of course Sker'ret gave Carmela that free gating deal, which means I spent half the book picturing him, um, Rirhait-version-of-sitting in his Stationmaster's chair-thingy, laughing his cute centipede head off. Meanwhile the lack of our alien buddies was more than made up for by extra Ronan and Darryl and S'reee, A++, and by Mamvish. MAMVISH, GUYS. I want to start hoarding tomatoes so she'll BE MY FRIEND. I am also deeply intrigued by Irene, and more specifically by her strangely unfazed baby. My money's sort of on the baby being a manifestation of Earth's kernel, actually, but who knows, maybe it's okay to be Earth's Planetary and just raise a calm, basically normal baby at the same time.
I desperately want the next book to be Dairine's Epic Quest for Roshaun. I am delighted that she and Nelaid seem to be getting on so well. (I want to be a fly on the wall when he and Harry Callahan sit down for that talk Nelaid keeps mentioning.) I suspect we're going to get a lot more of that concept of taraenshlev', that 'took a wrong turn'. I like the idea of Dairine being deep-down Wellakhit. I also like it on a few other levels, one of them being that "took a wrong turn" is a beautifully concise way to describe how I feel about my own sense of physical place a lot of the time. (Not that I shouldn't be where I am, I mean, just that I haven't found the place I'm really from yet.) And, because I cross the worlds over sort of automatically, I immediately applied the word to the Doctor: of course he's a Gallifreyan who's taraenshlev' to Earth. Mm.
Lastly, a bit about Kit and Nita. Okay. I loved that they were clearly Just Friends for the first few books. I didn't really start getting any passing desire to ship them until ... I think A Wizard Alone was when it occurred to me as "This is something that I might buy happening and would like to see happen eventually" rather than "Well, they're the main characters and I find them both interesting, so maybe I should ship them." In Wizards at War I was surprised by how often the idea crossed my mind, but I was much too busy dithering over the Epic Adventures of Dairine and Roshaun. And suddenly, maybe from Kit's doodling-of-alien-princesses, I was shipping them really hard. I don't quite know how Duane did it, because they don't spend much of the book interacting at all, but it was ... I don't know, it was exactly the right mix of build-up, friendship and longing and second-guessing. I love their separate-but-together realization of how much they mean to each other; I love Nita understanding that love isn't enough, but it's hugely important, and that their willingness to die for one another means something.
Also, from this thought of Kit's I was utterly sold.
I want to write so much fic now! I want to write shippy fic, and crossover fic, and just roll around in this universe some more. Of course this urge comes in the middle of essay season, and I also have other fic projects that need to take precedence, and Doctor Who is back this weekend, ahhhh; but hopefully I will get to it eventually.
In the meantime, a Spirit-eye-view panoramic shot inside Gusav crater. Gorgeous.
I think one of the things I love about it is that it is a strangely grown-up book; it might be full of Ronan and Darryl snickering in the background, and Helena's mutant theories (I am so glad we finally met Helena!), and every possible nerdy joke about Mars, but it's also ... it's kind of the balancing opposite to Wizards at War, I think. WaW was about universe-in-jeopardy high stakes, and racing against the clock, and in-your-face dystopias, and the Lone One being a giant disgusting bug, for goodness sakes. The Mars book is about your own back yard, and quiet ethical choices, and facing down the Lone Power inside yourself. Frankly I was shocked when Rorsik didn't turn out to be overshadowed, or an avatar -- and my inner adventure-loving child is disappointed, but the whole thing was very satisfying on a different level. I want to hug Tom's speech at the end.
I also just loved it on a nerdy-jokes-about-Mars level! I think the superegg wizardry would have had a hilarious time with me, because I don't have old B movies or HG Wells or Barsoom or, oh Nita, Marvin the Martian, as my Default Mars; nope, my mind goes straight to Out of the Silent Planet. I think the Shamaska would've been pretty pissed off if they had to communicate with me as hrossa.
I loved the plot on a time travel level, holy shit. I can count the number of times I've seen time travel done right, by which I mean with logic and complexity both intact, on one hand, and this book just made the short list. It's possibly the most complicated use I've seen hold together, too. KIND OF WEAK IN THE KNEES HERE.
Let's see. I was sad at the lack of Filif and Sker'ret, but I didn't really expect them to stay around forever; and of course Sker'ret gave Carmela that free gating deal, which means I spent half the book picturing him, um, Rirhait-version-of-sitting in his Stationmaster's chair-thingy, laughing his cute centipede head off. Meanwhile the lack of our alien buddies was more than made up for by extra Ronan and Darryl and S'reee, A++, and by Mamvish. MAMVISH, GUYS. I want to start hoarding tomatoes so she'll BE MY FRIEND. I am also deeply intrigued by Irene, and more specifically by her strangely unfazed baby. My money's sort of on the baby being a manifestation of Earth's kernel, actually, but who knows, maybe it's okay to be Earth's Planetary and just raise a calm, basically normal baby at the same time.
I desperately want the next book to be Dairine's Epic Quest for Roshaun. I am delighted that she and Nelaid seem to be getting on so well. (I want to be a fly on the wall when he and Harry Callahan sit down for that talk Nelaid keeps mentioning.) I suspect we're going to get a lot more of that concept of taraenshlev', that 'took a wrong turn'. I like the idea of Dairine being deep-down Wellakhit. I also like it on a few other levels, one of them being that "took a wrong turn" is a beautifully concise way to describe how I feel about my own sense of physical place a lot of the time. (Not that I shouldn't be where I am, I mean, just that I haven't found the place I'm really from yet.) And, because I cross the worlds over sort of automatically, I immediately applied the word to the Doctor: of course he's a Gallifreyan who's taraenshlev' to Earth. Mm.
Lastly, a bit about Kit and Nita. Okay. I loved that they were clearly Just Friends for the first few books. I didn't really start getting any passing desire to ship them until ... I think A Wizard Alone was when it occurred to me as "This is something that I might buy happening and would like to see happen eventually" rather than "Well, they're the main characters and I find them both interesting, so maybe I should ship them." In Wizards at War I was surprised by how often the idea crossed my mind, but I was much too busy dithering over the Epic Adventures of Dairine and Roshaun. And suddenly, maybe from Kit's doodling-of-alien-princesses, I was shipping them really hard. I don't quite know how Duane did it, because they don't spend much of the book interacting at all, but it was ... I don't know, it was exactly the right mix of build-up, friendship and longing and second-guessing. I love their separate-but-together realization of how much they mean to each other; I love Nita understanding that love isn't enough, but it's hugely important, and that their willingness to die for one another means something.
Also, from this thought of Kit's I was utterly sold.
But the sight of [Nita] there, looking deadly -- and extremely competent and wizardly and pissed off and, well, frankly, kind of magnificent --Sold. Utterly sold, and delighted that at the end they admit it, but haven't changed anything yet.
I want to write so much fic now! I want to write shippy fic, and crossover fic, and just roll around in this universe some more. Of course this urge comes in the middle of essay season, and I also have other fic projects that need to take precedence, and Doctor Who is back this weekend, ahhhh; but hopefully I will get to it eventually.
In the meantime, a Spirit-eye-view panoramic shot inside Gusav crater. Gorgeous.
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Oh dear. This makes me want to read this book despite not knowing anything about this series...! In lieu of me doing so and inevitably being terribly confused, what else goes on your shortlist of books that do an awesome job of time-travel? I love seeing it done right, and that so rarely happens!
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On the other hand, I can say RUN DO NOT WALK to read the Young Wizards books. It is very, very slightly possible that they're better when you're twelve or thirteen and the same age as the protagonists, but honestly, these are books that do not run on nostalgia power, and I get new things out of them every time. Read them!
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I would also love to see more of Dairine and Nelaid, as well as that talk between he and Harry. I want to see that lots.
And I also ship Nita and Kit really hard now! I'm also glad that they seem to have acknowledged it and that we probably won't have to deal with annoying UST-type things. They're smart kids. Not that I expect things to go smoothly.
I realized why it's not so strange that Dari is only twelve still - the last three books have happened literally only months apart. And she only became a wizard in book three. So it seems to us like more time has passed than it actually has in-verse.
I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH OH MY GOD.
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Oh god, yes, I am so delighted that they bypassed the UST in favor of being sensible. Doesn't Kit say something like "Took you long enough"? I mean, it took them roughly the same amount of time, but it made me laugh.
And I think I was confused because it says Dari's still eleven, and I assumed that she was twelve. Now I'm curious about the timeline, though. Let's see. Nita's thirteen and Kit's twelve in the first one, so I assume they're an eighth grader and a freshman (just because it sounds like they're at the same school in later books? although maybe it's one of those schools that mashes middle school and high school together); the first book takes place near the end of that school year. Deep Wizardry takes place at the beginning of summer, let's say June, so High Wizardry is in July, because Wizard Abroad specifically takes place in August, by which point I'm fairly sure it's specified that Nita has turned fourteen. Wizard's Dilemma takes place during the following fall; there's a timejump to January or February by Wizard Alone. Wizard's Holiday is over that spring break, Wizards at War is directly afterwards, and now this one is the following summer, so we've been with these kids ... basically a year. I guess Dairine could still be eleven, but she's at least nearly twelve.
IT IS A KIND OF GREAT SERIES. WHICH IS WHY I BOTHERED JUST TIMELINING IT OH MY GOD.
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DD. I LOVE YOU.
(and I also love how she's been seeding this book from like three books ago, and that this book had the seeds for like three more-- the Pig's still waiting for something, for one?)
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(YES. Or at least two, what with the Dairine-Roshaun thing and whatever the Pig was referring to.)
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I'm kind of hoping the next book(s) involve Kit's wizardly specialization, because Nita's got kernels, a maybe-water affinity, and oracular tendencies, and Kit's still stuck at "talks to rocks".