In the thirteenth and final chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Deep Wizardry<\/i>, MY HEART. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n
What a journey, friends. WHAT A JOURNEY. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still so goddamn cool that I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0describe<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the events in this book in great detail without devolving into, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153JUST READ THE BOOK, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S WORTH IT.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I was just recently at WisCon in Madison, WI (YOU SHOULD GO, WHAT A GREAT CON) and someone stopped me in a hallway to shriek about\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0with me. (HELLO, PERSON, YOU ARE AWESOME.) They said much the same thing: that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way this should work, and yet, it totally does.<\/p>\n
But before saying goodbye to the Sea and all those who live in it, Duane does a few really cool things with her characters. I appreciated that even after one of the most surreal and frightening things imaginable, a sense of normalcy falls over the vacation house. The Callahans are watching sports. Kit and Nita eat Cheerios. CHEERIOS FEEL SO MUNDANE IN COMPARISON TO EVERYTHING ELSE. But I love that this is so\u00c2\u00a0grounded<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0in comparison to what came before. These kids have been through what most of us would consider a nightmare, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just the first of many adventures they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have. How long will they get to settle down? How long until the Powers need them to do something else?<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I enjoyed that Duane included this bit at the end:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Powers. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll keep doing it until one day we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pull it off. One of us, or both of us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Kit looked down at his cereal bowl. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Both, preferably,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Followed up with this:<\/p>\n
Nita shook her head. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We could stop,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n
Kit chewed, watching her, swallowed, and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You want to?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
She waited to see if he would give some sign of what he was thinking. Useless: Kit would make a great poker player someday. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said at last.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a long or detailed conversation, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important one. Do they actually want to keep doing this? That brief moment of reflection is vital to me because it showed me that even for a moment, these characters were aware of how exhausting and risky their life had become because of wizardry. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a good enough reason for them to stop, you know? Through this book and the last one, Duane snakes a theme that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inspiring for\u00c2\u00a0our<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0world just as much as it is in this fictional one: this world belongs to many creatures, cultures, peoples, and living things. It is ours\u00c2\u00a0collectively<\/i>, and because of their experience in this book, Kit and Nita know how important it is to care what happens to others. They could have ignored the Sea and its problem. Nita could have run away from her duty and lived a life ignorant of wizardry.<\/p>\n
Yet neither of them chose that route. When they return to the Sea one last time in\u00c2\u00a0Deep Wizardry<\/i>, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mixture of sorrow over the loss of Ed with a joy and appreciation for what has been accomplished. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfortunate that Areinnye is not around to see what two humans can do when they put aside their own needs and value the needs of others. Indeed, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole point of this book, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? Nita had needs that were understandable, reasonable, and justifiable: she wanted to\u00c2\u00a0live<\/i>. Yet she was willing to sacrifice herself to save the entire world. She and Kit gave the deep\u00c2\u00a0peace<\/i>, even if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just for a little while.<\/p>\n
It was nice to know that the Powers were aware of what Nita and Kit gave everyone, too. More often than not, governing bodies like this (if you can even call them that) serve a role in fantasy books that is so detached from the main characters that they never seem like they understand what they ask of their magical, quest-seeking pawns. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see Nita and Kit as pawns, though. Wizardry is about\u00c2\u00a0choice<\/i>, and the Powers know that these kids chose to fight this battle, and they know that this has changed them\u00c2\u00a0forever<\/i>.<\/p>\n
We sorrow. Do you?<\/i><\/p>\n
For what happened?<\/i><\/p>\n
No. For who you are now \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the person you weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a week ago.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not. At all. AND I LOVE IT. I love that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re proud of their choices, that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re eager to slow the death of the universe, and that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re ready for the next adventure. Because\u00c2\u00a0so am I<\/i>. What an absolute treat, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I cannot wait for\u00c2\u00a0High Wizardry<\/i>!<\/p>\n
Diane Duane is still offering a massive discount on the first 9 books in the\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0series just to this community, so please take advantage of this deal while you still can:<\/b><\/p>\n
http:\/\/bit.ly\/markreadsYW<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KqjEGrJPD48<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b>
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the thirteenth and final chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Deep Wizardry, MY HEART. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[515,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-3851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-wizardry","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}