In the first half of the sixth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0High Wizardy<\/i>, THIS IS ONE OF THE COOLEST THINGS EVER. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
THIS IS A REAL BOOK. THAT I GET TO READ. AND EXPERIENCE. AND TALK ABOUT WITH ALL OF YOU. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TOTALLY REAL AND\u00c2\u00a0I CAN BARELY BELIEVE IT.<\/i><\/p>\n
Planet Hopping<\/b><\/p>\n
No big deal, Dairine just hops through the solar system in a matter of seconds between jumps. THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S COOL, NO BIG DEAL. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as if Duane knew the sequence on the Moon in\u00c2\u00a0Deep Wizardry<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0was intense and magical, and then she thought, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How shall I raise the bar\u00c2\u00a0on myself?<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and then THIS HAPPENED.<\/p>\n
Dairine traveled from marks to the Moons of Jupiter. She is the first person to, as Duane puts it:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and the huge differences between the two planets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 masses, vectors, and velocities caused Dairine to become the first Terran to lose her lunch on Jupiter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (then) outermost satellite, Ananke.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WHAT A SENTENCE, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. It is just one bit of surrealism amidst a sequence full of nothing but images and experiences and feelings and sensations that none of us will likely ever go through ever. Dairine, in her quest to do the impossible, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look back on her journey. She just keeps pressing forward. Which is realistic, I admit, because Duane makes sure to write her as being na\u00c3\u00afve and short-sighted in her goals. While she jumps from planet to moon in our solar system, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a moment that highlights just how little she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thought about the ramifications of what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done:<\/p>\n
That brought up the question of food, which needed to be handled. Dairine considered briefly, then used the software to open a storage pocket in otherspace. By means of the transit utility she then removed a loaf of bread, a bottle of mustard, and half a pound of bologna from the refrigerator back home, stuffing them into local otherspace where she could get at them.\u00c2\u00a0Mom\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u2122n\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Dad won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t notice,<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0she thought,\u00c2\u00a0and even if they do, what<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re they going to do about it? Ground my copy?<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At that point in the text, this was the first real acknowledgement from Dairine that she might get in trouble, yet look at what she focuses on: ingredients for a bologna sandwich. (Which, first of all, I had a visceral reaction to that because bologna is one of the few things in the world that I despise, and my mom constantly tried to push it on me as a child, and THAT HORRID MEAT BY-PRODUCT SHALL NOT ENTER THE TEMPLE THAT IS MY BODY.) She literally references her copy without a single thought as to how messed up it is that she left a soulless copy of herself behind to avoid getting in trouble!<\/p>\n
However, once Dairine decides to leave the solar system to find something interesting and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153special,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Duane truly demonstrates how poorly thought-out this whole trip is. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do so just to be cruel, and I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore how incredibly powerful this is. Even prior to this, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny what a treat it was to know that Dairine could hear the remnants of the\u00c2\u00a0actual<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Big Bang while in space. But y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that if Dairine had not cut off her computer, we would have learned that Rirhath B was called a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153coreworld\u00e2\u20ac\u009d specifically because it was intended to be the Crossings.<\/p>\n
And wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it make sense that wizards would find a way to create a central hub for gateways to the entirety of the universe? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say that\u00c2\u00a0only<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0wizards are in the Crossings, but still. I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m jumping ahead, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help it. I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN KNOW HOW TO TALK ABOUT THIS SCENE. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like Diane Duane saw\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>, enjoyed it, but wanted to prove that she could represent interstellar travel a billion times better than that show ever could.<\/p>\n
How? By not having every alien be an upright hominid.<\/p>\n
I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even picture the metallic cube aliens in my head. I have no basis for them. Indeed, much of what we see in the Crossings is so ridiculous and out of the realm of human understanding that I felt overwhelmed by the whole thing, much like Dairine did.\u00c2\u00a0But that is a good thing<\/i>. Duane had to show us that Dairine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision, made in ignorance, had unbearable side effects. She chose to travel to\u00c2\u00a0the<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0hub of the universe without money, without the knowledge of how to translate other languages outside of what her computer can do, and without any preparation. Is it an amazing scene? Of course! I was thrilled to read it! Yet it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not all joy and sunshine for Dairine, and I appreciate that. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brilliant of Duane to overstimulate Dairine to the point that she nearly regrets the trip. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the sole point of her Ordeal, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly a part of it. Dairine needs to learn what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting into, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s learning the hard way that she just jumped into the deep end without swimming lessons.<\/p>\n
She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clever and observant, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll figure a way out. But for now\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 my gods, what an incredible turn of events. I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH.<\/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=vZxY32A_9xg<\/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 first half of the sixth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0High Wizardy, THIS IS ONE OF THE COOLEST THINGS EVER. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[516,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-3872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-wizardry","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3872","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=3872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}