In the eighth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0High Wizardy<\/i>, Nita gets thoughtful on the moon. ON THE MOON, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n
The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153usual place\u00e2\u20ac\u009d where they met was, of course, the Moon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Only in this book. ONLY IN THIS BOOK IS THAT A SENSIBLE THING TO SAY. I just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I love that we are at a point in this series where an entire scene full of thoughtful introspection takes place on the\u00c2\u00a0Moon<\/i>, and it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel out of place or unnecessary. Indeed, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine a better place for Nita to sit and think about how recent events have come to affect her life.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not easy to split a narrative between multiple people (and I now deeply understand that challenge myself), so I appreciate that we still get depth in Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story, even if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten more from Dairine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective than anyone else. Again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to see how different Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wizardry feels compared to her sister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, and the scene where she draws her transit spell is such a cool reminder of the physicality and memory that is required of her.<\/p>\n
Yet we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also reminded of how much she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grown. One of the ways that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manifested is with her relationship with Kit. Namely, she can no longer hear his thoughts like she could in the first two books. It seemed pretty strange to me; how could that magic\u00c2\u00a0lessen\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>as she and Kit learned more? Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t only get stronger? But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just about their wizardry. Even if Nita isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready to admit it, even in her own thoughts, she admires Kit. The way she thinks about him when she remembers how she helped him build his description of himself is tender and sweet and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 oh gods, she totally likes him, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she? The text from her manual that explains how \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[w]izards in the closest relationships, leading toward permanent partnership, usually find that nonverbal communication becomes rare or difficult\u00e2\u20ac\u009d more or less suggests that this is the case.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s set in stone, obviously, and thinking of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153permanent partnership\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at thirteen is pretty absurd. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also possible that since Nita has had such a traumatic and intense experience alongside Kit, her affection has a context and meaning that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not romantic or sexual. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s young, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the middle of a scary adventure, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s necessarily the best time to determine whether you want to be in a relationship with someone. Regardless, I love that Duane has Nita think about it because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a common experience here that other young people might relate to!<\/p>\n
Her thoughts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c running alongside the music of Journey \u00e2\u20ac\u201c take her to an interesting realization, too. I was already thinking about her growth as a person because of her internal monologue about Kit, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much development that has\u00c2\u00a0nothing<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to do with him.<\/p>\n
What had she been herself, not more than a few months ago? Basically a coward, afraid of everything, including herself \u00e2\u20ac\u201c friendless, quiet and smart but with no one to do any good by being so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
AND LOOK AT NITA CALLAHAN NOW.<\/p>\n
I admit that I wanted to see Kit tell his family he was a wizard or at least learn more about how that went over. DID HE DEMONSTRATE WIZARDRY TO THEM? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible to upstage TAKING YOUR PARENTS TO THE MOON, but still! It would have been nice to see a bit more of Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family. As it stands, the scene still ends on a bittersweet note. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice that Tom came to see them off, but his goodbye is dire and unnerving. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how the Lone Power will manifest in this book, and even worse, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be harder than usual to seek it out. As Tom says:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And Its power\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s oddly veiled, at the moment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c concentrated, and hidden.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T LIKE THIS. Nor do I like that the Lone Power is\u00c2\u00a0specifically<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0seeking out Dairine. What for??? And did anyone else feel a burst of nerves when Tom said goodbye to Picchu? NO, DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T YOU DARE HURT THAT BIRD.<\/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=bQY78wBhvo8<\/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 eighth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0High Wizardy, Nita gets thoughtful on the moon. ON THE MOON, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re 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":[516,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-3878","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\/3878","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=3878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}