In the fifth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Abroad<\/i>, Nita comes clean with her aunt, visits a new place, reunites with a friend, and is shocked by someone else. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n
EVERYTHING HAPPENED IN THIS CHAPTER.<\/p>\n
Under the Hill<\/b><\/p>\n
I went into this expecting Annie to know that Nita was a wizard, but in hindsight, that actually makes no sense. If she knew it, wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she be relieved to know that her wizardly abilities were passed on? Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she have told Nita the truth about the ghosts? So yeah, my bad, that was such a terrible theory. But that meant it was SO INCREDIBLY COOL to watch Annie realize that her niece was a wizard. 100% worth it, would try again.<\/p>\n
But Duane doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t linger here at all, and as much as I wanted them to have a conversation about wizardry, this was not the time. They had entered the hill! They were about to meet the Sidhe, the people of the hills! YES. YES. YES. I wanted this book to become more fantastical, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing so in such a distinctly\u00c2\u00a0Irish<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0way. The Sidhe are described incredibly here, and one of the things I enjoyed about this was how Duane conveyed the super\u00c2\u00a0realness<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0of everything in this world. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very odd thing to describe, but I believe Duane succeeded. These people live in a place that is more concrete, and so, Nita feels like her own world is somehow fake. Which reminded me of the times I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been to places like Vancouver or Yosemite, where the picturesque views are so pretty and detailed that they actually look unreal. Like, Yosemite looks Photoshop. I know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an absurd thing to say, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just\u00c2\u00a0so<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0beautiful, and the size and scale of everything feels impossible.<\/p>\n
Now, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak with any sort of expertise on the Sidhe because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only tangentially known about them from books and other people. (I recall someone at last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dublin event mentioning them.) So I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to go into this and say that I know whether or not Duane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s written about this bit of Irish mythology with any respect. Which I hope she has! But I get the sense that she did her research and that these people are represented as they are\u00c2\u00a0because<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0of how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re portrayed in mythology. But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say that you go into this chapter knowing absolutely nothing of the Sidhe. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fairly close to that.) Duane still gives us a sense of their immense power. Their honor. The way they seem intimidating without even trying. And in Nita, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a character who knows to respect and honor them while also being herself.<\/p>\n
Anne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not all that different from Nita here, either. Both women speak plainly but respectfully to the Amadaun and the other Sidhe, yet they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stray from telling the truth, either. Which I saw as a part of their wizardry; wizards tell the truth, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. (And from a writing stand point: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so cool to see how consistent Duane is on this.)<\/p>\n
So, what do we learn from all of this? Well, the re-enactment of the old battle between the Lone One might be necessary after all. I noticed a similarity between this and\u00c2\u00a0Deep Wizardry<\/i>; wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the Song like this in that regard? This is physical in a different sense, though, and the thing that these people need to stop is from a past existence; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the Lone One trying to conquer this world again. (Which is a weird idea anyway, since the Lone One was accepted back into the Powers after\u00c2\u00a0High Wizardry<\/i>.) But aside from talking of the mythology, its importance, and the logistical problems of the Treasures, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually no real plans made. And I get that! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll approach this problem, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also indicative of the kind of wizardry done in Ireland. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0got<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to be discussed and planned.<\/p>\n
You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a Wizard, Nita<\/b><\/p>\n
I JUST LOVE DISCOVERY SCENES WHERE ONE CHARACTER GETS TO TELL A LONG-HELD SECRET. YES. THANK YOU. Duane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s treatment of Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wizardry is so satisfying because it gives her an outlet she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have before.S he has an ally! She has someone she can go to that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the next town over! AND ANNIE IS SUCH A GREAT CHARACTER, TOO. Oh, the possibilities are endless. I want more history lessons from her. I want everything. EVERYTHING.<\/p>\n
Surprise #1<\/b><\/p>\n Nita ran to her trailer door and threw it open. On the bed, Kit looked up in surprise, blinked at her. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hi, Neets. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the scoop?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHH I WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T READY. I TRULY WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, I mean, you promised your folks that you wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come back to see me. But\u00c2\u00a0I<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0never promised anybody anything. Because nobody asked me!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n AHAHAHAHAHAAHA KIT, YOU ARE MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. I genuinely believed that Nita would be in this by herself. Plus, given how complicated and frightening this errantry might be, I found it comforting to know that Kit was willing to provide support. I mean, YES, he totally came because he missed Nita (AWWWWWW), but he also knows he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a better wizard as a pair.<\/p>\n Can we also acknowledge how cute it was that Nita showed off Kit to Annie\u00c2\u00a0immediately<\/i>? Super cute.<\/p>\n Surprise #2<\/b><\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how to deal with this. I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T. I was satisfied with the scenes where Nita showed Kit around via bicycle, and I just felt so\u00c2\u00a0good<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0knowing they were reunited. And then Duane has to go and deliver a mystery that perplexes me more than anything else I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen so far. Given that wizards show up as they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re needed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there are few coincidences in this world \u00e2\u20ac\u201c then I believe Kit arrived just on time to learn that Biddy is not who they thought she was. Look, how do I even explain this???<\/p>\n She saw Biddy look up; she saw the lightning lance down at the truck. The breath went right out of Nita in horror, for there was simply no way she could quickly extend her shield so far. But Biddy lifted her hand abruptly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u201cand the lightning simply went\u00c2\u00a0elsewhere<\/i>. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t strike anything else, it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t miss; it just stopped\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and went away. There wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even a thunderclap.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Note that she does this WITHOUT WIZARDRY. NO WIZARDRY AT ALL. How??? How is that even possible in this world? My guess (which I made on video) was that Biddy was the Power that the fox warned of. That would explain this, right? Oh god, I hope so.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xGKJ_d9rfBs<\/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> In the fifth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Abroad, Nita comes clean with her aunt, visits a new place, reunites with a friend, and is shocked by someone else. 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":[518,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-3921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-wizard-abroad","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921","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=3921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\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":"