In the tenth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Abroad<\/i>, the wizards prepare for battle. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
It feels surreal how close to the end of this book I am. Part of that is due to the fact that just in terms of timing, I started this book right as I began to write in advance of my month-long trip. That means I got to read nearly every chapter of this book in a very short amount of time, which is rare in the Mark Does Stuff world. Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole beautiful coincidence of me traveling abroad\u00c2\u00a0immediately<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0after finishing this book, and I just feel all sorts of things about\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Abroad<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0that never were intended. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the fun aspects of doing what I do. Books can mean an infinite number of things to us, and I want to explore why that is.<\/p>\n
For example: I desperately want to spend the night in a castle. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never gotten the chance to do that. (I have, however, spent the night in a hostel in Ottawa that used to be a jail. It was awesome, and I would totally do it again.) So, just by virtue of the setting, I was already 100% into this. GOOD JOB, DUANE, CORNERING THE MARKET ON MY UNIQUE INTERESTS. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also fascinating to me that at this point, none of this seems strange to Nita at all. She wakes up in a castle and then goes and watches a demigod of sorts forge a spear made out of the nucleus of a star. It is ENTIRELY ORDINARY TO NITA CALLAHAN.<\/p>\n
Where Duane focuses her tension instead is the promise of the coming conflict. This is a normal occurrence for Nita, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ready for the fight that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to come. The sheer amount of unknown variables is what scares me the most. Sure, I have an idea what the story is; the history has been repeated multiple times. But\u00c2\u00a0what if this doesn<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work<\/i>? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s literally no back-up plan at all, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my worry. What if the Treasures are not enough? What if Ronan can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t channel the Champion at the right time? I HAVE NO IDEA.<\/p>\n
Plus, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more reason for angst within this chapter alone. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Biddy, who admits to Nita that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more or less forged her own death into the Spear. This is it for her, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m now preparing for the fact that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll die by the end of this book. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lived an incredible life up to this point, but her own body can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t last much longer. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversation with her that causes Nita and Kit to frankly discuss their own mortality. If one of the Powers is going to die, who can guarantee that either of them will survive? Again, Duane puts these teenagers on the same level as the adults. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0Nita<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0who reminds Biddy of her duty to Ireland and to the wizardry constructed around her name, not the other way around. And as frank and honest as Biddy is about death, so are Nita and Kit. AT FOURTEEN.<\/p>\n
Honestly, their conversation back in the castle is one of the most mature things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read in a YA book, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done so well, namely because thse two accept that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing dangerous things\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re willing to die for what they believe. AT. FOURTEEN. But I imagine that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also possible to derive some inspiration from what they talk about. Mortality isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t an easy thing to discuss, but Nita and Kit provide an opportunity for that to happen.<\/p>\n
The final third of this chapter covers the act of ensouling the Spear. The wizardry itself felt much more visceral than what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read in this series, and I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s due to the fact that it ended up with an inanimate object feeling\u00c2\u00a0alive<\/i>. The power called to it was such a new thing for me because of it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s living nature. This is not like a wizardry for a utilitarian purpose! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a summoning, and thus, Duane imbues the scene with a frantic urgency:<\/p>\n What was coming definitely meant well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 maybe a little too well for mortals to bear. It wanted all things healed, everything made well, no matter what pains it cost: everything being put right, straightened, filled\u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n YEAH, THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S PRETTY INTIMIDATING. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing compared to the unnerving sensation the Spear gives off after the wizardry is completed. THEY CAN FEEL IT LOOKING AT THEM. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s especially so for Ronan, which put to rest any concerns I had for him being unable to connect with the Spear. Lord, that thing was\u00c2\u00a0made<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0for him. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s he going to be like during the fight while holding it???<\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SCARED.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WR1SrF9YftU<\/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 tenth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Abroad, the wizards prepare for battle. 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":[518,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-3940","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\/3940","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=3940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3940"}],"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":"