In the first half of the fifteenth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0The Wizard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dilemma<\/i>, Nita meets some strange characters while on errantry. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, this is just getting weirder and weirder, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m unsure how this might tie into the larger narrative, at least aside from two possible clues. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to those, but let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first talk about\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 a wizard Break Room? Gym? There are a few real-world parallels to what we see here, and I want to discuss them!<\/p>\n
This chapter (or at least the first half of it) gave me a better sense of what the wizard community is like and how much the Powers have considered when it comes to these practice universes. Just as a first impression, it made sense to me that the Powers would want to encourage wizards to explore out of their comfort zones or outside of what they thought possible. These universes and their tests are a way for wizards to do that\u00c2\u00a0without<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0fear and uncertainty, at least since nothing can actually go wrong here. Given that, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great potential in the practice worlds! So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no surprise to me that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re as popular and far-reaching as we see here. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not one repetition of species here, and that alone made this feel\u00c2\u00a0huge<\/i>. How many other species make it to the default playroom? If Nita visited this regularly, I bet she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be exposed to more people than if she traveled every day. The place feels like the kind of hub where ideas are exchanged, where support is offered, where theories can be tested and improved.<\/p>\n
Indeed, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly what we see here! Pralaya first helps Nita to learn how to find a kernel while moving, and he also lets Nita know that the Powers specifically made a pocket universe so that wizards could rest before going home. EVERYTHING IS SO THOUGHTFUL RIGHT FROM THE START. So is the furniture! THERE IS WEIRD ALIEN FURNITURE, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Do you realize how cool that is?<\/p>\n
And oh my god, SO MANY NEW SPECIES ARE INTRODUCED HERE. Admittedly, it was hard to keep up with them all and remember names and shapes, but I got the sense that this was intentional. Remember, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head, and we are experiencing this place for the first time, too! So I think this section\u00c2\u00a0should<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0be as overwhelming as it is, at least so that we experience a similar feeling as Nita does. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing to me how quickly this discomfort turns to hope:<\/p>\n While Nita was working out where the rim of her invisible glass was, she hard a lot of information and gossip from the alien wizards around her, and she quickly realized that in even a fairly short time she could find out all kinds of useful things, any one of which could possibly help her save her mother.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Nita now has a new resource. She has a new place to get ideas or to have a sounding board for her own! But \u00c2\u00a0as soon as she realizes this, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s completely bewildered by the appearance of a pig. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even the weirdest thing here, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just any pig; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a living being that exists somewhere between a wizard and one of the Powers. Oh, and it was never\u00c2\u00a0created<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0by one of the Powers. IT JUST EXISTED. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so goddamn mystical that the manual requires every wizard to ask it the meaning of life IN CASE THE PIG ACTUALLY DECIDES TO ANSWER THE QUESTION.<\/p>\n When I told y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all that I love the strange and the surreal, I had no idea that\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0was awaiting me. The Transcendent Pig! A REAL CHARACTER IN THIS SERIES.<\/p>\n There was something about the Pig that put her at her ease \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one thing being that, to her astonishment, it had a New York accent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n GODS ALL BLESS THIS BOOK, I WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T READY.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Pig said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re another one who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t manage the music of the spheres?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, Diane Duane took the concept of\u00c2\u00a0musica universalis<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0AND MADE IT LITERAL. I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T.<\/p>\n So, I figured that Nita would socialize a bit and then head back to practicing. If anything, Duane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done a fine job of conveying the urgency of Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s task, so I started feeling impatient myself towards the end of this section. Nita had so much work to do, and she wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doing any of it! Thus, I was shocked when Kkirl shared the project she was working on and Nita agreed to travel along with the group in order to help. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a bad decision by any means. Nita will get a chance to work on a project that is at least tangentially similar to her own, since Kkirl must change a kernel, too. (Though for an entire planet, not just one body.) Plus, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just smart for her to help these people, too!<\/p>\n And then Dazel ruins everything.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re leaving, apparently. We said to them, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcGo well,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and they said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSome of us may, but one of us will not.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n WHY. WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS TO ME, DIANE DUANE.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QvbTzdfRYZc<\/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. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b> In the first half of the fifteenth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0The Wizard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dilemma, Nita meets some strange characters while on errantry. 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":[520,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-4008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-wizards-dilemma","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008","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=4008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Check 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":"