In the second half of the fifth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Alone<\/i>, Kit and Ponch go after Darryl again. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know when I first had the epiphany that Ponch does here. And maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little sad, that it happened so long ago, that I must have been quite young when it happened. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case for some of us, though. Circumstances inspire the realization that the world can be a bitter, painful, and unfair place to most people. I do know that this central question is one of the things that drew me away from God at the end of high school. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find a way to believe in a world that had been so cruel to me and many others and a God that cared deeply for me, but did nothing.<\/p>\n
The fact that a\u00c2\u00a0dog<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is what got me thinking about this is pretty damn spectacular in and of itself, but I do love that I did not feel dire while reading this. The opening scene here is some heavy shit, something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give most people an existential crisis like the one Ponch has. But art is one of a number of things that can lift us out of that despair. It can give us the means to understand cruelty or to escape it. And it most certainly has the power to make people consider compassion, the idea that we should think of others and how the world affects them. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s particularly apt in a book with a character like Darryl, who deserves compassion himself and who is embroiled in a struggle that typifies cruelty.<\/p>\n
Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about Darryl because I\u00c2\u00a0think<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0I might know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening here. This latest sequence wherein Ponch and Kit enter Darryl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind is as dizzying and unnerving as the last one, despite that it looks nothing like the desert locale they visited before. Instead, the icy, windy methane atmosphere offers an entirely different type of horror for the reader\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and the Lone One. The pattern I\u00c2\u00a0did\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>recognize was in the pursuit. A hellish world, full of frightening creatures, led to a confrontation where the Lone One thought he captured Darryl, and then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 surprise. Shock. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what the Lone One (or Kit, or even us for that matter) thinks it is.<\/p>\n
But\u00c2\u00a0why<\/i>? The Lone One says something particularly confusing that I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite figured out:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You should never have accepted the power if you weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t willing to use it. And you weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 so now you lose it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Darryl using his power this\u00c2\u00a0entire time<\/i>??? Kit later makes note of just how strong Darryl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power is, so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what??? Why does the Lone One think this? IT DOESN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T MAKE SENSE TO ME.<\/p>\n And then Duane drops another plot twist:\u00c2\u00a0The Lone One cannot see or hear Kit or Ponch while in Darryl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind<\/i>. Which explains why It never went after them the first time. But given how detailed and intentional these two worlds are, I have to wonder if Darryl did that on purpose, too. Did he know Kit and Ponch were there the last time? Okay, maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a terrible theory; maybe Darryl adapted his wizardry once Kit called out to him and he\u00c2\u00a0definitely<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0knew they were there.<\/p>\n Regardless, it is\u00c2\u00a0astounding<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to me the affect that Darryl has on the Lone One. In Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s words:<\/p>\n Kit was having trouble believing what he was hearing. The Lone Power was\u00c2\u00a0frustrated<\/i>. He saw the unbelievable \u00e2\u20ac\u201c saw the Power that invented death start hammering with Its fists on the upright coffin of ice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n To add to this, the block of ice Darryl hides in breaks the Lone One\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sword. WHICH\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 HOW. HOW THE HELL IS DARRYL THIS POWERFUL. How is Darryl able to create such intricate worlds\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0keep himself out of them? Because at the end of all this, Kit gets that same feeling that Ponch had the last time: that Darryl isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really present in this world. Is this whole thing like some sort of wizardly astral projection? How is he doing this?<\/p>\n AHHHHHH, I NEED MORE OF THIS BOOK NOW!<\/p>\n vid<\/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 second half of the fifth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0A Wizard Alone, Kit and Ponch go after Darryl again. 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":[523,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-4061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-wizard-alone","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061","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=4061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4061"}],"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":"