{"id":4290,"date":"2017-08-18T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4290"},"modified":"2017-08-14T08:12:55","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T15:12:55","slug":"mark-reads-a-wizard-of-mars-chapter-11-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2017\/08\/mark-reads-a-wizard-of-mars-chapter-11-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘A Wizard of Mars’: Chapter 11, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second half of the eleventh chapter of A Wizard of Mars<\/i>, I will never forgive all of you. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n

THE SIGNS WERE ALL THERE, AND I STILL COULDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T PUT THEM TOGETHER, OH MY GOD.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get there, cousins. Some other things first.<\/p>\n

Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Father<\/b><\/p>\n

Never gonna get over just how kind and thoughtful Harry Callahan is, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just letting y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all know that. Duane has written a character here who has an entire life outside of the protagonist, yet the conflict he has with his daughters feels so real<\/i>. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concerned about what Dairine is going through, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aware enough of the uncomfortable implications of the wizardry that Nita set up for him. Hell, even I was surprised by how detailed<\/i> the information was that got sent to his phone. He could read Dairine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stream-of-consciousness thoughts!!!<\/p>\n

What I love about the scene at Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home is how Duane is allowing these characters to grow in quiet, understated ways as they deal with problems that are a million times more intense and dramatic. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room for both of these kinds of stories within A Wizard of Mars<\/i>, and I admire that.<\/p>\n

Plus, Harry is becoming closer with his daughters, which fills me with FEELINGS, given how hard that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been after his wife died. Her absence is still felt (and the same goes for Ponch) all the time, but Harry has had to craft a new kind of life within the vacancy left behind. That includes coming to understand how Dairine and Nita function, on both a day-to-day basis and for much bigger dilemmas. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a good thing for a father to go through??? Realizing that maybe he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been approaching Dairine in a way that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll hear? That maybe his sternness is the wrong kind???<\/p>\n

I AM SO EMOTIONAL ABOUT THIS.<\/p>\n

Wrong Turn<\/b><\/p>\n

Okay, Duane had been building towards this for a while, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not ready to discount it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a compelling theory, because Dairine certainly shows all the signs of someone who was meant for other worlds, yet was stuck in the body of a human on Earth. As I noted on video, her ordeal was on another planet. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s constantly leaving Earth. SHE HELPED CREATE A SENTIENT RACE OF SILICON CREATURES. And, above all, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just different<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Is it possible that Dairine took a wrong turn at birth? I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be surprised if that was the case. Now, as for Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m re-reading that realization from Nita, and I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T BELIEVE HOW RELEVANT IT IS. I still have some questions I need answered in regards to Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 god. His obsession with Mars. IT WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T AN ACCIDENT.<\/p>\n

The Truth<\/b><\/p>\n

It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a history of the First People. It was incomplete<\/i>.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, I can see why I fell so thoroughly for this trick. Duane had seeded the existence of wizardries that reveal histories of lost peoples early in the book. By using Irina and Mamvish, she gave legitimacy to the idea that all these wizards would find is the reason why Martians disappeared. Why had they died off and left no evidence of themselves behind?<\/p>\n

HA. HA HA HA<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s get to Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dream, which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 how does that<\/i> work? Did the wizardry reach out to Kit FROM MARS? I mean, dreams are a huge deal in wizardry, so I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t surprised that Aurilelde appeared to Kit in one. However, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what she says<\/i> that RUINED ME. (In front of an audience at CrossingsCon, oh my god!!!! IT WAS THE PERFECT PLACE TO READ THIS CHAPTER.)\u00c2\u00a0 See, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been wondering when Kit was going to get the full story from Nita or Carmela. He was missing so much information and context, and I knew it would help him to know what had happened to Aurilelde, Khretef, and their people!<\/p>\n

I HAD NO IDEA JUST HOW MUCH IT WOULD HAVE HELPED HIM. I realized something after I finished recording my reading of this chapter, though, as I sat there trying to digest this twist at CrossingsCon. My gut reaction is that freeing these people is a bad, bad idea. They do not seem to have learned what set them on a destructive path in the first place! Aurilelde in particular bothers me, but not because of what she told Kit. It’s what she left OUT of her story that’s unnerving.<\/p>\n

I expected that she would more or less corroborate the same story that Nita, Carmela, and S’reee discovered in that volcano. To a point, she did. However, she left out a HUGE part of the story: that the Shamask-Eilitt people were constantly at war with one another!!! She only briefly makes reference to it towards the end. THAT SEEMS TO BE AN AWFUL THING TO CASUALLY OMIT FROM YOUR STORY. She included the rogue planet part, which also reveals HOW OUR SOLAR SYSTEM CAME TO LOOK AS IT DOES NOW. Our moon! The silicon-based life that originally lived on Earth???? What the HELL.<\/p>\n

The story mostly matches up, but I found it suspicious that she hadn’t told the truth. That suspicion only became exacerbated once the real reason for all of this was revealed: the soul of Khretef is inside Kit, and the superegg and it’s test were meant to find an Earth wizard worthy of WAKING UP THE FIRST PEOPLE AND RETURNING THEM TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM. Oh my god, THEY DID NOT DIE OFF. THEY HAVE BEEN HIDING IN THEIR SHIPS UNDER THE SURFACE OF MARS. Waiting for Kit!!!<\/p>\n

I can’t help but feel that this is super, super creepy. Khretef never got Kit’s consent, first of all, and Aurilelde isn’t giving Kit all the information he needs to make a fair decision. Plus, the way she seems to be pressuring him in the end? I DON’T LIKE IT, FRIENDS.<\/p>\n

I can barely believe what this book has turned into. It’s all your fault.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/jOiR_cV_RPs<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

-\u00c2\u00a0Please visit my new site for all announcements<\/a>. If you’d rather not have to rely on checking a website regularly, sign up for my newsletter instead<\/a>! This will cover all news for Mark Reads, Mark Watches, and my fiction releases.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"