In the final two chapters of Lifeboats,<\/i> everything is inevitable. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Teveral<\/b><\/p>\n
I have thoughts about this novel that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to in greater detail when talking about the last chapter, but I was glad to get some closure when it came to Tevaral. All told, we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spend that much time on it, and we only really saw maybe three whole locations on the planet. Everything was focused on Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experience there, as well as his day-to-day routine. But the looming disaster of Thesba provided a haunting tone to Lifeboats<\/i>, and given that first chapter, I spent the whole book wondering if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d actually see<\/i> Thesba\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s destruction.<\/p>\n
Duane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s approach felt more clinical than I expected, but I felt like it was a good move. It was almost like reading a stylized account of it from a wizard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s report. And despite that so much happened on that planet, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel the sense of loss and tragedy that I expected to. Granted, the opening chapter kind of biased me to expect the worst, so I AM FINE BLAMING ALL OF THIS ON DIANE DUANE. There was a wistful sensation in me as Thesba tore apart, though. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sad to think that this world is just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 gone. Forever<\/i>. No one will ever be able to live on it again. And the entire population is spread out over multiple refuge sites, too! How will those populations evolve? How will they begin to resemble their own communities that exist separately of the others? Will the sibiks on different planets be able to communicate with one another, or are those connections severed?<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a complicated situation, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no longer that sort of complication with those who had initially chosen to stay behind. Teveral is empty when it is destroyed, and its destruction is best described as such:<\/p>\n
But then came the unexpected thing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dterrible in the way that only events of such magnitude can be, fascinating even though frightening, a sight that would leave analysts working out the moments of inertia behind this particular events for months if not years to come.<\/p>\n
Goodbye, Teveral.<\/p>\n
Valentines<\/b><\/p>\n
I got the sense that Lifeboats<\/i> was a bit of an experiment, and without knowing any of the behind-the-scenes stuff, I can only speculate. Actually, much of Interim Errantry<\/i> felt like a chance for Duane to lower the stakes and give us a more day-to-day look into Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly the case with Lifeboats<\/i>. I think that the means by which I read this novel meant that the middle section stretched out way longer than it would have otherwise. If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just sat and read this in a few sittings, perhaps it wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have felt so slow. I mentioned the pacing issue I had at times, but I also didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what this book was trying<\/i> to do, so I kept expecting something that largely wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to happen the way I thought it was.<\/p>\n
So, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a matter of expectation meeting reality, and I do appreciate that Duane tried something different here, which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t something we really see in longstanding novel series. I enjoyed the book, but it hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been my favorite. That being said: HOLY SHIT, WHAT AN ENDING. The one thread that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t resolved by the twelfth chapter was Valentines Day. What exactly was Kit going to give Nita? Would it backfire? Would she appreciate it?<\/p>\n
Look, I never doubted Nita for a second. Of course<\/i> she would appreciate anything that Kit gave her, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure she knew that he was stressing out about it. But the gifts that they give one another\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I feel INFERIOR. I thought the present I got Baize this year was good, but FUCK THAT. This is so amazing to me?<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the thoughtfulness that gets to me. I love that Kit combines a joke with something that is actually<\/i> useful for Nita, something that reminds her that he is there for her when she needs him. Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gift, on the other hand, is a reminder of their shared history. (Both gifts, that is.) Each of them found a way to demonstrate the love and respect they had for one another through 100% UNIQUE GIFTS. I just???? I AM SO OVERWHELMED, OKAY.<\/p>\n
What an ending. Bravo! And now, onwards to Games Wizards Play<\/i>, the last Young Wizards<\/i> novel I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reading. HOW HAVE WE GOTTEN HERE.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/_ajF08-uV4w<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/W3h0R12w3cw<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the final two chapters of Lifeboats, everything is inevitable. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-4409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interim-errantry","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409","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=4409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}