{"id":4411,"date":"2017-12-28T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4411"},"modified":"2017-12-24T08:51:13","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T16:51:13","slug":"mark-reads-games-wizards-play-chapter-1-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2017\/12\/mark-reads-games-wizards-play-chapter-1-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Games Wizards Play’: Chapter 1, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first half of the first chapter of Games Wizards Play<\/i>, I AM SO GLAD THIS WAS A GAME, I GOT REALLY WORRIED. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

SO: This was originally not supposed to be split up, but the combination of my sore, itchy throat from a cold made it hard to read, AND some stranger rang my doorbell\/buzzer right around the halfway point, so I cut the video off around then. This normally doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen, but it was like the universe granted me a chance to give my throat a rest for the day, so I TOOK IT.<\/p>\n

(And if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re at all curious, it truly was a stranger at the door. I have no idea who they were; it was some older lady who spoke Spanish and was convinced someone else lived in my apartment and I had to close the door on her because she wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave. WTF.)<\/p>\n

We are here regardless, right at the start of my tenth Young Wizards<\/i> book, and WOW, THIS ONE WASTED NO TIME AT ALL. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re allowed to laugh at the fact that it took me like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 a solid ten minutes? Maybe it was longer than that before I realized that this was a game. I think the major clue was that Kit didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem all that upset that he was right next to a dead wizard<\/i>. WHICH SEEMED INCREDIBLY UPSETTING TO ME, OKAY?<\/p>\n

But this opening sequence\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich is eventually revealed to be an elaborate alien invasion scenario game\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis a whole lot of fun. Duane drops us into it, and she only gives the reader tiny context clues to understand what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a thrilling sequence because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a time constraint on it, and we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why<\/i> that is. But the lack of terror over a wizard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, combined with usage of the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153team\u00e2\u20ac\u009d made me think that this might be the game referred to in the title.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a premature guess, though, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what is intended by Games Wizards Play<\/i>. I certainly have a lot of questions about how<\/i> these young wizards are able to have competitions like this on the moon. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brilliant of them to use the darker side so that their activities aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spotted by anyone on Earth. It also buys them time to clean up their messes, so to speak! But are these games officially sanctioned or organized? Or did the kids come up with it, and they just haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t attracted the attention of anyone else? Something tells me that this wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get past Tom and Carl and certainly not the planetary for Earth. So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. officially run games of some sort? Are they all disaster scenarios like this? What happens when a wizard \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dies\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in one of these simulations? Are these part of some kind of training or something, or\u00e2\u20ac\u201deven better\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis this how wizards ENTERTAIN themselves?<\/p>\n

Oh, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so much potential here just from this one scene ALONE. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know what the main story is going to be, but I enjoy this A GREAT DEAL. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to see the wizards forced to come up with solutions to problems in this environment, especially since it requires such quick thinking on their part. Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ingenious solution to the aliens is a lot of fun, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen wizardry quite this instantaneously destructive. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the closest to something like a video game in all the books in terms of dramatic and physical impact, you know?<\/p>\n

AND SO MANY NEW WIZARDS!!! Will I get to see any of them again???? I JUST WANT TO KNOW, OKAY.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/0Av9VkFnWS0<\/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":"