{"id":4458,"date":"2018-02-14T05:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4458"},"modified":"2018-02-11T09:40:37","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T17:40:37","slug":"mark-reads-games-wizards-play-chapter-9-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/02\/mark-reads-games-wizards-play-chapter-9-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Games Wizards Play’: Chapter 9, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second half of the ninth chapter of Games Wizards Play<\/i>, Nita and Kit visit their very first IDAA exhibition, and it is A LOT. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I find myself interested in seemingly mundane details in worldbuilding more often than not, so I love it when something like the IDAA is constructed as it is because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glimpse into something that could<\/i> be possible. Honestly, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how you know worldbuilding is successful: you can believe <\/i>it.<\/p>\n

Duane roots the IDAA in something many of us already<\/i> know: going to conventions. Actually, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that this is a combo of a con and<\/i> a science fair, and there are so many tiny moments meant to show us how this would work in a world of wizardry. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t until Kit and Nita made it inside of the Javits Center that I realized that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand how wizards could rent out space without revealing themselves to general members of the public. See, the Javits Center is so large that multiple<\/i> conventions can run at the same time within it. (Which leads me with my sole complaint about all of this: Nita and Kit didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get lost within five seconds of entering Javits, THIS IS ALL 100% FAKE.) What if someone else wandered past the hall where the IDAA was taking place? What if the people who ran the Javits center were curious and asked too many questions?<\/p>\n

Well, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a job for one Sarima Okeke, whose wizardry is one of the most unique specialties I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come across in these books:<\/p>\n

FONTS.<\/p>\n

She uses mircoprinting to jam ENTIRE SPELLS into fonts, which is how the IDAA sign manages to make a person feel bored, tired, and disinterested in the IDAA, so much so that anyone who sees it TURNS AWAY AND WALKS OFF SOMEWHERE ELSE. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brilliant! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of A THOUSAND THINGS here that I loved. Like: the floating directory signs. The directory that responds to your questions. The lanyards with spells worked into them to help avoid stragglers. THE MANY, MANY WIZARDRIES ON DISPLAY. Oh my god, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so glad that Duane gave so much space here to show us what the other competitors looked like. We get a sense of how far people traveled. How much they worked on their projects. How they each considered various problems that needed to be solved. AND THEN HOW THEY SOLVED THOSE PROBLEMS.<\/p>\n

A mobile meteor shield. Redirecting rain to arid locales that desperately needed it WITHOUT DISRUPTING PERCEPTION OF IT. Which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the fact that the wizard responsible for it was conscious of the fact that people would notice a sharp change in the weather\/climate is BRILLIANT. Then there was the stealth-shielding, which allowed for a continuous 3D playback of reality FROM TWO MINUTES PRIOR. And y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I will admit it felt very comforting to know that even when you possess wizardry, you are still gonna take selfies with cool shit. SO GREAT.<\/p>\n

But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another reason that that procession of projects was important: It shows us that Penn truly was all on his own. Oh my god, he did exactly<\/i> what I thought he was going to do, and he was EVEN MORE OUT OF PLACE THAN I EXPECTED. I suppose I was most surprised that it worked<\/i>. It makes a certain bit of sense: he was showy! He performed<\/i> his wizardry, and his whole game-show-meets-car-salesman kept people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t capture Nita, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame her. Her anger and disgust at the end of this chapter really felt inevitable to me. Look, even if<\/i> there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some ultimate explanation for why Penn acts as he does towards Nita, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna make up for everything he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done to her! I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>. His rudeness hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gone away; if anything, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just changed since they first met. Remember when Nita wondered if the Powers That Be were trying to get her to make Penn a good person? Yeah, that certainly feels like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case. Why did they stick Penn with someone who would torment Nita so much? I DEEPLY SUPPORT HER, OKAY. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing her best, and Penn is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 not.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/RwDYgTtw5Aw<\/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":"