{"id":4501,"date":"2018-03-30T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4501"},"modified":"2018-03-25T12:21:28","modified_gmt":"2018-03-25T19:21:28","slug":"mark-reads-on-ordeal-roshaun-prologue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/03\/mark-reads-on-ordeal-roshaun-prologue\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘On Ordeal: Roshaun’: Prologue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, this was very<\/i> different! While I still recognize how this fits into the greater mythology of the Young Wizards<\/i> series, it was a treat to read something by Diane Duane that was written so unlike the bulk of this series. I do have a thing for fairy tales and myths, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mixture of that same starkness and poeticism within the prologue of Roshaun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ordeal story. But it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drift too<\/i> far from Duane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s combination of fantasy and science, WHICH I STILL DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T SEE VERY MUCH OF AT ALL<\/i> IN THE GENRE. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so unique, you know?<\/p>\n

And while I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m generally not someone who writes prologues or needs them in the stories that I read, I felt like this was needed. It sets the stage for Roshaun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story, but it does so by telling perhaps the<\/i> most important myth within Wellakhit culture: the story of the Lost Aethyr and Thahit. Given where we just ended with Games Wizards<\/i> Play<\/i>, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also fitting that this opens with the story of a sun, duty, and resistance, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that last one I am most interested in. The world of Wellakh, like all places in the universe, had to go through its own Choice, and this story details how Wellakh struggled, suffered, and persevered against the Lone One.<\/p>\n

Some of this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t new to us, but a lot was. I recognized the general pattern of the Lone One\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s temptation and torment, as that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a thematic parallel across multiple worlds and societies and cultures. People and beings are tempted by this entity over and over again, and the Lone One thrives on doubt, mistrust, and negativity. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about increasing entropy in the universe, so it makes sense that It would go after Wellakh and their sun. The sun was such an intimate part of their culture, and since we now know that stars can have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153soul\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of sorts, this allowed us to understand how the Lone One could try to turn a sun against a planet.<\/p>\n

But as I said earlier, it was the theme of resistance<\/i> within this prologue that interested me the most. I think you could easily argue that resistance plays a HUGE part in the story of wizards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conflict with the Lone One. Most of the series tracks the loud, aggressive, and substantive ways in which these characters resist entropy. What about quiet<\/i> resistance, though? How can a people resist a force that will lash out and destroy them if they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t obey? If they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t concede? Thus, we get Thahit, who is so named because the Wellakhit people found a way to spare themselves through quiet resistance:<\/p>\n

Yet many fewer died than might have done, for the wizards of Wellakh understood well that resistance takes many forms, and must sometimes (as with an enemy such as the Lost One) be seen to be accidental, lest it take vengeance far worse upon a world than subterfuge makes it possible to escape with.<\/p>\n

The Wellakhi sun becomes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The One who grew Quiet,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which is such a POWER MOVE, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. The Lost Power grew indifferent to Wellakh because they grew quiet<\/i>. They made it seem like It had won, and that was their form of resistance. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO FASCINATING. But what exactly does all this have to do with Roshaun? Because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m operating under the assumption that this will<\/i> be linked to him and his Ordeal. IT MUST.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/kB7hny8ADVA<\/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":"