Review: _A Wizard Alone_, Diane Duane
Kate Nepveu
_A Wizard Alone_ is the latest book in Diane Duane's Young Wizards
series, and a welcome return to form after the disappointing _The
Wizard's Dilemma_. That book suffered from the "A Plot, B Plot"
problem; what's more, both of the plots seem, to my memory now, to not
cohere very well even to themselves. The author has stated that it was
the beginning of a larger plot arc, which is quite evident in _A
Wizard Alone_. This doesn't retroactively make _The Wizard's Dilemma_
a better book, unfortunately, but at least it wasn't in vain.
[ As an aside, I wonder if the series was originally meant to be a
trilogy? The first three are much more of a set, to my mind; the
stakes and questions steadily ramp up throughout, and the end of _High
Wizardry_, the third and my favorite, really feels like it could be an
end to the series. The fourth book, _A Wizard Abroad_, seems quite
slight in comparison, more an Ireland book than a Wizardry book, and
then we have this new story arc starting up after it.
*pauses to mourn her copy of _High Wizardry_, temporarily buried in a
box somewhere inaccessible* ]
In this book, there is no "A Plot, B Plot" problem, though Kit and
Nita start out trying to address different situations. These initial
problems turn out to be related, and with the effects of last book
quite clear, we get a really interesting exploration of the question,
why would a person with autism be offered wizardry?--particularly
since wizardry is inherently outward-directed: the fight against
entropy, on behalf of the universe and everything in it. What problem
is there, that this person is the answer to?
Some of the threads begun in the last book aren't yet complete, but
this book ends in a much more satisfactory place than the last.
There's one piece of the worldbuilding that I have a problem with,
specifically that Order of Being we learn about; I couldn't help but
say to myself, "Surely the One could have come up with a less perilous
arrangement . . . " Beyond that, though, I quite enjoyed this book;
it's not the best book of the series, but it's a solid entry all the
same.
--
Kate Nepveu
E-mail: kne...@steelypips.org
Home: http://www.steelypips.org/
Book log: http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/
Andrew Plotkin
> [Reposted from the book log.]
I was going to post about this book, but I think you've covered my
high points.
> _A Wizard Alone_ is the latest book in Diane Duane's Young Wizards
> series, and a welcome return to form after the disappointing _The
> Wizard's Dilemma_. That book suffered from the "A Plot, B Plot"
> problem; what's more, both of the plots seem, to my memory now, to not
> cohere very well even to themselves.
I reread _Dilemma_ in preparation for _Alone_, and while I think it's
one of the weaker books in the series, I wasn't as disappointed as you
were. (My biggest problem was being introduced to a bunch of alien
characters, whose sole purpose seemed to be to have one of them be Not
Who You Thought. But you barely had time to get to know them even
*before* the twist, and they weren't particularly engaging characters
in the first place. The second cat-wizard book had a tinge of the same
problem, actually.)
At any rate, _Alone_ packed more of a punch into a tighter pagecount.
I'm very pleased with it.
> In this book, there is no "A Plot, B Plot" problem, though Kit and
> Nita start out trying to address different situations. These initial
> problems turn out to be related, and with the effects of last book
> quite clear, we get a really interesting exploration of the question,
> why would a person with autism be offered wizardry?--particularly
> since wizardry is inherently outward-directed: the fight against
> entropy, on behalf of the universe and everything in it. What problem
> is there, that this person is the answer to?
_Alone_ deals with the thorniest issues we've seen yet in the series.
I mean, saving the Earth from destruction is a pretty easy moral
position to take, even if it winds up being tied into heroic issues of
self-sacrifice and courage. The same goes for fighting cancer. Cancer:
we're against it.
_Alone_ gives a much more ambiguous account of autism. We (as humans)
regard autism as a mental disorder; we talk about preventing it or
curing it. Certainly it's hard to regard autistic people without
feeling pity. But then that's *our* "normal" sense of human empathy,
trying to make a connection where there's only a blank wall... a sense
which the autistic *by definition* don't have. So, if you happen to be
human but also to have weakly god-like powers[*], what the heck do you
do? Rearrange someone's personality structure to suit yours better?
Try to create a basis of communication which suits you both? Wait and
see?
And then, in this case, the Other is *also* a wizard, at least
tentatively. This just makes it all the more fun, and that's the basis
for _A Wizard Alone_. I think this is the first Wizard book in which I
genuinely had no idea how the story, I mean the top-level outcome,
would turn out.
So yeah: good book.
I also spotted a single blatant scientific error -- not a sneaky-
alternate-timeline-history error, but a plain mistake. This (to me)
clinches the theory that Duane is putting in one such error per Wizard
book, on purpose. (No, I don't have a complete list, but I've been
suspicious ever since _High Wizardry_ got Mars's gravity wrong.)
[* I'm pretty much going to buy Charles Stross's books forever[**]
solely because he invented this phrase.]
[** As soon as I *find* any.]
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.
Konrad Gaertner
>
>
> [ As an aside, I wonder if the series was originally meant to be a
> trilogy? The first three are much more of a set, to my mind; the
> stakes and questions steadily ramp up throughout, and the end of _High
> Wizardry_, the third and my favorite, really feels like it could be an
> end to the series. The fourth book, _A Wizard Abroad_, seems quite
> slight in comparison, more an Ireland book than a Wizardry book, and
> then we have this new story arc starting up after it.
I remember having a discussion a while ago about how the ending of
_High Wizardry_ should've made the later books impossible.
Spoilers for _High Wizardry_ and _Book of Night With Moon_
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At the end of _High_, the source of evil was defeated. Permanently.
He was actually *reformed*. So how come we're still fighting him?
I'll excuse _Book_ since there he was on the good guy's side
against a sort of eariler version of himself (well, that's how I
interpreted it). I suppose _Abroad_ could be an earlier version
too, but _Dilemma_ and _To Visit the Queen_ don't have any excuse.
[I haven't read _Alone_ yet; waiting for a copy from the library.]
--KG
Andrew Plotkin
Powers don't do Time the way we do. They do it all at once. A Power
appears in many aspects, and they're sort of in parallel, not
sequential in simple time.
Just as the temptation of Life by the Lone Power is repeated, in many
places and with many participants, at all scales -- so is the Lone
Power's defeat and redemption eternally repeated. Someone says this
explicitly, but I forget where -- in _Abroad_ I think.
Konrad Gaertner
But I thought at the end of _High_ he said that he would no longer
oppose them, that they'd just have to clean up his "shadows" he
left behind, (which I interpretted to mean stuff like that thing in
_Abroad_), not himself personally. And then in _Book_ he actually
helps the good guys.
> Just as the temptation of Life by the Lone Power is repeated, in many
> places and with many participants, at all scales -- so is the Lone
> Power's defeat and redemption eternally repeated. Someone says this
> explicitly, but I forget where -- in _Abroad_ I think.
But I thought the point of the end of the first novel was that for
the first time the Lone One has a chance to reform.
Speaking of _Abroad_, what did they accomplish there? As I
understood it, the problems in Ireland weren't caused by the
thing they killed at the end.
Do I have to re-read the series now?
--KG
Jo Walton
>
> _A Wizard Alone_ is the latest book in Diane Duane's Young Wizards
> series, and a welcome return to form after the disappointing _The
> Wizard's Dilemma_. That book suffered from the "A Plot, B Plot"
> problem; what's more, both of the plots seem, to my memory now, to not
> cohere very well even to themselves. The author has stated that it was
> the beginning of a larger plot arc, which is quite evident in _A
> Wizard Alone_. This doesn't retroactively make _The Wizard's Dilemma_
> a better book, unfortunately, but at least it wasn't in vain.
Does _A Wizard Alone_ work if you haven't read _The Wizard's Dilemma_?
I haven't read it because Sasha told me he thought it would be too
distressing for me, and as this is the first time he's given *me* that
warning, I've kept away from it so far.
--
Jo I kissed a kif at Kefk blu...@vif.com
THE KING'S PEACE paperback available now from Tor Books!
THE KING'S NAME hardback still available
THE PRIZE IN THE GAME coming in November http://www.bluejo.demon.co.uk
Andrew Plotkin
> Kate Nepveu wrote:
>>
>> _A Wizard Alone_ is the latest book in Diane Duane's Young Wizards
>> series, and a welcome return to form after the disappointing _The
>> Wizard's Dilemma_. That book suffered from the "A Plot, B Plot"
>> problem; what's more, both of the plots seem, to my memory now, to not
>> cohere very well even to themselves. The author has stated that it was
>> the beginning of a larger plot arc, which is quite evident in _A
>> Wizard Alone_. This doesn't retroactively make _The Wizard's Dilemma_
>> a better book, unfortunately, but at least it wasn't in vain.
> Does _A Wizard Alone_ work if you haven't read _The Wizard's Dilemma_?
> I haven't read it because Sasha told me he thought it would be too
> distressing for me, and as this is the first time he's given *me* that
> warning, I've kept away from it so far.
Hrm. I'd say the book works on its own, but it badly spoils the
plotline of _Dilemma_. And you'd be learning about the same
distressing events as a blunt one-sentence "Ever since such-and-so
occurred...", instead of at book length. Not sure how much better that
would be.
You'd also be jumping over some of the ongoing development of Nita and
Kit as characters, and relationship-between-characters.
Kate Nepveu
>Kate Nepveu wrote:
>> _A Wizard Alone_ is the latest book in Diane Duane's Young Wizards
>> series, and a welcome return to form after the disappointing _The
>> Wizard's Dilemma_. That book suffered from the "A Plot, B Plot"
>> problem; what's more, both of the plots seem, to my memory now, to not
>> cohere very well even to themselves. The author has stated that it was
>> the beginning of a larger plot arc, which is quite evident in _A
>> Wizard Alone_. This doesn't retroactively make _The Wizard's Dilemma_
>> a better book, unfortunately, but at least it wasn't in vain.
>Does _A Wizard Alone_ work if you haven't read _The Wizard's Dilemma_?
>I haven't read it because Sasha told me he thought it would be too
>distressing for me, and as this is the first time he's given *me* that
>warning, I've kept away from it so far.
Dum-de-dum-dum. *twiddles fingers, thinking*
I think you only need to know three things from _Dilemma_, though I
might just be saying that because I can really only remember three
things. However, one of them is a huge spoiler, really *the* spoiler.
It comes up right away in _Alone_, but it's not on the jacket copy, so
here's what I'm going to do:
I'm going to post what I think are the three things, so other people
can comment and correct me; however, I will put in lots of spoiler
space.
REALLY BIG SPOILERS FOR _WIZARD'S DILEMMA_
NO, I MEAN *REALLY* BIG
Okay. Here we are. The three things I think you need to know to read
_Alone_:
1) In trying to cure her mom's cancer, Nita learns that every universe
has a "kernel", a nugget of stuff that contains all the rules for that
universe. If you know how, you can find and change the kernel.
2) Ponch, Kit's dog, starts finding things. Like other universes. Or
possibly making them. We don't know (this is the major ongoing plot
thread; it annoyed me in _Dilemma_ because it seemed to come out of
nowhere, but I'm slightly more resigned to it now that I know that
it's eventually going to be explained).
3) Nita's mom dies.
Kate Nepveu
>> _A Wizard Alone_ is the latest book in Diane Duane's Young Wizards
>> series, and a welcome return to form after the disappointing _The
>> Wizard's Dilemma_. That book suffered from the "A Plot, B Plot"
>> problem; what's more, both of the plots seem, to my memory now, to not
>> cohere very well even to themselves.
>I reread _Dilemma_ in preparation for _Alone_, and while I think it's
>one of the weaker books in the series, I wasn't as disappointed as you
>were. (My biggest problem was being introduced to a bunch of alien
>characters, whose sole purpose seemed to be to have one of them be Not
>Who You Thought. But you barely had time to get to know them even
>*before* the twist, and they weren't particularly engaging characters
>in the first place. The second cat-wizard book had a tinge of the same
>problem, actually.)
Yes, that was one of the problems. Also, my memory of the Kit Plot is
that it spent a lot of time wandering around waiting, too, though I
could be misremembering.
>At any rate, _Alone_ packed more of a punch into a tighter pagecount.
>I'm very pleased with it.
AOL.
>> why would a person with autism be offered wizardry?--particularly
>> since wizardry is inherently outward-directed: the fight against
>> entropy, on behalf of the universe and everything in it. What problem
>> is there, that this person is the answer to?
>_Alone_ deals with the thorniest issues we've seen yet in the series.
[...]
>_Alone_ gives a much more ambiguous account of autism. We (as humans)
>regard autism as a mental disorder; we talk about preventing it or
>curing it. Certainly it's hard to regard autistic people without
>feeling pity. But then that's *our* "normal" sense of human empathy,
>trying to make a connection where there's only a blank wall... a sense
>which the autistic *by definition* don't have. So, if you happen to be
>human but also to have weakly god-like powers[*], what the heck do you
>do? Rearrange someone's personality structure to suit yours better?
>Try to create a basis of communication which suits you both? Wait and
>see?
>And then, in this case, the Other is *also* a wizard, at least
>tentatively. This just makes it all the more fun, and that's the basis
>for _A Wizard Alone_. I think this is the first Wizard book in which I
>genuinely had no idea how the story, I mean the top-level outcome,
>would turn out.
>So yeah: good book.
Really? That's interesting.
Um, SPOILERS. For the whole story.
I actually expected that it would end with Darryl's autism being
cured. Yes, the autism plus the wizardry made that beautiful trick
possible, which you *could* say was why he was offered wizardry--but
that trick was, for him, stasis. The Oath requires wizards to guard
growth, after all.
Now, it's true that the rules had to be set up in *just* the right way
to make this a win-win situation (kernel and abdals). And I think if
it hadn't be set up so that Darryl could keep up the fight while
leaving the autism behind, then it would have been... morally
consistent, let's say, for Darryl to have sacrificed himself. But I
think the ending we got is more morally consistent, and I, in my
eternal optimism, expected it.
>I also spotted a single blatant scientific error -- not a sneaky-
>alternate-timeline-history error, but a plain mistake. This (to me)
>clinches the theory that Duane is putting in one such error per Wizard
>book, on purpose. (No, I don't have a complete list, but I've been
>suspicious ever since _High Wizardry_ got Mars's gravity wrong.)
What error is that?
Konrad Gaertner
>
> Jo Walton <blu...@vif.com> wrote:
> >Does _A Wizard Alone_ work if you haven't read _The Wizard's Dilemma_?
>
> >I haven't read it because Sasha told me he thought it would be too
> >distressing for me, and as this is the first time he's given *me* that
> >warning, I've kept away from it so far.
>
> Dum-de-dum-dum. *twiddles fingers, thinking*
>
> I think you only need to know three things from _Dilemma_, though I
> might just be saying that because I can really only remember three
> things. However, one of them is a huge spoiler, really *the* spoiler.
> It comes up right away in _Alone_, but it's not on the jacket copy, so
> here's what I'm going to do:
>
> I'm going to post what I think are the three things, so other people
> can comment and correct me; however, I will put in lots of spoiler
> space.
[spoilers deleted]
> 1)
Not much of a spoiler, more of a worldbuiling detail.
> 2)
And we see noticable character developement in someone who barely
qualified as a "character" in the previous books.
> 3)
Technically, that didn't happen in _Dilemma_, though it was made
clear that it would happen REAL SOON. Are you sure its not on the
jacket blurbs? I thought I saw it in that sort of context (or
maybe in a professional review or somthing).
--KG
Andrew Plotkin
>>I also spotted a single blatant scientific error -- not a sneaky-
>>alternate-timeline-history error, but a plain mistake. This (to me)
>>clinches the theory that Duane is putting in one such error per Wizard
>>book, on purpose. (No, I don't have a complete list, but I've been
>>suspicious ever since _High Wizardry_ got Mars's gravity wrong.)
> What error is that?
(minor SPOILER)
After Nita fetches Dairine's bed back from Pluto (and isn't that a
lovely way to start a sentence?) Dairine complains that it's gone all
squeaky, because it was sitting in "liquid nitrogen in the crevasses"
(probably not exact quote). But Pluto never gets warm enough, or
high-pressure enough, for liquid nitrogen. Some solid nitrogen
sublimates in Plutonian "summer"[*], forming a thin atmosphere, but
there's no liquid phase.
[* Scare quotes because Pluto's seasons are a factor of how close to
the Sun it is, not axial tilt. The book also mentioned the "winter
hemisphere", if I recall correctly, which would be misleading at best.
But I see that Pluto's axial tilt is 122 degrees, so the north and
south hemispheres would each have a long period of continuous darkness
each year.]
Kate Nepveu
>Here, Kate Nepveu <kne...@steelypips.org> wrote:
>> Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>>>I also spotted a single blatant scientific error -- not a sneaky-
>>>alternate-timeline-history error, but a plain mistake.
>> What error is that?
>(minor SPOILER)
>
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>
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>
>
>
>After Nita fetches Dairine's bed back from Pluto (and isn't that a
>lovely way to start a sentence?) Dairine complains that it's gone all
>squeaky, because it was sitting in "liquid nitrogen in the crevasses"
>(probably not exact quote).
Ah, but that's a character-error, not an author-error. Or so I'd
claim, if I were the author... =>
Kate Nepveu
>Kate Nepveu wrote:
>> Jo Walton <blu...@vif.com> wrote:
>> >Does _A Wizard Alone_ work if you haven't read _The Wizard's Dilemma_?
>> >I haven't read it because Sasha told me he thought it would be too
>> >distressing for me, and as this is the first time he's given *me* that
>> >warning, I've kept away from it so far.
>> Dum-de-dum-dum. *twiddles fingers, thinking*
>> I think you only need to know three things from _Dilemma_, though I
>> might just be saying that because I can really only remember three
>> things.
>[spoilers deleted]
>> 1)
>Not much of a spoiler, more of a worldbuiling detail.
But it might be a "huh, where did that come from" moment if first
encountered in _Alone_.
>> 2)
>And we see noticable character developement in someone who barely
>qualified as a "character" in the previous books.
Okay, yes, true, but I was going for a more narrow "need to know."
>> 3)
>Technically, that didn't happen in _Dilemma_, though it was made
>clear that it would happen REAL SOON. Are you sure its not on the
>jacket blurbs? I thought I saw it in that sort of context (or
>maybe in a professional review or somthing).
I checked my jacket blurbs before I posted. =>
Konrad Gaertner
>
> Konrad Gaertner <kgae...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> >Kate Nepveu wrote:
> >> Jo Walton <blu...@vif.com> wrote:
>
> >> >Does _A Wizard Alone_ work if you haven't read _The Wizard's Dilemma_?
>
> >> >I haven't read it because Sasha told me he thought it would be too
> >> >distressing for me, and as this is the first time he's given *me* that
> >> >warning, I've kept away from it so far.
>
> >> Dum-de-dum-dum. *twiddles fingers, thinking*
>
> >> I think you only need to know three things from _Dilemma_, though I
> >> might just be saying that because I can really only remember three
> >> things.
>
> >[spoilers deleted]
>
> >> 1)
>
> >Not much of a spoiler, more of a worldbuiling detail.
>
> But it might be a "huh, where did that come from" moment if first
> encountered in _Alone_.
True, but I think I'd have a similar but stronger reaction to #2.
> >> 2)
>
> >And we see noticable character developement in someone who barely
> >qualified as a "character" in the previous books.
>
> Okay, yes, true, but I was going for a more narrow "need to know."
I know; I was just trying to be witty.
> >> 3)
>
> >Technically, that didn't happen in _Dilemma_, though it was made
> >clear that it would happen REAL SOON. Are you sure its not on the
> >jacket blurbs? I thought I saw it in that sort of context (or
> >maybe in a professional review or somthing).
>
> I checked my jacket blurbs before I posted. =>
That's cheating :)
--KG
Garrett Fitzgerald
news:3DAB22FE...@worldnet.att.net:
> I remember having a discussion a while ago about how the ending of
> _High Wizardry_ should've made the later books impossible.
>
> Spoilers for _High Wizardry_ and _Book of Night With Moon_
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> At the end of _High_, the source of evil was defeated. Permanently.
> He was actually *reformed*. So how come we're still fighting him?
Because since then, nobody has faught him one-on-one in our universe.
Balor's in his own universe, the Great Serpent is in his own universe, he
only appears in Alone when Nita is in the aschetic schemas or her mom's
universe... etc.