Duane, Wizard's Holiday (review and spoilers)
Kate Nepveu
Diane Duane's _Wizard's Holiday_ is the most recent book in the Young
Wizards series and the sequel to _A Wizard Alone_. The title is after
"Busman's Holiday," and should give you a reasonable idea of the plot:
Kit and Nita go on a wizardly exchange program to another planet for
vacation but have adventures, and their exchange counterparts come
stay with Dairine and also have adventures.
The first portion of the book is a welcome lighter look at being on
holiday in a strange place, after the darker turns of the last two
books. We also get to see more of our Earth wizards' families, which I
enjoyed. The second part doesn't work as well; one plot thread doesn't
seem to be fully tied off, the other was somewhat disturbing to me,
and the thematic attempts to tie the two together were a bit forced.
The plot does get points for giving us a much different incarnation of
The Lone Power than we've seen before, however.
This feels rather like an interlude book, something like _A Wizard
Abroad_, but not as static—there is emotional progress from the last
two books, after all. The interlude nature is enhanced by the very
tantalizing hints about serious troubles afoot for the next book,
_Wizards at War_ (currently in progress). I am looking forward to it,
though I greatly doubt that Duane will actually make good on the truth
in the Lone Power's taunts to Nita about getting other people to die
for her. (Oh, and there had better be *something* more about the Ponch
stuff in that book, or I shall be Most Annoyed.)
Now, SPOILERS, to explicate my plot concerns:
1) The Sun thread doesn't seem to be tied off; there's something
preventing Dairine from understanding the Sun--which should be
impossible because it's using the Speech--but that never gets
explained.
2) The other plot bothered me because of the worldview espoused, and
I'm not sure I can articulate exactly why, but I'm curious what other
people thought.
--
Kate Nepveu
E-mail: kne...@steelypips.org
Home: http://www.steelypips.org/
Book log: http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/
William George Ferguson
wrote:
If you mean the worldview taken by the inhabitants of the planet, it's
suppposed to bother you. They've chosen a path very reminiscent of
'The Lady of the Still Hands' in Door Into Shadow. They've chosen
stasis rather than change, and that's ultimately a dead-end road.
The Sun thread bothered me because it seemed to involve not only a
powering-down (which, after all, was set up as due to happen from So
You Want To Be A Wizard on), but a dumbing-down of Dairine. Dairine,
as portrayed in the past, was frequently foolish, but never stupid.