{"id":31642,"date":"2017-02-09T22:51:14","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T02:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=31642"},"modified":"2017-02-09T22:51:14","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T02:51:14","slug":"review-of-games-wizards-play-by-diane-duane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=31642","title":{"rendered":"Review of Games Wizards Play, by Diane Duane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Games Wizards Play<\/em><\/p>\n

by Diane Duane<\/p>\n

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. 620 pages.
\nStarred Review
\n2016 Sonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #8 Teen Fiction<\/p>\n

Games Wizards Play<\/em> is the tenth book in the brilliant Young Wizards<\/em> series by Diane Duane. I\u2019m very sorry to report that I didn\u2019t get the ninth book read \u2013 but I was still able to follow this one.<\/p>\n

However, this is a series that you will appreciate more if you start from the beginning. The way magic works in these books is very well-worked-out by the author and all follows definite rules \u2013 but it will be easier to understand those rules if you\u2019ve been coming along on the journey from the start.<\/p>\n

And things do get complicated and esoteric. Somewhere around Book Five, the characters started dealing with alternate universes. In Book Three, they dealt with other galaxies and planets and sentient computers.<\/p>\n

The books have gotten longer and longer, too, which I confess is probably why I never got around to reading Book Nine, A Wizard of Mars<\/em>. It\u2019s also why I hadn\u2019t gotten around to reading this book until I had a whole weekend where I was planning to spend as much time as possible reading.<\/p>\n

This book was actually perfect for a Reading Interlude. I had a nice chunk of time set aside for reading \u2013 and how lovely to get to spend that time with these characters I\u2019ve enjoyed so long. I think if I tried to read this book a little bit at a time, I might have got lost in the technical details of wizardry, which do fill a lot of the book. As it was, this was delightful weekend reading, and I put off going to my gaming group until I got the last chapter read.<\/p>\n

In this volume, initially neither the universe nor the planet is even at stake. There\u2019s an Invitational competition for young wizards to present new spells they\u2019ve worked out. These Invitationals happen once every eleven years, and our heroes \u2013 Nita and Kit and Nita\u2019s sister Dairine \u2013 are being asked to act as mentors.<\/p>\n

Their mentees are interesting but talented characters. Penn, mentored by Nita and Kit, has a spell designed to protect earth from sunspots (as far as I can translate the technical language, anyway). Dairine\u2019s mentee Mehrnaz lives in Mumbai and is from a large family of wizards, but has oppressive family dynamics.<\/p>\n

Penn behaves like a jerk, especially toward Nita, but his wizardry is good \u2013 and there seems to be more going on there than meets the eye.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nita and Kit have decided to become boyfriend and girlfriend \u2013 and are bothered by how much that changes things between them. And everyone around them seems to be talking about sex. But they\u2019re too busy being wizards.<\/p>\n

The pace of the book is leisurely. There is tension and they\u2019re in a hurry to get ready for the competition \u2013 but the author puts in more scenes than are absolutely essential and takes some time exploring subtleties and thoughts and feelings. You often read the point-of-view character\u2019s thoughts in this book. And yet, in this case, I didn\u2019t find that annoying. Maybe because I already know and love these characters? Maybe because I\u2019m already interested in all the different relationships and the various subtleties of life as a Wizard. Anyway, that was partly why it was nice to have a long, concentrated span of time set aside to read this book. I wasn\u2019t impatient to get to the end, and I enjoyed the journey.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t surprised that a fairly significant earth-changing situation did come up at the end. Though mostly this book was about relationships between wizards when there was not<\/em> an earth-shaking crisis.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t started with this series and if you like science fiction at all, I highly recommend it! Go back to the first book, So You Want to Be a Wizard?<\/em> It turns out that all over our world Wizards, dedicated to reducing Entropy, are helping the Powers That Be and fighting the good fight against the Lone Power. These books tell that story and take the reader all over the universe.<\/p>\n

youngwizards.com<\/a>
\nhmhco.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/games_wizards_play.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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