Wizards at War (Young Wizards 8) (edition 2005)

After the unexpected events of Wizard's Holiday, Nita and Kit are back home, making friends with the three visiting aliens who are staying with Nita's family and getting ready to go back to school. Then Tom and Carl show up to say that the universe is ending and it's up to them to save it...

While there is as much wizardry and wackiness as ever, the character relationships really drive this story. The complex interactions between Dairine and Roshaun, Nita and Ronan, Kit and Carmela, Ponch and Kit, and so on are where the most interesting parts of the book take place. And as with many of Duane's books, the non-human characters are some of the most fascinating voices in the story.

I definitely recommend this book, but I'm really recommending the series as a whole, since to understand it you need to start at the beginning with So You Want To Be A Wizard. ( )

You may ask, does this book really deserve four stars? And I will answer, no, it really doesn't. There are the usual issues with Duane's conception of the wizarding world never being quite the same twice; there's the usual question of just how many times one can defeat the Lone Power before it loses all sense of epic proportion; there's the matter of our heroes conveniently being the one team present at the fulcrum of universal events; there's the question of why Nita's dad and her school counselor can retain their knowledge of the wizarding world when it's faded from the memories of full-fledged senior wizards; there's the unwillingness to sacrifice a single major character for good; and oh sweet merciful heavens, I don't even want to get into what the author does with Ponch.

So, no. I will freely grant that this series jumped the shark shortly after the book with the shark. (Funny how that works out.)

So why four stars? Mostly it's because I've been reading about these characters for a very long time now, and I'm perhaps overly fond of them. Even so, I think I'd have bumped this one down to a slightly generous three... if not for Kit's sister. I love Carmela Rodriguez.

But if she turns out to have any secret powers in a future book -- be they wizardly or godlike -- I shall be very, very cross. ( )

Number 8 in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. Nita and Kit have to save the universe. Again.

If you haven't read the rest of the series, DO NOT start here. You will be so lost. And it has major spoilers for the previous books too. It does revisit a scene from High Wizardry, so that was fun, and it links closely with the previous book, Wizard's Holiday.

So without spoiling it in case you want to read the series and haven't yet, let me say that the universe is in a rather odd crisis. Dark matter seems to be spreading throughout and it's beginning to affect Life on all levels. And the darkness is also affecting the wizards. Soon, all Seniors will lose their magic, and it will all depend on the kids.

Luckily, the visiting wizards from Wizard's Holiday haven't gone home yet, and they stay to help in the fight against the Lone One.

This one was full of action and some great twists. Lots of character develpment in this one, and some major losses as well. I loved Carmela in this one - she is so funny. Some definite romantic tension as well, but I won't say more!

If you enjoy YA fantasy, this series is really worth a try. It is very original and well written. The first one is So You Want to be a Wizard. ( )

I've been trying to finish this book since shortly after I bought it, a year and a half ago. Which is unusual for me, since I usually devour Duane's book on sight.

I think the problem is that, for most of WaW, joy is missing. And joy is something that DD in general - and YW in particular - does very well. The joy of discovery, of friendship, and learning, and fighting and forgiving and growing and living -- and there's precious little of that in most of WaW.

Mind you, the fact that joy has gone missing is a plot point, so I suppose it can be called a sign of craft - but goshdarnit, I read these books *for* the joy. Perhaps that's why it's so satisfying that the characters who make it all go right in the end are the ones who refuse to say no to joy. ( )

Pretty good but the series is getting awfully heavy...I wish she'd quit. I _love_ the first three books - first four, really. But Wizard's Dilemma is too heavy - depressing - and none of the later ones have recovered that brightness that was in the first ones, even while they were saving the world/species/universe. The Cat Wizards series is still bright enough - of course, she's only now writing the third one. And a lot of deus ex machina (literally! well, literally deus(s), anyway). ( )