In the grand tradition of Star Trek films, the best Young Wizards books are always the even-numbered ones. Except Wizard's Holiday, which bucks that trend by being one of the very best books in the series - even if it is something of an in-between book.

When we open this book, Nita has been going all-out pretty much ever since she became a wizard, and is still reeling from the death of her mother and the changes in her life around that loss. But in Wizard's Holiday, she gets a vacation - a real vacation, to sit on the beach and get sunburnt and read and relax. For free and clear, courtesy of the Powers that Be, as part of a wizarding exchange program.

Of course, the One's work is everywhere, and a wizard's holiday always involves some wizard's work in it, somewhere.

Meanwhile, Dairine is left at home with her father to handle the foreign wizards hosted at their house in exchange, a delightfully mismatched group of wonderfully non-humanoid young people, each with his own problems back home -- and a crisis shows up on Earth as well, a chance for Dairine's guests to have a wizard's holiday as well.

This is a much more low-tension book than most of the series, and most books of its type; though the climax is as high-stakes as ever, most of the book is about exploring and making friends and learning about yourself - the fun parts of being a wizard, and something that too easily gets lost in stories that simply chronicle one crisis after another. In some respects it serves as a calm before the storm that's coming in the next books, Wizards at War (and it has much more in the way of a direct lead-in to that next book than most of the YW volumes, though it's not quite a cliffhanger). But it's also a chance to see how the young wizards react to wizardly problems when they *aren't* under direct pressure - a much different kind of test.

I do have a few issues with the structure here - the start is slow (espeically for someone who already knows all about wizardry); the switching between Nita and Dairine with barely-connected storylines on two different planets can be fragmenting and confusing, especially with lots of new characters being introduced quickly; and in some respects the endings come off as rushed. But the general high quality of the writing and the characters and story is up to Duane's usual standard and this is simply a lovely book. ( )

Kit and Nita go on a wizard exchange program. They wind up on the perfect planet--no war, no disease, even death is different. So why does it feel like something is wrong?

Back on earth, Darlene has her hands full with 3 visiting wizards, one that looks like a tree, one that looks like a bug, and one that looks like a hot guy. Too bad he's the one that she can't stand.

Great entry in this series. Not the very best (I really loved Deep Wizardry), but still great.

CMB ( )

Nita and Kit go on a "foreign" exchange program to another planet, while three wizards come and stay with Dareen and her father. Enjoyable back and forth action between the two settings. It was fun to see wizards from other planets. ( )