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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
Wonderful addition to the series. Diane has advanced the characters personalities throughout the series. She also does a great job of incorporating diverse characters. If you love Harry Potter, do your self a favor and try this series (that started well before HP).
This book simultaneously broke my heart and made me nearly cry tears of joy. It's over, and that is heartbreaking, but it was amazing and that ending was beautiful, so I'm happy too.
SOME (relatively minor) SPOILERS BELOW!!! Don't read if you don't want to know!!
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There was a whole lot to love about this book. The complex relationships, the besties situation with Nita and Dair's dad and Nel was one of the best relationships in the book, and of course the Roshaun situation. Mrs. Duane's been hinting at the relationship between the two for quite some time, so it was really nice to see an acknowledgement of the real relationship to each other, laid bare in Dairine's grief, and poignant because of her memories of him.
Kit and Nita were obvious from day one, so to see them struggling with how to become an actual couple was an interesting development, and to see them surrounded by peer pressure and not sure in what way they fit into the grand scheme of things was also interesting.
Overall, Penn and Mehranz were interesting. Opposites, and that's an interesting dynamic to play with, so I enjoyed that for the most part. I hated Penn, but then I think I was supposed to. I'm disappointed we didn't see too much of Carmela or Ronan, who are both amazing characters that we could all stand to see more of. Though seeing more of some others like Matt and the twychild was neat.
And don't even get me started on that Lone Power moment. Whoa. Loved that. And Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn. Seriously amazing! :D
The only thing I didn't like about this book was the spot that it ended in. Mostly in respect to Dairine and Roshaun. We get him back, and I loved that part, but I really wish we could have gotten a scene between the two of them that at least attempted to acknowledge everything they've been through and everything they clearly feel for each other. There was that incredibly brief moment through Nita's eyes, but that was seriously not enough.
And, much as I adore these books, I hate the extremely long wait between them. If this book was any indication, it could be another five years or more until we see the next one, and I'm not sure I'm okay with that. I understand the difficulty of writing, being a writer myself, but I don't understand the six years thing!
I'll just hope that Mrs. Duane decides to take ptiy on us and release another book here soon, because I'm dying to see a conclusion to all of the threads that have been left hanging in the air at the end of this book.
SOME (relatively minor) SPOILERS BELOW!!! Don't read if you don't want to know!!
____________________________________________________________
There was a whole lot to love about this book. The complex relationships, the besties situation with Nita and Dair's dad and Nel was one of the best relationships in the book, and of course the Roshaun situation. Mrs. Duane's been hinting at the relationship between the two for quite some time, so it was really nice to see an acknowledgement of the real relationship to each other, laid bare in Dairine's grief, and poignant because of her memories of him.
Kit and Nita were obvious from day one, so to see them struggling with how to become an actual couple was an interesting development, and to see them surrounded by peer pressure and not sure in what way they fit into the grand scheme of things was also interesting.
Overall, Penn and Mehranz were interesting. Opposites, and that's an interesting dynamic to play with, so I enjoyed that for the most part. I hated Penn, but then I think I was supposed to. I'm disappointed we didn't see too much of Carmela or Ronan, who are both amazing characters that we could all stand to see more of. Though seeing more of some others like Matt and the twychild was neat.
And don't even get me started on that Lone Power moment. Whoa. Loved that. And Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn. Seriously amazing! :D
The only thing I didn't like about this book was the spot that it ended in. Mostly in respect to Dairine and Roshaun. We get him back, and I loved that part, but I really wish we could have gotten a scene between the two of them that at least attempted to acknowledge everything they've been through and everything they clearly feel for each other. There was that incredibly brief moment through Nita's eyes, but that was seriously not enough.
And, much as I adore these books, I hate the extremely long wait between them. If this book was any indication, it could be another five years or more until we see the next one, and I'm not sure I'm okay with that. I understand the difficulty of writing, being a writer myself, but I don't understand the six years thing!
I'll just hope that Mrs. Duane decides to take ptiy on us and release another book here soon, because I'm dying to see a conclusion to all of the threads that have been left hanging in the air at the end of this book.
I've been reading these since I was a lonely teen in a library, just like Nita was at the beginning. I have been a follower of this series for at least 15 years.
Unfortunately I found this book to be a total disappointment. The book is over 600 pages long and almost nothing happens in it. I feel like it was 90% teenage angst and waffling about boyfriends. The writing felt very disjointed because there would be random bouts of angsting inserted in with no reason or buildup. It was not even well written angsting and I found myself physically cringing while reading. I had to put the book down and take a break from it because of how uncomfortably inane it was. Nearly all the characters in it talk about relationships for most of the book, even the supremely powerful ones who aren't hormonal teens.
Parts were randomly dramatic again for no reason, like characters almost peeing themselves laughing over jokes that were mildly amusing at best, and long speeches with no satisfying resolution.
There was way too much unnecessary and tedious filler and hanging around in pointless parties and meetings. There was a cameo made by an asexual person and a gay person which felt forced in to appeal to the Tumblr generation.
The very little plot that there was, was stretched so thin it was barely discernible which made it confusing and boring.
I'm really upset about how bad this book was because I did love the rest of them and the author can describe things so beautifully. But after putting this book down the only word that I feel adequately describes the book is "lame". Just really really lame.
Unfortunately I found this book to be a total disappointment. The book is over 600 pages long and almost nothing happens in it. I feel like it was 90% teenage angst and waffling about boyfriends. The writing felt very disjointed because there would be random bouts of angsting inserted in with no reason or buildup. It was not even well written angsting and I found myself physically cringing while reading. I had to put the book down and take a break from it because of how uncomfortably inane it was. Nearly all the characters in it talk about relationships for most of the book, even the supremely powerful ones who aren't hormonal teens.
Parts were randomly dramatic again for no reason, like characters almost peeing themselves laughing over jokes that were mildly amusing at best, and long speeches with no satisfying resolution.
There was way too much unnecessary and tedious filler and hanging around in pointless parties and meetings. There was a cameo made by an asexual person and a gay person which felt forced in to appeal to the Tumblr generation.
The very little plot that there was, was stretched so thin it was barely discernible which made it confusing and boring.
I'm really upset about how bad this book was because I did love the rest of them and the author can describe things so beautifully. But after putting this book down the only word that I feel adequately describes the book is "lame". Just really really lame.
I feel like this is between a 3.5 and a 4 for me. The ending was pretty intensely written, though, and that often pushes me over the edge in these cases.
I would say this book is one of the weaker in the series, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Before I get very far in this review, I need to say one spoilery thing:
*breathes out* Okay. Now we can continue.
I wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this one. 3 because it dragged quite a bit: lots of sitting around talking, two post-competition mixers, and some characters I didn't remember nor care about showed up and took up too much time defining their sexuality. This also must have been the book where Diane Duane decided that Sex needed to be on everyone's minds, for better or for worse -- and it was a wee bit forced in places.
But I decided on 4 stars ultimately because it was a good book, a good continuation of a series I've loved for many years, and there were some fantastic conversations with planets that gave me chills. Can I be friends with Jovie?
I thought the plot was a little weirdly paced, and most of it seemed to be interpersonal rather than any sort of big galactic (or even planetary) struggle. But I liked the reveal of the Exhalation at the end, and I found the mystery from the end of book 8 to be resolved satisfactorily.
Best book in the series? No, but certainly a good one, and it felt great to be back with Nita, Kit, and Dairine for the first time in years.
Spoiler
ROSHAUN!!*breathes out* Okay. Now we can continue.
I wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this one. 3 because it dragged quite a bit: lots of sitting around talking, two post-competition mixers, and some characters I didn't remember nor care about showed up and took up too much time defining their sexuality. This also must have been the book where Diane Duane decided that Sex needed to be on everyone's minds, for better or for worse -- and it was a wee bit forced in places.
But I decided on 4 stars ultimately because it was a good book, a good continuation of a series I've loved for many years, and there were some fantastic conversations with planets that gave me chills. Can I be friends with Jovie?
I thought the plot was a little weirdly paced, and most of it seemed to be interpersonal rather than any sort of big galactic (or even planetary) struggle. But I liked the reveal of the Exhalation at the end, and I found the mystery from the end of book 8 to be resolved satisfactorily.
Spoiler
I do wish we'd seen more of Dairine and Roshaun's reunion, as I'm sort of OTP-ish about them...guess I'll eagerly await more books for that.Best book in the series? No, but certainly a good one, and it felt great to be back with Nita, Kit, and Dairine for the first time in years.
I really enjoyed this one, and rather look forward to at least a couple of the characters' returns.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief
Moderate: Sexism, Fire/Fire injury
I really enjoyed the concept of the wizard's Invitational. It was fun to read about a competition that felt a little more low-stakes than the usual world-saving fare that our heroes are normally up to, especially since this book focused largely on the relationships between characters (Kit and Nita's, in particular). I thought that Penn and Mehrnaz were great characters (maybe not likable, in Penn's case, but good from a writing perspective) and I enjoyed watching their relationships develop with their respective mentors.
My main complaint with this one was that not enough was built up with Penn's whole situation. There's a scene where he is placed in a certain situation face-to-face and gets freaked out, and Nita and Kit discuss how this will become a problem and that they will need to address it before it comes up in the competition, but we never really see a scene where it gets addressed by them or worked on at all.
I also didn't think that there was enough build-up to what ended up happening in the end with Penn's character. I understand that there was an amount of foreshadowing build into the story for it, but it still felt like it came a bit out of left field for me. I wanted slightly more information presented ahead of time about the situation so that things would feel more clear and a little more like the natural progression of events.
In addition, I thought that Kit's whole gaming group came together without enough proper introduction. Multiple new wizards who I don't believe we've ever seen "onscreen" before are featured from the very beginning of this novel, but they are presented as familiar to us because Kit already knows them. The whole thing is a bit disorienting because I felt like I was supposed to remember meeting them all but they were complete strangers to me. I wished that the beginning could be rewritten as a little more of a slow introduction to those characters for the reader, especially considering the gaming group itself isn't really a significant part of the story (though the individual characters pop up and contribute here and there).
Aside from that, it was a good book and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next one brings.
My main complaint with this one was that not enough was built up with Penn's whole situation. There's a scene where he is placed in a certain situation face-to-face and gets freaked out, and Nita and Kit discuss how this will become a problem and that they will need to address it before it comes up in the competition, but we never really see a scene where it gets addressed by them or worked on at all.
I also didn't think that there was enough build-up to what ended up happening in the end with Penn's character. I understand that there was an amount of foreshadowing build into the story for it, but it still felt like it came a bit out of left field for me. I wanted slightly more information presented ahead of time about the situation so that things would feel more clear and a little more like the natural progression of events.
In addition, I thought that Kit's whole gaming group came together without enough proper introduction. Multiple new wizards who I don't believe we've ever seen "onscreen" before are featured from the very beginning of this novel, but they are presented as familiar to us because Kit already knows them. The whole thing is a bit disorienting because I felt like I was supposed to remember meeting them all but they were complete strangers to me. I wished that the beginning could be rewritten as a little more of a slow introduction to those characters for the reader, especially considering the gaming group itself isn't really a significant part of the story (though the individual characters pop up and contribute here and there).
Aside from that, it was a good book and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next one brings.