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A review by baticeer
A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane
4.0
This is a review of the New Millennium Edition of this book specifically in regards to how it was changed from the original edition. I don't think the NMEs are listed separately on goodreads so hopefully I'm putting this in the right place.
A Wizard Alone was originally published in 2002 when knowledge about autism was different from what it is now and the movement for autistic self-advocacy was far less visible. I think the first version of the book was trying to be respectful towards autistic people, but reading it now it's pretty awful, showing a misunderstanding of what autism is and a magical cure at the end. However, I am very pleased with the new revision of the story. The whole plot regarding Darryl's autism has been reworked heavily going from something offensive, into what I think is one of the best representations of an autistic character in YA fiction ever.
To avoid heavy spoilers i won't go into too much detail regarding the changes that were made but it's clear that the author put a lot of effort into showing autism respectfully. For example, in the scene where Kit first learns that Darryl is autistic, he goes off and researches autism online... the new edition says Kit read a lot of blogs by autistic people and their families. At the end, the scene where Darryl defeats the Lone Power in a way that magically cures his autism has been changed; it doesn't get cured and instead Darryl asserts that he wouldn't want to change his autism because it's part of who he is.
I think you could still make criticisms of the representation of autistics in this book, though, namely that Darryl is an abdal. This means he is basically, a magical conduit of goodness/innocence into the world. That kind of plays into stereotypes about autistic people being innocent and saintly. At the same time, Diane Duane was working from a pre-existing story and Darryl having this power is too important in the mythology of the series to change it so drastically, so i really don't think there's anything that could have been done better. All in all, the new edition of this book is honestly one of the best depictions of an autistic character in mainstream fiction I can think of, and I think it was really good of Diane Duane to recognize that her past work had problems and to revise it in this way.
As for other aspects of the book... When I was a kid this was my least favorite of the Young Wizards books, and it had nothing to do with the autism stuff that I didn't understand then, I just didn't find the plot to be as interesting as the others. I still agree with that -- everything about Darryl's Ordeal is a good read, but it doesn't stand out to me or have as much emotional depths the same way some of the other books in the series do. That would be why I give this four stars instead of five. However i still definitely recommend it to anyone who's read previous books in the series and I especially recommend the new edition to anyone who found the original version offensive.
A Wizard Alone was originally published in 2002 when knowledge about autism was different from what it is now and the movement for autistic self-advocacy was far less visible. I think the first version of the book was trying to be respectful towards autistic people, but reading it now it's pretty awful, showing a misunderstanding of what autism is and a magical cure at the end. However, I am very pleased with the new revision of the story. The whole plot regarding Darryl's autism has been reworked heavily going from something offensive, into what I think is one of the best representations of an autistic character in YA fiction ever.
To avoid heavy spoilers i won't go into too much detail regarding the changes that were made but it's clear that the author put a lot of effort into showing autism respectfully. For example, in the scene where Kit first learns that Darryl is autistic, he goes off and researches autism online... the new edition says Kit read a lot of blogs by autistic people and their families. At the end, the scene where Darryl defeats the Lone Power in a way that magically cures his autism has been changed; it doesn't get cured and instead Darryl asserts that he wouldn't want to change his autism because it's part of who he is.
I think you could still make criticisms of the representation of autistics in this book, though, namely that Darryl is an abdal. This means he is basically, a magical conduit of goodness/innocence into the world. That kind of plays into stereotypes about autistic people being innocent and saintly. At the same time, Diane Duane was working from a pre-existing story and Darryl having this power is too important in the mythology of the series to change it so drastically, so i really don't think there's anything that could have been done better. All in all, the new edition of this book is honestly one of the best depictions of an autistic character in mainstream fiction I can think of, and I think it was really good of Diane Duane to recognize that her past work had problems and to revise it in this way.
As for other aspects of the book... When I was a kid this was my least favorite of the Young Wizards books, and it had nothing to do with the autism stuff that I didn't understand then, I just didn't find the plot to be as interesting as the others. I still agree with that -- everything about Darryl's Ordeal is a good read, but it doesn't stand out to me or have as much emotional depths the same way some of the other books in the series do. That would be why I give this four stars instead of five. However i still definitely recommend it to anyone who's read previous books in the series and I especially recommend the new edition to anyone who found the original version offensive.