Diane Duane's Book 6, "A Wizard Alone"

Page 1 of 1 [ 2 posts ] 

lastcrazyhorn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,170
Location: Texas

09 Dec 2007, 5:24 am

Anyone read it?

One of the main characters is autistic.

Amazon has this to say about it:

Kit and Nita return to join forces against the evil Lone Power, this time over the heart and mind of a young autistic, in Diane Duane's sixth installment of the Young Wizards series. Initially, Kit finds himself flying solo as Nita has sunk into a deep depression over her mother's recent death. Luckily, his telepathic pooch, Ponch, is happy to fill Nita's niche temporarily, as long as biscuits are involved. Kit tries to understand why autistic wizard-in-training Darryl McAllister has been stuck in his Ordeal, or initiation, for over three months. Is it merely the fault of his autism? Inside Darryl's mind, Kit and Ponch find complex landscapes of weird beauty that belie Darryl's rocking, vacant exterior. But they also find the Lone Power, attacking Darryl with an unrelenting brutality that is excessive, even for the Source of all Evil. Meanwhile, Nita is distracted from her sadness by trying to discover the meaning of a series of strange dreams in which a being is pleading for her aid. Could the dreams be a call for help from Darryl? And if so, will Kit and Nita come together in time to destroy the Lone Power before it destroys them?

Though a novice to the series would definitely benefit from reading the previous books, Duane's latest mix of science and spell casting is thought provoking in its own right. She slips enough facts into this fiction to ensure that young readers will not only enjoy the quest, but also learn something along the way.


Darryl is finally found to have certain gifts that are highly unusual.

Spoilers (which may or many not make enough sense to actually influence you too much)

*

*

*

*

They discover that Darryl is what is called an Abdal/Pillar.

As Nita understands him, she thinks:

"Innocence. That plain straightforward innocence that just goes right through whatever comes at it, like a knife, or bounces any attack off it, like a shield. And that really, really pisses off the Lone Power . . ."

And then Kit ends up in the trap that Darryl had set for himself and the Lone Power (the bad dude, to put it lightly).

It's described as such:

"The mirrors went on forever. Kit and Ponch stood in a brittle glory of reflected light. Overhead was a bright gray sky, featureless. All around them, mirrors stood, as many mirrors as trees in a forest, set at a thousand different angles: tall ones, small ones, mirrors that reflected clearly, mirrors that bent the reflection awry; shadowy mirrors, dazzling ones, mirrors reflecting mirrors reflecting mirrors, until the mind that looked at them began to flinch and sicken, hunting something that wasn't just another reflection of itself. Kit and Ponch wandered among them, searching for something, but Kit had forgotten what it was they were looking for, along with everything else . . . Splinters of conversation and fragments of personality hid in the reflections and fled from mirror to mirror. Kit and Ponch moved slowly among them, looking in some, avoiding others. Some had too many eyes to look into comfortably. Not all of the eyes seemed human. It was as if alien logics looked out of some of them, either irrational or briefly revealing rationalities that were more painful than the human kind, and these were the glances that made Kit and Ponch shy away most hurriedly, looking for somewhere to hide. But there was nowhere. Light and merciless reflection filled everything; and everywhere the two of them walked, a soft rush of sound ran under all other sensation, like water running under the mirrored floor, a river of words and noises trapped there under the unforgiving ice."

The world they were trapped in was one that Darryl had created to trap the Lone Power, and it was a world that he had created to mimic what it was like for him to have autism.


_________________
"I am to misbehave" - Mal

BATMAN: I'll do everything I can to rehabilitate you.
CATWOMAN: Marry me.
BATMAN: Everything except that.

http://lastcrazyhorn.wordpress.com - "Odd One Out: Reality with a refreshing slice of aspie"


lastcrazyhorn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,170
Location: Texas

09 Dec 2007, 4:41 pm

Opinions?


_________________
"I am to misbehave" - Mal

BATMAN: I'll do everything I can to rehabilitate you.
CATWOMAN: Marry me.
BATMAN: Everything except that.

http://lastcrazyhorn.wordpress.com - "Odd One Out: Reality with a refreshing slice of aspie"