One Who Bears the Mark

~Mark of the Dragon Queen~
By Katie W. Stewart
Amazon

Kira has led a sheltered life, brought up by her widowed father, whom she adores. When he is arrested and imprisoned for a murder he allegedly committed 18 years before, she is devastated. So when she overhears an ex-student of her father's planning to visit the prison, Kira decides to go, too. However, the student - Arun - is not who she thinks he is, and she soon learns that her father has not always been the man of integrity she has known for fifteen years.

Caught in a rebellion against the Lord High Councillor who would return the country to Wizard Rule, Kira finds that there is one more lesson she has to learn - about herself. Success depends on her, but is she willing to make the sacrifice it will require?


I don't know if it's the time this book was written, but I found it hearkening back to books I read in middle school, both in tone and in character. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's a far cry from what typical YA is like these days.

All Of Wizardry Is A Never-Ending Game

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books, or don't mind knowing spoilers for them. Games Wizards Play, however, will remain spoiler-free.
SPOILER ALERT

~Games Wizards Play~
Young Wizards
Book 10
By Diane Duane
Amazon ~ Powell's

Every eleven years, Earth's senior wizards hold the Invitational: an intensive three-week event where the planet's newest, sharpest young wizards show off their best and hottest spells. Wizardly partners Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan, and Nita's sister, former wizard-prodigy Dairine Callahan, are drafted in to mentor two brilliant and difficult cases: for Nita and Kit, there’s Penn Shao-Feng, a would-be sun technician with a dangerous new take on managing solar weather; and for Dairine, there's shy young Mehrnaz Farrahi, an Iranian wizard-girl trying to specialize in defusing earthquakes while struggling with a toxic extended wizardly family that demands she perform to their expectations.

Together they're plunged into a whirlwind of cutthroat competition and ruthless judging. Penn's egotistical attitude toward his mentors complicates matters as the pair tries to negotiate their burgeoning romance. Meanwhile, Dairine struggles to stabilize her hero-worshiping, insecure protégée against the interference of powerful relatives using her to further their own tangled agendas.

When both candidates make it through to the finals stage on the dark side of the Moon, they and their mentors are flung into a final conflict that could change the solar system for the better . . . or damage Earth beyond even wizardly repair.

Man, am I glad I didn't read that last (hidden) preview paragraph before I read the book. That would have taken away practically all of the tension! I mean, I guess you could/should see it coming if you look at it logically, but where's the fun if three quarters of the plot is spoiled before you even read the book? There had to be a better hook than that to sell your book.

But really, if you've read this far into the series, how could you not automatically pick up Book 10?

The Wizard's Dilemma makes A Wizard Alone

Here again are the next two installments of the Young Wizards series. It's extremely difficult to keep spoilers out of the summaries and reviews, but I will do my best. Though, again, as far as who's still alive in each book...

If you still haven't finished any previous book and you DON'T want to know who's still alive and who isn't, DO NOT READ ON!

Also, if the 4th book was any indication, the series has made the transition from MG to YA. Starting in the next books, the situations are going to get more intense and a little less MG-friendly. Then again, if your MG reader has been keeping pace (and made it through book 4 without any gags), I don't think these are too far out of range. Language and 'adult content' are still within an 'advanced' MG reader's grasp, but some of the magical theory and relationships (the characters have moved into highschool) might negate their interest.

But, without further adieu...

~The Wizard's Dilemma~
Young Wizards
Book 5
By Diane Duane
Amazon ~ Powell's

Nita's having some problems.

First, she's started high school, and while she's still considered brainy, her subjects aren't coming as easily to her as they used to. She's starting to feel kinda inadequate next to Kit, who, though a year younger, is still breezing through everything.

Going along with that, she's not quite sure what to do about Kit. Their partnership is hitting some rough water, and she can't understand how he can insist on being so...wrong! It's affecting their friendship and their wizardry, and she's not quite sure which is worse.

Finally, there's her mom. She's sick. Real sick. Sick enough that the doctors aren't too hopeful. But Nita knows things doctors don't, and can do things they can't. Most of all, Nita knows exactly Who's fault this is.

Now it's personal.

But with so much doubt in herself, Kit being uncooperative, and her mom's life at stake, can Nita find a cure in time? Or might she have to make a deal with that One she's devoted her life to fighting?


I cried a LOT in this book.

High Wizardry takes A Wizard Abroad

Continuing along, here are the next two installments of the Young Wizards series. There shouldn't be any spoilers below EXCEPT details on who is still alive at the beginning of each book.

I mean, it's a Middle Grade/Young Adult series, so you can kinda, sorta think about likeliness of killing off main characters...but at the same time, not everyone can come up against The Lone Power and survive...

So, if you still haven't finished the first or second book and you DON'T want to know who's still alive and who isn't, DO NOT READ ON!

Well, have I taken up enough space? Everyone out who wants to be? I think so.

~High Wizardry~
Young Wizards
Book 3
By Diane Duane
Amazon ~ Powell's

Nita's younger sister, Dairine, can be a bit of a know-it-all brat sometimes. But at least she doesn't know about wizardry.

Well, until their summer trip (in Deep Wizardry) when she saw Nita transform from whale to human right before her eyes. Now she sees the power and she'll go mad unless she can have it too. Understandable, since I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to perform magic.

She starts poking around Nita's stuff, getting more and more intrusive (much to Nita's annoyance), and eventually finds the Wizard's Oath page in her manual. Without a second thought, she reads it aloud, but when nothing happens she's just about ready to give up.

Well, if she can't have magic, the new computer might be the next best thing. Or it might just be the answer she was looking for. Sure enough, she starts off on a journey across the galaxy and beyond, all in the hopes of fighting and beating Darth Vader. Be careful what you wish for.

The younger the wizard, the greater their power. The greater their power, the more they can do against the Lone Power. And He doesn't like that one bit.

So You Want some Deep Wizardry

In an effort both to conserve space and not spoil things, I'm going to go ahead and review the first two books of the Young Wizards series by themselves. Could you imagine how long an entry would be with 8 book reviews in it? Plus, anyone in the middle of the second book would not appreciate reading details in the third. So, without any further adieu, here're my reviews!

~So You Want to Be a Wizard~
Young Wizards
Book 1
By Diane Duane
Amazon ~ Powell's

When Nita Callahan scans along a shelf of library books, she can't help but notice one strange title. So You Want to Be a Wizard. You know, those kids reference books that tell about different professions. So You Want to Be a Pilot, an Electrician, a Doctor. But a Wizard?

It's gotta be some sort of joke. At least, that's what she tells herself when she takes it home.

But as she reads more about magic and wizardry, and after reading aloud the Wizard's Oath—

In Life's name, and for Life's sake
I say that I will use the Art for nothing
but the service of that Life.
I will guard growth and ease pain.
I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way;
and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life,
or that of the system of which it is part,
are threatened.
To these ends, in the practice of my Art,
I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life,
when it is right to do so—till Universe's end.

—Nita quickly learns just how serious this book is...