“Deep Wizardry” by Diane Duane

This is the second book in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. For my current readthrough, I wrote about the first book earlier. This book is one that I have always liked (on a certain level) because it functions really well as a sequel. It also always makes me so nervous and just feel raw afterwards because it is truly emotionally devastating.

In Deep Wizardry Nita and Kit are two teenage wizards that are on vacation at the beach together. All is calm and well until they run into a dolphin who introduces them to a whale wizard, S’ree. S’ree is a young whale and not ready for the responsibility of running a huge piece of wizardry, the Song of the Twelve. Nita and Kit agree to help out, with Nita even volunteering to take part as the Silent Lord. Turns out that the Silent Lord is a sacrifice, where the whale playing that part commits suicide in order to transform death into a gift. Nita wrestles with both this and how to tell her parents that she is a wizard since the secret is tearing her at the seams a little. By the end though, another sacrifice takes her place, her parents get used to her wizardry, and they are all able to return home emotionally wrung out if physically safe.

One plot point that I want to address specifically: I do remember having a disagreement with a friend over whether or not the shark that died in replace of Nita actually died or not. Because at the end of the book, Nita and Kit see him swimming through the water. Rereading it now, I think that’s the Heart of the Sea, or Timeheart as the human wizards call it, where everything that’s loved goes after death. There’s like a light, and Nita and Kit swim into it, and there they see the shark. Which is cool in that it does give them hope for future adventures, but it also has the same format as the first book. There’s the adventure, and they get a brief glimpse into the future, the adventure plays out, and they see the friends that they lost beyond the veil. Given that this is only the second book, it isn’t overly formulaic yet.

This book is so well-written that it is emotionally devastating watching Nita deal with the possibility of her death. You feel as though you are there with her and thinking about your own life, your own death, and what it would mean to give yours up. I read it so many times as I was growing up, so I know that it ends alright, but I was still on the verge of tears reading about her being angry, yet deciding to keep her word. I can’t remember what my experience was like the first time I read it, but I think that if I was to read something like this now the anxiety would likely destroy me, I don’t think I’d handle it well.

Emotional scars aside, this is an excellent follow up to the original So You Want to be a Wizard. There are many comments about how the events of the first book led to this adventure, including a blank check wizardry being the inciting factor for Nita’s required sacrifice. The result is that the book feel intimately connected, but you do not have to be familiar with the details if you did not pick up the first book. It also expands the world of wizardry from humans to other animals. In this case, whales. This is a really nice touch and makes it less human-centric. Which makes so much sense, if this is an ability that spans the universe, there have to be other species that are wizards as well.

Since this is the newer edition, I have to at least touch on the changes that I noticed. Most of this book was exactly the same, as far as I could tell, but there were a few differences. There was one exchange between Nita and her sister about Kit where Nita admits to liking him. Which I don’t think was in the original, although it is very possible that I didn’t pick up on it. There were also less phonetics used to convey the whale speech patterns. Nita’s name still gets changed to hNii’t, but I remembered in the original Kit was K!t. That didn’t happen here, although it might be a typographical error rather than an intentional one. Similar to the first book, seems like the changes emphasize Nita and Kit as potential romantic partners more so than anything else.

Going through this series again has been so much fun, I’m really looking forward to the next installments. Because it only gets better and more interesting from here!

This Is Beautiful: Dodging COVID

 It's been a bit of a rough week or so, last week my partner was feeling sick, but we both tested and didn't have COVID. Two days later, he wakes up in the middle of the night and tests positive. So he starts isolating, and I'm testing negative but still nervous about it all. It wasn't a great week to get sick, I had multiple band performances and also wanted to celebrate my birthday without being sick.

But as the title says, somehow I dodged it again! Tested negative throughout and it only took my partner a few days to test negative again. The latest variant sure is a doozy, and I really wish that we had actual protections still against it. Because while I got lucky here, there are a whole bunch of other people out there that weren't so lucky.

“So You Want to be a Wizard” by Diane Duane

You might remember that I wrote about this book not toolong ago on this blog. I ended up coming back to it because A. I finished Rick Riordan’s books and wanted to reread these next and B. I noticed that Duane put all of the Young Wizards ebooks on sale in her online store. Of course I bought them, and here we are.

It’s put me in an interesting position, because I went back and reread that post and I still do agree with it. Those are the points that I would highlight and that’s my basic thoughts on the book.

However, one thing is new though. This is the New Millennium edition of the books that Duane went and updated in the late 2010s. And that process right there is fascinating to me! You have all of these authors who write something and then just leave it, and there are defenders of the works saying that we need to excuse their mistakes because of the time they were written in. Or whatever. Not Duane though, she goes back and fixes her mistakes.

In this first book, there are a few notable things that got changed. In the original series, Kit is a year younger than Nita. In the new edition, they’re the same age. I’m not sure why that was altered, I have to imagine there’s a reason, so I think it’s of note. Possibly this has to do with the overall vibe I am getting of their relationship being more romantic. Or it’s because I am now reading this knowing that they eventually become a couple and my aroace ass picked up on none of this when I was a kid. Who can say.

Other change is actually mentioned in my previous post as well. In the original edition, the Twin Towers are mentioned (putting it pre-9/11). In this version, Nita and Kit see the Freedom Tower being built. Which is interesting because it also dates the work, again approximately the late 2010s. I find that so interesting, it’s the same site and it’s over 30 years difference between the editions. But it can still be used for the same purpose!

I’m excited to go through and read all of her works in one big swoop. These books are honestly written so well that I really enjoy and want to read all of the time again. I haven’t felt like that in years!

This Is Beautiful: Rabbit

 I originally found this YouTube series through an episode of The Ace Couple podcast. (You can find the episode at this link if you'd rather hear their discussion of it.) It is so good!

I first heard of the creator, Kyle Prue, through TikTok. My partner has an account and loves showing me videos and we both get a kick out of his series on "things you can say to piss off men." So when we saw this and that he made a short series on YouTube, we both knew that we had to watch it.

You can find the series over here on his YouTube channel. It takes less than an hour to go through all the way, but the characters are so lively and loveable that it really draws you in. And it's funny! Not to mention that the main character openly says that he's "asexual" (and uses that exact word) while also describing that he just "doesn't really think about it" when it comes to relationships. (Although it's also revealed that he had a girlfriend at one point.) 

It's a year old, but I'm hoping that there'll be more of this eventually as it ends with a screen saying "Rabbit will return." Until then, guess I can only hope!

“So You Want to be a Wizard” by Diane Duane

You might remember that I wrote about this book not toolong ago on this blog. I ended up coming back to it because A. I finished Rick Riordan’s books and wanted to reread these next and B. I noticed that Duane put all of the Young Wizards ebooks on sale in her online store. Of course I bought them, and here we are.

It’s put me in an interesting position, because I went back and reread that post and I still do agree with it. Those are the points that I would highlight and that’s my basic thoughts on the book.

However, one thing is new though. This is the New Millenium edition of the books that Duane went and updated in the late 2010s. And that process right there is fascinating to me! You have all of these authors who write something and then just leave it, and there are defenders of the works saying that we need to excuse their mistakes because of the time they were written in. Or whatever. Not Duane though, she goes back and fixes her mistakes.

In this first book, there are a few notable things that got changed. In the original series, Kit is a year younger than Nita. In the new edition, they’re the same age. I’m not sure why that was altered, I have to imagine there’s a reason, so I think it’s of note. Possibly this has to do with the overall vibe I am getting of their relationship being more romantic. Or it’s because I am now reading this knowing that they eventually become a couple and my aroace ass picked up on none of this when I was a kid. Who can say.

Other change is actually mentioned in my previous post as well. In the original edition, the Twin Towers are mentioned (putting it pre-9/11). In this version, Nita and Kit see the Freedom Tower being built. Which is interesting because it also dates the work, again approximately the late 2010s. I find that so interesting, it’s the same site and it’s over 30 years difference between the editions. But it can still be used for the same purpose!

I’m excited to go through and read all of her works in one big swoop. These books are honestly written so well that I really enjoy and want to read all of the time again. I haven’t felt like that in years!

This Is Beautiful: End of the Semester

 We are so close to the end and the holidays, but there's a really important time point being hit today. And that's the end of classes! Which is big for me as that means that I don't have to go to lecture anymore, teach recitation sessions, or grade homeworks. It is time to wind down and relax and sleep past 7 am finally.

“The Amateur: The Pleasures of Doing What You Love” by Andy Merrifield

This is another book that I’ve been meaning to pick up for a while, I swear I have had it on my list of things to read for literally years. It is a subject that is personally pretty important to me, I’m an amateur in a few different fields that I dabble in (music, dance, acting, etc).

The content of this book was not what I expected, it focuses primarily on amateurs in the realms of politics and policy. It does not actually touch on the arts at all. Which I found disappointing, but I will try to meet this book where it is at. Because it is still interesting, the book essentially talks about our ideas of the professional and the amateur. The amateur is a student of the world who does not want recognition or accolades but does it for the work that they do. And the author uses several different books that represent these ideas through their characters as well as pieces written about this.

My first issue I already mentioned, I think excluding the arts here in favor of exclusively discussing public policy seems limited. Sciences aren’t mentioned either, which I think would be really interesting with the rise of anti-vaxxers and flat-Earthers. Or if there was a way to make it clearer in the title that it is only talking about this one area of expertise.

Another thing is that it does discuss the experience of being an amateur a lot. There are mentions to how hard it can be to be looking up this information on your own and maintaining that knowledge base in your free time while having a job. But there is not much beyond that, nothing about if people like that work and if they actually do find it that rewarding on its own or want recognition. As an amateur myself I wanted to feel like this captured my experience, and in a sense it did in that I agree with what it writes about how amateurs are seen, but I didn’t see ME.

Having said all that, I really like books that take the approach of looking at a specific idea and how it is shown in literature and can change over time. I think those are really interesting in that you can get a sense of how an idea can change and grow over time. So the overall structure of the book I found really intriguing and fascinating.

So given the scope of the book, I would recommend this with a grain of salt. If you know what it is discussing going in then go for it! But I do wish that I personally knew a little more before I picked it up.