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Jan. 9th, 2008 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsOnce upon a time, I made a bargain with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dictator_duck. She was going to read The Fionavar Tapestry, and I was going to read the rest of the Young Wizard books, which I had dropped many years ago after reading A Wizard Abroad.
TL not only read Fionavar in a prompt and timely fashion, but also several other books I flailingly recommended to her after that. Meanwhile, I failed horribly to acquire the Young Wizards book I needed and brought an oathbreaker's shame down upon my head. However! When I visited The Strand over my Thanksgiving break, I finally acquired and read A Wizard's Dilemma, mitigating at least of my guilt, and when I went back this past weekend I found the next book and read it on the plane back. So! A Wizard Alone.
I don't think I'll ever love the later books as much as I did the first three, partly because of the place those first three held in my wee little ten-year-old heart, and also because part of me will always be going 'but - but they fixed The Lone Power! There was a big dramatic conclusion and everything!' That being said, I think I enjoyed A Wizard Alone the most of the post-High Wizardry books so far. Carmela grows ever-more fabulous, and the way in which Nita and Dairine struggled with their grief and depression was portrayed really well without bogging down the book (the way it did a little, I think, in the last one.) I do miss seeing Nita and Kit actually interact with each other while on errantry; I think the books lose something when it keeps them separated, which is something that has frustrated me since A Wizard Abroad.
There was one thing that made me pretty uncomfortable, though, and that was the treatment of autism within the text. I . . . um. I am not an expert, but I don't really think it works like that, or that "let's just leave your autism behind and then you will be totally normal!" is a viable solution, and it makes me kind of twitch to see it. I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on that, though, especially people with more knowledge than I have.
Conclusion: I had some problems with the book, but I did enjoy it, and will be going on to read the next two. Partly to fulfill my promise to TL, and partly because I am still very fond of the characters, and in large part because MOAR CARMELA! And Filif, soon!
dictator_duck. She was going to read The Fionavar Tapestry, and I was going to read the rest of the Young Wizard books, which I had dropped many years ago after reading A Wizard Abroad.TL not only read Fionavar in a prompt and timely fashion, but also several other books I flailingly recommended to her after that. Meanwhile, I failed horribly to acquire the Young Wizards book I needed and brought an oathbreaker's shame down upon my head. However! When I visited The Strand over my Thanksgiving break, I finally acquired and read A Wizard's Dilemma, mitigating at least of my guilt, and when I went back this past weekend I found the next book and read it on the plane back. So! A Wizard Alone.
I don't think I'll ever love the later books as much as I did the first three, partly because of the place those first three held in my wee little ten-year-old heart, and also because part of me will always be going 'but - but they fixed The Lone Power! There was a big dramatic conclusion and everything!' That being said, I think I enjoyed A Wizard Alone the most of the post-High Wizardry books so far. Carmela grows ever-more fabulous, and the way in which Nita and Dairine struggled with their grief and depression was portrayed really well without bogging down the book (the way it did a little, I think, in the last one.) I do miss seeing Nita and Kit actually interact with each other while on errantry; I think the books lose something when it keeps them separated, which is something that has frustrated me since A Wizard Abroad.
There was one thing that made me pretty uncomfortable, though, and that was the treatment of autism within the text. I . . . um. I am not an expert, but I don't really think it works like that, or that "let's just leave your autism behind and then you will be totally normal!" is a viable solution, and it makes me kind of twitch to see it. I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on that, though, especially people with more knowledge than I have.
Conclusion: I had some problems with the book, but I did enjoy it, and will be going on to read the next two. Partly to fulfill my promise to TL, and partly because I am still very fond of the characters, and in large part because MOAR CARMELA! And Filif, soon!
