Wizards at War Discussion

[paxluvfelicitas.livejournal.com]

It occured to me as I was gazing at the flist last night that no one had yet put a discussion-type post in the community.

So here it is. Spoilers abound in the comments; read at your own risk. End-of-book spoilers should probably be cut, in case someone wanders in half-done with the book, but other than that, everything goes.

Now would someone else kindly comment so that I may have a companion in the squee.

EDIT: Just to re-iterate, for the benefit of those with bad eyesight; HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!!!!!! BIG, FAT, HONKING SPOILERS!!! FRED-TYPE SPOILERS (If you have somehow become involved in the series without reading SYWTBAW, I sincerely apologize and advise you to do so.)!!! DON'T LOOK AT THIS UNLESS YOU WANT... STUFF RUINED FOR YOU!!!!!

Comments

[deutscheami.livejournal.com]

I just finished it this morning and oh oh oh the last chapter or so had me constantly sniffing. I finally broke down and cried after I'd finished. It was good. It was amazingly good.

I loved how all the threads and everything seemingly from the last books finally hit here. I loved Ponch's Choice and the Hesper was stunning and beautiful and right and aieee Dairine and Roshaun!

And Carmella. 'Mella was all sorts of wonderful kickassery ("Oops?").

Did the scene with the King remind anyone else, at least a little, of the part of A Wrinkle In Time with Charles Wallace and IT?

This probably lacks all forms of coherence because I'm still caught up in the rush of finishing it and trying to digest everything.

"And the Moon is no dream--"

[paxluvfelicitas.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. I just finished it when I made the post and was still reeling from the hug thing. Diane Duane is all kinds of awesome.

The Lone One mythology and the Hound of heaven and the symbiosis between humans and dogs - OMG. Maybe another Book of Night With Moon type spin off? Because that would ROCK. The Darine/ Roshaun bit was so utterly perfect, with the whole purposefully putting it off until they were more gorwn up - because that's what wizards DO. That just killed me.

*giggles* I kept waiting for Mela to be the Hesper. I was almost disappointed when Mekaki showed up. But the curling iron of death pwned all.

YES!! With the prime sequence and the not walking in rhythm - but Nita's a bookworm, so it could be npt so much a blantant rip-off as an homage to L'Engle - which makes a lot of sense because L'Engle's books did influnce Duane's, I think.

There's one thing that bothered me though - at the start of the series, wizardy seemed very rules-based, and there was an emphasis on scientific law in the books. I feel like that's dropped off some in latter books, especially this one, and that makes me unhappy.

[paxluvfelicitas.livejournal.com]

Don't say I didn't warn you!

[flowed.livejournal.com]

I can definately join in the squee-age. ^^; Although I find I am suddenly fangirling Carmella in a VERY big way...

...But who among us can resist the hairdryer of general chaos?

I generally loved ALL her lines. Magical closets? Disintigration? OOPS?!

And she so totally owns the entertainment system. I swear, 'Mela can do just about anything...the entertainment system OBEYS.

Which is why I lovelles her and will write about her soon. <3 In a fanfic way...

Plus, Kit is just so much more fun to watch when he has someone making him miserable. In a good way, of course.

I think I'm still in the 'OMG SQUEE' mode, and can't really say anything worth saying...except that I'm probably over-emotional in the whole thing.

Someone above mentioned the whole change from scientific to more...not...and, yeah, that kinda irked me too. I recently re-read the whole thing, and it kinda seems that a lot of what they do now doesn't follow the original rules...but oh well. ^^;

Memeki and Ponch rocked. Always Ponch. Although I burst into tears once I discovered HE WOULDN'T BE THERE IN THE 'PONCH' WAY ANYMORE.

Dairine/Roshaun most definately rocked in a large way. And I can't wait for Dairi to go tearing off to find him; I loved her muchly in this book. She made me so happy with all her snark...and Roshaun was of course equally snarky, but that's alright because they understood one another just fine.

And for some reason I really liked that Kit had the foresight to steal Nita's lemon soda. -shakes head- I have no idea why that keeps coming back to bug me. My new muses think it's important, but in some way related to Carmella.

My muses, of course, are on various drugs...

So, er, various shades of love all around?

"We're on errantry...and, BOY, do we ever greet you..."

<3 Tom and Carl!

[paxluvfelicitas.livejournal.com]

I think Carmella's fandom is going to greatly expand after this... something just tells me.

Hmm... Lemon soda... Kit... Nita... *gets fluffilicious idea which will probably never write* Thank you!

[flowed.livejournal.com]

Well, come on, who can resist it?

o_o No problems! ...*pokes* Share please? ^^; I love fluffilicious ideas. And hearing it would make me happy!

[adiva_calandia]

deutscheami mentioned the similarites to A Wrinkle In Time -- I'm glad I wasn't the only one who caught that. The whole Pullulus concept had some interesting parallels to the Black Thing in L'Engle's book, and the bits about the nuclear holocaust reminded me of A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

And paxluvfelicitas mentioned the increasing lack of "rules". I'm inclined to agree with that analysis -- DD seems to be moving away from the idea of wizardry as a sort of scientific concept, in favor of bringing up more philosophical concepts -- the power of love, especially (another concept hearkening back to L'Engle's works, where love is what conquers all).

. . .Okay, I think I got most of the literary analyst out of my system *grin* and I can join everyone else in the Carmela!squee. Kickass non-wizard, dude! Yes! And am I the only person who practically squealed aloud when Ronan showed up again? (*shiftily continues to ship Nita/Ronan*)

One thing, though -- In the first couple books, DD did a fabulous job with letting her characters sacrifice themselves (Fred and Ed, of course, immediately come to mind) and then let the other characters grieve, and deal with that loss. She's been doing a great job with Nita's mother's death, as well. I think grieveing's an important issue, and more YA books should address it, and give their characters a chance to grieve and not always have a happy ending. Saving Ronan, bringing back Ponch, inevitably bringing back Roshaun -- while I'm happy to know I'll be seeing the characters again, I'd like to see some characters not get resurrected, because that's how Life usually works. (And apparently, I didn't get all the literary analyst out of my system the first time. Done now, I swear.)

As an overall book, though -- well, I stayed up and read it under the covers two nights this week. That oughta give you an idea of how addicted I am. *grin*

How the hell does this series not get the publicity Harry Potter does?

[paxluvfelicitas.livejournal.com]

But one of the series's founding principles was that everything - even magic, even, to a certain, limited extent, ethical human interactions - had a grounding in the laws of thermodynamics and entropy - "Every wizardry has a price." Deep Wizardry delved into the deeper meanings of sacrifice, and High Wizardry and A Wizard Abroad both had mythological overtones, but they still had groundings in science. I guess it's just an evolution in the series, and the books are still good, but I think it loses a lot.

Yes, yes you were. Because nobody likes angsty Irish sexpots who get in the way of true love.

YES. The sacrifice was good. Except not, because I almost cried when Ponch made the Choice, but you get it. And I think Roshaun's gonna stay dead - it's sad, but Dairine needs her loss.

*shakes head* I have no idea. It's a crying shame that it doesn't, though.

[adiva_calandia]

*nod* I agree with you that the rules were part of what made this so unique -- Kit says something about that in book six, that "Magic is when you wave your hand and things happen for no good reason." Wizardry's different. And I'd be all for a return to that more scientific (kinda sorta) basis.

Agreed. Our poor underappreciated fandom.

[paxluvfelicitas.livejournal.com]

We should have a Young Wizards Awareness Day or something.

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

I disagree strongly. Roshaun isn't going to stay dead. The book has so much evindence to the contrary that it just seems highly unlikely.

Then again, it depends on your definition of "dead". We may not be seeing the tall blonde-haired version of him in the future, but I think he'll show up. Also--the spell he was doing--I don't see how it could have killed him. If he lost control of it, I'd think he'd

a) get bound to the matter he was transporting

b) get thrown off somewhere into the universe.

And the clincher for me?

DAIRINE DOESN'T THINK HE'S DEAD.

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

In all the rest of the books, whenever somebody kicks the bucket, we always see them in Timeheart at the end of the book. But he wasn't there. So he hopefully isn't dead. *hopes against hopes*

However, according to DD in the forum chats, Dairine will be AWOL in AWoM (the next book). Presumably, she'll be hunting for Roshaun. And we'll get to be there when she (finally) finds him. whee!

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

Precisely! And the mobiles said some awfully suggestive things....

I cannot wait.

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

ZOMG squee me neither. DD did say that she should be back on the one-a-year track these days...

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

YOSH.

AWoM

[(Anonymous)]

(It SAYS "Anonymous," but it's really MediatingTree; I don't have an account yet!)

I've heard that the realease date for AWoM is Fall 2006. I can't wait either!!!

[subishinoda.livejournal.com]

haha, just wandered into this community, never posted before, but I JUST finished the book so I needed to say SOMETHING
I have to agree that in some of the later books some of the hard science seems a little less important...but then I remind myself its a book about wizards and whales on the moon and I'm okay with it XD I'm definitely liking the whole Dairine/Roshaun thing, and I really don't think he's dead - he wasn't in the sort of Timeheart replica the mobiles showed Dairine after all! Plus, I think if he'd DIED died then there'd be some sort of burnt out body - he wouldnt've just disappeared the way he did. I was so glad Ponch "came back" at the end ^^ I was about to get all teary...and the reminder of Nita's mom was a bit of a jerker too.
You know, I just have to say (and disclaimer here, because duh good guys = yes, good, but I have a weakness for some bad guys), I love how DD writes the Lone Power. If he were always all gross and totally evil and killing everything in extreme ways he'd be so much less scary and frightening then he is now :D
Alright - my rant is done for the moment!

Roshaun's Dilemma

[(Anonymous)]

When Roshaun (yes, WHEN!!), he's going to have a heck of a choice to make.

Perhaps I should explain.

Point 1: Roshaun likes Dairine, Dairine likes Roshaun. Okay, we have that. But my impression from Book 8 left me thinking that the Wellakhit majority look down on "aliens." If Dairine and Roshaun get together, that's gonna leave Roshaun in a funky place, and Sunlords are unpopular as it is.

Point 2: Apparently, the Sunstone has bbecome attached to a different star: our very own Sol. Dairine is the new bearer of the Sunstone, therefore she's tied to Sol and Earth, in a way. If Dairine and Roshaun get together, it's gonna be awkward: Roshaun's gotta take care of Thahit; Dairine's gotta take care of Sol. A Guarantor away from his planet is going to create many of the problems discussed in point 1; i.e. Roshaun dying (again).

I hate to be a killjoy, but that's the Wellakhit political situation. I'm a RoshaunDairine shipper, myself, but one must always look at all possible situations.

And there's always Timeheart, isn't there?

Re: Roshaun's Dilemma

[(Anonymous)]

Umm, yes, I'm replying to my own post. *I made an oopsie!* AAAANNNNYYYWWAAAYY . . . It's "When Roshaun (yes, WHEN!!) returns . . . " and so on.

okaayy.......

[(Anonymous)]

uh........out of curiosity.......did the........er........"naked scene" bug anyone else........o_0...... Besides that..... I LURVED THE BOOK!!!! we were on a camp-out the day after christmas (that's when I received the book) and me and my friend were abducting the book from one another in every free moment........ I loved Ronan's comment at the end.... The friend in question is a SW nerd...... always nice to read about others.... oh.... and am I just sad in noticing the pokemon reference in.....was it Alone..... and the TRANSFORMER'S reference in Alone. made me laugh actually thinking of Optimus Prime talking to Nita in her dreams..... whoa....I realllly rambled...sorry.......couldn't resist............^_^

[midhorii.livejournal.com]

GO WAW!! *waves little flag*

The "OOPS?" scene killed me. So, for that matter, did the rest of the book...but whatever. That bit at the very end where Ponch just sits down and howls, I was internally bawling (I can't cry reading books, no matter how good they are. Well, I did once, and that was the Tom and Nita scene in DW. Continuing now.) and I actually thought Nita was going to die in the Crossings bit, so I was like "MUST...KEEP...READING..."

And then I speed read, forgot it all, and had to read it again. =D Not that I mind.

subishinoda- Everyone's going to kill me for saying this, but the Lone Power is one of my favorite characters. Smart, charming evil people make the best villains. xD