The Wizard's Dilemma
Diane Duane
Harcourt, 403 pages
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Long before Harry Potter boarded the train to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Diane Duane's Young
Wizards were working to master the ways of magic, and fulfill the wizard's charge of fighting the forces of entropy
that threaten to overtake the Universe. It's a deservedly popular series, combining page-turning adventure, likeable
characters, imaginative world building, and intelligent themes into books that are as thought-provoking as they
are entertaining.
In this fifth installment, Nita Callahan and Kit Rodriguez, best friends and wizard-partners since the manifestation
of their powers two years ago, find themselves inexplicably at odds. They can't seem to talk to each other anymore
without petty misunderstandings getting in the way--and as for their joint wizardry projects, they can't agree
on how to create the simplest spells.
Then Nita's mother is diagnosed with cancer, and Nita's and Kit's disagreements suddenly seem trivial. Convinced
there must be a magical way to beat the disease, Nita sets out frantically to discover it, traveling to a series
of "practice universes" in search of a technique she can use. But time is short and the magic is a lot
harder than she expected, and she begins to doubt she can succeed. Meanwhile, Kit and his dog Ponch (who seems
to be acquiring wizardly abilities of his own) have found their way into a strange dark otherplace, where entire
worlds can be shaped at will. When Nita, at her lowest ebb, meets her old nemesis the Lone Power and is offered
a deadly bargain in exchange for her mother's life, Kit's odd discoveries may be the only thing that can help her
resist--but only if Nita and Kit can look past their differences, and learn to trust each other again.
The Wizard's Dilemma is well up to the high standard of the previous four books. The settings--which in
this case include several alternate Manhattans, the varied worlds Kit creates, and a vivid representation of the
inside of a diseased body--are powerfully drawn, and the magical events within them seem both wondrous and, thanks
to Duane's precise and graceful prose, very real. Nita's desperate quest to heal her mother and her temptation
at the hands of the Lone Power are perhaps not quite so conventionally suspenseful as the world-threatening crises
of earlier volumes, but they still generate considerable tension, and the way things ultimately work out isn't
at all what the reader might expect. There's also a thoughtful exploration of the ethical implications of forcing
change for personal reasons, no matter how noble those reasons may be; it's a poignant dilemma, and one most people
are likely to encounter at some point, even in the course of non-magical lifetimes.
One of the best things about the series is its highly original vision of wizardry--from an entire cosmology of
Powers and Potentialities responsible for the creation, preservation, and destruction of the Universe (though couched
in terms of Creation and Entropy rather than God and Satan, there's a distinct Judeo-Christian feel here, especially
in the portrayal of the Lone Power as a fallen, defiant being), to the wizards' Universe-spanning, life-preserving
mission, to the scientific precision of the spells Nita and the others cast. It's a more complex worldview than
is often found in YA fantasy; each book, unfolding a new area of wizardry, adds to its depth. There's also a good
bit of challenging metaphysical discussion--more of it, perhaps, in The Wizard's Dilemma than in any of
the other novels, especially in Nita's meetings with the Transcendent Pig, an "insoluble enigma" with
a sarcastic sense of humor and an inside understanding of the meaning of omnipresence.
Each novel is written as a separate adventure, so that the series can be picked up at any point. But I think they
gain from being read in sequence, not just because of the elements that repeat from volume to volume, but because
of the convincing way Kit and Nita deepen and mature as a result of their experiences. Harcourt has made this easy:
to coincide with publication of The Wizard's Dilemma, it has re-released the first four books (So You
Want to Be a Wizard, Deep Wizardry, High Wizardry, and A Wizard Abroad) in attractive paperback format.
Copyright © 2002 Victoria Strauss
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