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willowvine's review
4.0
4.0 Half a star reduction for the love story, a quarter of a star for the really long time to get the reader interested (even for a series that's famous for its slow movements) and a quarter star reduction for the love story. The world-building is excellent as always and the writing is great, both for the dialogues, the meaningful hard choices and the wonderful planetary vistas.
Pity there's only one more novel and one hard-to-get short story collection in the series.
Pity there's only one more novel and one hard-to-get short story collection in the series.
papayastar's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.75
kylerjoe's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
kikibug13's review against another edition
5.0
This was awesome and lovely and kickass and GO NITA ahem.
fbw's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
apatosaurusreads's review against another edition
4.0
This book demonstrated the development of the main characters in the series and many of the others. There are cool ideas about the intersection of magic, science, and science fiction. Edited: Because of the way the books are grouped due to changing publishers, I thought this was the last main sequence book. Instead, “Games Wizards Play” is the series finale, and resolves the threads left unresolved in this one.
kiwikathleen's review against another edition
4.0
There are a lot of (especially old) science fiction novels set around Mars, ranging from the shoot-em-up space cowboys through the terribly dated adventures with horribly stereotypical male and female roles (again, talk pre-feminisim) to the other end of the spectrum with some of the Greats (easy to find, just Google or search Goodreads lists). Duane's Young Wizards series takes us there with magic added into the equation, and she does it really well.
Kit has been fascinated by Mars for a long time, and is part of a working party looking at some interesting readings appearing there. Nita is less personally involved, but she is intrigued by the fact that Mars doesn't have a locatable kernel (DO read the earlier books in this fabulous series). AS she has done a fair bit of learning and work in that area, it's logical for her to become involved. Also, she and Kit are wizardry partners.
As always, the magic is beautifully done. I really enjoy the development of the key characters and of the side characters. And while each book has a distinct story of its own, it also follows on chronologically so there is frequent reference to characters that important roles in previous books. So once again I doff my hat (as it were) to this master storyteller.
Kit has been fascinated by Mars for a long time, and is part of a working party looking at some interesting readings appearing there. Nita is less personally involved, but she is intrigued by the fact that Mars doesn't have a locatable kernel (DO read the earlier books in this fabulous series). AS she has done a fair bit of learning and work in that area, it's logical for her to become involved. Also, she and Kit are wizardry partners.
As always, the magic is beautifully done. I really enjoy the development of the key characters and of the side characters. And while each book has a distinct story of its own, it also follows on chronologically so there is frequent reference to characters that important roles in previous books. So once again I doff my hat (as it were) to this master storyteller.
starrynews's review against another edition
5.0
Another great adventure in the Young Wizards series! Events from previous books in the series are referenced, allowing readers to see what has happened since then, and lots of characters make another appearance. Good read!
reginas_books's review against another edition
4.0
Disclaimer: I've been really sick the last three weeks and decided I'd reread as many childhood favorites as possible because wanted something comforting and extremely low effort. Except then I found a bunch of books I'd never read before! So I figured, why not, I'll just read the whole series.
This one was pretty cool. I found it a little too fantastical (which is crazy, considering the series and the absurdities of the other books), but having the sci-fi versions playing out on Mars was just a smidge too much for me to handle. Still, I enjoyed the greater message and am still reading them, so clearly they can't be that bad. Excited to see what happens with Carmela and Dairine in the next book.
This one was pretty cool. I found it a little too fantastical (which is crazy, considering the series and the absurdities of the other books), but having the sci-fi versions playing out on Mars was just a smidge too much for me to handle. Still, I enjoyed the greater message and am still reading them, so clearly they can't be that bad. Excited to see what happens with Carmela and Dairine in the next book.