A Wizard Alone

The Sixth Book in the Young Wizards Series

352 pages

English language

Published Oct. 1, 2003 by Magic Carpet Books.

ISBN:
978-0-15-204911-9
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OCLC Number:
53067386

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4 stars (7 reviews)

While Nita mourns her mother's death, teenage wizard Kit and his dog Ponch set out to find a young autistic boy who vanished in the middle of his Ordeal, pursued by the Lone Power.

3 editions

reviewed A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane (Young Wizards Series (6))

Review of 'A Wizard Alone' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

3.75. While I like the the way Duane treats grief and respect for neuro-atypical people, there are some problematic parts too, mainly the "miracle cure" at the end. While the autism is portrayed as the only thing that has enabled Darryl's tricking the Lone Power in the middle of the novel, at the end it's something he can just leave behind with, apparently, no ill effects.

While the mind invasion with intent to help is somewhat mitigated by being ineffective in Kit's case, it works for Nita and the fact that Kit sort of "catches" autism isn't great either - though there's magic involved and it's quite clear that the author didn't intend anything analogous to a real-life transmission.

Apart from those problematic elements the story is engaging and less depressing than you might have thought after the end of the last novel. There's good character development in all the …

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