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 wizards - even Ponch, Kit's dog gets some growth without giving up his core identity. There are good tie-ins to the previous book and seeing the Lone Power in a different light is also nice. Maybe the slow burn is a little bit too slow this time, but Nita does have to deal with a lot of fallout. I could have done without the duelling TV peripherals, though.