After the events of the last few errantry assignments, Nita, Kit, and Dairine are pretty exhausted. Dairine decides to apply for a wizard's vacation without permission and gets grounded to the solar system; she can't go outside our little circle of planets. Bummer! but Nita and Kit (and the dog Ponch!) are accepted to go, and they're sent to the lovely world of Alaalu, where people are tall and sunburned-looking and the entire planet is basically a beach. Nita and Kit make their plans and get to hang out with Quelt, a wizard from Alaalu. Well, the wizard from Alaalu. They only have one. They only need one. When Nita and Kit investigate this society's history with the Lone Power and how they handled their Choice, they make a startling discovery. Entropy wasn't accepted here, so nothing ever changes and no one dies. Nita and Kit have to work with Quelt to understand the consequences of this and give them what's best . . . regardless of what that is. Meanwhile, at home, Dairine gets to host aliens on vacation much like her sister is. She meets Filif (a Demisiv wizard--he's a treelike creature), Sker'ret (a Rirhait wizard--he's a metallic centipede-like creature), and Roshaun (a Wellakhit wizard--he's humanoid and incredibly pretty). Dairine has a lot of fun learning about Sker'ret and Filif, and creates disguises for them so they can go out in public, but Roshaun is incredibly arrogant and wants to be recognized as the prince he is, and he refuses to be disguised or to change his clothes to something less striking. Kit's sister Carmela is a big help handling Roshaun, but in general Dairine is sick of him even if he's attractive. She gains new perspective when she finds out what royalty does on Wellakh, and why Roshaun is there becomes more apparent.This book is great because we finally get some really in depth portrayals of full other cultures that have wizardry, and we learn about how there are others like Earth that have to practice wizardry in secret (and there's even a wizarding term for it!). I thought Roshaun being described as looking like an anime prince was a really weird decision (especially since Carmela talked to him in Japanese once to stop people from gawking; oh, he's a foreigner, guess that's why he's dressed weird). And the storyline with Nita and Kit on Alaalu was fantastic--what an incredible idea. As usual the highlight is the perfect balance between epic plot and personal story we have in this split storyline, and Duane's delivery and magical system is flawless as usual.
Note: this is the 7th in the Young Wizards seriesNita, Kit and Dairine are hoping for a break from the craziness of their lives. Dairine signs up for a wizardly intergalactic exchange program- Kit & Nita head for the planet Alaalu, while 3 wizards come to stay at with Dairine & her father. But this turns out to not be as much of a vacation as they'd hoped. Nita & Kit relax on the peaceful planet, getting to know the friendly family they stay with. But they slowly begin to realize that this is too good to be true. Meanwhile, Dairine contends with various cultural clashes, including with an arrogant prince. But he may hold the key to saving Earth from disaster...As usual with the Young Wizards books, this is a fun and fast-paced adventure, amusing as well as thoughtful about philosophy & ethics. I found some of the ideas & technical concepts in it hard to understand, but you don't need to understand all the details to follow and enjoy the story.One criticism I do have, is that I think it would be more interesting if the wizards had an enemy other than the Lone Power (roughly equivalent to Lucifer/Satan in their universe) S/he suffers from the "Sauron/Voldemort" problem- too abstract & distant to be a really interesting villain. Human-like enemy(ies) would be better, a great antagonist that the reader loves to hate.
Do You like book Wizard's Holiday (2005)?
There's definitely a correlation between how much I like a book, and how much I was trying to avoid something else while I was reading it. Despite that factor, I think this stands as one of the better books in the series, with secondary characters to rival those in the earlier books and a plot that does justice to Nita, Kit AND Dairine. There were a few loose ends that I would have liked to see tied up - what were Tom, Carl, and the other senior wizards up to?? - but otherwise, a tour de force in a series I've loved for over a decade.
—Victoria
Oh, how I love my little wizards.I really enjoyed the introduction of these new characters for this book and, as I understand it, they will be coming along for the ride in the next, so I get to spend more time with them. Filif is my new buddy and I am not ashamed to say that one of my favorite characters is basically vegetation. The plotline of this one was far more engaging than many in the past and was a welcome departure from the more clear, black-and-white mentality of Kit and Nita's adventu
—Kit
This was different in some ways. It was nice to see Dairinne being smacked down by the planetary wizards. And by her coworkers. However, while her ego may have been cut down some, I don't think it affected her basic self confidence. Nita and Kit are sent off on a "holiday" that of course, turned out to be anything but an actual holiday .Dairinne's wizardly guests turned out to be just different enough to drive her nuts....she had to stop one in all innocence from eating part of their house and lets not even think about what happened in the mall. It was a healthy corrective to have a sentient being in the shape of a tree and realize that eating vegetables might be extremely frightening to that person. It made meals quite a challenge when you had to avoid salad like items in order not to horrify a guest! It is also nice to see Dairinne be bested in many ways by a boy....one she can't stand. Or maybe she can stand him, a great deal. She isn't a little girl any more, definitely. Instead of Duanne's general preoccupation with death, she did the same theme from the opposite direction: is it healthy to have a life on a planet where nothing ever changes and everyone seems happy? Is this truly a good thing? I'm not sure she completely answered her question but then, it is a pretty big question to answer. Perhaps death is better than everlasting sameness with no growth. I see her point but I'm also still missing my Dad and can't emotionally be convinced that unending sameness is necessarily a bad thing. Intellectually I see her point. Emotionally, I'm not sure I am ready for this or will ever be ready. This may get revised after I let the book sink into my consciousness some more.
—Joan
