The Wizard's Dilemma

Young Wizard Series, Book 5

By: Diane Duane

Narrated by: Christina Moore

A novel “filled with very credible teen angst, morality, and an intriguing blend of science fiction and fantasy” from the author of A Wizard Abroad (School Library Journal).

Still recovering from an overly eventful vacation in Ireland, teenage wizard Nita Callahan is looking forward to some peace and quiet in her suburban New York home. Instead, her close friend Kit seems to be acting a little weird, and Nita keeps running into problems for which wizardry either isn’t the answer or else it’s the wrong one. How do you fix what can’t be fixed? Only the Transcendent Pig knows, and it’s not telling. But Nita needs to find out—and soon. Her wizardly partnership with Kit starts to fall apart. Much worse, her mother gets sick … so sick she may never leave the hospital. Only one person can help Nita—the One she’s devoted her life to fighting.

“Powerful and satisfying.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

You can listen to Diane Duane's entire Young Wizard series.©2001 Diane Duane (P)2002 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"A multi-layered, psychological novel filled with very credible teen angst, morality, and an intriguing blend of science fiction and fantasy....Narrated by veteran actress Christina Moore, the delivery is superb." (School Library Journal)
"Duane has the gift of presenting spirituality without sectarianism or sentimentality....Powerful and satisfying on many levels." (Kirkus)

deeper problems

I hesitated to "read" this book, since it dealt with the potential death of the central character's mother who has emerged as a great person in her own right over the last few books. I didn't feel that there could be a winning ending. But there was. Additionally my teenage daughter is facing a lot of the pressures Nita does as a freshman in highschool (How far have you two gone? Well why not?)which is nice because she asks me from time to time if she's "the only one who feels this way", regarding the worries and insecurites of a fourteen year old with a best-friend-male (nomenclature due to the fact that she's not allowed to date until she's 16). I've loved all of the books, am currently getting ready to burn #6, and won't leave the house this afternoon until I have a couple of disks ready to go with me.

loved it! can't wait to listen to the next one!

loved it! can't wait to listen to the next one!
loved it! can't wait to listen to the next one!

The start of big changes.

Big changes start happening in this book for Nita and Kit, as well as their families, changes that continue to evolve in the next several books. This one covers some pretty heavy topics: life, death, dealing with a terminal illness. I love that we start seeing more of Ponch in this book. The voice Christina Moore does for him is, quite frankly, adorable, and he is the goodest boy.

The Series continues to impress

Once again, Diane Duane proves that you can write for young adults without writing down to them.

It's kind of maddening to go through so many books in this series with so little time passing, because you want to know where the characters are going in their lives. This book helps move the character arcs a little further along, and takes you in unexpected directions.

Once again, I must praise the narrator, and point out that I'm already on book six.

The father comes across very poorly

The first book described a father whose reaction to his daughter getting beaten up by classmates was to blame her for not fighting back. This book and the subsequent ones portray a man who transfers his dependence on his wife to his daughter, expecting her to step into her mother’s shoes. “Wake me up at 8:30,” he orders her when they return from the first visit to Nita’s mother in the hospital, as though he couldn’t manage an alarm clock on his own. He tells her several times that she reminds him of her mother, and in subsequent books in the series, he demands that she take on a parental role with the younger sister.

The repeated inaccuracies about cancer were bad enough, but I could have put them down to simple ignorance and lack of research. The total dysfunction of the parent-child relationship was harder to overlook.

authentic

I was just blown away by this books stunning ending along with the introduction of a simi wizard/creater dog (ponch). I like how she combines her love of astronamy with magic! this the most authentically good book i've seen since... Eragon! Which is also a very good book to i recomend that you read all the books by Diane Duane.

Another excellent book

This story took a little bit more description and time to get you there but was all the richer for it. Honey, why is there a pig here?