NIta and Kit are maturing, which means deeper training as wizards but also a decrease in their innate powers. Kit has been involved in a project to explore Mars, which seems to lack a planetary kernel. When a mysterious object is discovered carefully concealed he becomes obsessed with it, disobeying orders from Senior wizards to return alone. Meanwhile Nita is developing powers as a seer, yet is sill uncertain how to distinguish true visions from false. When Kit gets in trouble on Mars Nita must decide whether the means she is tempted to use to aid him are a legitimate use of her powers or a temptation from the Lone Power to misuse them. The problem is compounded by a growing suspicion that she is beginning to see Kit as a boyfriend rather than merely a friend who is a boy. While the magic that Duane posits as the base for her series continues to be the over-the-top fantasy variety, she does involve her characters in genuine moral and ethical dilemmas. ( )

I've been reading the Young Wizards since I was in middle school and I absolutely love these books. When I heard that A Wizard of Mars was coming out, I rushed to Amazon and pre-ordered the book so that I would have it delivered to my home on release day. And then let it sit in my TBR stack for over a year. I finally picked it up this week and started reading it and have been asking myself the same question all week: why did I wait so long to read this book?

In this ninth book, Nita Callahan and Kit Rodriguez find themselves having to deal with Kit's infatuation with Mars. Nita and Kit (but mostly Kit) are working to try and figure out the secrets of Mars and the truth to the question about was there ever life on Mars and what happened to Mars' planetary kernel. Kit accidentally triggers events that leads to the life emerging on Mars again. Unfortunately, the Martians' plans could destroy Earth.

As always, I loved this book. I enjoyed seeing Nita and Kit growing up and starting to examine their relationship with one another and finally starting to start thinking about romance (come on it's been thirty years!). I also enjoyed seeing the friendships between Nita and Carmela and Kit, Darryl and Ronan.

Now, how long until the next book comes out? I definitely won't be letting that one sit on my TBR stack for a year. ( )

I waited a long time for this book, and it didn't disappoint. Once again Diane Duane proves herself capable of adding to and expanding upon this amazing world she's created, in poignant and sweeping style.

Mars, the red planet that has captured Earth's imagination for centuries. And it's also got its hooks into a certain handful of wizards, who are investigating the history of the planet, which is mysterious even by their standards.

But when Kit, involved heart and soul in the Mars project, unwittingly wakes up the dormant message-in-a-bottle that's been waiting for millenia, he will become tied to Mars in ways he could never have imagined. And as usual, there's only one wizard who knows him well enough to follow him down the dangerous path he's embarked on...Nita.

This book was one of the slower paced installments, but I know and love the series well enough by now to fully appreciate both the sci-fi and magical action as well as the quieter character-driven parts. Duane handles all the aspects masterfully as usual, keeping each familiar face true to themselves as well as expanding on the changing parts of their feelings and personalities. And there are a few fun newcomers as well, each already well on their way to becoming a full-fledged denizen of this series, which is already populated with an almost unfair number of brilliant characters.

New spells, new rules, new relationships, and new histories are introduced, bent, broken, and forged. I loved how Duane connected so much of Mars to Earth perceptions, both playing with them and subverting them. The constructs of Martian stereotypes experienced by the wizards were especially clever cameos, and provided both action and some surprising and great humor (think War of the Worlds invasion and a certain Looney Toons Martian!)

I really hope the next installment doesn't take as long to publish as this one did...there's so much left to be explained. In particular, I hope (as I think many others readers of this series do too) to see Dairine's education and search for Roshaun take a bigger role, if not the main one, in the next book. Like Dairine, I miss my stuck-up Wellakhit prince.

As my official 1000th book recorded here, I'm proud it was this one. :) ( )

finished. Now wait for the next part. Had been delayed again. Now it will be out 2015. 5 years after this one ( )

As usual, I enjoyed this installment of the Young Wizards series. It had a very old-school sci-fi feel, which was fun for a change, and the adventure seemed a little more complex than the usual fare. It also spent some time addressing and playing around with the romantic feelings we've seen hinted at in the past between Nita and Kit, which was cool. In general, I didn't have any major complaints. There were a few little confusing things, such as sentences with errors in them, and there was one instance at the very end of the book where Nita said she had to give something to someone before that person left, but then the person instantly left and it was never addressed that she didn't actually give it to her. Aside from that, though, it was pretty good. ( )