A Wizard of Mars
Cover art for A Wizard of Mars
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| Author | Diane Duane |
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| Cover artist | Cliff Nielsen |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Young Wizards |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Harcourt Trade Publishers |
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Publication date
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April 14, 2010 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 560 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 318875313 |
| LC Class | PZ7.D84915 Wji 2010 |
| Preceded by | Wizards at War |
| Followed by | Games Wizards Play |
A Wizard of Mars is the ninth novel in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. After being pushed back several times due to internal turmoil at Harcourt Trade Publishers, it was scheduled to be released April 14, 2010, but the distributor shipped it in late March.
Young Wizards Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan become part of an elite team investigating the mysterious, long-sought 'message in the bottle' that holds to the first clues to the long-lost inhabitants of Mars. But not even wizardry is enough to cope with the strange events that start to unfold when the 'bottle' is uncorked and life emerges once more to shake the Red Planet with its own perilous and baffling brand of magic.
The good news is that the Martians seem friendly. The bad news is that now they're free to pick up where they left off on a long-dormant plan that can change the shape of more than one world... and they don't mind using their well-intentioned rescuers to achieve their goals. Kit's long-standing fascination with all things Martian unexpectedly enmeshes him in a terrible, age-old conflict—turning him into both a possible key to its solution, and a tool that in the wrong hands shortly threatens the whole human race.
Only Kit has a shot of defusing the threat. But when he vanishes unexpectedly from Mars of here and now, his fellow wizards are left uncertain of where his true loyalties lie. Nita's determination to find the truth - and Kit - soon sends her into a battle against an implacable enemy who may not be conquerable except by violating wizardry's most basic tenets. As the shadow of interplanetary war stretches ever more darkly over both worlds, Kit and Nita must fight to understand and master the strange and ancient synergy binding them to Mars and its last inhabitants... or the history that left Mars lifeless will repeat itself on Earth.
Juanita Louise Callahan Juanita "Nita" Louise Callahan is an experienced wizard of around fourteen or fifteen. She is still able to work with living things, but her powers are now developing more towards the oracular bend. She has a lot on her shoulders, having to deal with grief after her mother's and Ponch's death, as well as her sister Dairine, who, after the loss of Roshaun is behaving oddly as well as being sullen and unresponsive—and Carmela is taunting her about her middle name as well, which she hates, though it gives no reason why. She was initially uninterested in the "Martian thing," but gets caught up in it quickly as Carmela uncovers an ancient prophecy and Kit starts acting strangely and then disappears completely. She has several spectacular moments and has to make the most "active" choices and possibly has the most "fighting" role in the book, as Kit makes choices of the same importance but his are more passive. She starts to have feelings toward Kit, though she has no "soppy" moments. She develops an elemental affinity with water, which proves important later, along with her friendship with the whale wizard S'ree, and uses the Gibraltar Passthrough (a powerful wizardry developed by the hydromage Angelina Pellegrino) to save her life, along with several other wizardries, though they cost her vast amounts of energy and power. She duels Aurilelde in what is supposed to be to the death, but after defeating her thoroughly, breaks the prophecy which said "She will slay her rival."
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