This book is partially split between Dairine and Nita, and while I love Dairines side of the story Kit and Nitas portion of the book just doesn't interest me. Even with multiple rereads I still dont feel that I fully understand what the deal was with the alien society they visit, although this might be more of a weird personal blindspot than anything else. I do like reading about whats going on in their heads after the events of the previous books though. Meanwhile, back on the ranch (aka, earth) Dairine and Carmela play host to alien exchange wizards, all of whom I like a great deal. Even with my issues its still a 3 star book, and a need to read if you are going to continue the series. ( )

Fine fun. ( )

This has to be my favorite of the Young Wizards series, although others come close. The premise, the story, the characters, the places; everything Duane did fantastically in her other books gets stepped up a notch.

While Kit and Nita's journey was strange and eye-opening (and seeing the depths of the Lone One's ambiguous deviousness was fun--especially as a girl this time!) But it has to be admitted; it was the events with the foreign exchange wizards back on Earth that stole the show.

I like watching Dairine's character grow, especially as I thought she was being neglected ever since "A Wizard Abroad". This book gave her a huge chance to do that. But really, we can talk character development all we want. But taking a Christmas tree, a giant purple centipede, and a holier-than-thou alien prince to the mall? It does not get better than this. Filif and Sker'ret were a lot of fun, but I think Roshaun was the best newcomer-character. I loved the dynamic between him and Dairine...it was built at just the right pace.

And the climax was breathtaking. Be prepared for cliffhangers galore. ( )

De twee kinderen, Kit en Nita, gaan op een twee weken durende 'excursie' naar een andere planeet. Gelijktijdig komen er 3 'aliens' tijdelijk naar de Aarde.

Het lijkt er op dat de verhalen steeds beter worden. ( )

While I enjoyed reading this book, I had some very mixed feelings about one of the two main plots in it. I also got a bit confused by some of the details.

The main idea of the story is that Nita and Kit end up partaking in what was explained to be a sort of wizard exchange program; wizards visit other cultures, and in return, their home is used to house exchange wizards from other planets. However, the math of it didn't make any sense to me. I figured Nita and Kit would go to a home where one or two wizards had left, while an exchange wizard would be housed in each of their homes. What actually happened was that three exchange wizards stayed at Nita's house (none at Kit's), and no one on the entire planet Nita and Kit visited left to be an exchange wizard. The math of the whole process felt sloppy and illogical to me, though admittedly, I've never done a cultural exchange program in real life, so I don't know if it's as neat and logical as I expected it to be or not.

Now, the at-home story about the three exchange wizards that stay at Nita's house with Dairine made sense to me and was enjoyable. I liked reading about the different aliens' physiologies and perceptions of Earth; in fact, I would have enjoyed seeing even more of this, as reading about Earth from an alien perspective is a favored trope of mine. However, I didn't much like Nita and Kit's plot line, at all. They are assigned to this tropical paradise of a planet; unlike humans and most other species, the people of this planet actually rejected the Lone Power during their Choice, leading to complete peace, long life, and a lingering presence of spirits after death. The whole planet felt ideal to me, exactly as I wish Earth could be, but Nita kept feeling this nagging sense that something wasn't right, and that idea that some nameless thing was wrong with what could be considered perfection was really the only thing that pushed the plot forward in the first place (and pretty late into the book, I might add). In the end, they run into the Lone Power (shocked, aren't you?) and It tells them that the Choice these people made stunted their ability to evolve, which It makes out to be much more important than the eternal happiness that they are effectively lounging in. Now, for some reason, Nita and Kit actually agree and immediately begin trying to convince the wizard they're staying with that her people need to give up world peace and long life so that they can stop stagnating (what evolution actually needs to occur when you've already accomplished world peace and long life is beyond me). In the end, it turned out that the evolution that needed to occur was dying and leaving the planet permanently (like we do IRL), and the second that the wizard responsible for this planet accepted this and renounced their Choice, everyone on the entire planet died instantly. What's worse, this was considered a good thing, and Nita and Kit went home feeling accomplished. How messed up is that?

Now, maybe Diane Duane has more religious leanings than I was aware of (with the heavy science influence of her books, I wouldn't have expected that), but as an agnostic who believes there's no way of knowing what will happen after death, it sickens me to think that anyone would believe so strongly in a happy afterlife that they would willingly let themselves die to reach it. These people were capable of living thousands of years in a beautiful and violence-free world and effectively living on a different version of their planet permanently after they "died," as well. They even had proof that their spirits would exist after they died because the dead could still speak to the living to some extent. Yet every single person on the entire planet agreed within what I read to be the span of a few minutes that they would rather give up all that to die and see what's out there. Never in a million years would I have agreed with that decision, but there was next to no dissent whatsoever. And what's worse, this completely undermined everything the series seemed to be saying in the earlier books. The Lone Power is known to be so horrible because it created death and its broader manifestation, entropy, and because it corrupted most civilizations in existence with this poisonous touch. So how can Nita and Kit possibly encourage this death and corruption, especially when not a single soul seemed unhappy with the way things were in this perfect society? It Duane intended to paint the world as a happy-on-the-surface-but-secretly-torture situation, she failed miserably. And Nita also lost her mother a few books back; how she could encourage the death of a whole species without once questioning anything about her decision, I'll never understand.

Anyway, here's hoping the next book is more consistent with the values of the originals. ( )