A Wizard Alone
Feb. 10th, 2015 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI just finished reading the New Millennium Edition of A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane.
It is about an autistic wizard. And this time I can say that without any :-/ about it, it's actually about an autistic wizard.
The print edition had some odd ideas and I didn't quite know what to do with it, as I wrote here. But the new ebook editions, which mostly just fix the timeline to be this side of the century and the tech to make sense with the new time, in this case took the chance to properly fix things so the character makes proper sense.
I am all :-D
Spoilers: in the print edition the triumphant ending involved the kid just kind of deciding to not be autistic any more. It was most :-(
But in the new edition he has the opportunity, the whole book has been showing how tricky it is to be him from the inside, and he's handed the wizardry means to change it if he wants to... but he stays himself :-)
It's always been the only answer that makes sense in universe even. People are offered wizardry if they are the answer to a question, the solution to a puzzle, what the universe needs. Unmaking himself would undo that.
But the new version gives him the chance and he chooses to be himself and play that through, even though it's really hard. That's setting aside fear for courage and letting each life grow in its own way.
Also the where they did the research thing is much more clear now, and the main character sits down to research by reading blogs by autistic people, and the whole shape of the story is different so it is not news to anyone that there are other people in the universe.
... sometimes I felt like it lost a little power, by trying to explain the things the new better way? But by making a recognisable autistic person it gains a lot more.
Also, they have a chat at the end with the actual autistic real life physical whole person, rather than just jumping in his head and dreamspace a lot, and they notice ways he's still different from them even though he's not silent and headbanging any more. So that's much better. It feels like him getting to be in his own story that way.
So now I am happy smiles about this book.
the particular ebook I bought from the author's shop has a couple of places where I don't know if it's how my computer is displaying it or if tis doing something awkward with italics, and a couple more with typos, and one sentence fragment I rather want the end of, but it basically works and doesn't do anything ugly and is readable. I maybe email the author to see if she wants to know what I found. print books have similar stuff happen but they can't just upload a fixed version if someone emails them. ebooks are tricky though, I'm reading in browser but I want to buy something that's meant to display this kind of files. Reading on the laptop uses more power and is harder to concentrate on.
but the book is good, and I'm glad I bought the whole set of NMEs because fixing things should be encouraged.
It is about an autistic wizard. And this time I can say that without any :-/ about it, it's actually about an autistic wizard.
The print edition had some odd ideas and I didn't quite know what to do with it, as I wrote here. But the new ebook editions, which mostly just fix the timeline to be this side of the century and the tech to make sense with the new time, in this case took the chance to properly fix things so the character makes proper sense.
I am all :-D
Spoilers: in the print edition the triumphant ending involved the kid just kind of deciding to not be autistic any more. It was most :-(
But in the new edition he has the opportunity, the whole book has been showing how tricky it is to be him from the inside, and he's handed the wizardry means to change it if he wants to... but he stays himself :-)
It's always been the only answer that makes sense in universe even. People are offered wizardry if they are the answer to a question, the solution to a puzzle, what the universe needs. Unmaking himself would undo that.
But the new version gives him the chance and he chooses to be himself and play that through, even though it's really hard. That's setting aside fear for courage and letting each life grow in its own way.
Also the where they did the research thing is much more clear now, and the main character sits down to research by reading blogs by autistic people, and the whole shape of the story is different so it is not news to anyone that there are other people in the universe.
... sometimes I felt like it lost a little power, by trying to explain the things the new better way? But by making a recognisable autistic person it gains a lot more.
Also, they have a chat at the end with the actual autistic real life physical whole person, rather than just jumping in his head and dreamspace a lot, and they notice ways he's still different from them even though he's not silent and headbanging any more. So that's much better. It feels like him getting to be in his own story that way.
So now I am happy smiles about this book.
the particular ebook I bought from the author's shop has a couple of places where I don't know if it's how my computer is displaying it or if tis doing something awkward with italics, and a couple more with typos, and one sentence fragment I rather want the end of, but it basically works and doesn't do anything ugly and is readable. I maybe email the author to see if she wants to know what I found. print books have similar stuff happen but they can't just upload a fixed version if someone emails them. ebooks are tricky though, I'm reading in browser but I want to buy something that's meant to display this kind of files. Reading on the laptop uses more power and is harder to concentrate on.
but the book is good, and I'm glad I bought the whole set of NMEs because fixing things should be encouraged.