A Wizard of Mars (2010)

A Wizard of Mars is the ninth novel in the Young Wizards series, written by Diane Duane. After being pushed back several times due to internal turmoil at Harcourt Trade Publishers, it was scheduled for release on April 14, 2010, but the distributor shipped it in late March 2010.

Major characters

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 strange 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, as important as Nita's, but 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 Pass through (a powerful wizardry developed by the hydro mage 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."

Christopher Rodriguez

Christopher "Kit" Rodriguez is, throughout the book, obsessed with Mars and all things Martian. After messing things up a bit too much and getting himself stuck in an ancient version of Mars—and inside the Martian wizard Khretef—he is faced with a difficult decision, which will affect the course of life in the entire Solar System: will he save Earth or will he save Mars?

At home, his sister Helena has arrived, which makes for a hard time dealing with her wild theories about him and his wizardry. Later in the book, he starts to develop feelings toward Nita, though these are continually being overshadowed by those of a certain Martian princess. At the end of the book, these feelings toward Aurilelde are overcome when Nita refers to Kit as her boyfriend, and he tells her that it took her long enough.

Mamvish fsh Wimsih fsh Mentaff

Mamvish is a Species Archivist who relocates species that are in trouble to safer places. She has incredibly high power levels and is an Abstainee, which means that the Lone Power literally "took a vacation" on her Ordeal. (Apparently, the LP left a note for her saying that he had a headache and could not come!) She has a fierce love for tomatoes and is highly sensitive, and has a high vocabulary of insults in the Speech. She looks pretty much like a dinosaur, and when she does wizardry, speech words can be seen under her skin.

Irina Mladen

Irina Mladen, Planetary Wizard for Earth, is described as a young, slim housewife in her thirties, with shaggy, highlighted blonde hair, preferring to travel with a parakeet on her head and a baby in a sling. Though she may look like a regular housekeeper (and is, technically, one of Earth's housekeepers), this is one lady you do not want to cross.

Carmela Emeda Rodriguez

Carmela is a key character in this book, though not a wizard. Ignoring Kit's reluctance to allow her on the trip, she travels with Nita and S'ree and manages to decode an ancient prophecy using her strange gift with languages. She shows no further sign of becoming a wizard, and claims that she is simply training to be a "galactic personal shopper". She also shows interest in Ronan, which he does not reciprocate. She has been amply repaid for the service she did in Wizards at War by being allowed on a nearly endless shopping spree at the Crossings on Rirhath B. She lives for annoying her little brother, and now that Helena is back, it is easier. She also loves to tease Nita by calling her "Juanita LOUISE," since Nita hates her middle name. Carmela's own middle name, now, has an interesting history. Her aunts and uncles fought so much over what her middle name would be that Carmela's mother decided to take their first initials and make a new name out of them.

Helena Rodriguez

We are newly introduced to Helena in this book. She has seemingly gotten over the stage of thinking Kit has had a deal with the devil, but has some odd theories of her own now. Hint: Mutants! She also says near the end of the book, "Wouldn't it be great if there really was this interplanetary brotherhood with all kinds of creatures, you know, banding together and using their powers to fight evil..." Not knowing, of course, how right she was!

Ronan Nolan

Ronan, in this book, along with Darryl, travels with Kit and experiences his own bizarre version of Mars in his imagination. He offers a kind of support for Kit, along with being comic relief. There is no tension at all between him and Nita at this point, though there is also little contact between them in the book.

Darryl

Darryl travels along with Ronan and Kit and has his turn experiencing the Mars of his mind, a strange and silly remake of a movie he watched as a child. He offers comic relief, and there are several references to how much he eats. Him being an abdal makes Nita nervous about him being off-planet, but everything works out.

S'ree