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Young Wizards #9.7
Lifeboats: A Tale of the Young Wizards
When the renowned saurian Species Archivist to the Powers that Be summons young wizard Kit Rodriguez to participate in an urgent off-planet intervention intended to save many millions of lives, Kit’s hardly going to say “no.”
He soon discovers that not only he, but his wizardly partner Nita Callahan and her sister Dairine, his friend Ronan Nolan, and tens of thousands of other wizards from Earth have also been drafted in to intervene on the distant world called Tevaral. There the planet’s single huge moon Thesba has become tectonically unstable and will very soon tear itself apart, its massive fragments smashing down onto the surface of Tevaral and utterly destroying it. The wizards’ mission: to extract Tevaral’s hominid population and “raft” them off-planet to new homeworlds before the apocalyptic disaster begins.
There’s only one problem: the people of Tevaral don’t want to go.
Kit, Nita and their thousands of fellow Earth wizards must now race against time to find a way to save the Tevaralti despite their near-symbiotic relationship with their beloved world and its unique life forms. As doomsday inexorably draws nearer, hope is fading fast, and it seems like it’s going to take a miracle to keep the people of Tevaral from being wiped out. True, wizardry is all about miracles. But will one turn up in time?
He soon discovers that not only he, but his wizardly partner Nita Callahan and her sister Dairine, his friend Ronan Nolan, and tens of thousands of other wizards from Earth have also been drafted in to intervene on the distant world called Tevaral. There the planet’s single huge moon Thesba has become tectonically unstable and will very soon tear itself apart, its massive fragments smashing down onto the surface of Tevaral and utterly destroying it. The wizards’ mission: to extract Tevaral’s hominid population and “raft” them off-planet to new homeworlds before the apocalyptic disaster begins.
There’s only one problem: the people of Tevaral don’t want to go.
Kit, Nita and their thousands of fellow Earth wizards must now race against time to find a way to save the Tevaralti despite their near-symbiotic relationship with their beloved world and its unique life forms. As doomsday inexorably draws nearer, hope is fading fast, and it seems like it’s going to take a miracle to keep the people of Tevaral from being wiped out. True, wizardry is all about miracles. But will one turn up in time?
358 pages, Paperback
First published October 4, 2015
10 people are currently reading
511 people want to read
About the author
Diane Duane
167 books2,413 followersDiane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than forty years.
Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and animated TV series on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as work in comics and computer games. She has spent a fair amount of time on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has picked up various awards and award nominations here and there.
She lives in County Wicklow, in Ireland, with her husband of more than thirty years, the screenwriter and novelist Peter Morwood.
Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."
(From her official website)
Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and animated TV series on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as work in comics and computer games. She has spent a fair amount of time on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has picked up various awards and award nominations here and there.
She lives in County Wicklow, in Ireland, with her husband of more than thirty years, the screenwriter and novelist Peter Morwood.
Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."
(From her official website)
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 11, 2015
Diane Duane's Young Wizards novella Lifeboats is a look at a somewhat different side of errantry - the kind that may still be high-stakes, but isn't full of adventure and derring-do.
A planet is about to die. Tevaral's massive moon Thesba is breaking apart and when it does, the planet will at best become uninhabitable, and at worst will slowly break up itself. Hundreds of thousands of wizards from species all over the universe - including Kit and Nita and most of thrir wizardly friends - are called to aid in a massive refugee action: to hold open worldgates to new planets where as much of the biosphere, the cultural artefacts and the beings that inhabit Tevaral can be relocated before the end comes. It's a hard job - worldgates are difficult to manage at the best of times, but when you have so many thousands of them operating non-stop in one place, and so many different stresses on them, the gates need constant support and surveillance. It's work that's tedious and nerve-wracking by turns.
And there's another problem. Not all of the Tevaralti are willing to be rescued, and they have not been able to explain why. The wizards responsible for the relocation efforts know they must respect this decision - but still hope that if they can discover why some of the Tevaralti feel this way, they can find a way to change their minds.
What makes the story really work is that, given the nature of shift work, the wizards involved in the rescue effort have time to visit and socialise, to keep their spirits up in the midst of such a vast dislocation. With Kit as the focal point, the reader meets his new wizardly colleagues Djam and Cheleb, follows his developing relationship with Nita, and enjoys getting to know the rest of the gang a little better - including some insight into how one species might make use of low-carb ketchup.
But ultimately, like all of Duane's Young Wizard works, there is a deep and deeply satisfying philosophical message, and one that spoke very strongly to me: "life is better."
A planet is about to die. Tevaral's massive moon Thesba is breaking apart and when it does, the planet will at best become uninhabitable, and at worst will slowly break up itself. Hundreds of thousands of wizards from species all over the universe - including Kit and Nita and most of thrir wizardly friends - are called to aid in a massive refugee action: to hold open worldgates to new planets where as much of the biosphere, the cultural artefacts and the beings that inhabit Tevaral can be relocated before the end comes. It's a hard job - worldgates are difficult to manage at the best of times, but when you have so many thousands of them operating non-stop in one place, and so many different stresses on them, the gates need constant support and surveillance. It's work that's tedious and nerve-wracking by turns.
And there's another problem. Not all of the Tevaralti are willing to be rescued, and they have not been able to explain why. The wizards responsible for the relocation efforts know they must respect this decision - but still hope that if they can discover why some of the Tevaralti feel this way, they can find a way to change their minds.
What makes the story really work is that, given the nature of shift work, the wizards involved in the rescue effort have time to visit and socialise, to keep their spirits up in the midst of such a vast dislocation. With Kit as the focal point, the reader meets his new wizardly colleagues Djam and Cheleb, follows his developing relationship with Nita, and enjoys getting to know the rest of the gang a little better - including some insight into how one species might make use of low-carb ketchup.
But ultimately, like all of Duane's Young Wizard works, there is a deep and deeply satisfying philosophical message, and one that spoke very strongly to me: "life is better."
March 11, 2022
The message: Life is better. And it spread, slowly, through an entire system, that choosing life was another way to arrive at being of one mind.
12/05/21: I had a suicidal crisis earlier this week. I started rereading Lifeboats because the emotions throughout it are so KIND, and because the conversations and internal monologs Kit has are so uniquely funny - and then he told a runaway pet a story, and I find my survival and a way to achieve it, another way of making peace with existence - and I might be planning a tribute tattoo.
03/11/22: I had a suicidal crisis that lasted from, honestly, mid-January til last week. I reread Lifeboats because I needed one, and found one, again, and I think I'll keep finding them.
12/05/21: I had a suicidal crisis earlier this week. I started rereading Lifeboats because the emotions throughout it are so KIND, and because the conversations and internal monologs Kit has are so uniquely funny - and then he told a runaway pet a story, and I find my survival and a way to achieve it, another way of making peace with existence - and I might be planning a tribute tattoo.
03/11/22: I had a suicidal crisis that lasted from, honestly, mid-January til last week. I reread Lifeboats because I needed one, and found one, again, and I think I'll keep finding them.
October 24, 2015
I started reading the Young Wizards series in high school because I loved the stories. 12 years later I am amazed at the storytelling, world creation and (for lack of a better word) spirituality of these books. They make me laugh out loud and cry at the same time. And Lifeboats was no exception.
March 30, 2016
Lifeboats is an “interim” novel in the Young Wizards series, taking place in the narrative gap between A Wizard of Mars (#9) and Games Wizards Play (#10). There are two other stories by Duane that also fall in that gap, “Not on My Patch” and “How Lovely Are Thy Branches,” and I thought those were fun enough little drabbles. Lifeboats is a much longer and more significant outing, though. I would recommend it wholeheartedly to all fans of this series, whereas I wouldn’t say that those other interim stories were at all essential.
This novel showcases the growing maturity of its characters, both in their personal relationships and in their understanding of the complexities of life, where sometimes all you can do is search for the best response to a bad situation. It features a compassionate look at refugees, as well as a thoughtful consideration of what it means to grant others the agency to make decisions that you see as bad for them. (Also: an alien with nonbinary pronouns and another one that looks like Chewbacca.) I really enjoyed this book, to the extent where I wish it had been published as the official tenth part of the series.
This novel showcases the growing maturity of its characters, both in their personal relationships and in their understanding of the complexities of life, where sometimes all you can do is search for the best response to a bad situation. It features a compassionate look at refugees, as well as a thoughtful consideration of what it means to grant others the agency to make decisions that you see as bad for them. (Also: an alien with nonbinary pronouns and another one that looks like Chewbacca.) I really enjoyed this book, to the extent where I wish it had been published as the official tenth part of the series.
February 23, 2020
This is maybe my favorite Young Wizards story out of all the books & novellas. The situation is desperate & complicated, as you basically hunker down in an evacuation refugee camp, and yet you as the reader are able tackle it slowly and intentionally with the characters, taking your time to understand what's happening & find a solution not easily & readily seen. There's also time for the characters to understand each other, complex & different & strange as they all are. When does that ever happen? When do we allow ourselves or others that opportunity? I loved it, so much.
October 27, 2015
I enjoyed this addition to the Young Wizard series. The dialogue was a little clunky at the beginning, like she was getting used to the characters again, but it got better. Plus, I had some moments where I laughed out loud, a rarity for me and books.
September 14, 2015
Time spent in this world is always time well spent. Another great story, and just the thing to hold fans over until Games Wizards Play.
October 20, 2015
Betcha never thought a novel could make you sentimental about saltine crackers!
February 8, 2018
This short novel falls between A Wizard of Mars and Games Wizards Play, both of which I just read, so I got it a little out of order. I only recently discovered the existence of these three books, after rereading the rest of them, which I've had for years. But oh my, did I ever enjoy Lifeboats! I got so absorbed that I stayed up all night to finish it. Kit, Nita, Dairine, Ronan, along with thousands of other wizards from Earth and elsewhere, are recruited to do a rafting - moving the population of the doomed planet Tevarel to other uninhabited planets that have been prepared for them. Tevarel's moon, Thesba, is breaking up and will eventually fall on the planet, destroying all life, and possibly Tevarel too.
Dozens of worldgates have been set up to move people to the new locations, and the young wizards are helping to maintain them. Kit and Nita are working at different locations instead of together, and the primary focus is on Kit and his teammates. But some of Teveral's population do not want to leave, despite the fact that they know they will die, and the wizards cannot understand their reasoning. Octopus-like little creatures called sibiks come begging for food and discover Kit's saltine crackers, which they love. One of them turns out to be a pet of a child in the local group of non-leavers; when Kit returns it, he learns a little bit about them, but is still very confused. When the sibik later returns, Kit shares the last of his crackers, teaches it to say Please, tells it a joke story, and takes it back to its home again. Somehow this changes everything, and the planet is evacuated in time. There is a lot of humor involved, both from misunderstandings with Kit's alien teammates about Earth idioms and practices, and from the always-hungry sibiks. I really really enjoyed this book, and will definitely be rereading it - I'd like to give it six stars!
There is a Content Advisory note on the copyright page suggesting parental discretion for younger readers: "Please note that this work contains several brief scenes in which non-explicit age-appropriate discussions of human sexuality appear." They are indeed brief and non-explicit, and tend to occur during discussions of Valentine's Day gifts, of all things. Some of the hilarious misunderstandings with the aliens arise from candy hearts! Kit and Nita are still trying to get the boyfriend/girlfriend thing figured out, although there is a little less teenage angst involved - I guess they are slowly growing into their new relationship. However the overall story and the humor tended to defuse the angst, much to my relief - I was getting tired of it (too old to appreciate it?)
Dozens of worldgates have been set up to move people to the new locations, and the young wizards are helping to maintain them. Kit and Nita are working at different locations instead of together, and the primary focus is on Kit and his teammates. But some of Teveral's population do not want to leave, despite the fact that they know they will die, and the wizards cannot understand their reasoning. Octopus-like little creatures called sibiks come begging for food and discover Kit's saltine crackers, which they love. One of them turns out to be a pet of a child in the local group of non-leavers; when Kit returns it, he learns a little bit about them, but is still very confused. When the sibik later returns, Kit shares the last of his crackers, teaches it to say Please, tells it a joke story, and takes it back to its home again. Somehow this changes everything, and the planet is evacuated in time. There is a lot of humor involved, both from misunderstandings with Kit's alien teammates about Earth idioms and practices, and from the always-hungry sibiks. I really really enjoyed this book, and will definitely be rereading it - I'd like to give it six stars!
There is a Content Advisory note on the copyright page suggesting parental discretion for younger readers: "Please note that this work contains several brief scenes in which non-explicit age-appropriate discussions of human sexuality appear." They are indeed brief and non-explicit, and tend to occur during discussions of Valentine's Day gifts, of all things. Some of the hilarious misunderstandings with the aliens arise from candy hearts! Kit and Nita are still trying to get the boyfriend/girlfriend thing figured out, although there is a little less teenage angst involved - I guess they are slowly growing into their new relationship. However the overall story and the humor tended to defuse the angst, much to my relief - I was getting tired of it (too old to appreciate it?)
June 20, 2017
I was waiting for some kind of trouble to take place besides the big world coming to and end trouble all throughout the book. And It was easy to see how the story would conclude well before it actually happened, so I was hoping for something to happen to make waves in the storyline. Unfortunately, I read after the fact that it was not the authors intention to have obstacles take place, but rather share a "day-in-the-life" of a wizard, specifically from Kit's perspective. There were some funny moments, but overall I was just turning pages waiting for something to engage me into the story, and it never came. The author succeeded with her goal for the exercise of the book, and for all my desires it was good for what it was intended to be. I wish I knew what she intended before I started, helps set the mind at rest while pages are flipped. I was entertained to a point, but payoff when it came to investment into the story vs what actually happened in the story was lacking for me. I'd agree with the author in that those who'd appreciate this book would be the ones who are really invested in the lives of Kit and Nita, and not so much for the casual reader.
February 26, 2021
It's an interesting story. My only issue with the story is its emphasis on the difficulty of calculus. Honestly. How many teens get the wrong idea from stories like this one? I found calculus fairly simple, once I got the idea behind it (in 10th grade, yes). But I digress. Another good yarn from Diane Duane, this one on interventions, and the moral questions associated with them. Not all the moral questions, of course; but some of them, and one really big one.
October 22, 2017
Started off slow for me, because I really dislike prologues that foreshadow doom. It made me dread the story right out of the gate, and that put me in a bad mood. The bad mood in turn made me less than tolerant reading Kit's PoV since I haven't liked that character as much since Wizard of Mars.
However the story really gets going once they are deployed to their assignments on errantry and they start meeting the new characters. It becomes richer as it goes and ends very satisfyingly.
However the story really gets going once they are deployed to their assignments on errantry and they start meeting the new characters. It becomes richer as it goes and ends very satisfyingly.
May 29, 2025
A Kit-centric (Kit-narrated?) story I love! Absolute vindication for my claim of loving this boy but never loving his books. This one is going up there on not only my favorites in the series but also as one that I can go back to over and over again for its core philosophy.
Lifeboats, rated 4.5/5 stars
Lifeboats, rated 4.5/5 stars
February 20, 2018
This was good but definitely not a short story or even a novella with mostly too long chapters. Imight just have YW fatigue though.
February 8, 2024
Update 2/7/2024:
I originally read and rated this when it was published as part of Interim Wizardry, years ago. I remembered it fondly so decided to buy the version that is sold as a standalone novel.
It's really not a novel. It's a novella that could have been a short story, padded out to 110,000 words mainly through repetition and through excessive detail about the logistics of mass evacuation. If you like descriptions of how a moon might pull itself apart and destroy the planet it's orbiting, and if you like to think about how you would evacuate an entire planet's population on short notice, then you might like this story quite a lot. However, if you like to see buildup pay off in the end... eh. Honestly, if I'd approached it as a Young Wizards novel, I would have been pissed!
I'm keeping the four stars up as a courtesy and because pretty much any canon YW news is good news. And it is a sweet story about fixed ideas changing in surprising ways. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that Young Wizards save the day through kindness.
Quibbles:
I originally read and rated this when it was published as part of Interim Wizardry, years ago. I remembered it fondly so decided to buy the version that is sold as a standalone novel.
It's really not a novel. It's a novella that could have been a short story, padded out to 110,000 words mainly through repetition and through excessive detail about the logistics of mass evacuation. If you like descriptions of how a moon might pull itself apart and destroy the planet it's orbiting, and if you like to think about how you would evacuate an entire planet's population on short notice, then you might like this story quite a lot. However, if you like to see buildup pay off in the end... eh. Honestly, if I'd approached it as a Young Wizards novel, I would have been pissed!
I'm keeping the four stars up as a courtesy and because pretty much any canon YW news is good news. And it is a sweet story about fixed ideas changing in surprising ways. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that Young Wizards save the day through kindness.
Quibbles:
July 10, 2017
Lifeboats is a full 90,000 word Young Wizards story. The planet Tevaral is about to be destroyed by its moon, and a large group of wizards have been recruited to help with the evacuation. The only problem is that a large subset of the population doesn’t want to leave.
Lifeboats is told entirely through Kit’s POV. The other characters do appear, of course, but for the most part Lifeboats is focused on Kit. I was all right with this set up, but I still would have liked more time with the other characters as well. That said, Kit was really the only one who had an impact on the plot, so it makes sense that Duane’s following him (plus this story deals with Kit’s feelings about Ponch).
Diane Duane purposefully wrote Lifeboats to be a different type of Young Wizards story. Instead of a small group of characters working alone, in Lifeboats they are at the periphery of a large group project. Thus, Lifeboats isn’t as climatic as many of the other Young Wizards stories. It is more focused on the emotions of the various characters, particularly Kit. It also gives a different view of wizardry.
The previous two stories ("Not On My Patch" and "How Lovely Are Thy Branches") were both in the holiday specials vein. This wasn’t as true with Lifeboats, but the story does take place near Valentine’s Day, which gives Duane a handy reason to explore the changes in Nita and Kit’s relationship. In this vein, Lifeboats was a bit more explicit and “teen” than most of the prior stories have been.
Lifeboats is told entirely through Kit’s POV. The other characters do appear, of course, but for the most part Lifeboats is focused on Kit. I was all right with this set up, but I still would have liked more time with the other characters as well. That said, Kit was really the only one who had an impact on the plot, so it makes sense that Duane’s following him (plus this story deals with Kit’s feelings about Ponch).
Diane Duane purposefully wrote Lifeboats to be a different type of Young Wizards story. Instead of a small group of characters working alone, in Lifeboats they are at the periphery of a large group project. Thus, Lifeboats isn’t as climatic as many of the other Young Wizards stories. It is more focused on the emotions of the various characters, particularly Kit. It also gives a different view of wizardry.
The previous two stories ("Not On My Patch" and "How Lovely Are Thy Branches") were both in the holiday specials vein. This wasn’t as true with Lifeboats, but the story does take place near Valentine’s Day, which gives Duane a handy reason to explore the changes in Nita and Kit’s relationship. In this vein, Lifeboats was a bit more explicit and “teen” than most of the prior stories have been.
December 15, 2015
This was a fantastic entry to the Young Wizards series, and unlike the other two short stories released between the ninth and tenth main books, this one doesn't just ride on the fandom's eagerness for any YW related drabbles: this is basically a short novel, and really digs into the characters because it shows the crew as part of a much- much- MUCH larger wizardly intervention with ridiculously enormous stakes... Yet also allowing the heroes time to hotly debate Star Wars canon, and the proper way to make s'mores.
Bonus: issues such as 'where is it polite to go to the bathroom when on errantry' and (caution, mildly adult spoilers) are answered, presumably because e-publishing means you can be more, ah, earthy. Yet the fundamental decentness of Kit, Nita, et al. is completely preserved.
Bonus: issues such as 'where is it polite to go to the bathroom when on errantry' and (caution, mildly adult spoilers) are answered, presumably because e-publishing means you can be more, ah, earthy. Yet the fundamental decentness of Kit, Nita, et al. is completely preserved.
September 11, 2015
Oh, this was so amazing! (Unsurprising, as this entire series is just great.) Also, this is 280 pages of _extra_ material, just to fill in some of what's happening between main books, which is a great boon while waiting.
September 16, 2015
*flails* This is a book for hard core Young Wizards fans. Buy it and read it, Cousins!
September 12, 2015
A super awesome shorter story to tide you over until Games Wizards Play is released! Super entertaining and thought provoking.
December 24, 2020
I loved this novella, Kit and Nita help to save a world, mostly, and then go on to survive thier first Valentine's Day as a couple.
January 18, 2016
omg the last line THE LAST LINE
December 10, 2015
I was so happy to get to hang out with Nita and Kit some more! I only wished I had waited for the collection that includes an additional novella.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews