Children looking for slam-bang action-adventure will not find it here. Except for the rather trumped-up adventures at the end of the book, this seventh entry in the Young Wizards series takes a leisurely and humorous trip through author Duane's seemingly inexhaustible imagination.

The trip is surprisingly fascinating -- in fact it is more than a hundred pages before Nita and Kit even arrive on Alaalu or Dairine's guests arrive, but Duane holds her readers' interest with intriguing details of galactic travel, magical procedures, and alien worlds and creatures. Fans of the series will enjoy this well enough, but it's unlikely to be anyone's favorite installment.

From the Book:
The air in front of them trembled. There was another, even more demure explosion of air and sound, more a pop! than anything else. And there stood a tree.

Except he wasn't a tree. "Dai stihó!" Dairine said, and was delighted to see the branches of the tree shiver in unison and look at her with all their berries.

"Dai!" the tree said.