Book 11: The Realm Of The Gods by Tamora Pierce

This will be the end of my Tamora Pierce kick, or it will be for now. The Realm Of The Gods is the satisfying finish to Tamora Pierce's IMMORTALS series, and the conclusion to Daine's story.

Daine and Numair are facing what is certainly their doom when they are pulled into The Divine Realms by none other than Daine's parents, whose are both lesser gods. Though it is a very tearful reunion for Daine and her mother (who, when still mortal, was murdered by bandits) Daine and Numair must return to the Mortal Realms to help Tortall in her fight against Ozorne, who is back--this time as a conniving Stormwing instead of a conniving emperor, and with plenty of mortal and Immortal allies.

Since the war in the Mortal Realms is going on at the same time as a war between The Greater Gods and the Queen of Chaos (Ozorne+ Chaos=cohorts? Yes.), none of the Gods can be bothered to help Numair and Daine get back home, so the two are forced to make the perilous trip across the Divine Realms to request help from the Dragons. They also discover that they love each other--a wonderfully tender note in an otherwise plot-driven novel.

Once transported back to the Mortal Realms (courtesy of the Dragons), Daine takes on Ozorne in a bloody, decisive battle that ends the fighting in both the Mortal and Divine Realms.

The Realm Of The Gods provides a very fitting end to the series, and quite a satisfying one as well. Though quite fast-paced, the story is still imbued with detail and with enough character development that it doesn't rely completely upon plot. Though the trek through the Divine Realms got a tad monotonous at times, Pierce navigates the story well and does a good job of bringing the series to a fulfilling conclusion.

Grade: A-

Rating: 13+ (violence, mild cursing, romance)

Book 10: Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce

This is easily the most intense of Immortals Series novels. In Emperor Mage, the friction between Tortall and Carthak passive-aggressively comes to a head. Tortall sends a delegation of some of its most important, most powerful personalities to Carthak to negotiate a peace with the southern empire and its government. Included in the delegation are the King's Champion, the king's powerful uncle, Numair--once a resident of Carthak and a former friend of the emperor--, and others. And then there's Daine, who was asked by the Emperor Mage himself to come along with the delegation and heal his prized but suddenly sickly pet birds.

In spite of past evidence of his ill intentions towards Tortall, Emperor Ozorne of Carthak proclaims innocence and seems to be the very picture of a benevolent host, which somewhat reassures the very antsy delegation party and confuses Daine, for whom the image of the Emperor's concern for his birds and the devastation visited upon Tortall in his name are at extreme odds. The dynamic between the delegates and the Emperor is complicated by the presence of Numair, who fled Carthak and the Emperor years before the beginning of the series and had been admitted back into the Empire on a tenuous pardon from Ozorne.

Though Ozorne works hard to uphold the image of his "perfect" empire, it becomes increasingly clear that there is something amiss in Carthak. Through the action of the patron goddess of Carthak, the Graveyard Hag, Daine becomes unwillingly involved in both the political and religious struggles of the empire.

All of a sudden, things begin to go wrong. The gods, it is clear, are displeased with Emperor Ozorne, and pressure increases on Daine to act as their chosen vessel.

When everything begins to go wrong and Ozorne commits the most base treachery, Daine uses her powers--both her wild magic and a new power bestowed upon her--to bring Carthak to her knees and destroy the rule of the Emperor Mage.

Clearly, Daine is a total bad-ass.

Emperor Mage is my favorite in the series for a lot of reasons, but especially because of the new landscape we get to explore through Daine's eyes. There is also a great deal of movement in both the emotional and the physical plots, as relationships between the characters deepen and the series begins to realize its final trajectory. It's a pretty rich, evocative read, especially for a book of its sort (let's be honest, now--Tamora Pierce isn't a Tolkien or anything, but she is very good at what she does), and it's quick as well. I flew through this one in four days without sacrificing any work or sleep (though I did spend a lot of time at the gym...I get all of my fun reading done at the gym these days).

For fans of Wild Magic and Wolf-Speaker, this next book in the series will really knock your socks off. It's a fabulously fun read, and it benefits from the fact that it is a later book in the series. It seems to me that Pierce is more comfortable of her characters in this volume than she was in the previous books of the series, and that comfort translates into much more effective writing.

All in all, a job very well done.

Grade: A

Rating: 12+ (advisory: themes of doom, treachery, violence, "canoodling" [though this is only ever made vague mention of])

Book 8: Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce

This is a ridiculously long post (I have a long history with this book, so be prepared for storytime if you decide to read the whole dratted thing). If you're just here for the review, scroll until you see the big purple letters.

Anyway.

I picked this book up for the first time when I was in sixth grade, not knowing that it would be responsible for shaping my reading habits for the next three to four years. I devoured it and its sequels before moving on to the author's other books, and then obsessively re-read them again and again. The spine on my copy of this one is absolutely destroyed, which could be credited to the fact that it's a used book, but I choose to peg it on the fact that, once upon a time, it was the most-oft-read book on my shelf.

I generally expect books to lose their charm after a few years, and most of the time they do. There are a few exceptions I've found--Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted, for example, or the first of J.K Rowling's Harry Potter Series. No matter how many times I read them, these books never get old. They are just as beloved to me now at nineteen as they were when I first read them as a fourth grader. Personally, I think that is a great feat of writing, and something that authors should be heartily congratulated on. It's easy to go from adoring a book one day to thinking that it isn't anything special the next, especially given the extreme power that public opinion has these days (hello, Twilight? I read it when it was a cool, cult-indie book. Now I wouldn't be caught dead carrying that one around in public; my apologies to Stephenie Meyer).

As I steadily read my way through Tamora Pierce's books, and as I got older, a litany of complaints with her writing sprung up in my head and stayed there, so that long after I stopped reading her books and moved on to more of the "serious literature" that my parents implored me to read instead, I still harbored a strange disdain for her and her work.

Of course, all of my criticisms of her work were completely justified. I still maintain that her later work is not nearly as good as her first couple series, and that her characters tend to become anti-stereotypes (ex: the bad-ass queen who bags bandits on horseback in taffeta ball gowns) and the kingdoms she "creates" are eventually very easy to identify as direct copies from real, existing countries. BUT, in my haste to "move on" and cover my tracks as one of the formerly Tamora Pierce-obsessed, I think I might have gone a little too far.

It had been years since I'd even paid a real thought to Tamora Pierce when I desperately grabbed Wild Magic off of my bookshelf as I left home on my way to the airport during a recent holiday from college. Last year, I came to school laden with books that I intended to read over the course of the school year. But at the end of the term, I hadn't properly finished even a single one. So this time when I packed to head back to school all the books I brought were academic, sparing two, and even those two aren't all that compelling as far as novels go. I read enough of the heavy stuff for my classes, so when I'm looking for some bedtime reading, I definitely don't turn to Feynman's Six Easy Pieces or Nehru's biography for a literary lullaby (unless I wanted to either bore myself to sleep or be lulled by words that are too big for a sleepy 2AM brain). When I look for a book to keep myself happy and entertained, especially nowadays, I find that I'm more likely to turn to the old faithfuls.

I started reading Wild Magic on the plane flight back to school, and was pretty surprised to find that it was more or less as good now as it was when I first read it. I suppose it was unexpected because of all the mental bashing I'd done of Tamora Pierce's work, but the characters still sprang out of the page and the plot still gripped like it used to. Granted, I'm now painfully aware of all the weird, unnecessary, annoying things that Pierce does with her writing, but I'm also willing to overlook all of that for the sheer enjoyment I got out of readingWild Magic. As my friend Eldridge so aptly described it, reading an easy, fun novel like that is like a brain massage--and goodness knows I need as many of those as I can get this year! I finished the book feeling rejuvenated and, for the first time in a while, excited about reading. It's been too long since I've wanted to find an excuse to pick up a book (I went so far as to go to the gym and work out for a good hour just so I could read while doing so).

Anyway, on to the review. God, this has been a long-winded post.

Alright. So, Wild Magic and its three sequels follow the adventures of Veralidaine "Daine" Sarrasri (Ridonkulous name? Yes, I think so) as she attempts to find her way in the kingdom of Tortall after her escape from her village in the country of Galla. She is young--about thirteen--, pretty, and a skilled archer. Her best friend is a ornery pony named Cloud. We quickly learn that she is an orphan (her family was killed by bandits) and that she has what she calls a "knack with animals". She meets Onua, the woman responsible for choosing horses and ponies for the Tortallan Royal Stables, and gets hired on to be her assistant. Together, the two lead the new herd of ponies south towards Tortall, getting into their share of trouble along the way.

With the help and tutelage of Tortallan mage Numair Salmalin, Daine discovers that she possesses wild magic, a rare type of magic that gives her a connection to animals (among other things). She learns to tap into it, and tackles her difficult past along the way. As her magic becomes stronger, Daine realizes that she can sense the presence of and communicate with Immortals--mythical and often dangerous creatures that were banished to the Divine Realms hundreds of years ago by mortal mages. This skill proves very useful when it comes to light that meddling sorcerers have begun releasing the immortals into the Mortal Realms. The story comes to a head when she and her new friends are attacked by raiders intent on the destruction of the Tortallan royal family. With the help of her magic, Daine helps save the day and discovers herself at home in a new country.

Wild Magic was and still is a fantastically satisfying read. I recommend it to anyone above the age of 10, and especially to those fantasy-inclined (but reluctant) readers. Tamora Pierce's work is both fun and easy to read.

Grade: A

Rating: 10+ (advisory: violence)