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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
These books just click perfectly with me. I’m so in love with them.
I grew up on Tamora Pierce, but I had always read books set in the Tortall universe. I've never read the Emelan books. Unfortunately my library doesn't have all of them, let alone in order, so I read this book 100 percent clueless as to what happened in the first series.
I like Sandry. The way the book starts I thought Pasco, the dancer-mage that the book is named for and the cover depicts, would be the main character. By the end of the book I still felt like I didn't know him or had much reason to like him. As my lovely, mature Sandry has said, "He's a bit...young." At least her intellect, both street and theoretical, balances him in the story.
By the reflective moments, clearly a lot of excitement happened in the first series. Somehow my alienation let me identify with Sandry missing her old mage friends, like somehow their presence would assure me in this new world I got sucked into.
I'm still guessing what kind of world Emelan is. Tortall was clearly a high medieval period England and all the neighboring countries distinctly resembled cultures from the real world like Japan and Scandinavia. However, Emelan has this curious Middle East yet not Middle East essence.
The story is more character driven, which I like well enough, but I didn't get as immersed as the Tortall books that more description, more secondary and charming characters, and together compounded to create a concrete world with maps, several distinct societies, an intricate timeline, and general setting description. Maybe reading more of the Emelan books will help in these respects, but is I compare my first Emelan book, Magic Steps, to my first Tortall book, Wild Magic--both tomes are about the same length--I got a significantly better experience out of Wild Magic.
I like Sandry. The way the book starts I thought Pasco, the dancer-mage that the book is named for and the cover depicts, would be the main character. By the end of the book I still felt like I didn't know him or had much reason to like him. As my lovely, mature Sandry has said, "He's a bit...young." At least her intellect, both street and theoretical, balances him in the story.
By the reflective moments, clearly a lot of excitement happened in the first series. Somehow my alienation let me identify with Sandry missing her old mage friends, like somehow their presence would assure me in this new world I got sucked into.
I'm still guessing what kind of world Emelan is. Tortall was clearly a high medieval period England and all the neighboring countries distinctly resembled cultures from the real world like Japan and Scandinavia. However, Emelan has this curious Middle East yet not Middle East essence.
The story is more character driven, which I like well enough, but I didn't get as immersed as the Tortall books that more description, more secondary and charming characters, and together compounded to create a concrete world with maps, several distinct societies, an intricate timeline, and general setting description. Maybe reading more of the Emelan books will help in these respects, but is I compare my first Emelan book, Magic Steps, to my first Tortall book, Wild Magic--both tomes are about the same length--I got a significantly better experience out of Wild Magic.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Tamora Pierce always has such a talent for allowing her characters to age and grow into their own. I love seeing Sandry realize that she had outgrown Discipline cottage, that she was capable of being a teacher (with support from others! She's still only 14), and that she could do just plain hard things. (That said, I am quite skeptical that the Duke would let Sandry mother him as much as he does!)
Pasco was new -- his energetic, distractible personality was a nice contrast to Sandry's -- but I didn't feel that much depth to his character, except that he felt pressured by his harrier upbringing. Why did his family feel the need to impose such expectations on him? Clearly they should've been more worried about his cousin the bully...
Plotwise, I was so intrigued by the unmagic mage and the assassins who are slowly being consumed by the unmagic, but I wish we'd gotten more about these characters and why the retribution they were enacting on the Rokat family was so all encompassing. Why seek to kill all Rokats, including children, for the murder of one Dihanur?
All in all, I wanted more depth. Plus, I, like Sandry, miss Tris, Daja, and Briar (and Niko, Frostpine, and Rosethorn of course)!
Pasco was new -- his energetic, distractible personality was a nice contrast to Sandry's -- but I didn't feel that much depth to his character, except that he felt pressured by his harrier upbringing. Why did his family feel the need to impose such expectations on him? Clearly they should've been more worried about his cousin the bully...
Plotwise, I was so intrigued by the unmagic mage and the assassins who are slowly being consumed by the unmagic, but I wish we'd gotten more about these characters and why the retribution they were enacting on the Rokat family was so all encompassing. Why seek to kill all Rokats, including children, for the murder of one Dihanur?
All in all, I wanted more depth. Plus, I, like Sandry, miss Tris, Daja, and Briar (and Niko, Frostpine, and Rosethorn of course)!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse
Minor: Death of parent
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I was always a big fan of Tamora Pierce as a kid, and wanted to revisit her work. Wowowow did I pick the wrong novel. Of all the things she could have written as a fantasy writer, she decided to go with two white saviors trying to stop murderous brown people from being sneaky and evil? And don't even get me started on the fact that the main kid is basically from a family of cops. I guess it's sweet that he dances. But a dancing cop is still a cop. Like truly the vibe is very much war on drugs, thinly veiled as fantasy. Big yikes.
I'm giving it two stars because the writing itself is still pretty solid/engaging. It's just, wow—Tamora was really unaware when she wrote this.
I'm giving it two stars because the writing itself is still pretty solid/engaging. It's just, wow—Tamora was really unaware when she wrote this.
First in a quartet that furthers the adventures of Sandry, Tris, Briar and Daja from the Circle of Magic books. Now a few years older, Sandry discovers a young boy who can create magic by dancing. Because there are no dance mages around, she must begin his training so that he can control his magic--though she tries to find him a dance teacher to work on the dancing part. This leads the two of them into a mystery surrounding a series of murders of a prominent trader family. Great use of magic to do detective work, and it's always fun to get reacquainted with these characters and the land of Tortall.
Do you have any idea how happy 12-year-old me was when I discovered there was more to this world? I may have leaped up and down in the library.
Still a five star to me. I love Pasco and how he and Sandry interact. The unmagic is interesting in how it's described and I thought it amusing to see how Yazmin and Vedris get along.
I admit I was shocked the first time I read it and first children and then Wulfric died. I'd forgotten about it until I read it again.
I admit I was shocked the first time I read it and first children and then Wulfric died. I'd forgotten about it until I read it again.
adventurous