northship 's review for:

Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce

5.0

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i think this is my favorite of the quartet, mostly for the last sequence where daine completely destroys the royal palace. it's cathartic and satisfying, even if i still find daine/numair disgusting. i really enjoyed kaddar's character, the graveyard hag, and all of the animal secondary characters in this book, particularly zek and the hyenas. one additional thought: given what we know of chioké from the numair books i wish his end had more... substance or gravitas or was more drawn out. i felt like in this book we barely got to know him, but after i read the numair book i HATED him. i wonder if she'd always intended it and had to cut it, or retconned him into more importance than he originally had.