loverofwolves 's review for:

The Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce

2.5

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Third in Tamora Pierce’s The Immortals series about Daine, a teenage girl with magic that allows her to communicate with animals. This one is the worst of the four. The story itself is actually not bad – Daine travels to the land of Carthak to help treat the emperor’s sick birds, and becomes embroiled in political schemes. What really put me off it was the way the author let her own prejudice taint the book. Usually, all animals automatically love Daine and vice versa, but here, rats inexplicably hate her and she them. They’re portrayed as evil and unpleasant for absolutely no reason. I found this very disappointing from an author who usually takes pains to point out that common negative views of animals are incorrect and based on myths – other animals traditionally seen as “bad,” such as wolves, hyenas and bats, are all shown positively/realistically in her books. The author might dislike rats, but Daine wouldn’t – she loves and understands all animals. To have her dislike them just because they’re rats is out of character and poor writing, and spoiled the book for me.