Melting Stones (original 2008; edition 2008)

Amazon preorder,Amazon received

Devoured it, as usual with Pierce's books.

Present from Jim & Jackie. ( )

Kind of predictable. ( )

Normally I love Tamora Pierce, but I think this story bogged down in repetitive action and there just wasn't enough of the other characters besides Evvy. I did think the ending was strong and was struck by the fact that I am more interested in hearing the story of how Evvy rebuilds with the people of Starnes than I was interested in the story I had just listened to. This was certainly an interesting experimental idea - to record the audio book first and then publish the print format later. I plan to read the print version when it arrives - we'll see if reading as opposed to listening gives me a different opinion.

Listened to Full Cast Audio CD edition. ( )

I originally reviewed this book on my blog - The Cosy Dragon. For more recent reviews by me, please hop over there.

Melting Stones follows the story of Evvie, Briar's foundling from Stone Magic. Evvie has a tendency to be quicker than the average stone mage, but still not too lively. When she goes to the Battle Islands with Rosethorn however, she finds her self a bit like a volcano set to explode.

It's great to see another novel in the Circle Universe. It's officially labelled as 'Circle Reforged', although I'm not quite sure how that fits in. No doubt The Will of the Empress should also be under that title. Both of these books occur during the same time period.

This one is a bit different from the others because it is told from a different student's perspective. We also get some more insight into other dedicates at Winding Circle, not all of which are as 'friendly' as Rosethorn.

I can't say I like this book as much as the others. It's told from a first person perspective, which certainly works, but does feel a little forced compared to the seamless third person narration of the other books. As a stand alone however, it's just fine.

You could read this book without having read any of the other books by Pierce in this universe. There are hardly any spoilers in them, except of course, if you didn't know Briar was going to win Evvie over as a student.

I keep comparing this book to all the others! It's hard when I've just finished reading all of them in a row to be objective about each of them individually.

I'd recommend this book for teenagers and children. Evvie is highly aware that adults have sex, but she's very subtle about it, and there isn't anything I'd be particularly wary of. In this book, there isn't much blood shed at all, mostly human development. ( )