Magic Steps

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 show more 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. show less

Just DELIGHTFUL, and a beautiful next step for this series to take. It was so fun to be back in the world, and to see the growth that Sandry has. I'll admit that I kind of wish there was more with Pasco, because his arc seemed to go by pretty fast, and he was a fun character to follow, but there's already so much going on in this book that I understand why it was limited. Still so good, and just a joy to read. Makes me want to go onto the next one as soon as possible!

Skipping ahead again in the series: the novels read in sequence are likely a better approach, depending on how accessible each of the individual stories are, to avoid inevitable spoilers. However, the books are so engaging that a few giveaway aspects are worth it.

The tale was a fun read about Pasco, a young lad who dances magic yet his family of 'Harriers' scorn the tippy-toes and believe he is shirking. Sandry plays a big part in managing Pasco while intrigue and danger swirl around mysterious murders.

Four years after the magical plague swept their city in [b:Briar's Story|11105647|Briar Rose; The Story of the Sleeping Beauty|Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|16027836], the magical students of Winding Circle have separated to pursue further training. Sandry, whose gift lies in weaving magic as though it were thread, discovers a boy with a strange ability. Unlike ordinary mages, he has to dance to do magic. Everyone else in his family is a harrier (the city's version of police), but Sandry convinces them to let him train with her.

Meanwhile, a feud between merchant clans leads to murder, as assassins descend upon the city. The assassins are using a terrifying form of un-magic, and even Sandry's show more weaving magic is hard-pressed to deal with it.

Sandry isn't 10 years old any longer, and her inner voice is more mature. The portions of this book that deal with her and her magic are wonderful reads. The parts concerning Pasco are less so. Pasco is trained in investigation and law-enforcement, but when the mysterious murders begin, he has nothing to do with the plot. He mostly trains off-page, and does nothing at the climax of the action. I think this would have been a much better book if it was told from his perspective. His training with the dancers and struggle between family expectations and personal dreams would have come across a lot more strongly. Plus, seeing familiar characters through the eyes of a stranger always adds a zing to the narrative. show less

This quartet follows the four young mages from the Circle of Magic quartet as they go their separate ways and take on first students on their own. Briar, Daja, and Tris all go to distant lands and Tamora Pierce has some pretty interesting world building going on in these novels, which was really fun to read.

In the Circle of Magic quartet, Daja's Book and Briar's Book were by far and away my favorites, and I was pleased that this time I loved Daja's, Briar's, AND Tris's stories. My favorite new place was definitely Namorn (Daja's book, Cold Fire), and my favorite plot line was Tris's in Shatterglass.

Where the Circle of Magic quarter seemed to focus more on natural disasters and issues in a scale of mass destruction (forest fires, show more plagues, earth quakes, pirate attacks...), in this quartet Tammy turns her hand to what I can only relate to cozy mysteries. Each book has a sort of double-plot of each kid teaching their new student (or students), while also solving, helping to solve, or being somehow affected by strings of murders. Don't know if Tammy got her serial killer research on and felt inspired or what, but they definitely made for some interesting reading. Another really interesting part of these books was the explanation of the new crafts, especially the well-researched and beautifully detailed descriptions of glass-blowing in Shatterglass.

I was happy to see Tammy's writing has continued to improve over the years, and these books were much less painful than last month's of the Tortall books, but then again I was also reading these books for the first time, so getting caught up in the new stories could have been a part of that.

Reading these books has made me look forward again to seeing what Tamora Pierce will come up with next! =) show less

One of my favorite parts of this book is watching Sandry gain experience as a teacher and learning more about what she wants in her community and where her future likely will be. The writing is fun and enjoyable. The characters are interesting. I love the way Pierce's magic systems work. The characters can also be quite cute and fun together (and pleasant developments occur with at least one familiar face).

I love the entire "Circle of Magic" series and suggest it to anyone who likes high fantasy, young adult fantasy and particularly Tamora Pierce. I started with her Tortallans series and love them but in many ways I find "Circle of Magic" equal if not superior to those books.

I love Tamara Pierce and her young heroins. I love the tortall universe and have just recently discovered the circle universe. I’m so excited to continue reading these books. Tamara Pierce has maintained a steady writing style that I appreciate. I am not the biggest fan of a lot of the ya books of late adding in unnecessary love side stories and forcing today’s norms into their characters that take away from the story instead of making it more diverse. Here we have the usual preteen and teen social and physical growth that come to all without it becoming the forefront of the story or becoming too mature for this age range. The full cast audio is beautifully done and having Tamora as narrator ensures you ate listening to how she show more would want it read. show less