Shatterglass

A deeply thoughtful adventure, with a very human situation despite the magical adventure aspects. Pierce's main strength is her fantastic ability to weave an engrossing story with a really complex plot that doesn't lose the reader.

Tris is a grand character, not at all a stereotype and always acting unexpectedly in managing the difficulties that come her way. I'm not so sure this story would be comfortable for imaginative tweens to read, but it can be very captivating for older teens and certainly the complexity will bring it up to an adult story, provided the reader accepts the fantasy elements.

This 'Circle Opens' series best read in order. I discovered I enjoyed the books more having waded through the initial 'Circle of Magic' series show more first, a somewhat less sophisticated introduction the the 4 young mages. show less

I'm reading the two Circle series out of order, and I say, "Finally!" now that I've had the chance to read a story about Trisana Chandler. In addition, the story includes her foster family's dog, Little Bear, and an amusing and gorgeous new critter, a glass dragon brought to life by magic thanks to Tris's new student, Kethlun Warder.

I love Tris. She's reasonable, tough, but not in the stereotypical way. She knows a little about everything: weather magic, foresight, self defense, befriends magical and mundane creatures, adopts the magical responsibilities of others, uses wind to overhear, and so much more that was hinted and shown in Briar's Book, so far the only other Circle book I've read that has Tris. She wants to help but her magic show more isn't suited for practical, particularly paid, tasks, but she finds her way in this book. My favorite aspect of this book is how well her character and her charges come together.

As with other books in the second series, The Circle Opens, Tris split from the core foster family at the mage home of The Winding Circle and travels with her main teacher. Her, the dog, and her instructor, Niklaren Goldeye, come to a Greek-ish city called Tharios. While Niko attends a long conference for vision mages, Tris explores the city and enjoys watching glass making. On one of her excursions she follows traces of magic being pulled to one particular glass maker who has no idea of his power. Turns out Keth has lightning as well as the ability to integrate magic into his glass. Lightning mages are rare, and Tris happens to be in town and is charged with instructing Keth.

Meanwhile, Tharios has a serial killer. The killer takes disreputable by class caste female dancers and displays their bodies in public. Some of these women Keth knows because he boards at the same cheap lodging. He wants to help, and his lightning glass orbs can show the future...if the lightning clears soon enough. He keeps making new orbs in hopes of one clearing soon enough to catch the killer. Tris oversees his improvement and tests her own ability to use wind to obtain information.

Shatterglass fascinated me despite my general indifference to crime novels. The dynamic between twenty-something-year-old Keth and fourteen-year-old Tris provides comedy. Characters that enter later and interact with both Tris and Keth show the emotional and dutiful depth of the main characters. Niko has intermittent appearances that are intense yet elicit chuckles and subtle enlightenment.

With The Circle Opens series I feel moderately estranged because the mentors, in other words the adults, don't help the conflict in the story. It's like they're indifferent to what happens to their foster children. Even though that's not technically the case, I'm prone to feel that way. The students become solely responsible. This leads to great bad ass climaxes but I miss the parental companionship and dislike the impermanence of the relationship. Tamora Pierce addresses this. There's a moment when Tris thinks Niko will leave her, but both are poor at sharing emotions and he affirms that she can't get rid of him. It's a sweet moment, and one of several.

However, the story comes full circle (pun!) in regard to mentorship, responsibilities, and overcoming struggles that were present even four years earlier in the previous series. That's good writing. show less

Tris is the most talented weather mage in generations, but that's just her problem. She's so powerful that people either doubt that she's telling the truth, or want her for war magic. Tris travels the world with her friend and mentor Niko Goldeneyes, trying to find a way to use her magic to help people. In Tharios, an ancient city obsessed with death and cleanliness, she stumbles across a mage with both glass and lightning magic (a terrible combination). She tries to teach him to control his magic, but all he cares about is finding the serial killer stalking Tharios.

I have read too many mysteries and watched too many police procedural shows not to feel a little impatient with the mystery plot. I understood why the characters were show more having such trouble with the investigation, but it seemed like it moved very slowly, and depended too heavily on magic. However, Tris remains the awesomest. I love, love, love her. She is cranky and ambitious, she can price someone's outfit at a glance but still shies away from getting close to people. She takes on far too much responsibility and has absurdly lofty goals (when we first met her, she tried to stop the tide--now she just controls hurricanes and looses lightning from her braids). She is unafraid of madness or weakness in others, but impatient to get things done. Basically, she is the bestest ever, and I loved getting to read more of her adventures. show less

My usual gripes about criminality in this series aside (and in the acknowledgements she does go into talking a little bit about her sources in terms of criminal justice techniques, especially about The Mind of the Pathological Criminal, so I was right, thank you everyone) this maybe was my favorite one? Though I am uh Wary of Fantasy India's Caste Systems (and the Chekov's lowest caste) but I am not super qualified to comment there.

All that said, I did love the character relationships; it feels like Tris's apprentice was so beautifully constructed to clash with her in the most perfect ways, and to watch her grow and appreciate her being Mean but also so deeply kind and determined to stick to her obligations. Keth was such a great foil, show more it was fun having some more disabled representation in the series, and the magic stuff was super cool to watch unfold. It made me want more with him, and I'm excited to see what happens in the next series! show less

I enjoyed this one. I loved trying to guess who The Ghost was, and I could not pick it until it actually happened, which I liked. Although this followed a similar plot to the previous three, I found this to be more enjoyable and a little different. Although I didn't like Tris all that much in the past series, I liked her in this. She became more likeable, and by the end was an enjoyable character.

Although a little whiny, Keth was a good character, too, but my favourite was definitely Dema.

Keth is...interesting. He starts out so utterly determined to have nothing to do with lightning...and changes his mind very very quickly (with Tris's help (if you could call that help!), of course.). Including that by the end of the book he's showing no signs of the 'damage' any more - he doesn't stutter at all after about the middle. And in this book, it's mostly his work to deal with the problem - Tris and the lawkeeper mage are important, but it's only his magic and his actions that actually give them a foothold on the problem.
The problem itself is - not all that major. It would be reasonably easy to solve (with the spells the lawkeepers have), except for the social aspect. It's an interesting setting - something like ancient show more Athens, but I'm not aware that Athens had that purity business. In some ways that's like India, with the Untouchables caste.
And just by the way, Tris's problems in Will of the Empress are set up...I do like Pierce. She interlinks things so nicely. 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