#circle universe

[checkoutmybookshelf]

No lie is detected. Just pick up a Tamora Pierce book.

[cantheywinthehungergames]

Briar Moss, from The Circle of Magic/The Circle Opens/The Circle Reforged books by Tamora Pierce. Restrictions: no magic, no telepathy with his foster sisters. But I'm sure he'd find a knife in the arena.

Name: Briar Moss

Age: 18 (I think if I did the math right)

Restrictions: No magical abilities, no telepathy, and can only use weapons supplied in the Hunger Games arena

Can Briar Moss win the Hunger Games?

Yes

No

Voting ended onMay 25, 2024

[things-that-make-me-slytherin]

NEW BOOKS!!!!

So I have legit less than 12 mins till my exam but I was scrolling on the tok to alleviate some minor anxiety and found out that Tamora Pierce, the legendary amazingly talented fantasy writer (who is far superior to JK in writing and being a decent human being), HAS NEW BOOKS COMING OUT IN THE TORTALL UNIVERSE!!!

Yooo I am so gonna be rereading all her books and then the new books and idk maybe all over again.

If you haven’t read any of her work it’s truly amazing and super-inclusive fantasy world with magic and swords and all kinds of awesomeness. It’s queer and lovely and amazing. It’s YA but honestly so well written it’s one that appeals to all ages I think. It shows people going through things like first crushes, finding/being feminist and realising maybe they’re a bit queer 

Honestly this is probably one of the most underrated YA fantasy writers out there. I read her books as a kid and they really got me started into fantasy novels that are deeper, more diverse and occaisionally darker than HP. You should read her stuff

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Welcome to Emelan

My (super subjective and objectively non-empirical) experience has been that Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe is where most of her fans begin, and it seems to be her more popular universe. Heck, I started in Tortall. But as I read more, and found more of Pierce's books, I found the Circle Universe, and I gotta say, for all my love and nostalgia for the Tortall Universe, I think my heart lives in Emelan with Sandry, Briar, Daja, and Tris. I certainly tried to balance my Rosethorn half with my Lark tendencies and my extremely Niko academic oeuvre when I was teaching, and I love that the Circle Universe gets away from more traditional medieval europe settings. Let's talk The Circle of Magic Quartet.

Sandry's Book introduces the world, the magic system, and our four protagonists. Sandreline Fa Toren is almost royalty in two countries and has exactly zero compunction about hopping back and forth between "just Sandy" and "Lady Sandreline" as the occasion calls for it. We love her, and honestly she's perfect. Joining Sandry at Discipline Cottage in Winding Circle Temple are former street rat Briar Moss, neglected and rejected merchant daughter Trisana Chandler, and orphaned and exiled Trader Daja Kisubo.

This book brings the four together and they learn that they are ambient mages--mages who manipulate the power inherent in the world rather than mages who use power inherent in themselves (academic mages). The magic system in the Circle Universe is objectively my favorite, because it is so detailed and so nuanced and so tied to craftsmanship. It's something I've never seen done better than it is here. And because our four protagonists are incredible, they also manage to spin their powers together, making them exponentially stronger together than they could have imagined being individually--which is just a stunnign thematic tie-in. A+ no notes.

Tris's Book explores Tris's past, her magic, and the choices she has to make to keep her terrifyingly powerful weather magic under control despite her deep emotional wounds and temper. Tris is honestly one of my two favorite characters in this series because this girl just has SO MANY feelings and she has to literally learn to take herself in hand to not accidentally hurt or kill anyone. It also explores Tris's relationships to her blood and found families, and Pierce makes no bones about how sometimes family can be irredeemably toxic, and that it's ok to choose the found family that loves and supports you. Honestly Tris needs a hug, but good luck getting through the lightning to give it to her.

This book also really deepens the relationships between each protagonist and their teachers. I love how much time Pierce spends in all of her books focusing on student-teacher relationships, and the ones here, in a literal educational setting (non-traditional though it is), are top tier. This continues to be expanded in later books, but Niko and Tris's relationship really cements here and I love them as a student and teacher.

Also, there are pirates in this book. That's pretty cool.

Daja's Book takes reader and protagonists beyond the walls of Winding Circle and expands the world at the end of a difficult, dry summer that was poised for a firey fall and a possible starving winter. The Duke of Emelan is touring the outer estates to assess who needs what help and what he can do.

Meanwhile, the book explores Trader culture and Daja's relationship to it. This is done so spectacularly that I am loath to give any spoilers, but suffice it to say that not only does this book explore the downsides of exclusionary cultural practices, it also explores the complex emotions of being excluded and both knowing it's wrong but desperately missing being included. Disability is also handled spectacularly in this book, and I love it for that.

While Daja is exploring her own culture from the outside, Sandry, Briar, and Tris are dealing with the aftermath of spinning their powers together in Sandry's Book. This is very much a subplot, but it works beautifully to expand the worldbuilding and magic system.

Briar's Book sees everyone return to Emelan proper, and this book hits DIFFERENT after 2020. Winding Circle must deal with a mysterious plague, and honestly after Covid, I can't actually read this book without sobbing. It's damn good, and Briar and Rosethorn are just the absolute peak student-teacher relationship. This book also really highlights Briar and Tris's relationship, which will continue to grow and develop throuhgout the Circle Universe books.

I absolutely recommend these books. Tamora Pierce is technically YA, but the protagonists are between 10 and 12 in these books, so they might feel more middle-grade than YA at times, but that truly does not diminish any of the very human themes and challenges.

These books also have absolutely stunningly performed and edited full-cast audiobooks, and I cannot recommend those enough either. I now read these books in the voice actors' voices, and that just makes the whole experience more magical.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Circle is Reforged

Tamora Pierce's Circle Reforged books are an interesting case, because this is really where she started bouncing around in time in Emelan, and filling in some parts of story that were mentioned, suggested, or explicity referenced but not told. The books themselves were published well and truly out of chronological order, but having read them in publication order as they came out and then in chronological order on reread, I honestly don't think there's a "preferable" strategy. If you've read the Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets, you can explore the Circle Reforged in whatever order. However, I think I'm going to cover them in (more or less, no promises) publication order here. So let's talk The Will of the Empress.

*absolutely rampant, unapologietic spoilers for the Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets below the break*

This book explore the implications and consequences of Lady Sandreline being both Fa Toren in Emelan and Fa Landreg in Namorn. Our girl is practically royalty in two countries, but after she is orphaned in Hatar's smallpox epidemic, Duke Vedris in Emelan and Lord Ambros Fer Landreg in Namorn largely shield Sandry from her responsibilities as the primary landowner of the Landreg estates--which is entirely reasonable given that she is ten years old at the time.

When we get to the beginning of Will of the Empress, though, Sandry has been functionally running Emelan in the wake of Duke Vedris's heart attack and Ambros has been pointedly sending her account books for her Namornese estates. Sandry has been neglecting the hell out of those, and misses the fact that the Empress of Namorn has been financially squeezing Landreg to try to force Sandry back to Namorn.

Sandry has also been largely completed separated from Briar, Tris, and Daja for almost two full years by the opening of this book, since they went off to travel with their teachers and she stayed. She's had contact with Lark, but even that dropped significantly once Sandry moved into the Duke's Citadel.

Given all of that and two years of personal growth and change, when our four protagonists reunite in the house Daja buys for them, they collectively seize up in self-consciousness and shame and uncertainty. Plus seriously powerful ambient magic. Which literally everyone with eyes (except our protagonists) can see is a bad thing. So to kill two birds with one stone, Duke Vedris asks Briar, Tris, and Daja to go with Sandry to Namorn as basically bodyguards. The background hope is that the four of them get to know each other again and find their equilibrium.

With a lot of yelling and a distinct lack of talking, they set off to Namorn.

Which is when we really get off to the races, because the lack of talking means that Briar hasn't told the girls he's dealing with PTSD from the war in Gyongxe; Daja hasn't said she is dealing with abandoment issues, figuring out her own sexuality, and having helped kill a friend who had killed a lot of people by setting fires; Tris hasn't told anyone that she developed a skill that kills or drives mad 99.99% of all mages who try it and the whole Ghost-is-Jack-the-Ripper thing in Tharios; and Sandry...well, I love our girl, but she's dealing with a combination of inheritance and political machinations, her crippling terror of another family member dying on her watch, and the fact that she actively chose to rip three people to shreds to save Pasco's life. So everybody has big feelings and nobody is dealing with them or communicating effectively. Which, again, is a GREAT combination with the phenomenal cosmic powers.

This is a Sandry-centric book, but as we did with Sandry's Book, we also get a metric ton of the other three as well, because as they did in Sandry's Book, they're coming together as a unit. Trying very, very hard to prevent that are Berenene dor Ocmor, Empress of Namorn and her court mages, Ishabal Ladyhammer and Quenaill Sheildsman. They are trying to either recruit or get rid of four legendarily powerful mages. The recruiting goes...poorly. For a variety of reasons. The getting rid of goes WORSE.

Part of the recruiting scheme for Sandry specifically includes a himbo husband that Berenene can boss around to her heart's content. The approved suitors are Jakuben fer Pennun, who had himbo down pat, and Finlach fer Hurich, who was less himbo and more goldigging asshole with an influential uncle. Finlach ends up leaping SO FAR over the line that Berenene has to slap him down so hard that his entire life is ruined.

Then we come to Pershan fer frickin' Roth. Even if you take the Namornese tradition of kidnapping brides into account, Shan takes the whole thing to another level because his ass makes Sandry feel SAFE and WANTED and VALUED AS A PERSON before turning around and kidnapping her in a trap tailor-made for subduing even a very powerful stitch witch. Literally this man is the worst and he deserved so much worse than he got.

Overall, this book is about reconnection and remembering that some bonds are deeper than two-year world tours. It's also about seeing your siblings as their whole selves and accepting them, warts and all, because they are the people you love and who love you back. This is one of my favorite Circle Universe books, and I think it is objectively the best Sandry book and the best "all four of us are here" book in the Circle universe.

This book also objectively heavier than the Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets. It's still technically YA, but it's the 16-19 end of YA more than the 13-15 end, given that it deals with not only PTSD and trauma, but also sexual assault and kidnapping, so take care if you aren't in a headspace for those topics. The book will still be there, and taking care of yourself in your book choices comes first, always.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Oh Sandry...when you get your noble on, it's never not fun for the people standing with and behind you.

And I love that Briar Moss of all people uses Sandry as an example of a bear. And that he makes space for ALL of Sandry, fears, courage, and all. That's possibly my favorite thing about our four Circle Universe ambient mages. They see all of each other and they love and value all of each other.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Briar, Tris, Evvy, and Rosethorn unquestionably have the best understanding of the consequences of being mages in impossible situations. Tris, who had a body count in the triple digits at age 10; Briar and Evvy, both street rats whose very humanity was questioned by everyone until their teachers found them; Rosethorn, who raises baby birds and lovingly tends her garden to balance the horrors of healing, magical epidemiology, and an abusive childhood. Magic is wonderous, but every wonder casts a shadow.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Circle Opens Quartet

There is something deep and rich about the Circle Universe that the Circle of Magic quartet illuminated but kind of didn't have space to fully explicate. That's why I am fully and forever grateful that Tamora Pierce followed up Sandry, Briar, Daja, and Tris on their adventures with their teachers after they're granted their mage credentials. Let's talk the Circle Opens quartet.

While the Circle of Magic books focus on the four protagonists as a quartet in each book (even if the plot might center on a single protagonist), the Circle Opens books see our protagonists hundreds of miles apart and truly having to stand on their own feet and grow their own strengths. They also all get their own students in these books, and seeing how their personalities, teachers, and backgrounds affect how they interact with their students makes these books very, very fun. It also makes these books feel more like true YA than advanced middle grade (which is kind of how the Circle of Magic books read, but that's not a criticism; those books are amazing).

Magic Steps finds Sandry in Emelan caring for Duke Vedris after a stroke and basically low-key running the country while her uncle recovers. On a morning ride, she stumbles across Pasco Acalon as he dances a luck spell for a friend's family of fisherfolk. After some...creative convincing...Pasco agrees that yes, he has magic and needs training. This is where Sandry learns about the condition of her new credentials: If she discovers a new mage, and a teacher with a complementary power set cannot be found, the discovering mage is ethically and legally bound to teach the new mage at least the basics.

As though teaching a reluctant 12-year-old with family baggage and a formerly unknown type of magic wasn't enough, Sandry also has to deal with a blood feud that followed a merchant family to Emelan and has turned ugly. An unmagic mage is helping two assassins commit murder, and in the process is contaminating the city with unmagic.

Unmagic is a super cool concept, because it is the absence of everything and it consumes everything it touches, especially magic. It is horrifying in that it simply is; it's not evil in and of itself but it consumes with no care or compassion, and so in practice, it tends to look evil in an implacable, inevitable sort of way. There was a sense of existential horror to the magic itself that is unusual in Tamora Pierce's work, but was highly effective when pitted against Sandry's radical hope and optimism.

Ultimately, Sandry and Pasco work together to get Pasco's magic under control and bring peace back to the streets of Emelan.

Street Magic finds Briar and Rosethorn in the great, ancient city of Chammur, working with the local Living Circle Temple and beginning Briar's side hustle as a shakkan shaper and merchant. Chammur also brings Briar's past slamming into his present, since the city has a strong gang presence--so strong that they are practically their own political and social force.

This becomes more complicated when Briar discovers that Evvy--a street rat who makes a few coins by polishing stones for souk merchants--is, in fact, a stone mage. When Chammur's official stone mage is revealed to be the world's biggest douchecanoe and Evvy--quite rightly--refuses to have anything to do with him, Briar takes her under his tutelage.

Honestly, the best parts of this book are Briar's relationships with Evvy and Rosethorn. Evvy pokes all kinds of holes in Briar's past worldview and how he sees gangs' function in society. She's also delightful on her own merits, whip smart, and a devoted cat mom.

Briar and Rosethorn's relationship is delightlfully complicated and simultaneously dead simple. After her death in Briar's Book, Rosethorn is a bit physically delicate, and Briar has quietly taken on the role of surrogate son and caretaker, even as Rosethorn is his surrogate mother and teacher. The two of them have complimentary rough edges, and as Rosethorn herself says, they've come so far beyond who owes what to who, and simply are each other's. I love these two.

Cold Fire locates Daja and Frostpine in Namorn in the dead of winter, as Frostpine continues on his quest to expose Daja to as many smiths and craftspeople as possible, broadening her already deep education. While visiting an old friend and his family, Daja discovers that their twin children are mages. Now unlike Sandry and Briar, Daja is able to find mage teachers for her young students, but neither teacher has the time or space to do the basics--so that falls to Daja to teach.

In addition to her very energetic students, Daja is wrapped up in the Kugisko community, including local firefighter Bennat Ladradun. Daja expands her already prodigious skillset to include walking through burning buildings to rescue those trapped inside. She unfortunately has to do this rather a lot, because Kugisko has a firebug.

Ultimately, Daja's story in Namorn is about compassion, patience, and learning to see things as they are, not as she might wish them to be.

Shatterglass shows us Tris and Niko at a magical conference in Tharios, right in the middle of the reign of a Jack the Ripper-esque criminal who is attacking and murdering Yaskedasi--female street dancers. In the midst of academia and murder, Tris finds herself two students: Keth Warder, a journeyman glassblower recovering from a lightning strike, and Glaki, the orphaned daughter of a murdered Yaskedasi Keth was friends with.

Poor Tris never plays life on easy mode. While she isn't the only one of the four mages to take two students, she is the only one with students with such diverse needs. Keth is a grown-ass adult who had training and a career before a lightning strike awakened his ambient magic, whereas Glaki is like four years old and an academic mage. And yet, somehow Tris manages. She looks after both her students and helps the police catch their murderer.

Overall, this quartet is a phenomenal follow up to the Circle of Magic quartet, and I love how the world expands beyond Emelan here. I also love that the tables turn and our students become first-time teachers themselves. If you are any sort of Tamora Pierce fan, I cannot recommend the Circle Universe enough.