The second Tamora Pierce book I nabbed on my road trip. I have a lot of the same feelings for this as I did for Melting Stones, as if Tamora's books have become more simplistic and lacklustre since the old days of Wild Magic and Alanna.

I actually disagree with some of the other reviewers - I thought Emperor Weishu was a decent villain, both superficially charming and horrifically cruel.

The book is darker than most of the other Emelan books, especially with what happens to Evvy. However even then we encounter what seems to be a rookie mistake which drains much of the tension from the situation. Instead of being ordered "apparent death > friends mourn > survival revealed to the reader", the course of events goes "apparent death > survival revealed > friends mourn". We know Evvy is coming back!

On the other hand I do really appreciate the portrayal of Briar and Rosethorn's grief. Most authors go too far to the extremes when describing grief, either the characters seem to forget their deceased friend immediately, or they are rendered completely useless by angst and melodrama. Here, we find a nice balance, the characters are deeply affected, but they don't bring the narrative grinding to a halt.

Another departure from usual Emelan fare is the introduction of supernatural creatures and deities that would be more expected in the Tortall universe. Some of them are pretty cool, and I love their personalities, but this is a big change, since as far as I can remember the existence of the gods in the Emelan universe has been an open question. Now we know the are real, (but the characters maybe...don't?).

As the book drew to the close I found myself wondering exactly how it was going to be wrapped up, because it seemed as if there was a whole extra book of action left to come. However we end up with a literal deus ex machina, which is a little unsatisfying. Perhaps it should have ended on a more uncertain note.

Still, a decent read. I've only got the Beka Cooper series left to go, I hope that's more like the Tamora Pierce I remember. ( )

I love this series! Evvy and Rosethorn do a lot of neat things in this book. And Briar well... his relationship with Rosethorn is tested, and I just love their relationship so much. It's another case of three strangers bringing in an army all on their own and it's done so well. It's fun to see how badass the heroes can be when they're pulling out all the stops and how their relationships have developed since previous books.

If you love "Circle of Magic" or any of Tamora Pierce's other works, pick this up. The plot and characters are very fun and the writing is wonderful. ( )

This may be the Circle Reforged book three, but I purposely read it first. I had read the first chapter in The Will of the Empress, but it felt far too much like I skipped a book--this book. I had checked out both from the library at the same time, so I switched the order I would read them.

The first book hints at something traumatic that happened to Briar, Evvy, and Rosethorn while they were out east. They got caught up in a war and have nightmares most nights. What happened?

Early in Battle Magic, before the main characters enter a war, Pierce states that Briar and Rosethorn already had nightmares. It's hinted that they are weary from fending off bandits in their travels. I have not found any other plausible theories. I can only surmise that between bandits and the war, Briar, Evvy, and Rosethorn simply have a psychological weakness for events that people tend to react to on a spectrum from easily traumatized to incredibly resilient. Maybe instead of making them resilient, each of these three's rough childhood's made them more sensitive.

As for the book itself, I found it an above average, outdoor adventure--my favorite kind of fiction. The group travel the map included on some of the first pages: Gyongxe (Bhutan-Nepal-Tibet Fantasy land?) to Yanging (China-Fantasy land) to Gyongxe to Unlabeled land, which at the very end I learned was Kombanpur (India-Fantasy land?). In all irony, it's a giant circle.

Gyongxe is a land where the gods are active. The human ruler is known as the God-King, and is an eleven-year-old with centuries of wisdom. I suspect he's analogous to a Dalai Lama. Yanjing's emperor is set on acquiring lands and treasures. He doesn't take the god things seriously but as an implication of great treasure.

They drive the circle the protagonists travel. Briar, Evvy, and Rosethorn spend the winter with the God-King and a stone mage dedicate who teaches Evvy. In the spring they're invited to see the emperor's renowned gardens. They see hints of the emperor's harsh colors and leave as soon as it's respectful to do so. Of course, something less than respectful happens with the youngsters, driving an interesting sequence told in such a way I couldn't stop reading. The circle continues.

I love how familial Rosethorn and her kids are. Everyone is so nurturing and refusing to let anything else happen, even though things do keep happening. Sometimes due to the individuals' sense of right and due to forced circumstances--my favorite way to drive a story. Battle Magic in fact has more emphasis on emotions than action. Heck, there are several points in the story where I wondered, "Wait, you aren't going to show that? Why make that a part of the story at all? You could've used another excuse to get this and that to happen that wouldn't be so besides the point and disjointed." That would be Rosethorn's reason to travel the circle.

Briar is the least main of the main characters. His narrative doesn't lead anything or entwine with unusual magic. He's mostly a valuable supporting character and I still enjoy his personality, as I have in previous books with him.

Evvy has the most interesting narrative. She's the one who most ought to have nightmares. I also appreciate the symbolism in her story, where she gets what might be a permanent stone magic teacher and the phrase "moving mountains" applies. I also identify with her personality the most and several scenes with her made me cry.

As a biology and geography nerd, I find the landscape in the story confusing. Kombanpur functions like India and shoves up the tallest mountains in the world. But those mountains are thin and run along an immense bay. The buckling of the land creating the mountains would make the range thick--like the Himalayas--and the land would lift the bay until it would no longer be a bay. Other mountain ranges run perpendicular--how were they formed? It looks like they're all sandwiching the plains of Gyongxe between them. Also, why is it when the team travels down from a mountain pass they transition from broad-leaved trees to evergreens? They also descend into a region that sits shy of the snowline--Pierce continues to mention snow when Evvy makes trips to creeks. If that's the case, how could the team go from a high pass down to broad-leaved plants that then transition to conifers?

It's a running gag at this point for me, but Pierce can be slippery with timelines. I still laugh and get mildly frustrated that Keladry in Squire magically skips a year of life. I think Pierce forgot that Kel graduated from a page while still 13 (as opposed to the normal 14 in Alanna's time in The Song of the Lioness). It's been many years, but I believe Kel managed to never be 16. Well, Briar and Evvy have a few weird age things going on. I do want to go back to the library and double check this, but Evvy was 9 in Street Magic and Briar was 14. Battle Magic takes place two years later. Yet Evvy is 12. There was even a tidbit of information that made me think they were 12 and 17 but subsequent information--the repeated mentions of two years--made me forgive the previous confusion and set the characters at 11 and 16. Then Pierce repeated says Evvy is 12. Fine. Whatever. Still better timeline keeping than the guy who created the Naruto series.

Ultimately, my favorite aspects of the book are the physical travel and the emotional ties between Briar, Evvy and Rosethorn, and I believe that was Pierce's intent. The flow of the story had awkward points and some bizarre, dropped points that quickly became irrelevant even though they seemed to have major plot potential. The symbolism with the circle of travel and the placement of the rulers at the top--beginning and end--of the circle moved me. The other symbolism with the mountains was clever. The book is a worthy installment and I read it swiftly. ( )

I may have said, sometime around the release of Will of the Empress, that I wanted a book about Briar in the time between that book and Street Magic, since he changes more drastically than does any other character, but honestly, I take it back. After the opening stages, the book becomes relentlessly, grindingly unpleasant--which war is, of course, but gritty realism isn't Pierce's forte and isn't what I read her books for, and I really could have done without the child torture and animal death. Though at the same time, it has the curious feeling of pulling its punches--hundreds, maybe thousands, of people die over the course of the book, sometimes rather graphically, but no named characters are among them. This issue is also evident in the way that Pierce sets up a situation in which the main characters' allies are doomed to death or enslavement unless the protagonists make a significant sacrifice in order to help them--and even if they do, they may very well fail--and then resolves it with a near-literal deus ex machina which makes all the characters' efforts and losses throughout the book seem pointless and unnecessary.

In addition, the countries to which we're introduced in this book have a much stronger one-to-one correlation--culturally, religiously, geographically, and so on--to real-world countries/cultures (primarily China, Tibet, and India) than did those in previous books set in this universe, which feels like a failure of creativity and is somewhat incongruous with the few details revealed about these cultures in previous books. ( )

A solid addition to the circle of magic series: filling in some of the back story of Briar, Evvy and Rosethorn's adventures in Gyongxi. I love how Pierce's characters are so very dedicated to compassion and to using their formidable powers for good. Fascinating magic, good settings, and characters to truly engage with. ( )