Title: The Healing in the Vine
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: The Circle of Magic #4, Emelan #4
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fantasy, Mages
Format: Novel
Publisher: Omnibus Books
Year: 1999
5th sentence, 74th page: When Rosethorn came back, he dragged her to Flick’s bed.

Former ‘street rat’ Briar leads a comfortable life at Winding Circle Temple, learning plant magic from Rosethorn. When a friend becomes ill, she turns to Briar for help but her disease proves beyond even Rosethorn’s power. Briar realises that all of Summersea is in danger. Then the unthinkable happens and Briar must save that which he loves most.

There is something especially terrifying about the plague. Actually, there’s something that is horrible about being sick in general – the feeling that your own body has turned against you. The final book in the Circle of Magic Quartet is a great reminder of how potently terrifying an incurable disease can be. Especially when it can pass undetected from person to person. After all, if anyone can be sick, how do you trust those around you, even your own family?

Although the curing of diseases has progressed far in the past century, it is still a battle to find a way to stop the onslaught of contagious diseases. The horrors of quarantine and the tedium of it are beautifully displayed through Briar’s trials. It is also the first moment of separation from their foster family that Briar has felt. The feeling of loss and homesickness reverberate through the whole story, and make it slightly darker than the other tales in this coming-of-age year that the four mages must go through.

Yet, it is the idea of death in Western culture that seems to scare us most – death is something to be conquered and overcome. And for Briar and the girls, the final death is battled with everything they have. To the point that they accomplish the impossible. Yet, the thing that I like about this tale is that although death is seen as the enemy, it is also seen as a time of rest. It is the end, but it is also the beginning of a new challenge, and although the four still fight against it, there are some within the tale who understand the need to accept its presence, and embrace it when the time is right.

Image source: Amazon

Title: The Fire in the Forging
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: The Circle of Magic #3, Emelan #3
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fantasy, Mages
Format: Novel
Publisher: Omnibus Books
Year: 1998
5th sentence, 74th page: For an area that big – rain to cover this whole valley?

Outcast Trader Daja, along with her fellow mages-in-training, journeys to the Gold Ridge Mountains, where drought threatens widespread famine. There, Daja creates an astonishing object: a living metal vine, and Daja’s dealings with her former people reawaken a longing for familiar ways. Daja must choose – should she return to the Traders or remain with the Winding Circle folk who have become her family?

Of all of the Circle of Magic books, it is The Fire in the Forging that I have always loved the most. There is something about Daja’s trials and choice throughout this story that have always hit a chord with me. We’re all faced with difficult choices about our futures at one point or another in our lives, and Daja’s is something that made it impossible to predict how the story was going to progress.

As someone who lives in Australia, I have a constant awareness (sometimes fear) of the dangers of bushfires. Especially after the last few years. Daja’s ability to face down such a ferocious aspect of mother nature, and the respect for fire that this story will give even the most ignorant of people is astonishing. As the trial to be overcome within this novel – fire is definitely one of the most fearsome and terrifying which must be faced down. At least, for me – I’ve never actually experienced severe flooding, cyclones and storms.

I love how throughout the Circle of Magic books, Pierce uses a number of different cultures to inform her characters. The use of the Traders and Daja’s people, and their prejudices and beliefs are an interesting way to approach a group of people. Yet, it is her ability to question the beliefs and traditions that she was raised to that I find truly interesting and inspiring – she is able to question what is completely unfair and unjust (her status as trangshi) and realise that just because it has always been doesn’t mean that it should be.

Image source: Comparative Cover Art

Title: The Power in the Storm
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: The Circle of Magic #2, Emelan #2
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fantasy, Mages
Format: Novel
Publisher: Omnibus Books
Year: 1998
5th sentence, 74th page: She blinked at her teacher.

Earthquake damage leaves Winding Circle vulnerable to pirate attack. Soon two things become terribly clear: the pirates have a powerful new weapon, and they have an accomplice within Winding Circle. It is up to Tris and her loyal friends Sandry, Daja and Briar, to discover the traitor and weave their magic together to defend their home.

Tris’ story is difficult to envisage from the very beginning, but in The Power in the Storm, her feelings of insecurity, loss and confusion about everything that is going on around her truly come to the fore. But honestly, mostly I love this story because Tris is a character I can completely relate to – the feeling of isolation and not quite belonging is something that everyone feels. Especially when they are a teenager trying to figure out just who they are.

The Circle of Magic series is a great reminder that our family is (and can be) who we choose, not who we are born into. Although Sandry, Briar and Daja are orphans, Tris has been turned away by those who are supposed to love her unconditionally. Yet, she is able to find her true family within Winding Circle and Discipline. And, when crisis hits her home, she is able to find a way to not only harness her own emotions, but save that which she has finally found. Ultimately, it almost costs her everything, but it is this risk and the courage with which she faces that which terrifies her that shows how she has grown.

Although Tris’ story and power is amazing (especially when in combination with her foster-siblings), her control over her emotions and powers need a lot of work. The idea of discipline is such a foreign concept to a child who has been handed from family member to family member. And the consequences of Tris’ actions are only felt at the very end of the story – in a way that is completely unpredictable, and a great ending to a story all about finding a place to belong.

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Title: The Magic in the Weaving
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: The Circle of Magic #1, Emelan #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fantasy, Mages
Format: Novel
Publisher: Omnibus Books
Year: 1997
5th sentence, 74th page: He looked at Daja as he set his burdens down.

Sandry has a gift for weaving silk thread and creating light. At Winding Circle she meets Briar, a former thief, Daja, a Trader outcast and Tris, who has been exiled from her family. Each has a magical talent and when disaster strikes the Winding Circle community the four children must weave their powers together and to try and save the place they have begun to think of as home.

The Circle of Magic was the first Tamora Pierce series that I had the privilege of reading. And it began an obsession that has spanned over a decade. Yet, every time I revisit Sandry, Daja, Briar and Tris, I am enchanted all over again. Especially when I’m in the middle of studies, and I just want to spend ten minutes drifting off to another, fascinating world.

I’m fascinated by the idea of the four elements and the different ways in which this is displayed in day-to-day life. Pierce’s subtle use of these in the four young mages just heightens my fascination with the series. And the more I read these books, the more little hints to their elemental alliances I pick up on. The circular structure of the Winding Circle University and the idea of the wheel of time are also beautifully and fascinatingly symbolic throughout the story. I love, love, love that these subtle designs within the story are slowly bought to the fore with the realisation of the four young mages’ inner powers and abilities.

Although the main, and obvious theme of this story is four misfits finding a place in their life, and a way to come to terms with themselves, I enjoyed the idea that you don’t mess with nature even more. Throughout the small earthquakes that categorise the eventual discovery of the mages magic, a greater catastrophe is brewing. And yet, it is only when people try to mess with this that the true danger strikes and the four are forced to really find out what they are made of.

Image source: Amazon