Tamora Pierce – YA Fantasy Goddess!

I have now read most everything that Tamora Pierce has published. She has quickly become one of my favorite authors. After blogging about 23 of her books, I thought a summary was in order. I HIGHLY recommend you read her books!

Tamora has two sets of books – those that take place in Tortall and the surrounding countries and those that take place in and around Emelan.

Tortall
One of the great things about the Tortall books is that once you get attached to the characters in the first series, and you finish reading it, you get to see those people in the future books of Tortall. The main character in the first series – Song of the Lioness – shows up in each of the three series that follow. This is true of the Immortals series, Protector of the Small and Daughter of the Lioness. Her newest book in the Tortall collection is Terrier. It is the first of three books that take place 200 years before the beginning of Song of the Lioness. (There are also plans for Tamora to create a book or two on the early years of Numair and the coming of age of Maura of Dunlath – both introduced in the Immortals series.)

Song of the Lioness
Alanna: The First Adventure
In the Hand of the Goddess
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man
Lioness Rampant
The Song of the Lioness books follow the life of Alanna of Trebond who disguises herself as her brother “Alan” so she can enter school to become a knight.

The Immortals
Wild Magic
Wolf-Speaker
Emperor Mage
The Realm of the Gods
When Daine, Veralidaine Sarrasri, applies for a job to help with the horse of the Queen’s Riders, it is discovered that she has a wild magic that allows her to talk to animals.

Protector of the SmallFirst Test
Page
Squire
Lady Knight
Ten years after King Jonathan VI proclaimed that women could become knights, Keladry of Mindelan applies as the first to attempt it. She will be the only girl in 200 years to go to knight school other than Alanna the Lioness who snuck in disguised as a boy.

Daughter of the Lioness
Trickster’s Choice
Trickster’s Queen

Alanna’s daughter Alianne (Aly) of Pirate’s Swoop, does not want to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a lady knight. She wants to follow her father into the spy business. But the gods may have a path already chosen for her.

A Tortall Legend, Beka Cooper
Terrier
Bloodhound
Mastiff

These books take place 200 years before the Song of the Lioness series. Only Terrier is currently available. Beka Cooper is a “Puppy” with the law-enforcing Provost’s Guard, known as the Guard Dogs.

Numair Chronicles, Arram Draper
Tempest and Slaughter

Arram Draper, a powerful though young mage, travels across the Inland Sea to attend magic school in the Carthaki Empire. 

Emelan
The Circle books revolve around four friends – Sandry, Tris, Daja and Briar – and their teachers. They each have very powerful magic that does not fit into the usual categories.

Sandry – Lady Sandrilene fa Toren – is the niece of the Duke of Emelan and has tread magic; she is a stitch-witch. She discovered her magic after being locked in a dark room and using her magic to keep a light going for days.

Tris – Trisana Chandler – is from the merchant class and has weather magic, everything from lightening to earthquakes. Her family passed her from house to house each time she lost her temper and released tornados or lightening.

Daja Kisubo is a Traveler (those who collect things from the artists and travel to sell them to merchants) and has metal magic. She is the sole survivor of a shipwreck that killed her family.

Briar Moss is a street rat who has plant magic. As he was being sentenced to a life of hard labor for his third conviction for stealing, he is rescued to Winding Circle.

Circle of MagicSandry’s Book
Tris’s Book
Daja’s Book
Briar’s Book

In the Circle of Magic books the friends come to Winding Circle School and learn to control their magic. In the first book, Sandry weaves their magic together making them stronger than most any other mage around.

The Circle OpensMagic Steps
Street Magic
Cold Fire
Shatterglass
In the Circle Opens books the friends are separated from each other. Briar, Daja and Tris are traveling with their teachers to learn more of the world and their magic. Sandry has stayed behind to care for her uncle. Each of the four get their first students in this series.

Circle ReforgedThe Will of the EmpressMelting Stones (2008)

After spending a couple of years apart from each other, the four meet again in Emelan. They are not as close as they once were, but when Sandry is called to her lands in Namorn by the Empress she asks Tris, Briar and Daja to accompany her. In The Will of the Empress, they will either have to learn to work their magics together once again or they may not survive.

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Tamora Pierce is a great fiction writer. Her books are adventurous, well-written, and believable. Though I love and recommend both series’ I like the Tortall a bit more.

Start reading them today!

Shatterglass (Circle Opens #4)

Shatterglass is the final book in Tamora Pierce's The Circle Opens quartet. These four book follow the Circle of Magic quartet and precede The Will of the Empress. All feature Sandry, Tris, Briar, and Daja.

Shatterglass is the story of Tris in the country of Tharios. Though the name sounds Greek to me, it is a country more like India in that it has a very rigid caste system. The people are divided into five classes plus the untouchables - the prathmuni. The lowest caste is largely made up of performers or yaskedasi.

While Tris's teacher Niko is at a convention, Tris wants to spend time in the glass-blowing part of the city. Tharios is famous for its glass. On her first day on the street of glassmakers, she see a man create a beautiful creature - a living dragon of glass. The man, Keth, was a gifted glassblower until he was struck by lightening. Now his ideas never come out how he wishes. Tris is quick to step in and try and teach him about his new magic, brought on by the lightning strike.

Pierce, Tamora. (2003). Shatterglass. New York: Scholastic.

Cold Fire (Circle Opens #3)

Cold Fire is the third book in the Circle Opens quartet by Tamora Pierce. This one is about Daja.

Daja and Frostpine are in Namon for the winter staying with friends. While there Daja sees one of the daughters of the family they are visiting use magic. Of course she will become her teacher... and her twin sister's teacher as well. When one twin has magic the other does as well.

However, along with teaching, learning how to ice skate so she can get around town, and studying with local smiths, Daja befriends a man - Ben - who is the town firefighter. She has never known anyone without fire magic who fought fires. But now she will have time to get to know him as they work together to find an arsonist.

Pierce, Tamora. (2002). Cold Fire. New York: Scholastic.

Street Magic (Circle Opens #2)

Street Magic is the second book in the Circle Opens series by Tamora Pierce. This one follows Brair and Rosethorn in the land of Chammur.

While they are in Chammur, Brair discovers a girl who has stone magic. He tries to find her a teacher. He also has to protect her from the street gangs that rule the city.

As the city is caught up in a vicious gang war, Briar and Evvy must learn to control her magic and use it at the same time.

Pierce, Tamora. (2001). Street Magic. New York: Scholastic.

Magic Steps (Circle Opens #1)

The Circle Opens series by Tamora Pierce follows the Circle of Magic series, featuring Sandry, Tris, Daja, and Briar. In the Circle of Magic books the four became friends and learned how to work together. In this series, the Circle Opens, they will be apart for the first time since meeting. Tris, Daja and Briar are traveling with their individual teachers. Sandry stayed in Emelan to look after her uncle, Duke Vedris, after a heart attack.

Magic Steps opens with Sandry at the Duke's Castle. She has been there for a while helping her uncle with the running of the country - and to make sure he takes it easy. One day while Sandry is riding with the duke, she sees a boy dancing magic.

Sandry is shocked to find out that as the mage who discovered the boy, she is to become his teacher. And she has to balance her time between helping the boy, Pasco, helping her uncle, and now being caught up in a murder mystery. Someone killed a merchant and left clues that only someone who sees magic can follow...

Pierce, Tamora. (2000). Magic Steps. New York: Scholastic.