#The Circle of Magic

[indelibleevidence]

The Circle of Magic books are great, because they're like, "Do you have a magical special interest? Then it's off to Lesbian Nun Cottage for you, children!"

[hedgehogreads]

“You know why I hate plagues?”

The girl hesitated, confused by the abrupt change of subject. That was the fever, she realized. It made Rosethorn’s mind skip about. “Why?” Daja asked.

“Most disasters are fast, and big. You can see everyone else’s life got overturned when yours did. Houses are smashed, livestock’s dead. But plagues isolate people. They shut themselves inside while disease takes a life at a time, day after day. it adds up. Whole cities break under the load of what was lost. People stop trusting each other, because you don’t know who’s sick.”

 - Briar’s Book, Tamora Pierce

[arisingonmorningsinnocent]

tamora pierce [handshake] rebecca sugar

writing a whole subplot into a much larger story just to teach their audience of small children how to meditate

does anyone else who read the circle of magic series when we were kids still default to niko's 7-7-7 breathing exercise whenever they need to calm down? or is that just me?

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

no but that scene where kid Tris bluntly but PRIVATELY reveals to Briar that she KNOWS he can't read- she's known all along-

how he waits for everyone else to start doing their chores for the day before starting on whatever's left, instead of just checking the board where it all gets written up-

she never poked at that

never used it against him. even back when they didn't LIKE each other- him a kid from the streets and her from a merchant family, social oil and water, all their scuffs and tiffs. her temper is hot and her words are sharp

Tris never. not once. mocked him for not being able to read. didn't even mention it

and she noticed. this before the four of them all really grow into being foster siblings, back when they're just four traumatized and thrown away kids plopped down into a cottage with two women who weirdly enough won't stop caring about them-

even back then, prickly Tris paid attention

the offer to teach him comes later- in private- she is NOT embarrassing him in front of anyone else when she talks about it. it's after the four survived almost dying together, a quiet moment alone, when she finally mentions she could help if he wanted

he does. instantly- and it's not hard to see why he's so comfortable with saying yes, now. he wouldn't let on to anyone else, their teachers and guardians, but Tris saw and kept quiet and is asking him

her urge is to share this thing that'd given her so much comfort and strength with someone else who doesn't have that yet. and to do it just for him, no one else to see, just his thing to study with her, something she's happy to make time for

then years later, they are the family bookworms together. sister and brother with more academic interests than their other two siblings. they reconnect so quietly and easily even though they both are maybe the hardest to get along with in general, the sharpest and most likely to snap and lash out. but Tris taught Briar to read without making him feel stupid about it. he grew up and taught HIS student to read, using a lot of the same tricks Tris had used on him

i dunno. it gets to me, is all

[lagomorphaeus]

I finally remembered to correct an error in my Tamora Pierce collection that's been haunting me for at least a decade and a half. My grandparents had gotten me the first book of The Circle Opens and the second thru fourth book of The Circle of Magic rendering both series unreadable, as the former is the sequel series to the latter. It's one of those little things that's never on my mind while book shopping, but it was today!

Once it arrives, I'll need to pick a good day to read at least the first two books in a row. That was always the tradition: I'd receive a Tamora Pierce quartet from my grandparents, and I'd read as many as I could that same day until my parents told me I needed to stop to "eat" or "go outside".

[aladygrieve]

there's one correct way to pronounce every name in tamora pierce's books and it's the one that i use

[vargamornight]

i do want to see the circle of magic series turned into a show but i HAVE to emphasize that the only way i would watch it is if it was 2d animation. there’s no other acceptable way to put that text on a screen and i want to see sandry and tris’s reactions exaggerated in a way that only cartoons can make believable because sandry is the biggest drama queen in the world and tris deserves the dramatic ghibli hair/petticoats floof animation when she gets angry. like i want to watch these books in 90s wyrd sisters animation style

[bibliophilecats]

June 06 2025: National Eyewear Day

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Lin Qingyu/Lu Wancheng- Married Thrice to Salted Fish by Bikabi

Rosethorn/Lark- The Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce 

Justin "Matts" Matthews/Sydney Warren- Free From Falling by E. L. Massey

Song Qingshi/Yue Wuhuan- Mistakenly Saving the Villain by Feng Yu Nie 

[leafyeyes417]

The Mirage

Danny wasn’t sure what he was looking at. He had been kidnapped for being a Wayne kid, because apparently having black hair and blue eyes was a crime in Gotham. So now he sat tied to a chair in an empty building. He could have escaped easily but the anomaly had him ignoring his current position just to stare at it.

The best way he could describe it was a ghost magic circle. He could tell the kidnappers couldn’t see it, walking through it without care. But his ghost sense hadn’t went off and he could tell there was no ectoplasm in the circle despite its obvious ghostlike qualities. It was this hazy mint green that seemed like a mirage, shifting when someone moved through it but always keeping shape.

He had no idea if the thing could even be activated or if it was some kind of past image of a successful circle. While he wasn’t very knowledgeable, he knew it wasn’t a summoning circle at least. However his gut was telling him that whatever it was he needed to figure it out, because past image or not it was important somehow.

[specificpollsaboutbooks]

F/F Ships

Round 1

Pip and Rooney :

"so cute!!!! a bit cliché maybe but i love their dynamic"

[franticvampirereads]

My tummy hurts and I’m mad at the government, but March is here. My tbr for this month has a little bit of a murder & mayhem theme, so here’s what I’m planning to read this month to try to distract myself from *gestures at everything*:

The Golden Raven -currently reading

That Time I Got Drunk & Saved a Human -currently reading

Family & Felonies

Alpha Dragon’s Ferret

Mr. Villain’s Day Off vol 2

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea

Brutal Titan

The Bakery Dragon

Shatterglass

Stay safe out there.

[hedgehogreads]

“No one asks to live in squalor, Tris. It is just that squalor is all that’s left to them by those with money.”

 - Briar’s Book, Tamora Pierce

[noodlesarecheese]

Okay this may just be a coincidence, but it's so fun for me that I don't care.

So the order of the circle of magic books is Sandry - Tris - Daja - Briar.

If we imagine that as our circle, it looks like this:

We learn that Tris is the first to leave, so if we imagine that point as the cut in the circle, so to speak.

Then Tris falls to the end and we're left with a line of Sandry, Briar, Daja, Tris...the order of the second set of books!

[krolmeistersisters]

Our latest episode of Tortall Sisters is up! This month we discuss Shatterglass, the fourth book in the Circle Opens quartet by Tamora Pierce!

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Rosethorn, Briar, and Evvy Desperately Need Hugs

So the Circle Reforged books in general tend to be heavier than the Circle of Magic and Circle Opens books, and of those two series, Briar-focused books tend to be heavier than the others. That pattern sticks with Battle Magic, but oh my goodness I love this book with my whole freakin' chest. So let's dispense with the preamble and talk Battle Magic.

*Content Warning: This book focuses on war and soldiers, and there is also torture depicted, so take care of you first, and if this is not something that you can/want to engage with, we will see you another day for another topic with zero judgement.*

*Spoiler Warning: Spoilers for the Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets*

We know Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy really well at this point, but the amazing thing about this book is that those relationship dynamics and character needs and wants are challenged in a way that we really have not seen up to this point. There has been combat in other books, and there has been danger, but there is a difference between a pirate raid or a plague or a forest fire or even a murderous Takameri and an empire going to war to conquer another country that happens to house the first Living Circle Temple and there is a sense that the empire would destroy it.

For Rosethorn, there is a massive conflict between duty and desire. Rosethorn just wants to go home, she misses Lark, she misses her girls, and she wants nothing more than to keep her boy and Evvy safe and away from the horrors of war. But her duty is to warn the First Temple, and then Dokyi leverages her duties as a Dedicate to send her off on a mission that has a FANTASTIC chance of more or less eating Rosethorn alive.

We get more time in Rosethorn's head in this than any other book, and it is honestly a fascinating new perspective on my favorite Winding Circle dedicate. Seeing her experience of her body after dying in Briar's Book and being at altitudes and in situations where it is just physically harder for her to exist and still be absolutely ROSETHORN about it. I would never describe Dedicate Rosethorn as having a soft, squishy center, but I'll be damned if compassion isn't woven into every spike and sharp edge the woman has.

I also appreciate Rosethorn's bi representation in the form of her relationship with Parahan. I also appreciate the little bit of perspective we get from Briar about the nature of Rosethorn and Lark's relationship, the fact that it works for them, and that it's not any of Briar's business. That was very deftly handled and very well done.

Now for Briar, the main conflict in this book is him being pulled three ways: His protective streaks for Rosethorn and Evvy and his desire to get involved and be a war mage for the Living Circle to defend the temple and the people the temple protects as well as for Gyongxe. Briar is not new to combat, from his earliest days in a Hajran gang to the pirate raids on Winding Circle and the gang war in Street Magic. What's different is that Briar is considered an adult by every society involved in the Circle Universe, and he is learning that being an adult means balancing oft-contradictory impulses. He cannot shield Rosethorn from thin air, from her duties as a Living Circle dedicate, or from the fact that she can be equally as effective a war mage as she is a green mage. He also cannot protect Evvy from the Empire, as much as he might want to.

This is a rough space to truly learn what it is to be an adult in, and holy cow we see the toll it takes on Briar. It's a really interesting contrast from the gang warfare in his past, and where Tris, Sandry, and Daja were his peers and sisters, Briar's relationships with Rosethorn and Evvy are different and put significantly different pressures on him in this environment. One particularly poignant moment is when he notices that Evvy--who has been using communal baths her entire life--is suddenly absolutely terrified and vulnerable in them because Jia Jui tortured her. That moment really hammered home for Briar that there are consequences for people even if he is pulling unequivocal heroics out of his back pocket every five minutes. Rosethorn knew this going in; Briar needed it driven home.

Another really interesting facet of this book for both Briar and Rosethorn was the fact that a war is a marathon, not a sprint, and where both mages have been able to divide their attention between combat and healing magics, that is not the case in this situation. The consequences of choosing to be either a war mage or a healer mage on any given day make that a complex choice, but it's one that has to be made.

Now, where Rosethorn and Briar are grown-ass adults making adult choices in a terrifying and deeply unfair situation, Evumeimei Dingzai is a literal child and student who ends up being yanked around by circumstance. Tamora Pierce does not shy away from highlighting that in these situations, the people who are often most vulnerable and who have the least agency are the kids, and they--as Evvy does--end up in some truly hideous situations. Evvy survives and heals, but it isn't fast, and it isn't complete at the end of this book, and that I think is critical. One does not just "get over" living through a war in a week. And it's not only the soldiers and people who are actively fighting that live with those consequences.

This books is heartbreakingly even-handed about highlighting that nobody escapes a war truly unscathed. Walking through it with three of my favorite Circle Universe characters was heavy, but so worth it.