sbauer378's review against another edition
1.0
This book is so stupid and full of plot holes and deus ex machinas, that I feel dumber for having read it.
-Deus ex machinas everywhere: literally, the gods just smite the army after the emperor has won and force him to leave. Why on earth did the invasion ever get so far if the gods were always going to intervene to save the day? So many innocents killed, the entire plot is for nothing in the end. Truth be told, I despised how much religion played a part in this book. I will accept magic but not religion. At least in the Tortall series, there are clear rules for when the gods can intervene with humanity, which keeps the story interesting. Very convenient that the imperial mages can't sense or believe in ambient magic and are useless against Briar, Evvy, and Rosethorn. Parahan's twin sister shows up out of nowhere with soldiers, she didn't know he had escaped.
-Plot holes: The god-king is surprised by the invasion but he saw that Parahan would escape and be present. Also, why is the god-king surprised? This is why we don't put children on thrones. They lack the critical thinking skills to guess that if your neighbor is attacking everyone around them and you've had no word from your allies, they have probably lost and you are up next. Keep the army on standby just in case. Furthermore, there was no reason for Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy to involve themselves in the war. They barely know those people, it is not their business. By the time they even arrived, Gyongxe already knew about the invasion because it was already happening. And since the gods stepped in to save the day, their actions did not change the outcome of the war, this whole book is pointless. Also also, Parahan still being a very capable warrior despite being a POW for years. Uhuh, that man is useless after all that.
-Still hate Evvy and she's even more annoying in this book. I cannot stand characters with zero common sense: she constantly misbehaves in front of royalty, screams at every little thing to startle her (and this happens before she even gets PTSD), and wanders away from the safety of the fort to get captured and tortured.
-Rosethorn and Briar act very out of character in this book. Briar immediately wants to spy for the god-king, even though that would clearly be a death sentence if caught. And when Rosethorn wants to save the rose bushes, she's so obsequious, begging and pleading for mercy from a man who is clearly a psychopath. Shouldn't they know how to deal with tyrants? Briar helping Evvy to free Parahan, when they will be the keys suspects. A man like the emperor isn't going to wait to confirm they are guilty before ordering their capture and torture.
-The emperor is so cartoonishly evil, with gold cages for his prisoners to hang where everyone can see them, murdering his gardeners because a rose bush catches some mold that is easily rectified. And especially to do this all in front of honored guests. Even a psychopath would probably at least pretend to be kind and generous.
-The emperor's servants always gasping and twittering and being shocked at Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy's behavior. A good servent, especially one to a tyrant, would know how to keep their emotions to themselves.
Final nitpicks: did not need to read about a 12-year-old being stripped naked and tortured. Plus, those events happened to Briar, not Evvy, according to The Will of the Empress. Why did Rosethorn sleep with Parahan, just why?
And my absolute final though: the sky burial tradition is so fucking stupid. Leaving bodies where they lie is a good way to contaminate the ground water and spread disease. Congrats, you won the war but you will all shortly die of plague.
-Deus ex machinas everywhere: literally, the gods just smite the army after the emperor has won and force him to leave. Why on earth did the invasion ever get so far if the gods were always going to intervene to save the day? So many innocents killed, the entire plot is for nothing in the end. Truth be told, I despised how much religion played a part in this book. I will accept magic but not religion. At least in the Tortall series, there are clear rules for when the gods can intervene with humanity, which keeps the story interesting. Very convenient that the imperial mages can't sense or believe in ambient magic and are useless against Briar, Evvy, and Rosethorn. Parahan's twin sister shows up out of nowhere with soldiers, she didn't know he had escaped.
-Plot holes: The god-king is surprised by the invasion but he saw that Parahan would escape and be present. Also, why is the god-king surprised? This is why we don't put children on thrones. They lack the critical thinking skills to guess that if your neighbor is attacking everyone around them and you've had no word from your allies, they have probably lost and you are up next. Keep the army on standby just in case. Furthermore, there was no reason for Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy to involve themselves in the war. They barely know those people, it is not their business. By the time they even arrived, Gyongxe already knew about the invasion because it was already happening. And since the gods stepped in to save the day, their actions did not change the outcome of the war, this whole book is pointless. Also also, Parahan still being a very capable warrior despite being a POW for years. Uhuh, that man is useless after all that.
-Still hate Evvy and she's even more annoying in this book. I cannot stand characters with zero common sense: she constantly misbehaves in front of royalty, screams at every little thing to startle her (and this happens before she even gets PTSD), and wanders away from the safety of the fort to get captured and tortured.
-Rosethorn and Briar act very out of character in this book. Briar immediately wants to spy for the god-king, even though that would clearly be a death sentence if caught. And when Rosethorn wants to save the rose bushes, she's so obsequious, begging and pleading for mercy from a man who is clearly a psychopath. Shouldn't they know how to deal with tyrants? Briar helping Evvy to free Parahan, when they will be the keys suspects. A man like the emperor isn't going to wait to confirm they are guilty before ordering their capture and torture.
-The emperor is so cartoonishly evil, with gold cages for his prisoners to hang where everyone can see them, murdering his gardeners because a rose bush catches some mold that is easily rectified. And especially to do this all in front of honored guests. Even a psychopath would probably at least pretend to be kind and generous.
-The emperor's servants always gasping and twittering and being shocked at Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy's behavior. A good servent, especially one to a tyrant, would know how to keep their emotions to themselves.
Final nitpicks: did not need to read about a 12-year-old being stripped naked and tortured. Plus, those events happened to Briar, not Evvy, according to The Will of the Empress. Why did Rosethorn sleep with Parahan, just why?
And my absolute final though: the sky burial tradition is so fucking stupid. Leaving bodies where they lie is a good way to contaminate the ground water and spread disease. Congrats, you won the war but you will all shortly die of plague.
corporalmaladict's review against another edition
3.0
I have so many feelings about Rosethorn it's amazing. I don't know how well executed the torture scene was or how effectively the image of battles shone through but I love these characters and their progress and interactions were perfect.
emeraldreverie's review against another edition
4.0
Reread. Really like Briar and Evvy and Luvo's meeting. I like the world building in this part.
aamccartan's review against another edition
I was worried, after Mastiff, that Tamora Pierce might have lost her edge, but this was a good, solid, battles-and-adventures book. It filled in the gaps from The Will of the Empress very nicely, too.
futurepotus's review against another edition
2.0
I have loved Tamora Pierce's books since second grade. She has always been my favorite author and it kills me that I didn't like this book. Will of the Empress is my favorite of hers, hands down, and I was expecting Battle Magic to be along the same lines in quality. Instead, the book felt very empty. As usual, the action scenes are superbly written, but I feel as though the characters weren't as fleshed out as normal. The side characters felt very two-dimensional.
In addition, a lot of what Briar said/hinted at in WotE was not included. FOLLOWING ARE SPOILERS FROM WILL OF THE EMPRESS: The biggest thing was creating the rooftop. The exact quote from WotE is "I was locked up for a while in Gyongxe. It was either go mad... or retreat inside of me. I did things I'm not proud of when I got out..." Never happens in Battle Magic. Some of the other things he mentions in passing as well are completely ignored.
END SPOILERS FROM WotE
I don't usually nitpick, but when an author is as consistently good as Tamora Pierce is, you hold them to a higher standard. I found as I read, that I didn't really care about most of the characters, which is new for me in a Tamora Pierce book. I'll just stick with rereading Will of the Empress.
In addition, a lot of what Briar said/hinted at in WotE was not included. FOLLOWING ARE SPOILERS FROM WILL OF THE EMPRESS: The biggest thing was creating the rooftop. The exact quote from WotE is "I was locked up for a while in Gyongxe. It was either go mad... or retreat inside of me. I did things I'm not proud of when I got out..." Never happens in Battle Magic. Some of the other things he mentions in passing as well are completely ignored.
END SPOILERS FROM WotE
I don't usually nitpick, but when an author is as consistently good as Tamora Pierce is, you hold them to a higher standard. I found as I read, that I didn't really care about most of the characters, which is new for me in a Tamora Pierce book. I'll just stick with rereading Will of the Empress.
hallow3d's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
spiderstapdance's review against another edition
3.0
I know I'm not alone among Tamora Pierce's fans in saying that I prefer the Tortall books to the Circle Books. I know also that I'm not alone in Briar and Rosethorn being my favorites among Emelan's ambient mages. It seems that many reviews of this book express similar sentiments. And so, like many other readers perhaps, I looked to reading Battle Magic with equal parts eagerness and dread. Of course, part of the dramatic irony working in Battle Magic is that readers of [b:Will of the Empress|153783|The Will of the Empress (Circle Reforged, #1)|Tamora Pierce|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328868594s/153783.jpg|1060295] or [b:Melting Stones|492486|Melting Stones (Circle Reforged, #2)|Tamora Pierce|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347230939s/492486.jpg|480682] have already gained an idea of the horrors Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy experienced during the war in Gyongxe. Pierce uses that irony to good effect, . In addition, after feeling so strongly Briar's absence in Meliting Stones, it was nice to have him back as an active character rather than the ever-present memory. However, he felt somehow flat, and in fact much of the story felt that way, as if the book was trying to compound into its covers a story that might otherwise have taken a series. The book is long, following a trend of Pierce's recent novels, but it only seems to scratch the surface of what was possible in the story it tells. I do not, however, agree with opinions that the violence and horrors of war are in some way sanitized; Pierce may not describe them in all their gory detail, but the images stick in the imagination.
With this being said, Battle Magic was not one of Tamora Pierce's best works. Four hundred and forty pages was not enough to cover everything the book attempts to cover, and the result is a book that doesn't go into much detail on anything. The plot and the characterization of the minor characters feels rushed. It's still a good book (it is still Tamora Pierce, after all), but it's not the kind to live up to the book fans dreamed up in the midst of their expectation.
Spoiler
(particularly with the anxiety over the eventual fate of Evvy's cats!)With this being said, Battle Magic was not one of Tamora Pierce's best works. Four hundred and forty pages was not enough to cover everything the book attempts to cover, and the result is a book that doesn't go into much detail on anything. The plot and the characterization of the minor characters feels rushed. It's still a good book (it is still Tamora Pierce, after all), but it's not the kind to live up to the book fans dreamed up in the midst of their expectation.
meghan21's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
A re-read. My review stands even after a fresh re-read of the series. I would have preferred that these had been written in chronological order. And the later books perhaps would have had some more depth. But these aren't bad fill in books and they could have been read in chronological order. The ending was a bit abrupt.
Much darker fill-in story in a fairly good length series. Unlike my daughter, I haven't read this series over and over again, so my expectations are not all that high, and my preconceptions are minimal. I found this a well-thought exercise in how the magic of this world would work in battle. There was death and torture and bad things happened to good and bad people. There could have been a bit more character development and it could have read a little quicker and cleaner, but all in all a good read.
Much darker fill-in story in a fairly good length series. Unlike my daughter, I haven't read this series over and over again, so my expectations are not all that high, and my preconceptions are minimal. I found this a well-thought exercise in how the magic of this world would work in battle. There was death and torture and bad things happened to good and bad people. There could have been a bit more character development and it could have read a little quicker and cleaner, but all in all a good read.