Daja's Book: Circle of Magic (Circle of Magic, 3)

Rating:
Summary: Yet another excellent addition to the series!
Review: After Winding Circle got rid of the pirates, the four young mages, their teachers, and Duke Vedris (Sandry's uncle), are headed to Gold Ridge. A drought in this part of the country has caused many problems, and grassfires are now burning constantly. While they are there, Daja has been assigned to make nails. However, something goes wrong and she accidentally creates a magical iron vine that grows just like a normal plant. Upon seeing such a creation, one of the Traders wants to buy it off Daja, yet this Trader refuses to speak to Daja because she is Trangshi. During her encounters with Traders at Gold Ridge, Daja starts to yearn for the life she used to have. Finally, she is given a choice: she must either return to Winding Circle with her "new" family, or stay with the Traders.

This book is a very good read and definitely has a lot of action going on. However, I didn't like it as much as Tris's Book because I found some passages about magic confusing. Overall though, I think it is a great read and we get to know more about each character's personality, especially the teachers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Although I did not consider Daja's book the best of the Circle of Magic series, nor Daja my favorite of the four charachters; I think Tamora Pierce made a masterpiece when she wrote this book. She creates a whole new world and culture with its own beliefs and way of living, not to mention a whole new language. A culture that has been stereotyped and abused but ignores the outside torment and stick to there beliefs, because the opinion of a kaq means nothing. It also shows you Daja's life before coming to Winding Circle. In Sandry's Book you have a clear picture of both Sandry's and Briar's backround but neither Tris nor Daja (until now) have shown their earlier life. In a way this book, of all four in the series lives up to its title. This book is almost completely about Daja.

Rating:
Summary: This is a fairly good book...
Review: Daja's Book is about a girl, named Daja, who goes with her three mage friends and her teacher, Rosethorn, to try and help stop fires from spreading throughout the cities. This is the first time Daja ever comes to dislike fires, for she works with it (Daja is a metal-worker). While she is working with fire and trying to stop fire at the same time, Daja discovers a living metal vine. Then, some Traders come through the cities, and they bring back memories, for she used to be one herself. She is stuck deciding if she should continue on with her mage friends, or go with the Traders.

I would rate this book with four stars out of five, because I think that Tamora Pierce's other series are better than the Circle of Magic Series (including Daja's Book). Some of the events that happen in this book are a bit disappointing once you get to the end, and, unlike her other series, I don't think there is not as much adventure. Like her other books, though, there are good details, but perhaps a little too much, which makes it a tad more dull than the others. For example, on page 52, it says, "The lady wore a cloth-of-gold overrobe and a brown silk undergown with gold embroideries, both of which complimented her dark brown skin perfectly. The gold band on her brown, frizzy hair tilted up a little like a tiara and sparkled with emeralds; black pearls hung around her neck in three strand..." And so it continues. This is very good describing, but I think it is just a little too much than you need.

Other than that, if you have read all of Tamora Pierce's books, except for the Circle of Magic books, I'm not trying to stop you from reading any four of them, they are all good, otherwise I wouldn't have given Daja's Book four stars. Tamora Pierce is a great writer, and you should definitely consider reading one of her books, for she has several series out with four books in each series.

(I had to do this for an 11th grade school project, that's why I wrote so much!)

Rating:
Summary: Not too impressed so far...
Review: This is my first book from this author, and I don't know why, but I just didn't like it. I thought that there really wasn't a good "struggle" in this book, the writing was not as descriptive as other authors' writing, and the characters did not seem as developed. Just an opinion.