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The Immortals #4
The Realms of the Gods
During a dire battle against the fearsome Skinners, Daine and her mage teacher Numair are swept into the Divine Realms. Though happy to be alive, they are not where they want to be. They are desperately needed back home, where their old enemy, Ozorne, and his army of strange creatures are waging war against Tortall.
Trapped in the mystical realms Daine discovers her mysterious parentage. And as these secrets of her past are revealed so is the treacherous way back to Tortall. So they embark on an extraordinary journey home, where the fate of all Tortall rests with Daine and her wild magic.
Trapped in the mystical realms Daine discovers her mysterious parentage. And as these secrets of her past are revealed so is the treacherous way back to Tortall. So they embark on an extraordinary journey home, where the fate of all Tortall rests with Daine and her wild magic.
347 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1996
About the author
Tamora Pierce
133 books84.6k followersHey, folks! I just discovered that apparently I have given some very popular books single-star ratings--except I haven't. How do I know I haven't? Because I haven't read those books at all. So before you go getting all hacked off at me for trashing your favorites, know that I've written GoodReads to find out what's going on.
I return to my regularly scheduled profile:
Though I would love to join groups, I'm going to turn them all down. I just don't have the time to take part, so please don't be offended if I don't join your group or accept an invitation. I'm not snooty--I'm just up to my eyeballs in work and appearances!
Also, don't be alarmed by the number of books I've read. When I get bored, I go through the different lists and rediscover books I've read in the past. It's a very evil way to use up time when I should be doing other things. Obviously, I've read a lot of books in 54 years!
I was born in South Connellsville, PA. My mother wanted to name me "Tamara" but the nurse who filled out my birth certificate misspelled it as "Tamora". When I was 8 my family moved to California, where we lived for 6 years on both sides of the San Francisco peninsula.
I started writing stories in 6th grade. My interest in fantasy and science fiction began when I was introduced to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ by J. R. R. Tolkien and so I started to write the kind of books that I was reading. After my parents divorced, my mother took my sisters and me back to Pennsylvania in 1969. There I went to Albert Gallatin Senior High for 2 years and Uniontown Area Senior High School for my senior year.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, I wrote the book that became The Song of the Lioness fantasy quartet. I sold some articles and 2 short stories and wrote reviews for a martial arts movie magazine. At last the first book of the quartet, Alanna: The First Adventure was published by Atheneum Books in 1983.
Tim Liebe, who became my Spouse-Creature, and I lived in New York City with assorted cats and two parakeets from 1982 - 2006. In 2006 we moved to Syracuse, New York, where we live now with assorted cats, a number of squirrels, birds, raccoons, skunks, opossums, and woodchucks visiting our very small yard. As of 2011, I have 27 novels in print, one short story collection, one comic book arc ("White Tiger: A Hero's Compulsion") co-written with Tim, and a short story anthology co-editing credit. There's more to come, including a companion book to the Tortall `verse. So stay tuned!
I return to my regularly scheduled profile:
Though I would love to join groups, I'm going to turn them all down. I just don't have the time to take part, so please don't be offended if I don't join your group or accept an invitation. I'm not snooty--I'm just up to my eyeballs in work and appearances!
Also, don't be alarmed by the number of books I've read. When I get bored, I go through the different lists and rediscover books I've read in the past. It's a very evil way to use up time when I should be doing other things. Obviously, I've read a lot of books in 54 years!
I was born in South Connellsville, PA. My mother wanted to name me "Tamara" but the nurse who filled out my birth certificate misspelled it as "Tamora". When I was 8 my family moved to California, where we lived for 6 years on both sides of the San Francisco peninsula.
I started writing stories in 6th grade. My interest in fantasy and science fiction began when I was introduced to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ by J. R. R. Tolkien and so I started to write the kind of books that I was reading. After my parents divorced, my mother took my sisters and me back to Pennsylvania in 1969. There I went to Albert Gallatin Senior High for 2 years and Uniontown Area Senior High School for my senior year.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, I wrote the book that became The Song of the Lioness fantasy quartet. I sold some articles and 2 short stories and wrote reviews for a martial arts movie magazine. At last the first book of the quartet, Alanna: The First Adventure was published by Atheneum Books in 1983.
Tim Liebe, who became my Spouse-Creature, and I lived in New York City with assorted cats and two parakeets from 1982 - 2006. In 2006 we moved to Syracuse, New York, where we live now with assorted cats, a number of squirrels, birds, raccoons, skunks, opossums, and woodchucks visiting our very small yard. As of 2011, I have 27 novels in print, one short story collection, one comic book arc ("White Tiger: A Hero's Compulsion") co-written with Tim, and a short story anthology co-editing credit. There's more to come, including a companion book to the Tortall `verse. So stay tuned!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,253 reviews
January 22, 2019
NO! Why does this five-star series have to end in this way!?
Okay, so writing this review literary HURTS! The Immortals series was all set to become a new favourite of mine. It combined political intrigue with a unique magic system and contained an immediately lovable set of characters and almost more animals than it does pages. But this concluding chapter negates everything the preceding instalments set out to do and left me feeling uncomfortable and confused.
The book began with the central series character, Daine, traversing into the realm of the gods. I was all set for a series of magical adventures but none of these were forthcoming for at least the first half of the book. What filled the pages instead were the characters repeatedly discussing their discontent over their present surroundings and not much else. I was still engaged, however, as I had spent three whole books growing to love these characters, and this did not cause me to judge the book too harshly. What was delivered when the action was eventually forthcoming, however, most certainly did.
**The main cause for my discontent is a minor spoiler. It does ruin a small part of the series ending, but not the overall story line.**
I found myself unable to see past this and it soured the entire book for me. I will still continue to adore and to reread the preceding three books in this series but, in my mind, I will forget that this one ever exists.
Okay, so writing this review literary HURTS! The Immortals series was all set to become a new favourite of mine. It combined political intrigue with a unique magic system and contained an immediately lovable set of characters and almost more animals than it does pages. But this concluding chapter negates everything the preceding instalments set out to do and left me feeling uncomfortable and confused.
The book began with the central series character, Daine, traversing into the realm of the gods. I was all set for a series of magical adventures but none of these were forthcoming for at least the first half of the book. What filled the pages instead were the characters repeatedly discussing their discontent over their present surroundings and not much else. I was still engaged, however, as I had spent three whole books growing to love these characters, and this did not cause me to judge the book too harshly. What was delivered when the action was eventually forthcoming, however, most certainly did.
**The main cause for my discontent is a minor spoiler. It does ruin a small part of the series ending, but not the overall story line.**
I found myself unable to see past this and it soured the entire book for me. I will still continue to adore and to reread the preceding three books in this series but, in my mind, I will forget that this one ever exists.
February 28, 2016
First, I don't like the idea of taking two people key to the war away from the war entirely for most of the book. Where of course they learn vital information blah blah blah. Second, the pacing of this book is wacky, and they jump between places acquiring allies and enemies like it's necessary for the plot (which it is) instead of coherent, organic storytelling. Third, and much more importantly: Daine is SIXTEEN. Numair is THIRTY ONE. I do not care, the slightest bit, about the age of consent in a nonexistent fantasy land. I DO NOT LIKE (green eggs and ham)
I DO NOT LIKE THEM
NOT HERE OR THERE OR ANYWHERE
Basically: this series is too scattered, and I only appreciate it the little I do because it fills holes in the Kel series. Otherwise: NOPE. NOT IN A TRAIN OR IN A TREE. Etc.
I DO NOT LIKE THEM
NOT HERE OR THERE OR ANYWHERE
Basically: this series is too scattered, and I only appreciate it the little I do because it fills holes in the Kel series. Otherwise: NOPE. NOT IN A TRAIN OR IN A TREE. Etc.
June 30, 2011
This wasn't supposed to be the next book I finished. I was planning to get through Eulalia! first, but I woke up one morning and rolled over and grabbed this one for no good reason except it's easier to read paperbacks than hardbacks when you're lying on your side because you don't want to get up, and also because your cat is sitting on your hip.
Anyhow. That was yesterday. I think I read five chapters or so before breakfast. And then I had to face the truth: I'm addicted to these books. I crave them when I am not reading them. When I am, I need more more more all the time. If there was a way to inject them straight into my brain every now and again I would probably do it. Reading them is the closest I'll ever get to being well and truly high.
This is not my favorite installment, but it has some of my favorite moments. Shipping moments, naturally. Seriously, every time Daine and Numair start kissing a part of me goes "OKAY STOP THE PLOT AND JUST KEEP MAKING OUT FOR THE REST OF THE BOOK KTHX". (And they exchange a lot of saliva, so this happens fairly often.) This is the book in which Tamora Pierce proves that romance is better when it's drawn out slowly over an entire quartet, because by the time you get here every tense moment between the two of them sends shivers down your spine and it's far, far, far more electric than any one-book instamance.
One of my favorite bits:
"Of all the times for him to go protective on me. Maybe he ate something that was bad for him." She closed her eyes.
"Maybe he loves you," Broad Foot said.
She didn't hear. She was already asleep.
(Daine is so clueless about the whole thing that it's kind of hilarious. Also, you have to feel sorry for Numair.)
'Falling' is probably my favorite chapter of the whole quartet.
Okay, but moving on. There are other things to recommend this book. For one thing, Pierce is really, really, really good at humanizing the gods. For another, there are dragons! And perhaps most importantly, this is where we get the origin story of the Stormwings. I'm not going to give you any more detail about those things, though, because that could be spoilers. What I will say is that I love how the Stormwings are made more sympathetic over the course of the book, to the point that by the end of this one you feel like you understand them and, in some cases, even like them. (Now what I really want to know is what sick person dreamed up spidrens.)
The climactic battle is not nearly as good as that of Emperor Mage, but there are enough other delicious scenes that it's all worth it.
Also, I'm fairly convinced that Gainel, the god of dreams, is a combination of Neil Gaiman and his character Morpheus.
For those familiar with the Lioness Quartet and the Beka Cooper books, there's a brief cameo by someone present in both series, if you're watching carefully. (I eagerly await the day when we find out what the heck he is and why he adopts humans the way he does. If we ever do, which I suppose we may not. Damn cat.)
Anyhow, this quartet. If you haven't read it, you should really make it a priority. They don't make YA like this any more.
Anyhow. That was yesterday. I think I read five chapters or so before breakfast. And then I had to face the truth: I'm addicted to these books. I crave them when I am not reading them. When I am, I need more more more all the time. If there was a way to inject them straight into my brain every now and again I would probably do it. Reading them is the closest I'll ever get to being well and truly high.
This is not my favorite installment, but it has some of my favorite moments. Shipping moments, naturally. Seriously, every time Daine and Numair start kissing a part of me goes "OKAY STOP THE PLOT AND JUST KEEP MAKING OUT FOR THE REST OF THE BOOK KTHX". (And they exchange a lot of saliva, so this happens fairly often.) This is the book in which Tamora Pierce proves that romance is better when it's drawn out slowly over an entire quartet, because by the time you get here every tense moment between the two of them sends shivers down your spine and it's far, far, far more electric than any one-book instamance.
One of my favorite bits:
"Of all the times for him to go protective on me. Maybe he ate something that was bad for him." She closed her eyes.
"Maybe he loves you," Broad Foot said.
She didn't hear. She was already asleep.
(Daine is so clueless about the whole thing that it's kind of hilarious. Also, you have to feel sorry for Numair.)
'Falling' is probably my favorite chapter of the whole quartet.
Okay, but moving on. There are other things to recommend this book. For one thing, Pierce is really, really, really good at humanizing the gods. For another, there are dragons! And perhaps most importantly, this is where we get the origin story of the Stormwings. I'm not going to give you any more detail about those things, though, because that could be spoilers. What I will say is that I love how the Stormwings are made more sympathetic over the course of the book, to the point that by the end of this one you feel like you understand them and, in some cases, even like them. (Now what I really want to know is what sick person dreamed up spidrens.)
The climactic battle is not nearly as good as that of Emperor Mage, but there are enough other delicious scenes that it's all worth it.
Also, I'm fairly convinced that Gainel, the god of dreams, is a combination of Neil Gaiman and his character Morpheus.
For those familiar with the Lioness Quartet and the Beka Cooper books, there's a brief cameo by someone present in both series, if you're watching carefully. (I eagerly await the day when we find out what the heck he is and why he adopts humans the way he does. If we ever do, which I suppose we may not. Damn cat.)
Anyhow, this quartet. If you haven't read it, you should really make it a priority. They don't make YA like this any more.
March 9, 2016
Finally powered through this. 2.5 stars probably more accurately, but I’m going to be less harsh on this book than some of you have been. Mostly for old time’s sake (except, kind of hilarious how little of this book I remembered, aka 0%). Although, parts of it kind of work for me.
True, it’s a bit of a mess of a book.
True, a lot of things are glossed over.
Definitely true that Daine and Numair spend too high a percentage of this book in the Divine Realms.
But I think I can sort of see where it’s going? I’m not saying I think it gets there particularly effectively, but I can kind of see it.
Look, I like set-ups. I like first books and first seasons of television. And sometimes, if I like the set-up enough, I forgive much in the later story, as long as the later story doesn’t become incompatible with the story I wanted in my head when I started. This story doesn’t. And I can fix the details in the back of my mind, and fill in the gaps (the first time I read these, I think I must have done a lot of mental back-filling).
Now we get to the part where I make suggestions for this entire series.
I think there are a few major narratives going on here:
1. Daine is half-immortal, though she doesn’t know it to start, and will eventually have to choose between her mortal and immortal halves.
2. Daine is alone and is looking for a home of her own (plus some general coming of age stuff). (Parenthetically, this one would have been SO MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE if it had been better linked to 1.)
3. DAINE + NUMAIR = SOULMATES (I thought I’d pretend to be a super-shipper for a while)
4. The war between the mortals and the immortals (and to a certain extent, the gods)
I think none of them are done particularly well, but if things had been tweaked they could have been, except for maybe 4 – that was perhaps destined to always be at least a bit hand-wavey (conveniently it’s the one I care about the least). But all of them would be helped by some context. And more Daine and Numair in Tortall and actually interacting with each other.
SO, now we begin Andrée’s mental versions of these books. Spoilers for the whole series, and under a cut because it’s long (really stupidly long).
Told you it was stupidly long. I had many thoughts though, okay?
True, it’s a bit of a mess of a book.
True, a lot of things are glossed over.
Definitely true that Daine and Numair spend too high a percentage of this book in the Divine Realms.
But I think I can sort of see where it’s going? I’m not saying I think it gets there particularly effectively, but I can kind of see it.
Look, I like set-ups. I like first books and first seasons of television. And sometimes, if I like the set-up enough, I forgive much in the later story, as long as the later story doesn’t become incompatible with the story I wanted in my head when I started. This story doesn’t. And I can fix the details in the back of my mind, and fill in the gaps (the first time I read these, I think I must have done a lot of mental back-filling).
Now we get to the part where I make suggestions for this entire series.
I think there are a few major narratives going on here:
1. Daine is half-immortal, though she doesn’t know it to start, and will eventually have to choose between her mortal and immortal halves.
2. Daine is alone and is looking for a home of her own (plus some general coming of age stuff). (Parenthetically, this one would have been SO MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE if it had been better linked to 1.)
3. DAINE + NUMAIR = SOULMATES (I thought I’d pretend to be a super-shipper for a while)
4. The war between the mortals and the immortals (and to a certain extent, the gods)
I think none of them are done particularly well, but if things had been tweaked they could have been, except for maybe 4 – that was perhaps destined to always be at least a bit hand-wavey (conveniently it’s the one I care about the least). But all of them would be helped by some context. And more Daine and Numair in Tortall and actually interacting with each other.
SO, now we begin Andrée’s mental versions of these books. Spoilers for the whole series, and under a cut because it’s long (really stupidly long).
Told you it was stupidly long. I had many thoughts though, okay?
February 18, 2019
Here's the thing. Here's what really grinds my gears. I lived and breathed Tamora Pierce's books when I was a kid. And as a 15 year old dumbass with a massive crush on one of my teachers, I thought making Numair and Daine a couple was an act of literary genius. But after rereading this series as an adult, I have to wonder what exactly the fuck Pierce was thinking.
Portraying a relationship between a 16 year old girl and a guy in his 30s as sweet and romantic rather than predatory is bad enough, but it's made even more fucked up by the fact that Numair is Daine's mentor/teacher/guardian, and they met when she was 12 or 13. Marketing this series toward young girls as a saga of female empowerment is well past the realm of "maybe not a good move," and hovering on the border between "totally irresponsible" and "completely unforgivable."
The part that drives me absolutely fucking nuts is that Pierce didn't have to do this. She could've either made the two closer in age or just kept their relationship platonic, and the story wouldn't have suffered. But instead she went "this book will be garbage unless I put a pedophile in it" and now here I am, bitching into the void.
Portraying a relationship between a 16 year old girl and a guy in his 30s as sweet and romantic rather than predatory is bad enough, but it's made even more fucked up by the fact that Numair is Daine's mentor/teacher/guardian, and they met when she was 12 or 13. Marketing this series toward young girls as a saga of female empowerment is well past the realm of "maybe not a good move," and hovering on the border between "totally irresponsible" and "completely unforgivable."
The part that drives me absolutely fucking nuts is that Pierce didn't have to do this. She could've either made the two closer in age or just kept their relationship platonic, and the story wouldn't have suffered. But instead she went "this book will be garbage unless I put a pedophile in it" and now here I am, bitching into the void.
June 13, 2020
The evil emperor mage from book three grew even more powerful. He allied with evil immortals, bent on revenge and his dream of world domination, he did a lot of damage. Daine and Numair were trapped in the immortal realm while battle rages on in their world. It was quite an adventure in itself travelling back to the mortal realm. On their way back, they met and won over formidable allies, who eventually helped them win the battle and rid the world of evil.
It's a while since I've been captivated by a series that's not focused on romance. This series took me back to my fundamental love of reading. I really had a great time with this one.
It's a while since I've been captivated by a series that's not focused on romance. This series took me back to my fundamental love of reading. I really had a great time with this one.
September 5, 2017
[Also read: 29 December 2007, 18 July 2011]
Daine and Numair get sucked out of Tortall and into the Divine Realms where they star in, in turn, a travelogue, a romance novel, and the quickest war novel ever.
1. SERIOUSLY.
2. All the main stuff happened off page. The war, Daine's other suitors, sicknesses, etc. Instead, we get 75% of a book about traveling across the Divine Realm and 25% about finishing a war too big for one book.
It's just: sloppy, and uninteresting, and--to use the phrase that I think most succinctly summarizes this series--simple. There is nothing truly at stake in any of these books: no deep relationships develop, no begrudging respect, no awkward rivalries. The antagonistic relationships that do exist (Ozorne, Rikash) are glossed over, and we are given the shells and asked to believe it's a full meal.
3. That romance, though. Here's the thing: A young, more confused me shipped the hell out of this. But even that nostalgic yearning wasn't enough to disguise the unevenness of the romance, nor the laughable attempts to rebalance the power dynamics. It's all shoddy craftsmanship to attempt to shore up a relationship that was neither well-planned nor characterized.
The age difference still didn't bother me, but that's because Numair doesn't really strike me as a 30 year old man but more of a really studious 22 year old. (Old enough for the good stuff but young enough to not know any better.)
4. I'm honestly just glad to be done with it?? Which is, perhaps, the most telling point of them all.
Daine and Numair get sucked out of Tortall and into the Divine Realms where they star in, in turn, a travelogue, a romance novel, and the quickest war novel ever.
1. SERIOUSLY.
2. All the main stuff happened off page. The war, Daine's other suitors, sicknesses, etc. Instead, we get 75% of a book about traveling across the Divine Realm and 25% about finishing a war too big for one book.
It's just: sloppy, and uninteresting, and--to use the phrase that I think most succinctly summarizes this series--simple. There is nothing truly at stake in any of these books: no deep relationships develop, no begrudging respect, no awkward rivalries. The antagonistic relationships that do exist (Ozorne, Rikash) are glossed over, and we are given the shells and asked to believe it's a full meal.
3. That romance, though. Here's the thing: A young, more confused me shipped the hell out of this. But even that nostalgic yearning wasn't enough to disguise the unevenness of the romance, nor the laughable attempts to rebalance the power dynamics. It's all shoddy craftsmanship to attempt to shore up a relationship that was neither well-planned nor characterized.
The age difference still didn't bother me, but that's because Numair doesn't really strike me as a 30 year old man but more of a really studious 22 year old. (Old enough for the good stuff but young enough to not know any better.)
4. I'm honestly just glad to be done with it?? Which is, perhaps, the most telling point of them all.
October 23, 2016
WTF? Tamora Pierce what the heck were you thinking with this one?! I think this is my least favorite book Pierce has every written and raises a few concerns.
The most obvious issue that I (and many others here have) is the whole Numair and Daine relationship. This was downright uncomfortable to read at times. He is practically TWICE HER AGE and they engage in a very physical, sensuous relationship. And furthermore it is presented as a romantic star-crossed relationship instead of a vastly inappropriate abuse of trust. If this had been handled a bit differently, I might not be so weirded out by this, but it seems to acknowledge that the age gap is inappropriate even in a fantasy setting. Numair himself actually lists off reasons why and then promptly ignores them! It's not like Game of Thrones, which features young relationships as socially acceptable, but still damaging to the people involved. It is presented as a romantic happy ending.. and in a book that is intended for a middle school audience. WTF?!
In addition to that especially cringeworthy revelation, the rest of the book is paced terribly. So much time is spent in the immortal realms and it is a bit dull. She spends too much time talking to new gods about relatively inconsequential things while there is apparently a war going on. Said war is wrapped up in a hurried ending that just seems rushed.
Another issue I have is Daine's relationship with her parents. It's never really explained HOW they met and fell in love and Daine is kind of expected to simply embrace her father just like that despite never knowing anything about him beforehand. Also, I've griped about this before, Daine's self-righteous condemnation of her father hunting creatures that can be reborn is just obnoxious when she still doesn't embrace a vegetarian lifestyle and spends plenty of time eating animals who can't.
Honestly, I'm glad that this quartet is over. I hated Daine as a character and I found this series worse than the initial Alanna series. I might have disliked Alanna initally, but at least she wasn't as whiny as Daine and had a spirit I could admire.
The most obvious issue that I (and many others here have) is the whole Numair and Daine relationship. This was downright uncomfortable to read at times. He is practically TWICE HER AGE and they engage in a very physical, sensuous relationship. And furthermore it is presented as a romantic star-crossed relationship instead of a vastly inappropriate abuse of trust. If this had been handled a bit differently, I might not be so weirded out by this, but it seems to acknowledge that the age gap is inappropriate even in a fantasy setting. Numair himself actually lists off reasons why and then promptly ignores them! It's not like Game of Thrones, which features young relationships as socially acceptable, but still damaging to the people involved. It is presented as a romantic happy ending.. and in a book that is intended for a middle school audience. WTF?!
In addition to that especially cringeworthy revelation, the rest of the book is paced terribly. So much time is spent in the immortal realms and it is a bit dull. She spends too much time talking to new gods about relatively inconsequential things while there is apparently a war going on. Said war is wrapped up in a hurried ending that just seems rushed.
Another issue I have is Daine's relationship with her parents. It's never really explained HOW they met and fell in love and Daine is kind of expected to simply embrace her father just like that despite never knowing anything about him beforehand. Also, I've griped about this before, Daine's self-righteous condemnation of her father hunting creatures that can be reborn is just obnoxious when she still doesn't embrace a vegetarian lifestyle and spends plenty of time eating animals who can't.
Honestly, I'm glad that this quartet is over. I hated Daine as a character and I found this series worse than the initial Alanna series. I might have disliked Alanna initally, but at least she wasn't as whiny as Daine and had a spirit I could admire.
August 21, 2013
So not only do we have some typical fantasy problems, like overpowered characters who can do no wrong and are filled with truth, love and virtue, there's misused words, terrible description, plot holes, and then SPOILER AND TRIGGER WARNING, a thirty-year-old teacher macking on and making out with his sixteen-year-old student. BY THE WAY THEY'VE BEEN IN LOOOOOVE SINCE SHE WAS THIRTEEN. There's about one page of desultory, pro forma "oh huh this might be fucked up" discussion, and then EVERYTHING IS APPARENTLY FINE.
NO, TAMORA PIERCE. EVERYTHING IS NOT FINE.
Honestly, yay for having a girl as your main character in fantasy, but if the price for that is having this shit happen, I THINK I'M OKAY WITH SKIPPING THE LADY HEROINES. Jesus fucking Christ.
AND THIS IS YA. Because THAT'S a great example to emulate. At least when Eddings pulls this shit one, he's writing for adults, two, the characters actually wrestle with it, and three, THEY'RE BOTH ADULTS AT THE TIME.
NO, TAMORA PIERCE. EVERYTHING IS NOT FINE.
Honestly, yay for having a girl as your main character in fantasy, but if the price for that is having this shit happen, I THINK I'M OKAY WITH SKIPPING THE LADY HEROINES. Jesus fucking Christ.
AND THIS IS YA. Because THAT'S a great example to emulate. At least when Eddings pulls this shit one, he's writing for adults, two, the characters actually wrestle with it, and three, THEY'RE BOTH ADULTS AT THE TIME.
April 7, 2013
Gah! This series had to end on a bad note. I had the same problem with this book as I did with Wolf Speaker. Too much interactions with Daine's animals and the gods, and not enough human interactions, furthermore bogged down by the weakest part of Book 1, the war. Tamora Pierce has many strengths in her writing; writing battle scenes and war scenes are not one of them. I find them slow, bogged down, and I easily get confused and lost in the action...and not lost in a good way. Very disappointed in the conclusion.
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October 14, 2023
Honestly, kind of a lukewarm ending to the quartet.
When I was a kid reading this in the 90s, I thought Daine's and Numair's relationship was sweet.
As an adult, it creeps me the fuck out. And it just doesn't work well when taking the quartet in as a whole. It's not built up enough—not that it can be, seeing as Daine is 13, 14 and 15 in the previous books. Hell, it's gross even in book 4, when she is 16 to Numair's *checks notes* thirty.
The rest of it just kinda drags in weird places and rushes through the parts I found interesting.
When I was a kid reading this in the 90s, I thought Daine's and Numair's relationship was sweet.
As an adult, it creeps me the fuck out. And it just doesn't work well when taking the quartet in as a whole. It's not built up enough—not that it can be, seeing as Daine is 13, 14 and 15 in the previous books. Hell, it's gross even in book 4, when she is 16 to Numair's *checks notes* thirty.
The rest of it just kinda drags in weird places and rushes through the parts I found interesting.
January 10, 2008
I love Pierce, and even though none of her books will be better than the first series (Alana: The First Adventure) about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to become a squire (and eventually, a lady knight: the first such in many hundreds of years in her world of Tortall) I also really like this series. Well, I liked the first book in the series enough to give it, say, a 4. The second book wasn't that great. The third was a little better. This was a nice low-point to finish the series. Lame-o.
Also set in Tortall, the protagonist is a "Wild Mage" someone able to call up unusual powers: mostly talking to animals, controlling animals, and transforming into animals). They are intended for an adolescent audience, but popular with adults as well.
Pierce is a great author, though life is occasionally a bit too prancing-pony perfect in Tortall: everyone gets along, the Queen is the most beautiful woman in the land, every protagonist ends up with her favorite friend/mentor as a husband in the final book of series. I don't recommend reading this book.
Also set in Tortall, the protagonist is a "Wild Mage" someone able to call up unusual powers: mostly talking to animals, controlling animals, and transforming into animals). They are intended for an adolescent audience, but popular with adults as well.
Pierce is a great author, though life is occasionally a bit too prancing-pony perfect in Tortall: everyone gets along, the Queen is the most beautiful woman in the land, every protagonist ends up with her favorite friend/mentor as a husband in the final book of series. I don't recommend reading this book.
August 19, 2021
Editing note: don't know why, but for some reason way back when I wrote this review I wrote 'beaver' whenever I should have wrote 'badger.' Probably because I've never seen a badger and have only the vaguest idea of what one is. Anyway, here's the original review. Mentally replace 'b' animals accordingly and I stand by the rest of it.
...
I almost gave this book three stars, because there are a few things that I really liked: the darkings' origin, seeing all the dragons in the dragonlands, the good-guy stormwings, particularly Rikash, who I was sad to see die, the beaver god, who by this point in the series is an old friend, and the addition of the platypus, who amused me, and the final battle between Ozorne and Daine, which is pretty metal for a kid's series given the graphic descriptions of them tearing each other apart. And it was helpful that this filled out a lot of the missing pieces from the Protector of the Small series and Trickster's series, which I read back when they came out, and which remain some of my favorites in YA fantasy.
Of course, without these things, this book would have gotten no stars. It was a weak ending to what I already considered the weakest series set in the modern Tortall universe. As for the series, Daine's an insanely overpowered character who gets new powers every book. (I was able to forgive this in Emperor Mage because the whole concept of wrecking a palace with reanimated dinosaur skeletons was awesome, and she lost those powers at the end of the book, but even taking that out of the picture it's excessive.) Daine also seems to have the least complex internal monologue out of all the Tortall heroines, so it's hard to pin her character down a lot of the time. I enjoyed the initial concept of the immortals returning to the human world again and of the potential war with Carthak, but I think overall it got squandered.
That being said, as for this book: first, I think taking things to the Divine Realms was a poor choice. Just deciding that this installment should be 'the Realm of the Gods' was not the way to tie this whole thing up.
The Goddess of Chaos shtick came out of nowhere and was overdone and boring. It was never mentioned before. It'll never be mentioned again. It seemed like a cheap attempt to make the book more interesting by upping the stakes: as if it isn't enough of a threat that Tortall and its allies are being overrun with monsters and all of its enemies (the Copper Isles, Scanra, Carthaki factions) have opted to attack at once (which was actually decently interesting), it's revealed that if they fail in defeating all this, all of the gods will be destroyed and then the universe will end. And to drive this home, instead of seeing the battles with monsters or foreign enemies alongside the characters we know and care about, we get to see the gods standing around in circles throwing light at each other! Many times! How exciting! (Not.)
While I admit Daine probably had to meet her parents at some point in the series, staying at their house for a while and having a couple days of chatting somehow reconcile Daine to her mother's brutal murder and her dead-beat father being a God was again dull and unsatisfying. And the Hercules choice she had to make at the end didn't seem like much of a choice at all: become a god and stay with your mom, who you barely know anymore, and your dad, who you just met and who left you thinking you were a bastard your entire childhood, or return to everything you know and love and have fought for the last four years? Particularly after Daine spent the whole book trying to leave the Divine Realms? It seemed contrived that Daine even had to think hard about it.
The journey through the realms of the gods could have been interesting but it wasn't, because it went from scene to scene and encounter to encounter so quickly. It was like riding a tour bus on an inside seat in a crowded city, going a little too fast: on your right, the bridge of doom, oh wait, we passed it fine, on your left, lake of temptation, hope you don't drown, up ahead, crocodile god, blink and you'll miss him, there he goes, I hope those suspicious rocks on the left don't kill you, well, you miraculously survived that fall off a cliff to escape them, and up ahead, the Sea of Sands desert-of-death we've been hyping up this whole trip, but we're out of time folks, so maybe look down at it from your airplane as you leave this city (or, as it happens, fly over it with stormwings, because I guess Pierce couldn't figure out any other way to live through that one), hope you had a nice tour.
And finally, for the divine realms complaints, introducing the Gods more actively into the story introduced deus ex machina after deus ex machina into it. The skinners, which could have been awesome if fleshed out (pardon the pun)? Daine and Numair are saved from them by her parents, then they're dealt with by the Beaver god. The four horsemen of the apocalypse AKA the three sorrows being unleashed? Dealt with by the platypus god. The darking spies? Dealt with by the Beaver god (he's probably the real MVP of this series). The Sea of Sands? Circumvented via stormwing. That feared Copper Isles relief fleet headed for Port Legann? Dispatched by dragons. (Again. A bit repetitive after the dragon aid to their attacking fleet problem in book one.) Daine, being out of magic and near death after being shredded by Ozorne and about to face our new Chaos Goddess one-on-one? Don't worry, she's literally plucked up by the gods again, Chaos is handled by them, she's healed by them, and sent back home. After the remove the worst of the monsters from the mortal realms. The main characters mostly aren't in this, or stumble around hoping nothing kills them, until the Daine/Ozorne shredding battle. Well, Numair has a battle with a mage who is wickedly powerful and apparently plucked out his own eye to sacrifice it to gain even more power. Off screen.
With all of that aside, my second major issue with this book (and to an extent Emperor Mage) is Daine's relationship with Numair. She's sixteen in this book. Fifteen in Emperor Mage. He's thirty? Thirty-one? Something like that. He's known her and been her teacher since she was twelve/thirteen. That alone is creepy enough. But it gets worse. I could maybe excuse the age difference in this setting, if it weren't for the rest of it. Sixteen seems to be the age of consent in Tortall. Real, historical medieval marriages could be legally binding in cannon law as long as the 'woman' avowed it when she was over the age of twelve. Margaret Beaufort was thirteen when she gave birth to King Henry VII. But Numair is in a position of trust over Daine. He's her teacher, and in most ways, seemingly her guardian in the earlier books. And there's no build up to it on her part. She seems to view him as a beloved mentor, friend and companion until this book and then gets swept away being in love with him when she finds out he's in love with her. On his part, though: in Emperor Mage, he goes around threatening her potential romantic interests with violence, over her distinct and well voiced objections. Then, the way she finds out he's in love with her in this book: she discovers he keeps a heart shaped locket hidden under his clothes... with her painted miniature in it... which he had done in secret... six months before... and a lock of her hair, which he cut and kept without her permission or even telling her... while she was apparently deathly ill and unconscious. Which is soooo sooo creepy to me. Who thinks: hmmm, my secret object of interest is so ill they're no longer conscious... time to take souvenirs for my hidden love locket!? Pierce tries to excuse all this saying Numair is immature for his age and that everything Daine has been through has made her more mature, so the mental difference isn't that great... but I don't think 'well, he has poor social skills and trauma has forced Daine to grow up before her time, so a relationship with a man twice her age is totally cool' is a good excuse.
Actually, I have a problem with Pierce and this trope in general, because this isn't the first time. I read the Alanna series as a little kid and a lot of the grownup stuff just sort of went over my head, and I never re-read it until recently, because it didn't catch my imagination the way Protector of the Small and the Trickster duet did when I was a bit older, but re-reading it as an adult, I was really disappointed in Alanna's relationship with Jonathan, particularly since I didn't remember it happening at all from my childhood reading. The age difference wasn't severe, Jonathan is only three or four years older than Alanna, but it starts when Jonathan is Alanna's knight master when she's a squire, which again, is a position of trust, and Jonathan also initiates interest in the relationship and is also creepily possessive, but with the added bonus of having pushy and controlling mood swings, which, if they happened to a friend of mine in real life, I'd be telling said friend to run from that relationship as fast as they could, because it reeks of emotional abuse. If found it doubly disappointing, both because it colored how I see Jonathan in everything else now with undertones of abusive-and controlling-teenage-boyfriend and because it colored my re-readings of Squire in the Protector of the Small series. When I first read Squire, I found the implications that Kel might have an affair with her knight master insulting and sexist on the part of the people making them, but then I discovered that Alanna, the only other female knight in centuries, did just that, with their current King- the guy authorizing the return of female knights- no less, and now I can't help thinking, well, I guess those people had a point, didn't they?
But this is getting long and slightly off topic, so let's just say, this book would have been much better if it was pretty much an entirely different book but with the handful of cool things in it somehow fit into it in a different way.
...
I almost gave this book three stars, because there are a few things that I really liked: the darkings' origin, seeing all the dragons in the dragonlands, the good-guy stormwings, particularly Rikash, who I was sad to see die, the beaver god, who by this point in the series is an old friend, and the addition of the platypus, who amused me, and the final battle between Ozorne and Daine, which is pretty metal for a kid's series given the graphic descriptions of them tearing each other apart. And it was helpful that this filled out a lot of the missing pieces from the Protector of the Small series and Trickster's series, which I read back when they came out, and which remain some of my favorites in YA fantasy.
Of course, without these things, this book would have gotten no stars. It was a weak ending to what I already considered the weakest series set in the modern Tortall universe. As for the series, Daine's an insanely overpowered character who gets new powers every book. (I was able to forgive this in Emperor Mage because the whole concept of wrecking a palace with reanimated dinosaur skeletons was awesome, and she lost those powers at the end of the book, but even taking that out of the picture it's excessive.) Daine also seems to have the least complex internal monologue out of all the Tortall heroines, so it's hard to pin her character down a lot of the time. I enjoyed the initial concept of the immortals returning to the human world again and of the potential war with Carthak, but I think overall it got squandered.
That being said, as for this book: first, I think taking things to the Divine Realms was a poor choice. Just deciding that this installment should be 'the Realm of the Gods' was not the way to tie this whole thing up.
The Goddess of Chaos shtick came out of nowhere and was overdone and boring. It was never mentioned before. It'll never be mentioned again. It seemed like a cheap attempt to make the book more interesting by upping the stakes: as if it isn't enough of a threat that Tortall and its allies are being overrun with monsters and all of its enemies (the Copper Isles, Scanra, Carthaki factions) have opted to attack at once (which was actually decently interesting), it's revealed that if they fail in defeating all this, all of the gods will be destroyed and then the universe will end. And to drive this home, instead of seeing the battles with monsters or foreign enemies alongside the characters we know and care about, we get to see the gods standing around in circles throwing light at each other! Many times! How exciting! (Not.)
While I admit Daine probably had to meet her parents at some point in the series, staying at their house for a while and having a couple days of chatting somehow reconcile Daine to her mother's brutal murder and her dead-beat father being a God was again dull and unsatisfying. And the Hercules choice she had to make at the end didn't seem like much of a choice at all: become a god and stay with your mom, who you barely know anymore, and your dad, who you just met and who left you thinking you were a bastard your entire childhood, or return to everything you know and love and have fought for the last four years? Particularly after Daine spent the whole book trying to leave the Divine Realms? It seemed contrived that Daine even had to think hard about it.
The journey through the realms of the gods could have been interesting but it wasn't, because it went from scene to scene and encounter to encounter so quickly. It was like riding a tour bus on an inside seat in a crowded city, going a little too fast: on your right, the bridge of doom, oh wait, we passed it fine, on your left, lake of temptation, hope you don't drown, up ahead, crocodile god, blink and you'll miss him, there he goes, I hope those suspicious rocks on the left don't kill you, well, you miraculously survived that fall off a cliff to escape them, and up ahead, the Sea of Sands desert-of-death we've been hyping up this whole trip, but we're out of time folks, so maybe look down at it from your airplane as you leave this city (or, as it happens, fly over it with stormwings, because I guess Pierce couldn't figure out any other way to live through that one), hope you had a nice tour.
And finally, for the divine realms complaints, introducing the Gods more actively into the story introduced deus ex machina after deus ex machina into it. The skinners, which could have been awesome if fleshed out (pardon the pun)? Daine and Numair are saved from them by her parents, then they're dealt with by the Beaver god. The four horsemen of the apocalypse AKA the three sorrows being unleashed? Dealt with by the platypus god. The darking spies? Dealt with by the Beaver god (he's probably the real MVP of this series). The Sea of Sands? Circumvented via stormwing. That feared Copper Isles relief fleet headed for Port Legann? Dispatched by dragons. (Again. A bit repetitive after the dragon aid to their attacking fleet problem in book one.) Daine, being out of magic and near death after being shredded by Ozorne and about to face our new Chaos Goddess one-on-one? Don't worry, she's literally plucked up by the gods again, Chaos is handled by them, she's healed by them, and sent back home. After the remove the worst of the monsters from the mortal realms. The main characters mostly aren't in this, or stumble around hoping nothing kills them, until the Daine/Ozorne shredding battle. Well, Numair has a battle with a mage who is wickedly powerful and apparently plucked out his own eye to sacrifice it to gain even more power. Off screen.
With all of that aside, my second major issue with this book (and to an extent Emperor Mage) is Daine's relationship with Numair. She's sixteen in this book. Fifteen in Emperor Mage. He's thirty? Thirty-one? Something like that. He's known her and been her teacher since she was twelve/thirteen. That alone is creepy enough. But it gets worse. I could maybe excuse the age difference in this setting, if it weren't for the rest of it. Sixteen seems to be the age of consent in Tortall. Real, historical medieval marriages could be legally binding in cannon law as long as the 'woman' avowed it when she was over the age of twelve. Margaret Beaufort was thirteen when she gave birth to King Henry VII. But Numair is in a position of trust over Daine. He's her teacher, and in most ways, seemingly her guardian in the earlier books. And there's no build up to it on her part. She seems to view him as a beloved mentor, friend and companion until this book and then gets swept away being in love with him when she finds out he's in love with her. On his part, though: in Emperor Mage, he goes around threatening her potential romantic interests with violence, over her distinct and well voiced objections. Then, the way she finds out he's in love with her in this book: she discovers he keeps a heart shaped locket hidden under his clothes... with her painted miniature in it... which he had done in secret... six months before... and a lock of her hair, which he cut and kept without her permission or even telling her... while she was apparently deathly ill and unconscious. Which is soooo sooo creepy to me. Who thinks: hmmm, my secret object of interest is so ill they're no longer conscious... time to take souvenirs for my hidden love locket!? Pierce tries to excuse all this saying Numair is immature for his age and that everything Daine has been through has made her more mature, so the mental difference isn't that great... but I don't think 'well, he has poor social skills and trauma has forced Daine to grow up before her time, so a relationship with a man twice her age is totally cool' is a good excuse.
Actually, I have a problem with Pierce and this trope in general, because this isn't the first time. I read the Alanna series as a little kid and a lot of the grownup stuff just sort of went over my head, and I never re-read it until recently, because it didn't catch my imagination the way Protector of the Small and the Trickster duet did when I was a bit older, but re-reading it as an adult, I was really disappointed in Alanna's relationship with Jonathan, particularly since I didn't remember it happening at all from my childhood reading. The age difference wasn't severe, Jonathan is only three or four years older than Alanna, but it starts when Jonathan is Alanna's knight master when she's a squire, which again, is a position of trust, and Jonathan also initiates interest in the relationship and is also creepily possessive, but with the added bonus of having pushy and controlling mood swings, which, if they happened to a friend of mine in real life, I'd be telling said friend to run from that relationship as fast as they could, because it reeks of emotional abuse. If found it doubly disappointing, both because it colored how I see Jonathan in everything else now with undertones of abusive-and controlling-teenage-boyfriend and because it colored my re-readings of Squire in the Protector of the Small series. When I first read Squire, I found the implications that Kel might have an affair with her knight master insulting and sexist on the part of the people making them, but then I discovered that Alanna, the only other female knight in centuries, did just that, with their current King- the guy authorizing the return of female knights- no less, and now I can't help thinking, well, I guess those people had a point, didn't they?
But this is getting long and slightly off topic, so let's just say, this book would have been much better if it was pretty much an entirely different book but with the handful of cool things in it somehow fit into it in a different way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2020
3.5 stars
This was an interesting ending to this quartet. Daine and Numair end up in the realm of the gods and meet Daine's parents. And of course, Ozorne did not go softly into the night and is back to create more havoc and problems for Tortall. I already knew from First Test that
I don't have much else to say about this one. It was fun, though it didn't quite hold my attention like the previous one did. I like how confident and comfortable Daine has become in her abilities, and while she's able to solve problems a little too easily with her mind speaking abilities with all animals and immortals, she does still have a decent showdown with Ozorne.
This was an interesting ending to this quartet. Daine and Numair end up in the realm of the gods and meet Daine's parents. And of course, Ozorne did not go softly into the night and is back to create more havoc and problems for Tortall. I already knew from First Test that
I don't have much else to say about this one. It was fun, though it didn't quite hold my attention like the previous one did. I like how confident and comfortable Daine has become in her abilities, and while she's able to solve problems a little too easily with her mind speaking abilities with all animals and immortals, she does still have a decent showdown with Ozorne.
August 15, 2018
Lowered to 2 stars after consideration.
Overall series rating: 3.25
--
Tragically, Realms of the Gods was my least favorite installment in the Immortals quartet.
I blame Cloud's absence. The plot seriously needed some horse sense.
It felt like both Emperor Mage and Realms of the Gods suffered where execution and characterization was concerned. While I still enjoyed a lot of the thematic elements of Emperor Mage (and especially Ozorne), I can't say the same for the vast majority of Realms of the Gods. With the exception of the last two chapters - which returned to the action-driven roots of the series - this book felt choppy and tonally inconsistent.
I also started picking up on a sort of . . . I don't know . . . Increased childishness? This was true in book three to some degree as well, as I commented in that review, but this one really suffered from it. Even given the child narrator who speaks to animals, books one and two possessed a high degree of self-awareness, with well-crafted prose and a tone/plot that bridged age groups incredibly well.
But book four's rambling quest through the Divine Realms - a plot contrivance employed very transparently to shove Daine and Numair together for romantic development - resulted in an almost cartoonish interlude in what should have been the most harrowing, battle-oriented novel of the series. We lost nearly all of the political scope of the plot in order to make room for some half-baked, left-field drama with the Goddess of Chaos (never before mentioned??) and the Great Gods. With so much else happening in the world, why was this necessary? It felt so lazy.
Every scene with Daine and her parents was practically cringe worthy. In every other novel, Daine experiences some trial that challenges her understanding of the universe and of her own power. This book should have found Daine reconciling the condition of her own birth; yet every scene we get with Weiryn falls utterly flat. Daine refers to him easily and naturally as "Da," with little to no introspection regarding his place in her life, her long-held status as bastard and orphan, or his utter lack of involvement in her life up till this point. The quaintly domestic scenes between the new goddess, Sarra, and her "mate" are pointless and exasperatingly heteronormative. Neither character was developed well enough to warrant significant page-time - which really bums me the hell out, because I was so looking forward to the Weiryn reveal and Daine's first significant interactions with her father.
Finally, the Daine/Numair romance - I didn't enjoy it at all, for the following reasons.
First, Daine is simply too young. It's something I just cannot get over, and something that could have been very easily avoided by just . . . Adding more time between installments? Starting Numair out as a few years younger/Daine a few years older? The choice to keep Daine young was a deliberate one, and one I ultimately can't forgive. Exacerbating this was the fact that - even though Daine is four years older in this book than the first - her speech patterns and behavior are still largely the same, giving the strong impression of an indisputable child.
Just . . . Gross, man.
Second, the romantic development was sparse and contrived. It simply didn't fit to have Daine and Numair traveling together outside of the main battle. In fact, the romance would have evolved more organically had they spent most of the book apart, fighting their mutual enemies in separate battles but fearing and longing for each other.
Relatedly, Daine experiences - once again - no internal conflict over the new romance with Numair, a man far older than her and who has acted for years as a mentor and teacher - both which necessitate a power imbalance that required significant discussion on the page. No such discussion occurs. What we get is a brief, matter-of-fact conversation about whether Numair just wants to sleep with her or not, after which Daine pretty much immediately comes around to the idea of a romantic relationship with him, something she has literally never actively considered before.
Overall, a great disappointment to a series I really enjoyed at the beginning.
Overall series rating: 3.25
--
Tragically, Realms of the Gods was my least favorite installment in the Immortals quartet.
I blame Cloud's absence. The plot seriously needed some horse sense.
It felt like both Emperor Mage and Realms of the Gods suffered where execution and characterization was concerned. While I still enjoyed a lot of the thematic elements of Emperor Mage (and especially Ozorne), I can't say the same for the vast majority of Realms of the Gods. With the exception of the last two chapters - which returned to the action-driven roots of the series - this book felt choppy and tonally inconsistent.
I also started picking up on a sort of . . . I don't know . . . Increased childishness? This was true in book three to some degree as well, as I commented in that review, but this one really suffered from it. Even given the child narrator who speaks to animals, books one and two possessed a high degree of self-awareness, with well-crafted prose and a tone/plot that bridged age groups incredibly well.
But book four's rambling quest through the Divine Realms - a plot contrivance employed very transparently to shove Daine and Numair together for romantic development - resulted in an almost cartoonish interlude in what should have been the most harrowing, battle-oriented novel of the series. We lost nearly all of the political scope of the plot in order to make room for some half-baked, left-field drama with the Goddess of Chaos (never before mentioned??) and the Great Gods. With so much else happening in the world, why was this necessary? It felt so lazy.
Every scene with Daine and her parents was practically cringe worthy. In every other novel, Daine experiences some trial that challenges her understanding of the universe and of her own power. This book should have found Daine reconciling the condition of her own birth; yet every scene we get with Weiryn falls utterly flat. Daine refers to him easily and naturally as "Da," with little to no introspection regarding his place in her life, her long-held status as bastard and orphan, or his utter lack of involvement in her life up till this point. The quaintly domestic scenes between the new goddess, Sarra, and her "mate" are pointless and exasperatingly heteronormative. Neither character was developed well enough to warrant significant page-time - which really bums me the hell out, because I was so looking forward to the Weiryn reveal and Daine's first significant interactions with her father.
Finally, the Daine/Numair romance - I didn't enjoy it at all, for the following reasons.
First, Daine is simply too young. It's something I just cannot get over, and something that could have been very easily avoided by just . . . Adding more time between installments? Starting Numair out as a few years younger/Daine a few years older? The choice to keep Daine young was a deliberate one, and one I ultimately can't forgive. Exacerbating this was the fact that - even though Daine is four years older in this book than the first - her speech patterns and behavior are still largely the same, giving the strong impression of an indisputable child.
Just . . . Gross, man.
Second, the romantic development was sparse and contrived. It simply didn't fit to have Daine and Numair traveling together outside of the main battle. In fact, the romance would have evolved more organically had they spent most of the book apart, fighting their mutual enemies in separate battles but fearing and longing for each other.
Relatedly, Daine experiences - once again - no internal conflict over the new romance with Numair, a man far older than her and who has acted for years as a mentor and teacher - both which necessitate a power imbalance that required significant discussion on the page. No such discussion occurs. What we get is a brief, matter-of-fact conversation about whether Numair just wants to sleep with her or not, after which Daine pretty much immediately comes around to the idea of a romantic relationship with him, something she has literally never actively considered before.
Overall, a great disappointment to a series I really enjoyed at the beginning.
May 28, 2009
Reviewed by Candace Cunard for TeensReadToo.com
It's been a year since wild mage Daine, now sixteen, helped topple Emperor Orzone of Carthak, but at that time his consciousness was trapped within the body of an immortal flesh-eating bird known as a stormwing, and therefore his presence is still integral to the story. In fact, Orzone has teamed up with Uusoae, the goddess of chaos, and together their power threatens to destroy everything Daine knows and loves.
Daine may be young, but she and those around her all accept that she has an important part to play in this fight, defending the kingdom of Tortall that became her home four years ago.
This final book in Tamora Pierce's THE IMMORTALS series is literally out of this world, with Daine and Numair spending the majority of the narrative in the titular realms of the gods. They are taken there by benevolent forces who seek their safety and remove them from their world when they are on the brink of death.
Although many of the mysteries of Daine's past begin to unravel due to the information she gathers, both she and Numair wish to return home to their own world to do their part in the battles that are raging between Tortall and the forces of chaos. To do this, they'll have to journey through the immortal realms to the land of the dragons, since Daine's friendship with the dragon Kitten makes them the only immortals who might be able to send Daine back to her world.
Though it isn't my favorite volume in the series (that would be EMPEROR MAGE, the third book), this book does a good job of concluding the quartet. Many of the major questions that have been left open by the earlier books are answered, and the development of Daine's character continues to present her as a solid human being with strengths and weaknesses, both of which she must learn to harness to her advantage.
In this series, Pierce introduces another strong young woman whose life and adventures will make for an exciting read and a real inspiration at any age.
It's been a year since wild mage Daine, now sixteen, helped topple Emperor Orzone of Carthak, but at that time his consciousness was trapped within the body of an immortal flesh-eating bird known as a stormwing, and therefore his presence is still integral to the story. In fact, Orzone has teamed up with Uusoae, the goddess of chaos, and together their power threatens to destroy everything Daine knows and loves.
Daine may be young, but she and those around her all accept that she has an important part to play in this fight, defending the kingdom of Tortall that became her home four years ago.
This final book in Tamora Pierce's THE IMMORTALS series is literally out of this world, with Daine and Numair spending the majority of the narrative in the titular realms of the gods. They are taken there by benevolent forces who seek their safety and remove them from their world when they are on the brink of death.
Although many of the mysteries of Daine's past begin to unravel due to the information she gathers, both she and Numair wish to return home to their own world to do their part in the battles that are raging between Tortall and the forces of chaos. To do this, they'll have to journey through the immortal realms to the land of the dragons, since Daine's friendship with the dragon Kitten makes them the only immortals who might be able to send Daine back to her world.
Though it isn't my favorite volume in the series (that would be EMPEROR MAGE, the third book), this book does a good job of concluding the quartet. Many of the major questions that have been left open by the earlier books are answered, and the development of Daine's character continues to present her as a solid human being with strengths and weaknesses, both of which she must learn to harness to her advantage.
In this series, Pierce introduces another strong young woman whose life and adventures will make for an exciting read and a real inspiration at any age.
October 12, 2011
Showdown between Mortals and the Immortals
Daine and Numair have been doing their best, fighting against the forces of the now Immortal, Ozorne. In a battle at the cusp of death, they are spirited away to the Realms of the Gods by Daine's mother, Sarra, and her father, both of whom are gods. But Daine can think of only one thing: fighting in the battle in Tortall and saving her friends. Numair and Daine must then journey to the Land of the Dragons to return to Tortall and hopefully save their people.
The journey is complete! I must admit, I do find myself a little sad at the conclusion to this series. It has been a fun ride, even with the hiccups I've seen.
In the last entry of The Immortals Quartet, we have a lot of changes and a lot of developments. One of the biggest is the relationship between Daine and Numair. Even from the beginning, Wild Magic, we could sorta tell there was a spark between these two. Now, this spark officially becomes love. The weird thing is, I thought it was squicky. I really hate to say that--I've adored many romance between two people of wildly different ages (the Erlking/Dana from Glimmerglass and Jane Eyre/Mr. Rochester as two examples). *EMBARRASSING ADMISSION TIME* Frak, I've even written some fanfic about teacher/student romantic pairings!*END* But for whatever reason, maybe because Daine is SO young (13) when she first meets Numair, maybe because Numair has been Daine's teacher for so long, maybe because Daine is only 16 in this book while Numair is in his early 30's, I just was totally squicked out when they revealed their love for each other.
However, that said, the romance WAS done well (I know, sounds hypocritical--I know I don't make sense!). Numair and Daine NEVER fell insta-love. Their affections grew over the years, over KNOWING and caring for the other person. Also, Daine NEVER ONCE backed down from doing something dangerous because of her love for Numair. She continued to battle, even knowing that either she or Numair could die. And the romance NEVER halts the story and completely careens it off into "Googly Eyes" territory. With all the hokey romantic stories in young adult novels today, this was VERY refreshing.
Another big development is we get to see the Realms of the Gods and find out more about Daine's mother. It was nice to see how the gods lived, what happened to Daine's mom, and to have a mini-journey before the final battle (though, I was wondering for a moment there if Pierce would be able to pull it off--she almost didn't leave herself enough time for a good Final Battle!). I also really liked the Showdown between Daine and Ozorne. It was intense and kept me listening to the very end. I also thought it was well-thought out and, for the most part (considering I listened to this on audiobook), I could see how the scene happened.
As with all these books, I found some stuff that I didn't like (besides, of course, the relationship). I thought an awful lot of time was spent with Daine and Numair returning to Tortall. I missed a lot of the characters in earlier books--Onua, who barely gets a line in, Alanna, the King and Queen, and more. Daine is straddling the Mary Sue line; she has become almost omnipotent at this point (thank goddess she doesn't end up getting BOTH options the gods give her at the very end), not to mention with her bias towards Stormwings gone, she virtually has no flaws or weaknesses. However, I will also say, she is one of the most tolerable Mary Sue's I've ever read. Through this series, I've also discovered I am NOT a big animal person, thus a lot of the book was rather blah for me (to those that do like animals, this is your book!). I can only take so much talking, cute animals.
But there was also a lot of stuff I did like. We get new creatures, the Darkings, which I imagined to be SO CUTE and ADORABLE and AW SO SPESHUL! (Sounds like I contradicted myself again!) Daine doesn't jump headlong into marrying a guy at 16 and decides to wait it out--and he respects her decision and never forces her to be someone she is not. We get a journey AND a final battle. And our villain, Ozorne, maintains his evil scariness withOUT resorting to being a cliche.
This has been a really enjoyable series to read. Tamora Pierce has written some really enjoyable fantasy that has managed to avoid most of the pratfalls I've seen a lot of other young adult novels fall prey to--Mary Sues (depending on your view, Daine could be one or could not), insta-love, romance dominating the story, a lack of background research, no clear idea of surroundings. A good series for adults, but I definitely think that teenaged girls should check this out, as they will probably enjoy way more.
Daine and Numair have been doing their best, fighting against the forces of the now Immortal, Ozorne. In a battle at the cusp of death, they are spirited away to the Realms of the Gods by Daine's mother, Sarra, and her father, both of whom are gods. But Daine can think of only one thing: fighting in the battle in Tortall and saving her friends. Numair and Daine must then journey to the Land of the Dragons to return to Tortall and hopefully save their people.
The journey is complete! I must admit, I do find myself a little sad at the conclusion to this series. It has been a fun ride, even with the hiccups I've seen.
In the last entry of The Immortals Quartet, we have a lot of changes and a lot of developments. One of the biggest is the relationship between Daine and Numair. Even from the beginning, Wild Magic, we could sorta tell there was a spark between these two. Now, this spark officially becomes love. The weird thing is, I thought it was squicky. I really hate to say that--I've adored many romance between two people of wildly different ages (the Erlking/Dana from Glimmerglass and Jane Eyre/Mr. Rochester as two examples). *EMBARRASSING ADMISSION TIME* Frak, I've even written some fanfic about teacher/student romantic pairings!*END* But for whatever reason, maybe because Daine is SO young (13) when she first meets Numair, maybe because Numair has been Daine's teacher for so long, maybe because Daine is only 16 in this book while Numair is in his early 30's, I just was totally squicked out when they revealed their love for each other.
However, that said, the romance WAS done well (I know, sounds hypocritical--I know I don't make sense!). Numair and Daine NEVER fell insta-love. Their affections grew over the years, over KNOWING and caring for the other person. Also, Daine NEVER ONCE backed down from doing something dangerous because of her love for Numair. She continued to battle, even knowing that either she or Numair could die. And the romance NEVER halts the story and completely careens it off into "Googly Eyes" territory. With all the hokey romantic stories in young adult novels today, this was VERY refreshing.
Another big development is we get to see the Realms of the Gods and find out more about Daine's mother. It was nice to see how the gods lived, what happened to Daine's mom, and to have a mini-journey before the final battle (though, I was wondering for a moment there if Pierce would be able to pull it off--she almost didn't leave herself enough time for a good Final Battle!). I also really liked the Showdown between Daine and Ozorne. It was intense and kept me listening to the very end. I also thought it was well-thought out and, for the most part (considering I listened to this on audiobook), I could see how the scene happened.
As with all these books, I found some stuff that I didn't like (besides, of course, the relationship). I thought an awful lot of time was spent with Daine and Numair returning to Tortall. I missed a lot of the characters in earlier books--Onua, who barely gets a line in, Alanna, the King and Queen, and more. Daine is straddling the Mary Sue line; she has become almost omnipotent at this point (thank goddess she doesn't end up getting BOTH options the gods give her at the very end), not to mention with her bias towards Stormwings gone, she virtually has no flaws or weaknesses. However, I will also say, she is one of the most tolerable Mary Sue's I've ever read. Through this series, I've also discovered I am NOT a big animal person, thus a lot of the book was rather blah for me (to those that do like animals, this is your book!). I can only take so much talking, cute animals.
But there was also a lot of stuff I did like. We get new creatures, the Darkings, which I imagined to be SO CUTE and ADORABLE and AW SO SPESHUL! (Sounds like I contradicted myself again!) Daine doesn't jump headlong into marrying a guy at 16 and decides to wait it out--and he respects her decision and never forces her to be someone she is not. We get a journey AND a final battle. And our villain, Ozorne, maintains his evil scariness withOUT resorting to being a cliche.
This has been a really enjoyable series to read. Tamora Pierce has written some really enjoyable fantasy that has managed to avoid most of the pratfalls I've seen a lot of other young adult novels fall prey to--Mary Sues (depending on your view, Daine could be one or could not), insta-love, romance dominating the story, a lack of background research, no clear idea of surroundings. A good series for adults, but I definitely think that teenaged girls should check this out, as they will probably enjoy way more.
May 26, 2018
Just a warning. THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.
Good now that that is out of the way, I can finally say what I have been wanting to say. I loved the other books in this series. I gave them a 13/15 star wise. I liked the main characters, the magic system was fascinating,and even the conflict held my interest. I am convinced that this book was the product of an editor pushing a romance requirement onto the author. This book was horrible. I only skimmed it, and I was absolutely disgusted with what I read. I'm going to say it louder for the people in the back but TEACHER/STUDENT relationships are not okay. After reading those romance filled parts I set down the book, stewed for a little bit and read the acknowledgements. Pierce states that the age gap didn't bother her because Numair was young emotionally, and Daine was older emotionally. Ha. Ha Ha. Ha Ha Ha. It's still disturbing and a complete lack of trust. Daine was 16 years old, and Numair was 30. That's wrong. To put it in perspective I am a few years older than Daine was in this book, and I am uncomfortable with the idea of dating someone who is thirty. Just because a book is fantasy, does not excuse the problematic elements. I am disgusted with this book, and will not finish it or read anything else by the author. I can't support those problems.
Good now that that is out of the way, I can finally say what I have been wanting to say. I loved the other books in this series. I gave them a 13/15 star wise. I liked the main characters, the magic system was fascinating,and even the conflict held my interest. I am convinced that this book was the product of an editor pushing a romance requirement onto the author. This book was horrible. I only skimmed it, and I was absolutely disgusted with what I read. I'm going to say it louder for the people in the back but TEACHER/STUDENT relationships are not okay. After reading those romance filled parts I set down the book, stewed for a little bit and read the acknowledgements. Pierce states that the age gap didn't bother her because Numair was young emotionally, and Daine was older emotionally. Ha. Ha Ha. Ha Ha Ha. It's still disturbing and a complete lack of trust. Daine was 16 years old, and Numair was 30. That's wrong. To put it in perspective I am a few years older than Daine was in this book, and I am uncomfortable with the idea of dating someone who is thirty. Just because a book is fantasy, does not excuse the problematic elements. I am disgusted with this book, and will not finish it or read anything else by the author. I can't support those problems.
August 4, 2018
Well, this wraps up my reread of the Immortals quartet. I'd only read this series once before (compared to my many rereads of Protector of the Small and Song of the Lioness), so I am glad I revisited. But my opinions on this book were not swayed. While fun things happen and the Darkings are adorable, I'm still skeptical of the worldbuilding of the Realms of the Gods, and I cannot rate a book with this romance any higher. Seriously, Numair? You're a grown man and she's sixteen. Gross.
I would say that my reread has revealed to me that my ratings of these books generally decline across the series, with me really enjoying the first two, not so much the third, and being more than a little annoyed by this one.
My reviews of the others: Wild Magic, Wolf-Speaker, Emperor Mage
I would say that my reread has revealed to me that my ratings of these books generally decline across the series, with me really enjoying the first two, not so much the third, and being more than a little annoyed by this one.
My reviews of the others: Wild Magic, Wolf-Speaker, Emperor Mage
March 3, 2016
WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY IS 30-YEAR-OLD NUMAIR FUCKING WITH HIS 16-YEAR-OLD STUDENT THAT HE'S BEEN BASICALLY A SURROGATE DAD TO SINCE SHE WAS 12 HOW DOES AN ETHICAL, DECENT 30-YEAR-OLD LOOK AT A 16-YEAR-OLD AND THINK "MMM YES SEXUAL/ROMANTIC OPPORTUNITY" AND NOT "AWWWWW LIL BB MAGE"??????? TAMORA PIERCE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WHY ARE YOU MODELING THIS GARBAGE FOR TEEN GIRLS INSTEAD OF, AS A FRIEND POINTED OUT, A NICE NORMALIZING CONVERSATION WHERE DAINE IS CRUSHING ON NUMAIR AND HE'S LIKE "I GET IT BUT ACTUALLY HERE'S WHY THAT WOULD BE INAPPROPRIATE; PLEASE GO FIND A DATE OR FOOL-AROUND BUDDY YOUR OWN AGE!" AND GOES BACK TO BEING A NICE NOT-CREEPY MENTOR FIGURE???? GOD WHY.
February 27, 2010
In this the final installment of the Immortals series Diane spends most of the book in the divine realms after being saved from certain death by her parents who are both gods. Apparently the Greater Gods decided they didn't have enough gods in their panthenon so they decided to make Diane's mother Sarra into the Green Lady, a goddess of midwifery only known it seems by people in the village where she lived. Wouldn't that make a great High School reunion story, "Uh, yeah, so you know I dated the quarter back for a while and then I became a god. So, what have you been doing?"
Diane goes through many trials and tribulations again beset upon by the vengeful now Stormwing (think Harpy with silverware for wings), Orzone. The love that was developing between her and Numair is fianlly realized after she falls off a cliff and he thinks she's dead. (I think that she had hoped her near death would bring his true feelings out...otherwise she might have turned into a bird and floated to the bottom of the cliff or a monkey and grabbed a branch...but instead she decided to be dramatic and survive a fall that would have broken all the bones and most likely killed any human (luckily Diane is a god)).
The battle still continues as Immortals such as Hurroks (bat winged horses), Flying Apes, and Spidrens (Humongous spiders with human heads) all join forces with Orzone for no reason other than the fact that they are evil. I thought it was a bit odd since at least the Hurroks were known to be controlled against their will by Orzone's forces...why would they willingly be controlled by him again? It would make more sense for them to attack him as the Darkings (a newly born race of sentient inkblots) did.
But, despite the fact that Diane found out that not all stormwings are evil mindless killing machines that label still applies to every other creature on Orzone's team.
It has been a bit of a long haul to finish all of these books this time. I didn't think I would have any problem with them at all, but I guess they really didn't stand up to the test of time with me. I don't remember if I had any of these questions when I first read them, though I think it's telling that I never revisited them even when I re-read the Alanna series every once and a while. I'm glad to be done.
Diane goes through many trials and tribulations again beset upon by the vengeful now Stormwing (think Harpy with silverware for wings), Orzone. The love that was developing between her and Numair is fianlly realized after she falls off a cliff and he thinks she's dead. (I think that she had hoped her near death would bring his true feelings out...otherwise she might have turned into a bird and floated to the bottom of the cliff or a monkey and grabbed a branch...but instead she decided to be dramatic and survive a fall that would have broken all the bones and most likely killed any human (luckily Diane is a god)).
The battle still continues as Immortals such as Hurroks (bat winged horses), Flying Apes, and Spidrens (Humongous spiders with human heads) all join forces with Orzone for no reason other than the fact that they are evil. I thought it was a bit odd since at least the Hurroks were known to be controlled against their will by Orzone's forces...why would they willingly be controlled by him again? It would make more sense for them to attack him as the Darkings (a newly born race of sentient inkblots) did.
But, despite the fact that Diane found out that not all stormwings are evil mindless killing machines that label still applies to every other creature on Orzone's team.
It has been a bit of a long haul to finish all of these books this time. I didn't think I would have any problem with them at all, but I guess they really didn't stand up to the test of time with me. I don't remember if I had any of these questions when I first read them, though I think it's telling that I never revisited them even when I re-read the Alanna series every once and a while. I'm glad to be done.
May 11, 2020
Reread 2020
I did enjoy this one, though I'll admit, the journey through the Realms of the Gods did drag a little. Though I think this pandemic is really affecting how I feel about the books I'm reading. For some reason I wasn't as obsessed with Daine and Numair's relationship as I remember being when I reread this book last (and when I read it the very first time). I still love them together as a couple and I think they fit really well together, I just remember squealing a lot more in this book when I was little than I did on this reread. That's probably just me being weird though.
***
OH. MY. GOD. When I read Immortals the first time around, I remember loving it, but not "LOVING" it the same way I did Protector of the Small. Reading it again almost 10 years later, all I can say is WOW. SO GOOD. I literally don't remember the last time I've obsessed over a book this much! I absolutely loved Song of the Lioness, but there's just something different about Immortals. The writing, the plot, the character development...it's just so much more detailed and well thought out and so realistic! I remember after reading Tamora Pierce for the first time, I sat down with my friend (who had also read the books) and we talked about how Tamora Pierce's characters feel so real - almost like you could bump into them in the street. These characters made me hurt and cry inside, and they made me smile, and laugh and squeal. These emotions are what I cherish when it comes to reading. It's what makes reading an adventure.
I literally cannot wait for Numair's book to be released!!! I NEED MORE NUMAIR IN MY LIFE NOW!
I did enjoy this one, though I'll admit, the journey through the Realms of the Gods did drag a little. Though I think this pandemic is really affecting how I feel about the books I'm reading. For some reason I wasn't as obsessed with Daine and Numair's relationship as I remember being when I reread this book last (and when I read it the very first time). I still love them together as a couple and I think they fit really well together, I just remember squealing a lot more in this book when I was little than I did on this reread. That's probably just me being weird though.
***
OH. MY. GOD. When I read Immortals the first time around, I remember loving it, but not "LOVING" it the same way I did Protector of the Small. Reading it again almost 10 years later, all I can say is WOW. SO GOOD. I literally don't remember the last time I've obsessed over a book this much! I absolutely loved Song of the Lioness, but there's just something different about Immortals. The writing, the plot, the character development...it's just so much more detailed and well thought out and so realistic! I remember after reading Tamora Pierce for the first time, I sat down with my friend (who had also read the books) and we talked about how Tamora Pierce's characters feel so real - almost like you could bump into them in the street. These characters made me hurt and cry inside, and they made me smile, and laugh and squeal. These emotions are what I cherish when it comes to reading. It's what makes reading an adventure.
I literally cannot wait for Numair's book to be released!!! I NEED MORE NUMAIR IN MY LIFE NOW!
January 22, 2012
This is the last if the series of four with Daine as central character. I enjoyed this series in as much as it was a departure from the "apprentice training" quartets which I read out of order and back to back ( and which was a bit of overkill on the same theme after 8 in a row!)
Of the entire series I enjoyed this book the lest. It took place almost entirely in the Realm of the Gods and so it was quite different than the others. There were a lot of dreams and a war - neither of which I am a huge fan of reading about.
SPOILER:
I did already know who Daine was married to because as I said earlier I read later series before I read this one. In this book however, the relationship between Daine and her master develops into a physical one and I just have to say I was VERY disturbed by it - simply because of the age difference and because I have read the three previous books almost back to back so I can easily recall the way the relationship started. CREEPY!!!!
I do think this relationship played a major role in my overall feeling of dislike towards this book.
Of the entire series I enjoyed this book the lest. It took place almost entirely in the Realm of the Gods and so it was quite different than the others. There were a lot of dreams and a war - neither of which I am a huge fan of reading about.
SPOILER:
I did already know who Daine was married to because as I said earlier I read later series before I read this one. In this book however, the relationship between Daine and her master develops into a physical one and I just have to say I was VERY disturbed by it - simply because of the age difference and because I have read the three previous books almost back to back so I can easily recall the way the relationship started. CREEPY!!!!
I do think this relationship played a major role in my overall feeling of dislike towards this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2015
The Realms of the Gods is one of my favorite books of all time to be sure. However, I must say that one of the main reasons it holds its precarious position on my ever-changing list is because it's the conclusion to a superb quartet of books. If you are reading this book before reading the 3 stories that come before it, shame on you! The magic of this story is that you already know the characters. Pierce weaves a bond in between story and reader that is so strong by the 4th book that you look on the characters as good friends (I haven't yet decided if this is unhealthy...) Numair and Diane's finally, FINALLY, budding romance is all the sweeter because you've been a part of their relationship since the beginning, and you have watched as they've grown closer together. Not many authors can boast of this kind of love story, and I believe that is why the Realms of the Gods has kept it's position on the Favorite's List. With the Immortals Series, Tamora Pierce has accomplished something special, and thats why I highly, highly, HIGHLY, recommend this whole series. Go team, read books.
December 14, 2024
As much as the age gap of FOURTEEN YEARS freaks me out, it is at its core, a friends to lovers story which I of course adore and Daine and Numair are absolutely darling together. I jsut wish they got together when she was older and met when she was older and Numair was younger . . .ugh. Alanna and George are easier because of how much time passes in her books.
This book was a little more weirdly paced than the last few as they were stuck in a different place than most of their friends and had to journey back when everyone else was at war.... soooo.... (There was also less racism in this one than the last one but more because of setting than anything)
I also think this series is the most focused on the romantic relationship than any of the other series I have read by Pierce.
This book was a little more weirdly paced than the last few as they were stuck in a different place than most of their friends and had to journey back when everyone else was at war.... soooo.... (There was also less racism in this one than the last one but more because of setting than anything)
I also think this series is the most focused on the romantic relationship than any of the other series I have read by Pierce.
August 12, 2017
A war is going on between Tortall, Carthak rebels, Scanran and the Copper Isles. Diane and Numair are charged with fighting many of the immortals. On one such occasion they are fighting some beings called The Skinner's, immortals that kill anything they touch. About to be killed by these creatures, Diane and Numair are pulled through into the Divine Realms. There Diane meets her parents. But both need to find a way back to the human realm to fight the rebels.
November 29, 2020
Yes, we're back on the 2020 comfort reading train, what of it?
April 19, 2018
I'm so happy with the ending of this book!! I can't wait to read the next series :O
May 20, 2013
Daine is an overpowered character, we all know that. The daughter of a God with the power to speak and change(to a lesser extent) into animals. Being overpowered, her tales only remain interesting based upon the cast of characters(usually animals) that she befriends and her enemies.
Here is where The Realms of the Gods nearly makes a fatal mistake. It ejects her animal friends for gods and beings with near omniscience. Nothing is left to guess work because her friends seem to know everything(except Numair, which is my next big issue) that is going on.
The sudden loss of honor by the noble Numair is inexplicable. For three volumes he been trumped up as the sort of man who would never lower himself to for a relationship with his apprentice/student/magelet. I get it that he has feelings for her but all that honor is swept so quickly under the rug it's as if you never had to hear about it for three books.
Speaking of quick. Don't try to get comfortable with any scene of location. This book uses locales like Kleenex. For that matter most of the conversation/mind talk, are just as disposable.
It's regrettable that Daine and Numairs odyssey is relegated to a draw by the numbers affair. A strictly sophomoric tale, instead of the epic story it should have been. Overpowered she may be, unfortunately for us, this is the weakest tale of Tortall. So far.
Here is where The Realms of the Gods nearly makes a fatal mistake. It ejects her animal friends for gods and beings with near omniscience. Nothing is left to guess work because her friends seem to know everything(except Numair, which is my next big issue) that is going on.
The sudden loss of honor by the noble Numair is inexplicable. For three volumes he been trumped up as the sort of man who would never lower himself to for a relationship with his apprentice/student/magelet. I get it that he has feelings for her but all that honor is swept so quickly under the rug it's as if you never had to hear about it for three books.
Speaking of quick. Don't try to get comfortable with any scene of location. This book uses locales like Kleenex. For that matter most of the conversation/mind talk, are just as disposable.
It's regrettable that Daine and Numairs odyssey is relegated to a draw by the numbers affair. A strictly sophomoric tale, instead of the epic story it should have been. Overpowered she may be, unfortunately for us, this is the weakest tale of Tortall. So far.
June 13, 2012
This was the first of Pierce's work that I've stopped reading near the end and just skipped through the rest. It was so bad. Honestly, I was thinking in my head most of the time "blah,blah,blah" because that's what it was! It contained useless plot lines and a waste of a perfectly good herione. Don't even get me started on the off-hand romance that was just sprung on us. (Spoiler) I mean a make-out session right after dealing with giant spider gods? REALLY? Gross. And then to learn Daine had already kissed others and "dated" behind the scenes, good to know! Thanks for the update on that Pierce! Ugh, I was so looking forward to see a new grand adventure finale and it just lacked so much. I think I'm going to take a break from Pierce's work for a while and come back to her series later. Meh.
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