The Immortals: series review

What did I spend the first week of the year doing? Well I received some secondhand books from my friend and they were eleven Tamora Pierce books. (I did go over and pick them out.) And I realized just how many I haven't read yet! I read The Protector of the Small and Song of the Lioness quartets when I was probably 11 or so, and loved them so much. Over the years I forgot there were actually more books to that universe…but now! Now. I shall finish them all.

So this past week I read all four Immortals books non-stop. I put everything else down because these kept me completely hooked. This was also a reminder that it's so great to read a series that's already released so there's no year-long waiting period between each one.

The books of the quartet are Wild Magic, Wolf-Speaker, Emperor Mage, and The Realms of the Gods. Released between 1992 and 1996. Again, so glad I only had to wait four days instead of four years to read them all.

The story follows the young girl Daine from age 13 to 16, which is a very reasonable timeline for a series, instead of the nowadays 3 weeks or 2 months maybe (there's a rant hiding in that sentence.) Daine has a sort of wild magic, and can communicate with animals, so I of course immediately wanted to be her. Throughout the books she keeps company with her horse Cloud, a neighborly pack of wolves, a squirrel, monkey, dragon, yes dragon; and even adorable blobs of something that reminds me of the pink blob thing in the animated movie Treasure Planet. (which I loved when it came out.) Those have to be my favorite.

Her human (two-legger) friends consist of the powerful and kind mage, Numair. (*eyebrow wiggle*) and horse trainer Onua. Other friends are the Lioness, Alanna, and Queen Thayet. Okay there are a lot more still, but these guys are most prominent through the whole storyline of Daine's adventures fighting the bad guys.

I wish there were more stories to be told of Daine, but alas, she'll just cameo in later Tortall books…I have grown very attached to all of these people and animals. And the only complaint I have is the point of view. I'm not a fan of third person, and this is unlimited so Daine is referred to as 'the girl' sometimes and that messed me up a few times…really it's overall not that bad. I'm just pet-peeving here.

If you haven't gotten to these books of Tamora Pierce's yet, I highly suggest you go to the library, grab all four, and gather rations near your reading chair. Even though they're younger-teen, almost considered middle grade nowadays, I'm almost a decade older than when I started reading her books, and I still find them highly enjoyable. She knows how to write fantasy like few others.


The next series I'm told to read (by my friend, the expert on Pierce's books) is the Tricksters duo. Thankfully those two were included in the eleven books I got, so I will read those really soon. I'll try to savor them, but I know it'll be hard not to zoom through.