Terrier by Tamora Pierce ★★★★☆

Tamora Pierce at her best!

Fiction – YA – High Fantasy/Mystery

Age Range: 12 and up Grade Level: 7 and up

582 pages

Publication Date:  October 24th 2006

Beka Cooper #1

Literary Awards:  Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Children's Literature (2012), West Australian Young Readers' Book Award (WAYRBA) for Older Readers (2009), ALA's Top Ten Best Books Nominee for Young Adults (2007)

The lower city of Corus is rookie, Beka Cooper’s, new beat with the Provost’s Guard.  Even with her magical powers of hearing the voices of the dead she will have to rely on her friends and her own tenacity to “dog” after the Shadow Snake, a villain who steals and sometimes kills children for what they want,  and investigate who is killing for fire opals.

I have reread this book many times and still never tire of it.  The diary format really works well for this engrossing double crime mystery.  And I have to say I admire Ms. Pierce for branching out. The introduction written by other characters creates a great back story and links it to the other Tortall books.  And as a story about underbelly of Tortall as opposed to the nobles, the place and characters come alive through Beka’s eyes with a gritty honesty.  Beka Cooper is a realistic heroine even with her magical abilities.  She is strong, has integrity, observant of her surroundings and above all compassionate.  The secondary charaters like; Clary Goodwin, Mattes Tunstall, Pounce, and Rosto the Piper are all in themselves well rounded out and life like.

This is Tamora Pierce at her best.  A well-constructed story, fantastically balanced between plot, characters and action with a polished writing style I truly envy. It is exciting without losing the characters and well layered.  Each scene adds some aspect of the story, whether it be character or plot.  This story while nicely woven into Tortall’s history, by itself is rich and textured with a mythology somewhat branching out from the other books.  It could definitely be read as a stand-alone.  The glossary extras at the end plus the map at the beginning really helps ( I know I’ve said it before , but I will say it again, I wished more sci-Fi and fantasy books had them).  Frankly, I can’t think of anything that could improve it.

Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce ★★☆☆☆

This Story Was A Little Rocky

Fiction  - YA – High Fantasy

Reading level: Ages 12 and up Grade 8 Up

312 pages

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

Originally published as an audio book

Circle Reforged #2

When Dedicate Rosethorn and water Dedicate Myrrhtide are called to the Battle Islands to investigate a series of unexplained water poisonings and  plant deaths Evvy, the stone mage, and Luvo, the living heart of a mountain, join them.  Using her special powers, with the help of Luvo, Evvy discovers the root of the problem.  Armed with the knowledge that the islands are on the brink of disaster and their inhabitant are in danger, Evvy and Luvo must figure out a way to buy enough time to get the people and themselves to safety.

First written as an audio book Melting Stones is a departure for Pierce from her usual pen and paper approach.  While well written, as with all of Pierce’s other books, I found the Evvy in this story rather unappealing and the storyline not very well executed.  As the story progressed I came to care very little where the storyline was heading; never a good sign.  Perhaps it loses something in the translation from audio book to written book; I’m not sure as I haven’t been able to listen to it yet. Also the constant mentions of a human war in Evvy and Rosethorn’s recent history – which has yet to be written- was bothersome.  I have to say I was rather disappointed in this book.  As a fan of Tamora Pierce I have come to expect more.  Evvy in no way compares to Ali or Beka Cooper or Kel –heroines in her other series - and the story lacked the spark of interest I found in Briar’s Book or Shatter Glass or Cold Fire from her Emelan Series.

ISBN-13: 978-0545052658