Wild Magic (Immortals Quartet)
I can’t remember the first time I read Tamora Pierce’s Immortals series, but I am happy to admit that I have now read it at least eight times (probably more like ten times for book one, Wild Magic), and I discover something new each and every time. This most recent bout of rereading was brought on because the long awaited Tempests and Slaughter (a prequel to this series) came out. I received a reading copy early from NetGalley and devoured it. Then I promptly picked up Wild Magic again so that I could continue my trip down memory lane.
Tamora Pierce is a master. I love everything she touches, but Wild Magic has always been a series that has remained particularly close to my heart. Maybe it’s because I say that Heart is the best character in Captain Planet (a debate I constantly lose, by the way) or that my ultimate superpower wish would be the gift of communication with animals and plants. Or maybe it’s just because I just love an awesome YA series with a kickass heroine. Whichever reason it is, Wild Magic ticks all the boxes for me.
Veralidaine Sarrasri (Daine to her friends) is a recently-orphaned girl on the run from her village. But there’s something special about her; she has wild magic, which gives her the ability to talk to animals of any shape and size. With this power, she becomes an integral part of the series’ team of heroes (plenty of whom we met in Tamora Pierce’s first series, The Song of the Lioness quartet). Their realm has been overrun by demented monsters – immortals from the realms of the Gods – and the people of Tortall, Pierce’s picture-perfect magical realm, do not know how to face these terrors and need all the help that they can get. Enter Daine and her mentor Numair!
Numair is my second book crush. He’s tall, dark, handsome and Tortall’s most powerful mage. He is also the leading character in Tempests and Slaughter which is about his schooling years (and which I waited over a decade to read – but it was well worth it). He trains Daine and teaches her all she knows. He believes in her, is patient when she is tempestuous, and jokes and jests with her along every part of her journey. Basically, he’s a dreamboat, and since my childhood (okay, adult one as well) dream is to be Daine, I am allowed to crush on him as much as I like. No judgment, a-thank-you!
Wild Magic is a seriously fun, magical romp that is filled with characters that I have fallen in love with again and again, and Tortall is a magical world that I wish I could visit (killer unicorns et al.). There’s a reason that Tamora Pierce is listed as an inspiration for the YA queens of the now: Sarah J Maas, Marie Lu and Naomi Novik, just to name a few. She is an author to fall in love with. She is always my first recommendation for anyone who is looking for a book to give to a 10+ year old, and she is certainly the creator of thousands of wee feminists worldwide because she shows how women can have and do anything they set their minds to.
Her plotting is flawless, her imagination limitless, and a realm in which the Queen can fight alongside her riders, the King’s Champion is a lady knight, and a young girl who came from nothing can help save the kingdom*, is pretty damn inspirational. Pierce sculpted my childhood and will forever sculpt my adulthood as I keep reading and rereading her beautiful masterpieces, falling a little bit more in love each time. No matter my age, I will be buying the latest Pierce creation on the day it is released.
*whoops spoilers, sorry.
