TP throwbacks: The Circle Opens

[Kypriotha]

Week 2 of the Emelan edition of TP throwbacks and things are about to get real as the four young mages become amateur detectives in The Circle Opens. This is the place to share your thoughts about the magic, mystery and more!

[devilinthedetails]

I’ll do my usual of breaking my thoughts down by book since that’s worked well for me so far.

Magic Steps

-On an overall note, I found that I enjoyed the Circle Opens books more than the first Emelan quartet probably because the plots of the books were consistently more engaging to me and I loved being able to explore the world outside of Summersea in more depth. The greatest strength of the Emelan universe to me is its world-building, and I believe that the Circle Opens series most often takes advantage of this strength.

-With this book, we are still in the familiar world of Summersea, though, which might be part of why it is my least favorite book in the series. For a book that is my least favorite in a series, I still really enjoy it, though. It’s not really a weak book in my opinion so much as it is the least strong.

-I liked Pasco’s family and the Harrier aspects in general. Pasco’s internal conflict between pursuing his own dancing dreams and following his family’s expectations for him did resonate with me. I also found Pasco believable for his age.

-I didn’t really find Sandry believable for her age, though. She doesn’t read like she is only fourteen to me at all. Perhaps that is why the first time I read the book, I mentally aged her. When I re-read this series recently, it was a shock to me how young she was. I think she (along with the rest of the Circle friends) should have been aged up to eighteen or so. That would fix my next problem.

-I appreciate the concept and even some of the execution of seeing Sandry as a mentor, but at fourteen she is just too young for me to truly believe that she is ready to take on the responsibilities of a teacher. It also just seems like a plot contrivance that she is expected to take on the responsibility of training Pasco at fourteen when there are more qualified, experienced teachers around. If there were no other magic teachers around, I’d accept that a little more, but with other options, it just seems silly to stick Pasco with her when she’s so young herself especially since Pasco’s powers aren’t similar to hers.

-I do love Sandry’s relationship with Duke Vedris. They have so much mutual affection and respect for one another. Also Duke Vedris’s budding romance with Pasco’s dancing teacher is adorable.

-Unmagic was an interesting concept that I don’t remember seeing explored in a fantasy novel before. I’m not sure I entirely understood it but I appreciated the original thought behind it. My imagination was willing to go along with it in a fantasy book.

-As someone with an alcoholic mother, I appreciated themes of addiction being dealt with in a mature way and the negative, destructive consequences of addiction being shown. I wish we got more of this in YA literature and literature in general since addiction is a real problem many people have to deal with everyday.

Street Magic

-The setting of this book reminded me of a fantasy version of India, which I enjoyed because India is rarely used as the inspiration of the main setting for a fantasy book. We are really seeing a society that isn’t based on Western Europe as the main setting in this book and that is so exciting to me. It makes this book and series feel fresh.

-I really liked Evvy as a character in this book. She was clever with the right blend of sweetness and innocence under the fierceness, street smarts, and wariness she has been forced to cultivate in order to survive.

-Since both Evvy and Briar grew up on the streets, I felt like they could understand each other better than Sandry and Pasco could in the previous book. That was part of why their teacher-student relationship worked better for me even though I still do find Briar too young to be a teacher (like Sandry, he should have been aged up to eighteen or so in my opinion).

-Apart from that, I also have the impression that Briar is more of a natural teacher than Sandry. Things like him teaching Evvy to read with stones he bought her was so perfect and creative. It was also so precious that she hugged him for getting those stones. Moments like that will make me overlook that Briar is too young to be her teacher.

-I continued to enjoy Briar and Rosethorn’s relationship. They are so sarcastic with each other but the genuine caring they have for one another is also obvious.

-The gang plot was interesting to me even if I do wonder if this book would have been stronger if the villain had been allowed to be a bit more of a mystery to the readers as well.

Cold Fire

-Kugisko makes for a fun setting. It read to me like a cross between Nordic countries, Russia, and even the Netherlands with the focus on trade and ice skating as a means of travel in the winter. The culture felt vividly drawn with the wooden architecture complete with its distinctive colors and carvings as well as with the little details that make a culture feel real like drinking tea with sugar cubes between teeth. The winter imagery itself with the sleigh rides and snow was also good for making me feel as if I were transported to this fantastical place.

-I wasn’t a fan of Jory and Nia. They struck me as much more obnoxious than either Evvy or Pasco did in the first two books. Ultimately they just read to me like entitled rich children who were always needling at one another, which was annoying to me.

-Daja finding mentors for Jory and Nia after she discovers their powers makes more sense than Briar and Sandry becoming teachers, so that’s good, but what is less good is that Daja searching around for teachers for two characters I find to be twin annoyances felt largely like a waste of time that could have been devoted to the much more compelling arson plot. Basically, I would have liked the book better if Jory and Nia were excised from it.

-Bennat was quite a chilling portrayal of a sociopath serial killer. The details of his obsession with fire, his disregard for others' lives, his need for attention, and his idea that he is teaching valuable "lessons" are realistically done as is his tendency to keep trophies as it were of the fires he had set.

-Daja's dawning suspicions feel right, too. The reader obviously knows and suspects sooner, but it makes sense that she would be slow to doubt her friend's intentions.

-Overall, a strong book but would have been even stronger without Jory, Nia, and the need to find mentors for them.

Shatterglass

- I loved the setting of this book. It was such a vibrant mixture of cultures (I get a vibe of Greek city-state, Roman empire, and Byzantium rolled into one) with a religion that reminds me of Hinduism with its belief in reincarnation, a caste system with untouchables, and a focus on pollution versus purity. It’s a book where Eastern culture melds with Western culture in a fascinating way.

–Tris resonated with me more as a character in this book than she did in the first quartet. It’s hard for me to put a thumb on why exactly.

-Tris being a mentor so young irritates me less in this book since her youth seems more deeply addressed as it causes a believable conflict with Keth. Having Tris teach in the awkward position of teaching someone older than her who is experienced in his craft as a glassblower adds a complexity to their teacher-student relationship that can’t be seen when a fourteen-year-old is teaching an even younger student. Actually delving into what it would be like to have a person so young teach somebody older than her feels like a bolder choice than the ones made earlier in these series regarding mentorship, and that works for me. I appreciate boldness in books especially in genres like fantasy and sci-fi.

-It also adds a complexity to Keth’s character that works for me to have him be someone experienced in his craft but who can’t practice due to the negative effects of his magic until he can come to control his magic. It’s an original idea that makes the character seem fresh.

-For sheer atmosphere and the daring decision to really confront how young Tris is to be a mentor, this is my favorite of the Circle Opens books.

-This series saved its best for last. That so rarely happens with series in my opinion. It deserves to be celebrated.