The Immortals Series by Tamora Pierce (Ponderings)

 

So, I hate to blanket all four of these books together, but I’m going to anyway because I think doing a review for each of them back to back might get a little bit repetitive. I am going to start out with the point of this book that makes me the happiest:

Best love story ever. Hands down. It’s honestly one of my favorite relationships ever written. There is such a development of emotion between

 

Daine and Numair are thrown together in the first book in a student/teacher relationship. (Of course, she’s much younger at the time!). You watch as their feelings for each other develop in a very normal, natural way. They become friends, they become protective, Numair becomes even more protective. It’s clear that they are each a vulnerability to the other (and are indeed used against each other in a fashion because of that), and then in the last installment of the series the full emotions of love and a relationship spring forth. Even then, there’s a question to it, whether it will work out, whether their age difference is too much. I like it when books don’t force a romantic relationship on the readers, but instead allow it to develop slowly over time. I feel like they did a really good job with that in these books.

Now, my second favorite thing about these novels would be the storyline. I honestly think that it’s completely excellent – there wasn’t anything done in these books (In my opinion) that wasn’t needed. The first novel did a fantastic job of introducing all of the major players of the novel, introducing us to the methods of magic that are used throughout the story, and some of the main villains – the Stormwings, mentions of the Emperor, etc. As we proceed into the second novel, we get a better feel for who will cause trouble and who will not; we’re also lead more into that development of relationship thing that I was talking about. We are already seeing Numair acting protective of Daine’s modesty, and he certainly uses magic that he never would have when her life is in danger. I love the plot and story development, and the way that we are slowly introduced more to the Gods, to Daine’s magic, to the evils of the Emperor. Honestly, the pacing of these books are just perfect.

I think that one of my favorite installments of the series would be the third novel. Without trying to give too much away (in case people haven’t read these books), there is a chapter about Daine losing her temper because of something related to Numair – she honestly and completely turns badass and wrecks shop because she thought something could happen to him. The third novel is also my favorite because of a new power/new players introduced into the story. This is where we come head to head with the horrible Emperor everyone has been talking about, and where we see the Graveyard hag, who gives Daine the ability to bring dead things back to life with a touch. This book also gave an extraordinary turning point for some of the characters, including the Stormwing group. It brings about a transformation of one character that will further the plot of the fourth book beautifully.

I feel like the fourth book did a fantastic job of wrapping up lose ends and leaving us with a satisfying conclusion. There, I hope that the book overview section of this wasn’t too awfully spoiler-ish. :3

Onward though, I honestly love the writing style and description for these novels as well. I think that Pierce did a great job writing in a way that I could completely adore when I was a teenager and reading these, and really compliment and appreciate now that I’m 24 and doing a reread. Though the writing style isn’t extremely complex, it’s vivid and gorgeously put together, and something I could enjoy no matter what age I was reading it at.

Overall, the characters, the plot, the prose and the amazing romance make these books more than worth reading. If you haven’t picked them up, I would do so. 9/10 for these books!