I Should Read That

Series review

In my mid-thirties, I’m making an effort to right the wrongs of my childhood reading. I devoured Tamora Pierce’s The Song of the Lioness series as a kid and absolutely loved it, but I never read any of her other books. After revisiting my beloved Alanna books last year, I decided to finally read through all three of her main series and see what Little Justine was missing. Last month, I picked up The Immortals quartet and absolutely tore through it.

This series follows Daine, a young girl with wild magic and a strong connection to animals, across three years of her life. From ages 13-17, she grows and changes as she faces challenges and grows into her magic. I really loved her journey from orphaned child to heroic mage – she grows up a lot and, while imperfect, she becomes a truly admirable young woman. She’s stubborn and childish to start (understandable, as she is a child), but fiercely protective of her friends and what she believes is right. As Daine faces threats to her friends and her homeland, she remains strong and clever, becoming a real asset to her people. I can see The Immortals radicalising a bunch of kids into climate change activism and vegetarianism.

I love the cast of secondary characters who fight alongside and against Daine that really bring this series to life. My little 37 year old feet were kicking with childlike glee when Alanna showed up and stuck around to be an important part of the story – it was really nice to see her story continue, even if it was in the background. I also especially loved Onua (I would read an entire series about her) and the whole host of animal and immortal characters Daine meets along the way. Pierce does a wonderful job of creating friends, animals, companions, and enemies in that enhance Daine’s world and story.

The first book, Wild Magic, took some time to get into – I actually started it last year and couldn’t get past the first 30 pages or so. Picking it up again in a different reading mood made all the difference, and I ripped through the whole series in a month – which is unheard of for me. Wolf Speaker, the second book in the series, is easily my favourite. Daine and her animal friends committing guerrilla warfare against evil mages destroying the environment? Yes please. It also shows how clever Daine is as she is isolated from humans and realises her powers go further than just communication with animals. I really loved her journey in this particular book and the message it gave readers – stand up for what you believe in and do the right thing, even if you are alone.

Emperor Mage, the third book, was my second favourite in this series – I will always love a bit of politicking in my fantasy novels and I always enjoy seeing the world beyond Tortall’s shores. We get introduced to a number of fabulous characters and have the true motivations of others revealed. My least favourite book by a mile was the last one, The Realms of the Gods. It felt rather incomplete, with Daine and Numair being stuck in the Immortal realms for almost the entire book and missing the final action in the series. I also will shout from the rooftops about how much I hate the romance in this series – Daine and Numair and wonderful characters on their own but have no chemistry, and, more importantly, there is a 15 year age gap AND it’s a student-teacher relationship. When your romantic hero meets the heroine when she’s 13 and he’s 28, it’s never a good sign. No no no, absolutely not. Phone the police.

While it does suffer a little from the time period in which it was written – it was the 90’s, after all – The Immortals is a great children’s fantasy series and stands up as a great bit of fantasy fiction in 2025. It is easy to see why Pierce was so influential on a whole generation of fantasy readers and writers. I’m excited to move on to the Protector of the Small series later this year!