Daja's Book (Circle of Magic, No 3)

Rating:
Summary: Yet another excellent addition to the series!
Review: After Winding Circle got rid of the pirates, the four young mages, their teachers, and Duke Vedris (Sandry's uncle), are headed to Gold Ridge. A drought in this part of the country has caused many problems, and grassfires are now burning constantly. While they are there, Daja has been assigned to make nails. However, something goes wrong and she accidentally creates a magical iron vine that grows just like a normal plant. Upon seeing such a creation, one of the Traders wants to buy it off Daja, yet this Trader refuses to speak to Daja because she is Trangshi. During her encounters with Traders at Gold Ridge, Daja starts to yearn for the life she used to have. Finally, she is given a choice: she must either return to Winding Circle with her "new" family, or stay with the Traders.

This book is a very good read and definitely has a lot of action going on. However, I didn't like it as much as Tris's Book because I found some passages about magic confusing. Overall though, I think it is a great read and we get to know more about each character's personality, especially the teachers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Although I did not consider Daja's book the best of the Circle of Magic series, nor Daja my favorite of the four charachters; I think Tamora Pierce made a masterpiece when she wrote this book. She creates a whole new world and culture with its own beliefs and way of living, not to mention a whole new language. A culture that has been stereotyped and abused but ignores the outside torment and stick to there beliefs, because the opinion of a kaq means nothing. It also shows you Daja's life before coming to Winding Circle. In Sandry's Book you have a clear picture of both Sandry's and Briar's backround but neither Tris nor Daja (until now) have shown their earlier life. In a way this book, of all four in the series lives up to its title. This book is almost completely about Daja.

Rating:
Summary: Not too impressed so far...
Review: This is my first book from this author, and I don't know why, but I just didn't like it. I thought that there really wasn't a good "struggle" in this book, the writing was not as descriptive as other authors' writing, and the characters did not seem as developed. Just an opinion.