Briar's Book: The Sensational Conclusion to the Beloved, Bestselling Circle of Magic Quartet

An excellent final installation final installation! This is Briar's story, dealing with a plague. The medieval magical plague protocols were fascinating. The whole storyline felt very relevant.

Briar escaped life as a homeless young thief when his magic was discovered. Since then, he has renamed himself and, to a certain extent, reinvented himself. He realizes how much he's changed in skills, outlook and assumptions (like trusting authorities, or actually *wanting* to be clean) when one of his street-rat friends falls ill. And as the illness spreads, and plague envelops the city, Briar is forced to come to terms with his new destiny.

This book is basically everything I have ever wanted in fiction. Outbreak investigation AND structural inequalities of health AND magic? It is like Tamora Pierce wrote this book just for me. So I can't pretend to be even partially objective or trustworthy about this novel, except to say that I am so, so thankful that someone is actually writing this kind of story in a fantasy setting. The plot involves garbage collection, waste disposal, differential health care access, medical resources rationing--all the dirty, earthy, banal things that get ignored in traditional sf/f (and, to be fair, most fiction regardless of genre). But it's not without wonder, either; Pierce describes magic in a way that thrills me to my core. You might not assume that plant magic could be written in a way that makes your heart beat faster, but Pierce can do it. The characters in this series have grown far richer since their unsubtle introductions. (And astonishingly, Pierce accomplishes this without making them all assholes, or giving them increasingly unlikely traumatic pasts. Take note, modern grimdark fantasy novelists--it can be done!)

I love that Pierce chose to step outside the easy plots of human antagonists. It opened her plots up to include all sorts of events most authors never get to grapple with, like natural disasters and resource admininstration. In this world, even magic isn't limitless, and magicians need to be wise in their use of it. And they can't do everything--the best way to weave is still to do it by hand, and not all fires can be stopped. That was another aspect of this series that I loved: the acknowledgment that not everything can be fully understood or controlled. Even the most powerful wizard in Pierce's world can't stop the tides, and even if she could, it would lead to even greater disasters. Trying to control too much is actually a serious flaw, which is a fantastically novel viewpoint to find in a sf/f story. I think I'm starting to babble here, but I really just loved everything about this series. It's written for a younger audience, so the writing isn't that sophisticated (except for the descriptions of magic use, which are seriously the most enthralling things ever), but the ideas are. I can't think of another fantasy series that looks at classism, the limitations of a humanist worldview, and the necessity of hard work--all in the midst of a truly entertaining adventure.

Apparently the next series, The Circle Opens, is even better. omg how can this beeee?

This is one of my favorite series, I love the characters and all of their adventures.

I've now listened to the entire Circle of Magic series on audiobook. This was the last book in the series and instead of Pirates or other human enemy to fight, our young mages have to deal with a plague that's spreading rapidly through Summersea. For most of this book, Briar and Rosethorn are separated from the rest of their housemates, nursing the sick in quarantine because they were exposed to the disease. It's a huge change from the previous books, where the four young mages and their teachers were always together. I loved how they all work together throughout the series, but separating them was a surprisingly refreshing change. Due to quarantine, we see different aspects of Rosethorn and Briar's characters than in other stories. As the book [and the disease] progresses, we see more and more of Rosethorn's layered personality, which I loved.Having a disease that has a magic element,with something created by a malicious mage. But it's more then that. It's not just a matter of tracking down the mage and stopping the spell. This was a true disease that needed a medical cure found with painstaking research and a scientific approach to the disease. It was a joy to read something so true to life in a fantasy novel while still, of course, retaining its fantasy aspects. Then there is the element of Rosethorn contracting the disease and how Briar reacts. I loved the book. Jack Murphy

Briar and Rosethorn battle an epidemic.A nice end to this series. Being away from home made me clingy with these friendly characters so I started the next quartet right away.

Tamora Pierce has learned her lesson and stopped trying to write from too many points of view at the same time, which is definitely a good thing. Otherwise I'm not too impressed by this one as the plot is more or less non-existent... or perhaps it's just the one I remembered the best.

I originally reviewed this book on my blog - The Cosy Dragon. For more recent reviews by me, please hop over there.Briar was brought up as a street rat from age 4. Now he finds it hard to balance his gang upbringing with his new life at the temple. With plague on the way, Briar must learn new skills quickly. But will it be fast enough to save those he loves?This book is told almost entirely from Briar's point of view. The progress of the plot is rapid, and you will find it difficult to break away from the narrative. Pierce is a master craftswoman, filling out characters seemlessly with the books that came before.The ending of this book is gripping, you won't want to put it down. It didn't take me very long to reread this book, but if you are reading for the first time you may want to dedicate more time to enjoying events.Of the books in this quartet, this one is the most disturbing for me. I don't enjoy the plague at all, as it's easy to be reminded of swine flu. The close calls of a number of friends of the four children are very close to home for me.Sadly for me, as you can see in the above picture, I have the hardcopy version of this book which was sent to me by mistake. As an Australian customer, I find it too expensive to send things back. If anyone would like to swap this book with me for the paperback version, I would love for my collection to be matching!I'd recommend this book for children and teenagers. There are some ugly parts of the book, but nothing that I feel is too out there. If you have read through the first three books, nothing in this book will be a surprise.

This is the fourth book in the Circle of Magic series, set in a completely different world than Pierce's Tortall books. Coming to this series after those books, I felt I had taken a step back, since they were written earlier than her later books in that universe, and Pierce grew as a writer through that experience. But this world about four young mages and friends in training have a charm of their own. The three prior books were centered on Sandry, Tris, and Daja. This is the turn of Briar. Briar is Pierce's only male protagonist to date; she's generally known for her heroines. I'd say thought that Briar is as appealing as any of her female characters, and carries his tale well. I didn't want to let go of the story at the end.

Rereading it, I'll say that this is pretty much my favourite book in the original Circle quartet. The first half especially is a love letter to healers, to doctors, to caretakers of any kind, and the second half is much the same for researchers and scientists trying to find cures. And aside from that, it just an incredibly engaging story. It's more closely focused on Briar than the other books (especially the first two) were on their titular protagonists, but the girls are still there, are still very much part of Briar's life, even when he doesn't immediately realise that.I think my biggest qualm with the book is its final chapter; without spoiling anything I felt like the thing that happened there was added mostly for the sake of a twist or, more accurately, for the sake of a more dramatic conclusion, but I just don't think it fit the world (and world building, or even the narrative, though the foreshadowing was there) very well.But aside from that, I love it dearly: Briar and Rosethorn, and of course Tris, Daja and Sandry and their teachers, are as fun to read about as ever, even though "fun" seems to be the wrong word here, given the intense and all to real situation - an epidemic and an "enemy" as faceless as a disease - they face. Crane got some much-needed development and I really like where this book takes his character and the glimpses we get at who he is. (I also liked how the similarities between him and Tris get pointed out by the narrative when they interact. I like Crane for a lot of the reasons I love Tris: underneath it all, they care.)So yeah, definitely another excellent read.

The final book in the Circle of Magic quartet begins in the springtime, with Rosethorn and Briar on their way to a house of healing. Briar expects to find his friend, Flick, a street kid like he used to be, but she's not around when he arrives. He soon finds that she has a disease that no one has seen before, and when she's brought into quarantine, he and Rosethorn are stuck there too.I've rather liked Briar all along, so I did enjoy the story focusing more on his point of view just a fraction more than the rest. I was a bit taken aback at first by a different actor playing his voice in the Full Cast Audio production, but I got used to it by the second CD. His development over the course of the series has been, to me, the most interesting and clearest of the four - from street rat to mage - and his interactions with Rosethorn especially bring that out. A satisfying ending to a series I will be recommending for upper elementary and middle school fantasy readers.

 The Circle books aren't really my favorite but I still like to reread them occasionally. In Briar's Book, a mysterious plague is infecting the city where Briar and his teacher Rosethorn are working and they must work to contain and cure it.Briar's Book is not one of the better in the series. It drags with too much description of magical medical practices and the story just isn't all that interesting.

This one I don't like quite as much. The quarantine parts are both dull and depressing. When they get out and start solving the problem, it's much better - I like Crane and the way he deals (or doesn't) with people. He's been a vague boogieman in the background of the first three books; in this one he gets fleshed out and turns into much more of a real person. The climax crisis is...a little much. I wonder if Briar would have thought about hanging on if he hadn't been solemnly warned, several times, not to? Probably, but the foreshadowing is a little heavy. And some of the imagery in the last scene is...I don't know. Unrealistic? Fluffy? It just doesn't strike the right note with me. Which makes this only a very good book, not a wonderful one.

Book 4 in the Circle of Magic focuses on Briar, our plant mage. And what else do plant mages do? Deal with medicine. No, they're not healers, but they do brew medicines to help the regular folk heal. On a regular trip to Summersea's "open health clinic", a street rat friend of Briar's is sick with a new disease. Of course it's contagious, the "Blue Pox" and an epidemic breaks out. Briar and Rosethorn, Daja and Frostpine, Sandry and Lark all have work to do in spelling articles to help with the outbreak. Tris is left out a bit, but of course, helps provide key information and magic.

When a local street urchin falls sick, Briar swears to help. When the illness turns into a plague and beings to kill the whole city, including his mentor, Briar must enlist the help of Sandy, Triss and Daga to defeat the fever. Not the best book ever but readers of the series will not be dissappointed.

The fourth book in the series was a bit slower paced to me that the other books. I also thought that Briar's great feat in the book, while impressive, was less so than those of the other three books. It was still a good end to the series.

A mysterious plague enters the city and it is up to Briar and Rosethorn to discover the cause. What they did find is intriguing. A woman stole magical supplies in the local hospice and used it create a diet drug to loose weight. Instead, it caused death. In the slums where waste is thrown to the gutter and the spaces are so cramped, it didn't take long before a disease to become deadly.Worse, Rosethorn is infected. It is up to Briar to save her.Ok story.

A fun, quick read, like the other books in the Circle of Magic series. Engaging, believeable characters and situations.

Daja's Book remains my favorite in the series, I think, but this is still enthralling. Briar and his friends face down death itself when a magical plague strikes the city and threatens Rosethorn's life.

Love this book!

The first of her books that I've read, and still one of my favorites.