Battle Magic

4.5 stars. Not as good as the original books, but still very strong characters and a steady plot.

I'm not an Emelan fan, I like Tortall a lot better. In saying that, my favourite characters in Emelan are Rosethorn and Briar both of whom are main characters here, along with Evvy (who Briar picked up in Street Magic). This is essentially the backstory to Briar's behaviour in The Will of the Empress, and we learn how Evvy met Luvo (who was a major character in Melting Stones, although Battle Magic is a far more interesting read than either of those two stories.

The POV switches a lot, which I guess is fashionable in fantasy these days and is necessary for some parts of the storytelling, but it is jarring when it happens multiple times in a chapter. It also loses some dramatic tension when one of the characters is thought to be dead, but the reader knows they are not because of the POV switching. The reunion of the characters with the person they thought had died loses much of the feels it could have had.

I wanted to give this an ‘It was ok' star rating, but I think it deserves more than two. Overall, it is still Tamora Pierce and her fantastic style. I don't want to make it sound awful but I'm not a fan of the setting and I didn't really care about the war these people were fighting in. Like the rest of Emelan it won't be in my re-read pile, but if you're an Emelan fan you'll probably enjoy this one a lot more than the last one.