Water & Fire

I remember having a hard time making it through these books when I was younger. I didn't like the stories as much as I loved Tamora Pierce's other novels. I'm sure it had something to do with the lack of romance.

But I really did enjoy this book. I read it because I picked up The Will of The Empress on a whim, but was rather confused when I started reading. I knew the characters, of course, but not well enough to understand the opening the way I should. So, I decided to read the series leading up to the new book.

I was not disappointed. How could I be? Sandry works magic with yarn. Awesome. I do remember Tris being my favorite character. Probably because she has unruly red hair and is fat. Like I was.

This is probably one of Pierce's most diverse books. But I'm not sure that's a good thing. It seems her characters a full of tokenism. Daja is the black friend. Tris, as I mentioned before, is the angry fat girl. Briar is a token male (which is an interesting token, but a token for Pierce none the less). Her characters all play into stereotypes. They also break those stereotypes in many ways, but I feel she could have done better.

Overall, this is a good book, if not a little short. If her publishers would have allowed it, she could probably put the whole series into this book, maybe two, and I would not have gotten bored.