This is the second book in “The Circle of Magic” quartet. It follows the training of the four young, uncontrolled but very powerful mages, Tris, Sandry, Daja and Briar introduced in “The Magic in the Weaving”. Where that book focused mainly on Sandry and her power to weave anything, from thread to magic, this book explores Tris’s power over the weather.

Tris, like Sandry, has immense power in her magic. Unlike the calm and confident Lady Sandrilene, Tris is emotional and insecure and her power over the weather makes an already erratic force even more unpredictable.

In this book the series’ scope moves up a level. Like the first novel it is still, to some extent, very domestic, concentrating on the lives of the four children and their unusual powers but now their situation is becoming more serious. The danger is no longer just from the power of a natural phenomenon like earthquakes; now the children must help their teachers defend their home from attack by deadly, ruthless, powerful pirates and their spies.

I feel this series is aimed primarily at girls, as once again it focuses on teamwork, learning to control emotions and harness them as a force for good and caring for others rather than individual acts of courage and greatness. For example, when Tris overcomes the pirates with her wind and lightning she is not celebrated and praised. Instead she is haunted by images of the people she killed, many of them the innocent and unwilling slaves of the pirates. Her ‘reward’ is to work in the hospital wing tending the wounds of the injured and scrubbing the floors. Hardly traditional fantasy!

Whilst this novel is more tense and exciting than the previous one it still breaks the mould of fantasy with its emphasis on nurture and responsibility rather than big battles and great heroes.

2007-12-29