Battle Magic is aimed at a slightly older audience than most of Pierces books (I'd say 14 to 30) due to it's size and darker subject matter. Warning, this book has themes of dictatorship, war, death, cruelty and torture. It does not go hugely in depth but if you are considering getting this for children under 12 I would read it first and judge for yourself if you think the child is up to it emotionally.

For a summary of the world this book is based in see my post on The Realms of Emelelan

Battle Magic

This book is based between 1.5 and 2 years after the book Street Magic (Book Two of the Circle Opens).

Briar, Rosethorn and Evvy are in the country of Gyongxin (think the Himalayas), where the honorary ruler is God-King. The God-King is a mantle that is passed apparently randomly from child to child and they become chosen by the gods to be a spiritual leader (think the Dalai Lama).

Gyongxin is (relatively speaking) a peaceful country that does not create war with it's neighbours. Gyongxin is the religious capital of all the realms. There are temples and shrines for every god, goddess and spectacular creature known to the realms dotted around it's mountains and valleys.

Hearing of the presence of the great mage Rosethorn and her prodigal student Briar, the ruler, Emperor Weishu of the neighbouring country Yanjing has invited them to visit his personal gardens. They should have figured that they should have avoided it like the plague when the messenger calls him "his Imperial Majesty great is his name, Emperor Weishu Maorin Guangong Zhian, sixth of the Long Dynasty, Son of the Gods, Master of Lions yada yada ongoing long winded title and requires those who have feilty to him to prostrate themself and touch their heads to the ground nine times.

But the Emperors gardens are renowned through the lands and to green mages it's basically the equivalent of an all expenses paid holiday to Disney World. Only problem is that the manager of theme park will burn the staff alive inside of a faulty ride due to the fact that the faulty ride was found to be faulty and impure and the staff didn't fix it despite the fact that it was caused by sand getting in the gears due to a dust storm that happened only a few hours earlier.

The day before they depart they find out that crazy emperor plans to invade Gyongxin. They hightail it back to Gyongxin to warn them and all hell breaks loose.

Thoughts and Feelings

This is one of a small number of Pierce's works that I struggle to get through because I'm a bit of a pacifist. War is hell, it's worse than hell. Bad people go to hell, innocents get hurt in war.

Pierce holds back less in this book. It's more nitty gritty with what war is like even when also dealing with magic and fantasy in war. It get's really dark when Evvy get's captured. It's only a relatively short scene, like I have said Pierce is a Young Adult writer so she doesn't go into it as deeply as some writers, but being a bit of an empath, it's still such a painful section emotionally to read.

Outside of the dark bits, this is the only book based in the Emelan realms that supports that the gods of emelan do actually exist and that they are not just figments of the human mind.

I give this book 7.9/10. This book is a bit of a slog, the plot is okay but the world and the descriptions used are beautiful. Also despite the fact that I find it hard to read I admire Pierce for her portrayal of war.