Customer Reviews

Emperor Mage (Immortals)

5 star:		(113)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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"Emperor Mage" is the third book in Tamora Pierce's "The Immortals" quartet. If you haven't read the previous books in the series, please do so because then you will enjoy this one more. I want to point out, too, that some characters in Pierce's "Song of the Lioness" quartet appear here too, so if you have read it you will appreciate this book even more. Despite that, and as I already said in a previous review regarding "The immortals", this new series can also be read on its own.

In "Emperor Mage", Daine has to accompany a delegation from Tortall to Carthak, a country that is threatening with war, and that might have been responsible for the troubles that Daine had to face in "Wolf-speaker". The delegation includes Alanna (the king's champion), Duke Gareth, and Daine's teacher Numair. As a gesture of peace, Daine is supposed to heal the emperor's cherished birds. But is that all he wants from her?. And why does her patron god give her scary new powers?. Is the badger trying to warn her that trouble is ahead?.

The answer to those and many more questions, can be found in this book. Daine will take her young dragon Kitten with her to Carthak, and he will amuse you with his antics. Daine will also find another good companion in the form of a small monkey she rescues from being eaten, and names Zek. We will also have the pleasure of meeting again some of the immortals that appeared in the previous books, and will learn what happens when gods get really, really mad.

On the whole, I highly recommend "Emperor Mage" as a good addition to "The Immortals" series. I believe that readers older than 10 will love his book, and that even some parents will enjoy reading it with them. Enjoy it!

Belen Alcat

Wow...this was an amazing book. It was my favorite out of all the immortal books. I love the way the setting is set up and described; it really jumps at the reader. This novel is about a girl named Daine who posesses wild magic. She and others from Tortall are visiting an emperor for peace talks. When the emperor turns out to be evil as was first thought, it takes courage and determination for Daine to put him down with the help of a special gift from the badger. Hey....those of you who have read it....is there something between Numair and Daine here? I first saw it in the first book and it gets stronger as the stories go along. Now I'm nearly sure that Numair loves her and I really REALLY have to read the fourth book. If there really isn't anything between them I'll cry...and that would just be wrong. Anyway, this series really really REALLY draws you in so BEWARE!!!!!! I loved this book and I hope that you will, too.

This book is really very different from the first two, because Daine seems so much older here. It was also very interesting, how we get to see a new side of our favorite 15 year-old. In Wild Magic and Wolf Speaker (my two books which are so worn they probably shouldn't be called books anymore), Daine was always this sweet, forgiving, pretty little angel. She seems so much more REAL. It's like Ms. Pierce's way of saying: "Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Daine IS capable of feeling jealousy, embarrassement, and she IS capable of mass destruction when she hears of the death of one of her dearest friends!" That, I think was a very good touch.

Look, I may seem to be eccentric here, but when I read the part when Numair warns Kaddar off of Daine, I started laughing my head off. I mean it's just plain obvious that Numair's in love with the girl when he says stuff like "All of us would take it amiss if we thought for one moment she was being trifled with, particularly a young man who wasn't free to do the right thing by her." I can tell you that Daine was pretty steamed when she heard that. I felt like kicking him myself. I mean, what does he think he's doing when he has to get all protective over her? Sheesh, sometimes I think that Numair and Kaddar are fighting over Daine like male lions over a female lion! Now that is stupid, especially with Ozone looking on.

Ignoring the occasional cheesiness to it, this book and the first in the seris are undoubtably the best. The story is well thought out and spaced excellently through the book, with elements of humor, suspense, and some real fear. The characters are absolutely cunning and perfectly thougt out and I liked that they had to go to another country besides Tortall and the way that the new customs were described. All in all, a great book!

"The Emperor Mage" is the third book in Tamora Pierce's "Immortals Quartet", and by this stage if you haven't read the previous installments ("Wild Magic" and "Wolf Speaker") I heartily recommend that you don't start here - you'll be completely baffled. A peace delegation including Alanna the Lioness, the Gareths and other nobles from Tortall have been sent to the hot, swampy Charthak Empire in order to negotiate peace with the war-mongering Emperor Ozorne. With them is Numair, once the Emperor's best friend and now his sworn enemy, Daine, who has been chosen to come in order to heal the Emperor's beloved and sickly birds, and Kitten the baby-dragon, whom the Emperor is intensely curious about.

Although the negotiations intensely important to Tortall, considering that war with Charthak is unimaginable (especially since it is believed that it was Ozourne that released the Immortals back into the human realms), everyone is optimistic about the success of restoring peace. So long as nothing untoward happens - but of course Daine specialises in stirring up trouble whether she wants to or not. Before she even sets foot on Charthaki soil she is visited by her Badger-god mentor who scolds her for leaving her homeland and gives her a dire warning: "The gods have lost patience with the Emperor."

But the delegation has no chance of turning back now, and soon Daine is mingling with Prince Kaddar, the heir to the throne, Lindhall Reed, Numair's old tutor, and the Emperor himself. And yet their is more going on in Charthak - the Stormwing Rikash has returned and seems to have his own agenda with the Emperor and a snappish old slave woman who is certainly not what she seems has a special gift for Daine...

The Emperor seems to have neglected the gods and is now misinterpreting their potent signs, a mistake that might lead Numair into terrible danger. Once more Daine is called upon to use her Wild Magic, finding in it a strength and power that is almost unimaginable.

"The Emperor Mage", despite the fact that the previous two books in the series are necessary to understand it, is a truly excellent read. For the first time we go across the inland sea to Charthak, and Pierce constructs the empire with astonishing detail and colour: everything from army regulations to the type of jewellery that the nobles wear is included in such a way that doesn't feel encyclopedic or boring. The palace is especially beautiful, from the magnificent statues, to the Hall of Bones, to the aviary and menagerie.

The characters are equally fascinating: the distant threat that was the Emperor in the previous books is now brought up close and personal - and to my surprise he is initially quite charming! Likewise, the Graveyard Hag is a delight, and Zek the pygmy marmoset is so gorgeous, it left me wanting one. Daine and Numair continue to grow into more complex and intriguing characters (look out for the first hints of something *else* going on between them), and although I dearly missed Onua and Cloud, Kitten is beguiling enough to hold her own.

There are a few silly one liners ("how nice for us - we can have a reunion" and "that is the greatest understatement I've ever heard in my life"), but the fantastic story overcompensates for this. As it is, "The Emperor Mage" is the first book I've ever read that kept me up until three in the morning, frantically reading under the covers.

Emperor Mage is very good book by Tamora Pierce. It follows Daine as she goes to Cathark with a peace comittee from Tortall, which includes Duke Gareth, Duke Gareth the Younger, Lord Martin, Alanna, and Numair besides Daine. Daine was sent by King Jonathan to heal Emperor Ozorne's birds, which are his only weakness. The Graveyard Hag, one of the Great Gods, hassles Daine throughout the book, something which Daine is flustered by. Seemingly good intentions by Ozorne turn evil, and Daine finds she may never see Numair, her friend and teacher, again. This is a very good book by Tamora Pierce. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm sure you will too. Be sure to read Emperor Mage, by Tamora Pierce.

Tamora Pierce really has agreat series going on. The Emperor Mage is one of her best is what I would say. Apart from being funny, riveting, and GOOD, this is also quite suspenseful. When Daine is sent to the Carthak Empire as part of a peace delegation, she must help to revive Emperor Ozorne's ill birds with her Wild Magic. She becomes friends with Kaddar, the heir to the Carthaki throne, and aquires a new power ro add to her collection. Meanwhile, Numair and Daine fall in love, but when Ozorne decides to get back at Numair for an old feud, Daine must save her friend's life, and in that process she wreaks havoc in the Carthaki empire.

I personally think that out of the Immortals series, this has GOT to be the best one yet...I hope the last one is a great as this and the rest of the series.

Ok, I'm just gonna say it, I knew there was gonna be this romance thing goin on between Daine and Numair from the first time they met (when he was a human). But it's great because they look adorable together(metaphorically speaking). The only thing that kinda made me mad was when Numair had a little "talk" with Kaddar. I still can't believe he did that, I mean talk about being hypocritical...it's all right for him to go around with a blond-haired-bimbo who wears dresses so tight that they could choke a bear, but it's not all right for Daine to be friends with a prince...let alone anything else...but I guess it was just because he was doin one of those crazy things that people do when they are in love so it's partially excusable. Lookin beyond all that; they're perfect for eachother.

I hope all of you who read this book/series will love it as much as I have.

OMG, this book was SO good! I think that this book and Realms of the Gods are my favorite Tamora Pierce books! NEwayz, I'm kinda glad that we're not in Tortall for this book, I mean only so much can happen in one place! It was cool to see Daine's new powers, and its so cute how Tamora is dropping hints about a future romance!