#sandry fa toren

[themysticaljellyfish]

I love the contrast of how Niko deals with the four while traveling with them to Winding Circle

Sandry: Stays with her for four months while she is recovering from her parents' deaths and her ordeal in the storeroom, transports her safely to her nearest relative

Tris: does his best to comfort her, doesn't treat her like a monster like she expects

Daja: stays by her side throughout her judging, takes her to someplace relatively safe after she is cast out

Briar: get in the bath, you little gremlin

[quietflorilegium]

“I’m not going with these people,” Sandry replied, her blue eyes fixed on her would-be kidnappers. “I can’t abide men who don’t dress properly.”

Tamora Pierce, "The Will of the Empress"

[tucsonhorse]

"what good is magic, if you can't use it to help people?" That right there is a defining phrase in my approach to the world. No wonder Daja's Book has always been my favorite of the series.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Welcome to Emelan

My (super subjective and objectively non-empirical) experience has been that Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe is where most of her fans begin, and it seems to be her more popular universe. Heck, I started in Tortall. But as I read more, and found more of Pierce's books, I found the Circle Universe, and I gotta say, for all my love and nostalgia for the Tortall Universe, I think my heart lives in Emelan with Sandry, Briar, Daja, and Tris. I certainly tried to balance my Rosethorn half with my Lark tendencies and my extremely Niko academic oeuvre when I was teaching, and I love that the Circle Universe gets away from more traditional medieval europe settings. Let's talk The Circle of Magic Quartet.

Sandry's Book introduces the world, the magic system, and our four protagonists. Sandreline Fa Toren is almost royalty in two countries and has exactly zero compunction about hopping back and forth between "just Sandy" and "Lady Sandreline" as the occasion calls for it. We love her, and honestly she's perfect. Joining Sandry at Discipline Cottage in Winding Circle Temple are former street rat Briar Moss, neglected and rejected merchant daughter Trisana Chandler, and orphaned and exiled Trader Daja Kisubo.

This book brings the four together and they learn that they are ambient mages--mages who manipulate the power inherent in the world rather than mages who use power inherent in themselves (academic mages). The magic system in the Circle Universe is objectively my favorite, because it is so detailed and so nuanced and so tied to craftsmanship. It's something I've never seen done better than it is here. And because our four protagonists are incredible, they also manage to spin their powers together, making them exponentially stronger together than they could have imagined being individually--which is just a stunnign thematic tie-in. A+ no notes.

Tris's Book explores Tris's past, her magic, and the choices she has to make to keep her terrifyingly powerful weather magic under control despite her deep emotional wounds and temper. Tris is honestly one of my two favorite characters in this series because this girl just has SO MANY feelings and she has to literally learn to take herself in hand to not accidentally hurt or kill anyone. It also explores Tris's relationships to her blood and found families, and Pierce makes no bones about how sometimes family can be irredeemably toxic, and that it's ok to choose the found family that loves and supports you. Honestly Tris needs a hug, but good luck getting through the lightning to give it to her.

This book also really deepens the relationships between each protagonist and their teachers. I love how much time Pierce spends in all of her books focusing on student-teacher relationships, and the ones here, in a literal educational setting (non-traditional though it is), are top tier. This continues to be expanded in later books, but Niko and Tris's relationship really cements here and I love them as a student and teacher.

Also, there are pirates in this book. That's pretty cool.

Daja's Book takes reader and protagonists beyond the walls of Winding Circle and expands the world at the end of a difficult, dry summer that was poised for a firey fall and a possible starving winter. The Duke of Emelan is touring the outer estates to assess who needs what help and what he can do.

Meanwhile, the book explores Trader culture and Daja's relationship to it. This is done so spectacularly that I am loath to give any spoilers, but suffice it to say that not only does this book explore the downsides of exclusionary cultural practices, it also explores the complex emotions of being excluded and both knowing it's wrong but desperately missing being included. Disability is also handled spectacularly in this book, and I love it for that.

While Daja is exploring her own culture from the outside, Sandry, Briar, and Tris are dealing with the aftermath of spinning their powers together in Sandry's Book. This is very much a subplot, but it works beautifully to expand the worldbuilding and magic system.

Briar's Book sees everyone return to Emelan proper, and this book hits DIFFERENT after 2020. Winding Circle must deal with a mysterious plague, and honestly after Covid, I can't actually read this book without sobbing. It's damn good, and Briar and Rosethorn are just the absolute peak student-teacher relationship. This book also really highlights Briar and Tris's relationship, which will continue to grow and develop throuhgout the Circle Universe books.

I absolutely recommend these books. Tamora Pierce is technically YA, but the protagonists are between 10 and 12 in these books, so they might feel more middle-grade than YA at times, but that truly does not diminish any of the very human themes and challenges.

These books also have absolutely stunningly performed and edited full-cast audiobooks, and I cannot recommend those enough either. I now read these books in the voice actors' voices, and that just makes the whole experience more magical.

[idreamtiflew]

My Midjourney creations of the four ambient mage siblings from Emelan. I know AI Art is controversial... but it's so fun to mess around on Midjourney, and I would never monetize these...

[junipernoon]

I was going to draw Briar slapping Sandry's ass and saying "you can fit so much trauma in this bad boy" at request of my girlfriend. But then I just fell in love with the outfit I was making for Sanry and wanted to sketch the whole thing without Briar in the way. And then I decided I wanted to do a little sketch page of Sandry, so I did the bust and it looked like she was amused and exasperated so "No Briar, that's not how land taxes work..."

And then I had to draw a third thing to fill the space and was thinking about how many laces and ribbons are on all of Sandry's outfits to better facilitate her magic, and how that's probably a pain in the ass to whoever has to undress her.

I didn't ship Briar and Sandry more than any of the other characters in these books until just now. (shrug emoji)

id in alt

[dangerous-string-tourney]

[bisexualbaker]

Sandraline fa Toren, is that you?

Princess who likes doing embroidery

She likes it too much

She stayed up all night finishing the embroidery of her gown and then spent the entire ball talking about the techniques she used and how long it took her

She slapped the visiting Prince's hand when he touched her shoulder because "that took me hours and I don't know where your hands have been!"

One of her maids introduced her to weaving and now she's skipping her lessons on statecraft to dye her own wool

She asked for a flock of sheep of her own for her birthday

Her quarters look like a textile goods shop

She hired a new maid to teach her lacemaking

She is the happiest she's ever been and her parents just want to her pay attention in her diplomacy lessons

(she is but she's always doing some kind of fibre craft at the same time and it annoys her tutor)

[nerdgatehobbit]

Since it’s the poll of the week I’m going to do one too!

Full disclosure: not all of these are characters I deeply identify with, but I love them all, having done so since I was a tween, and want to see who loves them too!

[themysticaljellyfish]

[Sandry] dragged her workbasket over. Fumbling, she yanked out three coils of silk, one green, one pale gray, one bright red. [Sandry's Book, Chapter 1]

She braids these three threads together on the next page, and braids light into them to use as a lamp.

These three colors are, of course, thematically representative of Briar, Tris, and Daja. The go-to color for Tris fluctuates a bit (in Daja's Book, it's blue if I remember correctly?), but green and red are pretty consistent for Briar and Daja.

Thematically, not literally, this is the first time Sandry binds the kids together. She's missing a crucial component - herself - and the light in the braid eventually goes out. The next time she, literally not thematically, binds them together, she includes herself, and boy does that magic last.

Am I reading way to much into a single quote in a children's novel? Absolutely, but this is what this reread is all about.

[quietflorilegium]

“My dear, think this over,” Shan said. “We could truly be happy together.” “My temper is fraying, and so are your clothes,” she replied evenly.

Tamora Pierce, "The Will of the Empress"

[hedge-bones]

This was my big magical series growing up, HIGHLY recommend, like if I could focus long enough I would happily write thesis-length praise about it

Harry Potter has a lot of hype of being the best magic young adult book out there. And while it is good, there are better ones. Also, JKR is trash. So.

Tamora Pierce is an amazing author. I still read her books as an adult, and I love them. Her books feature strong female characters, interesting and nuanced side characters, well-written antagonists, queer and poc side and main characters, and wonderful world building.

The ones more similar to Harry Potter are the lesser-known Circle of Magic series. First book is Sandry's Book. This series revolves around four children who discover they have magic that revolves around mundane/natural things: weaving, plants, smithery and weather. They all find themselves in the same house in Winding Circle Temple, where they find teachers and learn to control their magic, while dealing with various problems.

The adults are responsible, good teachers. Two (maybe three) of the four kids are poc. Three out of four teachers are poc and I'm pretty sure all of them are queer. The setting is not European, it has a Mediterranean/Turkey vibe.

Please read these books. Give them to your children, instead of Harry Potter. You won't regret it.

[thescrapwitch]

Five Favourite Character Poll tag game

Rules: Make a poll with five of your all time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favourite.

Thank you for tagging me @soothingmoonlight!

Tagging: @thelordofgifs @chthonion @leucisticpuffin @lordgrimwing and @echo-bleu No pressure of course!

[kidlit-queen-competition]

Qualifier: Tamora Pierce

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Circle is Reforged

Tamora Pierce's Circle Reforged books are an interesting case, because this is really where she started bouncing around in time in Emelan, and filling in some parts of story that were mentioned, suggested, or explicity referenced but not told. The books themselves were published well and truly out of chronological order, but having read them in publication order as they came out and then in chronological order on reread, I honestly don't think there's a "preferable" strategy. If you've read the Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets, you can explore the Circle Reforged in whatever order. However, I think I'm going to cover them in (more or less, no promises) publication order here. So let's talk The Will of the Empress.

*absolutely rampant, unapologietic spoilers for the Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets below the break*

This book explore the implications and consequences of Lady Sandreline being both Fa Toren in Emelan and Fa Landreg in Namorn. Our girl is practically royalty in two countries, but after she is orphaned in Hatar's smallpox epidemic, Duke Vedris in Emelan and Lord Ambros Fer Landreg in Namorn largely shield Sandry from her responsibilities as the primary landowner of the Landreg estates--which is entirely reasonable given that she is ten years old at the time.

When we get to the beginning of Will of the Empress, though, Sandry has been functionally running Emelan in the wake of Duke Vedris's heart attack and Ambros has been pointedly sending her account books for her Namornese estates. Sandry has been neglecting the hell out of those, and misses the fact that the Empress of Namorn has been financially squeezing Landreg to try to force Sandry back to Namorn.

Sandry has also been largely completed separated from Briar, Tris, and Daja for almost two full years by the opening of this book, since they went off to travel with their teachers and she stayed. She's had contact with Lark, but even that dropped significantly once Sandry moved into the Duke's Citadel.

Given all of that and two years of personal growth and change, when our four protagonists reunite in the house Daja buys for them, they collectively seize up in self-consciousness and shame and uncertainty. Plus seriously powerful ambient magic. Which literally everyone with eyes (except our protagonists) can see is a bad thing. So to kill two birds with one stone, Duke Vedris asks Briar, Tris, and Daja to go with Sandry to Namorn as basically bodyguards. The background hope is that the four of them get to know each other again and find their equilibrium.

With a lot of yelling and a distinct lack of talking, they set off to Namorn.

Which is when we really get off to the races, because the lack of talking means that Briar hasn't told the girls he's dealing with PTSD from the war in Gyongxe; Daja hasn't said she is dealing with abandoment issues, figuring out her own sexuality, and having helped kill a friend who had killed a lot of people by setting fires; Tris hasn't told anyone that she developed a skill that kills or drives mad 99.99% of all mages who try it and the whole Ghost-is-Jack-the-Ripper thing in Tharios; and Sandry...well, I love our girl, but she's dealing with a combination of inheritance and political machinations, her crippling terror of another family member dying on her watch, and the fact that she actively chose to rip three people to shreds to save Pasco's life. So everybody has big feelings and nobody is dealing with them or communicating effectively. Which, again, is a GREAT combination with the phenomenal cosmic powers.

This is a Sandry-centric book, but as we did with Sandry's Book, we also get a metric ton of the other three as well, because as they did in Sandry's Book, they're coming together as a unit. Trying very, very hard to prevent that are Berenene dor Ocmor, Empress of Namorn and her court mages, Ishabal Ladyhammer and Quenaill Sheildsman. They are trying to either recruit or get rid of four legendarily powerful mages. The recruiting goes...poorly. For a variety of reasons. The getting rid of goes WORSE.

Part of the recruiting scheme for Sandry specifically includes a himbo husband that Berenene can boss around to her heart's content. The approved suitors are Jakuben fer Pennun, who had himbo down pat, and Finlach fer Hurich, who was less himbo and more goldigging asshole with an influential uncle. Finlach ends up leaping SO FAR over the line that Berenene has to slap him down so hard that his entire life is ruined.

Then we come to Pershan fer frickin' Roth. Even if you take the Namornese tradition of kidnapping brides into account, Shan takes the whole thing to another level because his ass makes Sandry feel SAFE and WANTED and VALUED AS A PERSON before turning around and kidnapping her in a trap tailor-made for subduing even a very powerful stitch witch. Literally this man is the worst and he deserved so much worse than he got.

Overall, this book is about reconnection and remembering that some bonds are deeper than two-year world tours. It's also about seeing your siblings as their whole selves and accepting them, warts and all, because they are the people you love and who love you back. This is one of my favorite Circle Universe books, and I think it is objectively the best Sandry book and the best "all four of us are here" book in the Circle universe.

This book also objectively heavier than the Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets. It's still technically YA, but it's the 16-19 end of YA more than the 13-15 end, given that it deals with not only PTSD and trauma, but also sexual assault and kidnapping, so take care if you aren't in a headspace for those topics. The book will still be there, and taking care of yourself in your book choices comes first, always.

[foundfamilyappreciation]

Hello and welcome to the second Found Family Face-off! This time it's siblings! As mentioned in the intro post, this is for siblings of different genders, as there will future tournaments for brothers and sisters respectively to give as many found siblings as possible to be included! Anyway, please meet your contestants and round 1 match ups below:

*Please don't clown on this post and argue against why certain characters can't be found siblings (aside from if they're in an explicitly canon romantic relationship that I missed while trying to vet them). Please respect that these are people's headcanons and they might not align with yours (heck, some of these even I don't agree with but again, that's just my opinion) and that this is just for fun etc.

Group A

Ahsoka Tano & Rex VS Ahsoka Tano & Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)

Garrazeb Orrelios, Sabine Wren & Ezra Bridger VS Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso & Bodhi Rook (Star Wars)

Kilindi Matako & Maul VS Cal Kestis & Merrin (Star Wars)

Michael Burnham & Saru (Star Trek: Discovery) VS Mako Mori & Raleigh Beckett (Pacific Rim)

Tegan Jovanka & Vislor Turlough VS 10th Doctor & Donna Noble (Doctor Who)

Luke Smith & Sky Smith VS Luke Smith & Maria Jackson (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

Aidan Waite, Josh Levison & Sally Malik (Being Human U.S.) VS Steve Jinks & Claudia Donovan (Warehouse 13)

Amanda Brotzman & Vogel (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) VS Wednesday Addams & Eugene Ottinger (Wednesday)

Group B

Parker & Eliot Spencer (Leverage) VS Inej Ghafa & Jesper Fahey (Six of Crows/Shadow and Bone)

Duke Thomas & Cassandra Cain (DC Comics) VS Will Byers & Jane "El" Hopper (Stranger Things)

Angus MacGyver, Wilt Bozer, Riley Davis & Sam Cage (MacGyver 2016) VS Josh Lyman, Toby Ziegler, CJ Cregg, Sam Seaborn & Charlie Young (The West Wing)

Malcolm Bright, J.T. Tarmell & Dani Powell (Prodigal Son) VS Kate Beckett, Javier Esposito & Kevin Ryan (Castle)

Jake Peralta + Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) VS Meredith Grey + Alex Karev (Grey's Anatomy)

Fig Faeth, Adaine Abernant, Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Gorgug Thistlespring, Riz Gukgak & Kristen Applebees (Dimension 20: Fantasy High) VS Travis Killian & The Doctor (The Game of Rassilon)

Meriadoc Brandybuck & Eowyn (The Lord of the Rings) VS Lester Papadopoulos & Meg McCaffrey (Trials of Apollo)

Alanna of Trebond, Gareth of Naxen & Raoul of Goldenlake (Song of the Lioness) VS Keladry of Mindelan, Neal of Queenscove (Protector of the Small) VS Sandry fa Toren, Tris Chandler, Daja Kisubo & Briar Moss (Circle of Magic)

Group C

Katara & Zuko VS Toph & Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Sokka & Toph VS Aang & Toph (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Korra & the Air kids (The Legend of Korra) VS April O'Neil + the Ninja Turtles (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Sprig Plantar & Anne Boonchuy (Amphibia) VS Hiccup Haddock & Heather (How to Train Your Dragon: Race to the Edge)

Luz Noceda & Hunter VS Luz Noceda & Gus Porter & Willow Park (The Owl House)

Luz Noceda & King Clawthorne (The Owl House) VS Rayla & Ezran (The Dragon Prince)

Lilo Pelekai & Stitch (Lilo and Stitch) VS Luca Paguro, Giulia Marcovaldo & Alberto Scorfano (Luca)

Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan & Claire Nuñez VS Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan & Nari (Tales of Arcadia)

Group D

Roronoa Zoro & Nami VS Roronoa Zoro & Perona (One Piece)

Kyōka Izumi & Atsushi Nakajima (Bungo Stray Dogs) VS Phoenix Wright & Maya Fey (Ace Attorney)

Miles Edgeworth & Franziska Von Karma VS Miles Edgeworth & Kay Faraday (Ace Attorney)

Sento Kiryu & Misora Isurugi (Kamen Rider Build) VS Mikasa Ackermann and Armin Arlett (Attack on Titan)

Shadow the Hedgehog & Maria Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog) VS Lucas, Kumatora & Duster (MOTHER 3)

Junpei Iori & Female protagonist/Kotone Shiomi (Persona 3) VS Ren Amamiya/Akira Kurusu & Futaba Sakura (Persona 5)

Sombra & Cassidy VS Baptist & Sombra (Overwatch)

Beauregard Lionett & Fjord VS Beauregard Lionett & Caleb Widogast (Critical Role)

Also! To help me out and get the brackets done and published sooner, here's a list of contestants that I haven't found picture for and would super appreciate help in tracking them down. Massive shout out to those who sent in pics with their submissions, yall are MVPs.

(Need the ones that aren't highlighted)

Feel free to submit them via ask, submission or by reblogging and adding them to this post. Thanks in advance!