The Will of the Empress - Tamora Pierce

I probably should have stated earlier, but I will state it now: I will reference plot details, possibly spoilers, quotes, and other things in the course of the discussion.The first paragraph will usually be safe to read as they will typically contain background information to orient the reader in both the background of the story and my particular background that may be relevant. The last paragraph should also be safe; I will make an effort to make sure it only includes a synopsis of what I think of the work. In other areas, I'll try to give little enough context that you won't understand precisely what I mean unless you've read the book, but it may give you some premonitions about what's going to happen, and I do reserve the right to do a full plot synopsis.

 The Will of the Empress: Tamora Pierce
This book is a re-read, albeit one that I haven't reread in a while. It is a fantasy novel; effectively the third installment in the Circle of Magic series. The other two installments came out in four books each, one book for each of the four types of magic wielded by the main characters. The first set deals with how they became the circle of magic in the first place; the second set deals with each individual mage while they are off traveling without the others, and this book fittingly brings them all back together again.

While this is better constructed than some of her other middling works, it sometimes feels as though the author is self-conscious. "I am an author and I have to figure out something to write." I feel like there were times that the author struggled with how her characters should act given the way she created the rules of the universe - if it was as well-known as was implied that the palace was a safe-haven for kidnap attempts, then Fin was absolutely insane to do it there. If it was common knowledge, "Everyone knows...", then when he eventually had to reveal himself as the perpetrator a year down the line or so, the Empress would be forced to act against him even if she wanted to keep Sandry in Namorn, so that the other parents would be willing to keep their daughters at courts. They try to explain this away as a lapse in judgement on Fin's part, but you shouldn't be relying on a lapse in judgement by someone who is extremely savvy to power shifts at court as a means of driving your plot forward. Particularly when you really accomplished nothing exceptional by having this attempted at court. Primarily, it seemed to be a plot device calculated to infuriate Sandry enough to make her leave Namorn.This could have been done with any almost-successful kidnapping attempt at any place, and didn't have to flout the social rules to happen in the palace.

There are other things that just looked a little bit shoddy. Spelling errors are never forgiveable. The word is 'now', not 'know', get it write! One of the characters from prior novels developed a sudden preference for women over men, which looked like it was dropped in the middle possibly as a political/social statement. It reminded me of the Inheritance trilogy however-many-books-they've-got, where the main character suddenly develops a need to be vegetarian. Fine, I can deal with it, just don't drop in the "I'm an author making social commentary and this makes sense" comments. They really just annoy me, like little gnats. If you want to throw something in there like that, at least throw it in on the character that hasn't shown any sexual interest towards anyone yet. You spent the entire last book implying there was an attraction between this character and one of the other [guy] main characters. Sure it never went anywhere due to minor issues like people being insane, but whatever!

I like most of what Tamora Pierce writes, but if I had to recommend something, I'd recommend some of her earlier work. It is more innocent, more written for the sake of being a story than for the sake of having written something. I'll have to go back through some of the first/second set of books in this to see if I'm picking up stuff that I missed the first time around, but I don't expect it. It's a fine book to read if you're looking for something that is a children's book and doesn't try to go too seriously into character development. The magic is an interesting concept, but you got more of that from the first two sets of books. This book was more about the characters.