Wild Magic (Tamora Pierce)

Author Biography

Tamora Pierce has written numerous renowned fantasy novels, set in either the “Tortall” universe or the “Circle” universe. In 2013 she received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her body of work.

Published By: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Year: 1992

ISBN: 0-689-31761-1

Reading Level: Grades 7 and up

Reader’s Annotation:

Daine has always had a knack with animals, but when she journeys into Tortall, she learns that her knack is truly magical. Can it help her defend the land against a terrible animalistic threat?

Plot  Summary:

Thirteen-year-old orphan Veralidaine “Daine” Sarrasri has fled her birthplace with nothing but her pony Cloud, a bow and arrows, and an outstanding knack with animals. Fortunately, this knack earns her a job assisting Onua Chamtong, horse-mistress for the Queen’s Riders of Tortall. Daine’s new job leads her to meet an exciting array of people, including King Jonathan and Queen Thayet, legendary lady knight Alanna, and young yet powerful wizard Numair. It also brings her face-to-face with the Immortals: deadly half-animal, half-human monsters.

Meanwhile, she discovers that her “knack” with animals, is, in fact, wild magic: a rare magic that gives her a psychic link with all animals, including the Immortals. Under Numair’s training, she hones her powers. If not carefully controlled, they could fatally tax her body, or else make her mind turn animalistic… as happened once before, after her family’s murder.

Critical Evaluation:

In this first book of the Immortals series, the second series in Tamora Pierce’s massive “Tortall” universe, Pierce offers a very different type of story than she did in The Song of the Lioness, despite the fact that both revolve around a feisty heroine with inborn magical powers. While the first series’ heroine, Alanna, was a rebellious noble-born tomboy in a world of knights and royalty, this book’s protagonist, Daine, is a homeless peasant orphan with a traumatic past, tough because she needs to be to survive. In place of the Gift, the “garden-variety” magic that Alanna used, she possesses “wild magic,” a much rarer, more unwieldy and potentially dangerous power linked specifically to animals and nature. And she faces a terrifying new threat in the form of the Immortals, monsters that were once sealed away in the Divine Realms, but now have escaped and place all of Tortall in peril.

In addition to Daine’s storyline, Song of the Lioness fans will enjoy seeing Alanna and her friends appear as mature adults, happily married, raising children, still secure in their friendships and still staunch defenders of the kingdom. But Wild Magic is equally appealing as a stand-alone piece, with a compelling, well-thought-out magic system, frightening supernatural evil, colorful characters, and a likable young heroine whose struggle with her powers and tragic backstory will resonate strongly with readers who have mental disorders or have experienced trauma of their own. Especially if those readers are also animal lovers. They’ll end the book eager to follow her throughout the rest of the series.

Curriculum Ties:

•Fantasy worlds

•Feminism

•Animal behavior

Challenge Issues:

•Violence

•Illegitimate birth references

•Bodily function references

Why This Book?
Both for Song of the Lioness fans who want to learn what happens next in the world of Tortall and for any lover of high fantasy with strong heroines, this beginning of the Immortals series is a must.