Book: Magic Steps by Tamora Pierce

Pages/Format: 262/Hardcover

My Thoughts: Magic Steps is the first book in The Circle Opens quartet.

Sandry discovers a boy who can dance magic, and as the mage who discovered his power, she is the one who must be his teacher.  Sandry and her uncle, however, learn that there is someone who is stalking some local merchants.  This killer has some very strange magic- an ability to reduce essence to nothingness.

I love the whole premise of novel, and found the unusual forms of magic different from the few fantasy books I’ve read.  It was a little slow in the beginning, but the pace picked up, and I found myself wanting to read more.  I definitely want to read the rest of the books- at first I thought I wouldn’t like the book, but I’m glad I gave it a chance.  The circle opens quartet is the sequel to her circle of magic quartet. 

I found the character of Lark to be the most interesting and I wished she had appeared in the book more.  The characters weren’t really developed in this one, although that’s probably because they were developed in the first series. 

I do wish there were more details on how the dancing magic worked.  How magic works may well have been covered in the first series, and it certainly seems like Pierce assumes the reader has read the first series.  There were enough details for anyone new to her circle of magic books to understand what was going on…but not a lot.  While it’s not necessary to have read the circle of magic in order to understand this one, it would be a good idea just to know how the characters came to be. 

Rating: 3 out of 5.  Interesting book, and the world she built is fascinating.