Customer Reviews

Magic Steps: The Circle Opens Book 1

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's been a long time since these four mages met and learned to use their magic. And they've left the Winding Circle Temple with their mentors.
Sandry goes to live with her great uncle - a nice man, a duke. While there, she meets a boy. Years younger then she, this boy has a magical talent himself. A dancing talent.
He needs to learn to use his talent - and Sandry is going to teach him.
And trouble is always around....

Magic Steps is about a boy named Pasco who dances magic and his teacher Sandry who weaves magic. Sandry is also the Duke`s daughter. When they hear about the killing of local,it then becomes clear that the young teacher and the even younger student must combine their magic to stop the murders. I think this is a good book for people who like Harry Potter. The good thing about this bookis that it is very mysterious.

This book is the first book in Tamora Pierce's quartet called The Circle Opens. In this book, Sandry discovers a Pasco, a dance mage. To Sandry's dismay, she finds that she must teach Pasco to controll and use his magic. At the same time, Sandry's uncle has to find a murderer who is killing all the merchants in the Rokat line. The murders happen before people's very eyes, but no one has seen the killer because the killers have a mage who can reduce ecsense to nothingness. Sandry realizes that with Pasco's dancing magic, she could help to catch the killers.

I liked this book a lot, but, now that I think of it, this entire series is a lot darker than most of T.P.'s other series. But I kinda liked what they did with Sandry in this, although I wish she'd kept her old bedroom. Pasco is an irritating but believable character, and I like the idea of dancing magic. I also liked the investigation and the duke and....just about all the interaction. I kinda hated the ending, though. Not that there could have been much of a different end, though. But the beginning was worse...it was kinda slow.

I really enjoyed Magic Steps-Book 1 of The Circle Opens. Magic Steps is almost as exciting as Tris's Book, which is my favorite of the original Circle of Magic series. Sandry's student is quite likable, and the teacher-student relationship is interesting. However, it would have been nice if it had been explored a little more. Despite the excitement, the plot seemed a little shallow, and was not as "deep" as some of Tamora Pierce's other books. That said, it's a great read, and I would recommend it to any fans of Fantasy literature.

I thought that this book was great! It was better then the Circle of Magic series in some ways and it wasn't. One of the reasons why I liked it better is because Sandry is trained in magic and now has to take on a student that has dancing magic! While this is going on there is a murderer going around the city killing a certain family. With the murderer there is a mage that does unmagic. The reason I didn't like it better than the Circle of Magic series is because I found that there was too much violence when the people got killed and Briar, Tris, and Daja were barely in the book at all.

Really good book, maybe a little bloody, but I liked it alot. I'd recemend it to ages 13 and up.

Magic Steps is a good book, and a wonderful start for the series "The Circle Opens". However, the events repeat a little bit, making it somewhat boring at times. Still, other parts of the book (including almost the whole book!)are exciting, suspenseful, and make you feel like you'll burst open if you dont find out what happens next...a good book for about 10 and up. I hope this will help anyone who is looking for some book to read...Enjoy!

For all readers who enjoyed Tamora Pierce's four books in the Circle of Magic quartet, MAGIC STEPS gives an opportunity to read more about the unusual mages Sandy, Tris, Daja, and Briar. Though the Circle of Magic and the Circle Opens quartets are supposedly geared for younger audiences than Pierce's Tortall books, MAGIC STEPS gives hints that this may not remain the case.

After coming across a boy-mage just a few years younger than herself, Sandry, thread-mage of Winding Circle, learns that as the discoverer of the boy's power she is responsible for making sure he learns the basics of its use. Her instruction of the boy Pasco, however, takes on more importance when members of a prominent family in the city begin to be brutally murdered. Despite the open attacks which take place with growing frequency and brutality, the killers continue to escape until only a combination of Sandry and Pasco's powers will bring the horror to an end.

Fans of Tamora Pierce everywhere will probably enjoy this book, as well as those that follow it. I myself have read it about two times, and was thouroughly engrossed both times. I happen to think that the usual Tamora Pierce magic is somewhat lacking in this first book of the Circle Opens quartet, but it remains yet another enjoyable read by one of my favourite authors.

In this sequel to the excellent Circle of Magic series, four years have passed since her previous adventures, and a now teenaged Sandry has graduated to magehood and returned to the side of her ailing uncle. What she doesn't expect however, is to find another young mage hopeful, posessing a highly unusual form of magic. And as if that wasn't enough, to then be told by the mage council that, since there are no readily available teachers possesing this boy's unique form of magic, she herself must become young Pasco Acalon's teacher. This book promises excellent character development, a strong engaging plot, and plenty of action scenes. However, those of you hoping for more of the hilarious interactions between Sandry and her other young mage partners will be dissapointed; Daja, Tris, and Briar are completely absent here. Even so, this book's good points definitely outweigh it's one complaint; Pasco is a likable, charming character who reminded me pleasantly (though not reduntantly) of Briar. Anyone who loved the Circle of Magic series should check this series out.