Pierce adds depth to the Circle
"Street Magic" is my favorite so far of the books in Tamora Pierce's Circle universe. Perhaps this is because I have a soft spot for Briar, but I also think that Pierce finally began to have some depth of "world" to draw on by the time she got to this installment. The plot revolves around Briar and his teacher Rosethorn's trip to the city of Chammur, where they are attempting to work with local farmers to see what can be done about the poor crop yields. Very quickly, however, Briar discovers a young stone mage named Evvy who seems unaware of her power. It soon becomes clear, however, that a local gang is interested in the girl, as well. Stone mages are not normally rare, but in Chammur a local stone mage has driven all the competition away, so Evvy has value to interested parties who would like to put her talent to ferreting out jewels and other such illegal activities. Beyond the normal shadiness of street gangs lurks something more sinister, however, hidden amongst the trappings of normal class warfare between the haves and the have-nots.
There is a real sense of urgency in the book, which had been slightly lacking in the previous entries, so it was nice to feel caught up totally in Pierce's work the way I generally expect to be.
