Fourth and last in the Immortals fantasy adventure series for children revolving around Daine, a wielder of the wild magic.If you like to read an author's series in order, start with Alanna: The First Adventure in the Song of the Lioness series. My Take Oh, I do adore Tamora Pierce's stories! Great characters with fantastic adventures that emphasize kindness and consideration for others.In this installment, the war is pressing hard on Tortall until kindness turns the tide. And the focus of all this kindness is Daine.I found it odd that the gods saw Daine's kindnesses as meddling. That they thought her actions created trouble and disorder. I don't see that. I'm also thinking I'd better read through the Protector of the Small series because the choices the gods give Daine here don't seem to match up with what I read in the Daughter of the Lioness series. So, now I'm curious…I did enjoy Daine's response to Numarin's proposal of marriage! Hee-hee... The Story The barriers mages put in place to keep the immortals in another plane collapses one night---the final blow by the old emperor mage, Orzone. When the emperor's mages opened the gates between realms some years ago, the barrier attempted to compensate, but it weakened. Now there is nothing to protect mortals from giants, stormwings, griffins, basilisks, tauroses, Coldfangs, ogres, hurroks, centaurs, winged horses, or unicorns.Stormwing Orzone has quickly learned to use his stormwing magic and now has spies everywhere. The kingdom can't continue to fight against Orzone and his allies forever, especially when the enemy seems to know what they're doing before they do! But its his Skinners that tilt the action for it encourages Daine's parents to help their daughter leading to a great many adventures in the realms of the gods and unexpected alliances.Alliances that will tip the balance in a number of unexpected directions. And that will cause the Gods to force an unwelcome, irrevocable decision about Daine. The Characters Veralidaine "Daine" Sarrasri is gifted with the wild magic which enables her to speak to and shapeshift into any animal. With the kingdom of Tortall under attack, Daine is asking all her animal friends to help in its defense. She also meets her dad, the god of the hunt Weiryn when he and her mother, Sarra Beneksri, the Green Lady, rescue her and Numarin from the Skinners. Rattail from the Long Lake Pack shows up to help Daine in the Divine Realms. Even Tkaa the basilisk and Kitten, a.k.a., Skysong, the baby dragon have duties in saving the kingdom. Diamondflame is Kitten's many-times great-grandfather while Wingstar is her grandmother and, luckily, both are feeling quite indebted to Daine for her care of Skysong.Badger is joined by Broad Foot, a duckmole, in aiding Daine and Numarin to get to the Dragonlands across the Sea of Sand. Queenclaw is a house cat goddess with all of a cat's characteristics! In some of her dreams, Daine watches the gods fight the Chaos Queen: the Black God; the Great Mother Goddess, Sir Alanna's personal contact; Kidunka, the world snake and lord of the Banjiku tribes; Wave Walker; Thief; Smith; the K'miri gods of storms and fire; and, Mithros. Gainel is the Dream God.Numair Salmalín is King Jon's wizard and he and Daine are in constant demand throughout the kingdom throwing off magical attacks. Jonathan of Conté, king of Tortall, and his Queen Thayet have large cameo roles; Jon makes good use of the Dominion Jewel in this war (see Lioness Rampant) while Thayet goes to battle with her Riders. Sir Alanna as the King's Champion, Sir Raoul of the King's Own, Buri of the Queen's Riders are all fighting. Onua, Daine's first Tortallan friend, also fights at the king's side. Lord Imrah is the ruler of the beseiged fief of Legann. Queen Barzha of the Stone Tree nation and her mate Hebakh are free of Orzone's cage due to Daine, but Queen Jachull of the Mortal Fear nation and most of the stormwings have allied with Orzone. Lucky for Daine and Numair that these stormwings provide some much-needed aid to repay the debt. Lord Rikash Moonsword serves Barzha and is friendly with Daine. From Rikash we learn how the stormwings, half-metal, half-human immortal birds, were created.Orzone was the emperor of Carthak and a very powerful mage. Skills he uses to more quickly learn how to use his stormwing power. Yup, ol' Orzone got transformed into a stormwing at the end of Emperor Mage! He's determined to take down Daine and Numarin. Skinners are a nasty creation that destroys absolutely anything they touch. Darkings are cute little creatures; we'll encounter them again in Trickster's Queen. In this story, we meet Gold-streak, Jelly, Leaf, and Inkblot.Inar Hadensra is an incredibly powerful mage, partly through the plucking out of an eye and the insertion of a huge, magic ruby; he's also an ally of Orzone. Uusoae is the Queen of Chaos. She has allied herself with Orzone and is breaking the rules laid down by Mother Flame and Father Universe. The Cover It's another faded-out Russian lacquer box style with leafy pillars on either side of the cover, centaurs flanking the title at the top, and a narrow plaque at the bottom for the author's name. All framing a blanketed Daine clutching her badger's tooth with Kitten and her many-greats-grandfather, Diamondflame, surrounding her with Badger cuddling in at the bottom right.The title is where most of the action takes place, in The Realms of the Gods.
Reviewed by Candace Cunard for TeensReadToo.comIt's been a year since wild mage Daine, now sixteen, helped topple Emperor Orzone of Carthak, but at that time his consciousness was trapped within the body of an immortal flesh-eating bird known as a stormwing, and therefore his presence is still integral to the story. In fact, Orzone has teamed up with Uusoae, the goddess of chaos, and together their power threatens to destroy everything Daine knows and loves.Daine may be young, but she and those around her all accept that she has an important part to play in this fight, defending the kingdom of Tortall that became her home four years ago.This final book in Tamora Pierce's THE IMMORTALS series is literally out of this world, with Daine and Numair spending the majority of the narrative in the titular realms of the gods. They are taken there by benevolent forces who seek their safety and remove them from their world when they are on the brink of death.Although many of the mysteries of Daine's past begin to unravel due to the information she gathers, both she and Numair wish to return home to their own world to do their part in the battles that are raging between Tortall and the forces of chaos. To do this, they'll have to journey through the immortal realms to the land of the dragons, since Daine's friendship with the dragon Kitten makes them the only immortals who might be able to send Daine back to her world.Though it isn't my favorite volume in the series (that would be EMPEROR MAGE, the third book), this book does a good job of concluding the quartet. Many of the major questions that have been left open by the earlier books are answered, and the development of Daine's character continues to present her as a solid human being with strengths and weaknesses, both of which she must learn to harness to her advantage.In this series, Pierce introduces another strong young woman whose life and adventures will make for an exciting read and a real inspiration at any age.
What do You think about The Realms Of The Gods (2006)?
So not only do we have some typical fantasy problems, like overpowered characters who can do no wrong and are filled with truth, love and virtue, there's misused words, terrible description, plot holes, and then SPOILER AND TRIGGER WARNING, a thirty-year-old teacher macking on and making out with his sixteen-year-old student. BY THE WAY THEY'VE BEEN IN LOOOOOVE SINCE SHE WAS THIRTEEN. There's about one page of desultory, pro forma "oh huh this might be fucked up" discussion, and then EVERYTHING IS APPARENTLY FINE. NO, TAMORA PIERCE. EVERYTHING IS NOT FINE. Honestly, yay for having a girl as your main character in fantasy, but if the price for that is having this shit happen, I THINK I'M OKAY WITH SKIPPING THE LADY HEROINES. Jesus fucking Christ. AND THIS IS YA. Because THAT'S a great example to emulate. At least when Eddings pulls this shit one, he's writing for adults, two, the characters actually wrestle with it, and three, THEY'RE BOTH ADULTS AT THE TIME.
—Wench
This is the last if the series of four with Daine as central character. I enjoyed this series in as much as it was a departure from the "apprentice training" quartets which I read out of order and back to back ( and which was a bit of overkill on the same theme after 8 in a row!)Of the entire series I enjoyed this book the lest. It took place almost entirely in the Realm of the Gods and so it was quite different than the others. There were a lot of dreams and a war - neither of which I am a huge
—Julie
In light of how much I loved Emperor Mage, I was a little disappointed with this book. First of all, most of this book is so far removed from the events of Tortall that by the time you make it towards the end, you think: "Oh yeah, there's a war going on there." It felt like most of this book was pretty much filler and quite a few useless plot threads. Yes, it was interesting to read about the gods and see the realms that they live in, but the pace felt much too slow for the last book of the series. Secondly, there's a lot of great characters in this series by this point, and most of the book is taken up by Daine and Numair. That's it. This great cast, and we really only get to follow two? Thirdly, and I'm about to break a rule here and add a spoiler... (view spoiler)[Daine and Numair?? I don't have a problem with most age gaps, but he's twice her age. The romance came out of nowhere, and was flat out creepy to me. Couldn't they have kept the tutor/student relationship or even a father/daughter kind of relationship? (hide spoiler)]
—Kaylin
