“Keys.”
Zek
So we have reached book three of The Immortals quartet at last.
I’m not going to wrap this reread in 2023 (how ambitious I was), but my goal is still to finish the books this year and wrap the posts up at the beginning of 2024.
Emperor Mage is my favorite of Daine’s books.
Look at that cover! Her hair! Her dress! Perfection! Of course, I no longer own this cover (thank you, younger brother, for stealing my shit), but perhaps one day I’ll find it again.
Anywho, on to a brief (hah) recap. As always, spoilers abound.
The Plot, in a Nutshell
About a year after the shenanigans at Fief Dunlath, Emperor Ozorne has decided that he is willing to negotiate peace—although, to be clear, it was 100%, totally not him calling the shots, just renegades working. But as a goodwill gesture, he’s willing to be the bigger man (cue the eyerolls). Also, it wasn’t him who ripped the boundaries between the Divine and Mortal Realms (yeah, right).
Daine arrives as part of a coalition headed by Duke Gareth (and Young Gareth, both the Gareths!), Alanna, Martin of Meron, Numair and Kitten (along with some others we don’t care about). Daine is there as a goodwill gesture only, because of her magic to heal. Ozorne loves animals and especially birds, and there’s something making them ill. Numair is there because even though it’s most certainly a trap, Ozorne has expressly pardoned him and asked for his presence as a condition to the talks. Daddy Gareth reads them the riot act on how to behave, eyeballing Daine as she’ll be alone more than the others. The stakes are high. If they fail, they will go to into a war against Carthak they will most certainly lose, and their allies will not back them in the fight.
But things are not quite well in the stake of Carthak.
The badger immediately arrives and ask Daine what the fuck she’s doing in Carthak, of all places. The Great Gods are displeased with Ozorne and have lost their patience with him. The badger gives Daine a gift, although he doesn’t tell her what it is. And weirdly, all the animals of Carthak line the banks and shores to great Daine—except for the rats.
They switch ships to great Ozorne’s heir, the sixteen-year-old, six-foot tall and arrogant as hell Kaddar. On the imperial barge, Daine sees another barge alongside, with a little boy, a parent and an enslaved person and a monkey. The little boy causes the monkey to go overboard, and Daine jumps overboard to save him despite Kaddar telling her not to do anything—she rescues Zek, Numair plucks them out of the water, and Daine is mortified for immediately messing up.
“The emperor never forgives. I doubt he will imperil the peace talks to settle his score with Numair, but I cannot feel easy in my mind about his reasons for issuing that pardon.”
Lindhall, to Daine on Ozorne
At the grand reception, Daine meets Ozorne, and both she and Kitten are of immediate interest. Daine also meets Varice, Numair’s ex, and is intimidated and jealous of the older woman who has immediately attracted Numair’s attention. Then Ozorne sneaks up to where Daine and Kitten are standing, and Kitten spots him because she can see through invisibility spells and she hates them. It turns out that the person on the throne is a very advance simulacrum, and that Ozorne himself is 100% not at all the baddie. He has very little power, actually, and is isolated and lonely and wah wah wah. He escorts her to the bird room, where Lindhall (animal professor, keeper of the menagerie and Numair’s old mentor) is already stationed. Daine heals the birds, but knows something weird is making them sick.
Anywho, the peace talks continue and stall, and Daine explores Carthak with Kaddar as her escort. She sees dinosaur bones—and accidentally wakes up a three-horn a little. Something weird is happening with her powers. Then she meets old friends and new: she runs into the Stormwing Rikash again and they exchange frenemy barbs and he tells them to GTFO of Carthak and Daine tells them about the Stormwing queen she saw in the menagerie; she meets the Banijiku Tribe, a group of two-legged People who think Daine is a god-child and believe that their god has told them they must be slaves; and she meets an elderly enslaved woman who is not at all what she seems (spoiler: she’s a god), who tells her she has to go to the temples. When Rikash learns that his true queen is actually alive and Ozorne tricked them all into an alliance, he gives Ozorne the gift of a Stormwing feather, and tells him that if he ever needs their help and is in dire circumstances, to plunge the feather into his chest and all will be better.
“My uncle has decreed that, since the gods are eternal and he is not, the people should not spend their money on offerings, but on taxes.”
Kaddar, to Daine
Many ominous portents happen. The gods are real angry at Ozorne for forsaking them. Everyone—especially Ozorne and Kaddar—are absolutely fascinated by Kitten, who is utterly fascinated by human goings-on. Kaddar begins to tell Daine all sorts of the shit going down with his uncle. Daine starts to figure out that she has the power of necromancy when she starts waking up more dead things. Ozorne learns that Daine is Numair’s weak spot. Things heat up even more, with Ozorne suddenly raising the stakes and demanding a marriage alliance with Kalasin (who is 10!) to Kaddar or not peace.
As the peace talks completely stall, the birds get sick again, and Daine goes to heal them. Ozorne tricks and kidnaps her, and uses that moment as the impetus to get Numair to overreact. Daine is captured and Kitten is taken from her—Daine is pissed that Ozorne has used her as the reason for Tortall and Carthak going to war. When she is freed by Zek and the Banijiku from her cell, she learns from Kaddar, who is also part of the rescue team, that Numair has been captured and executed. The rest of the Tortallan entourage has been forced to leave, much to Alanna’s outrage.
“Please don’t say what I must and mustn’t do, Highness.” It was amazing, how cold she felt.
Daine, to Kaddar
The death of her beloved teacher and friend removes all the fucks Daine has to give about Ozorne and Carthak. With the Hag’s urging, Daine wakes all the dinosaurs* in the Great Hall and orders them to destroy the foundations of government—to bring the empire to its knees. Destroy the tax halls. Crush the records. Bring down Ozorne’s seat of power. Kill Ozorne himself.
She corners Ozorne, who uses the Stormwing’s gift to save himself—and he turns into a Stormwing and is subject to Stormwing justice. It turns out Numair is not dead, but that he had a super special simulacrum of his own shipped to Tortall that was executed in his place, and he just very absentmindedly forgot to tell Daine.
Kaddar takes over as emperor, immediately says, “Yeah, let’s do peace, I’ll do whatever you want, Daine,” and sets about to fixing his destroyed empire. Daine and company head home, and Daine worries about what the rest of Tortall is going to say when they realize how powerful she is (although the necromancy powers are taken back by the Graveyard Hag), until Alanna tells her, “Meh, don’t worry about it. What happens overseas stays overseas.”
*It’s important to note that the last person who dabbled in necromancy was Thom, to really not-so-great effects. The Graveyard Hag wants Daine to raise the human dead, but Daine refuses, because the human dead should stay dead. Besides, seeing dinosaurs walk again would be far more memorable.
On Carthak, Tortall’s Foil
If Tortall is mostly considered the stand-in for good, fair government with people slowly gaining greater access to opportunity and new beginnings (see, my review for Wild Magic), then Carthak is everything that is big and bad and awful in the world.
Its opulence over ever goes upward, towards the emperor and his nobles. Exploitation forms the backbone of this society, externally in the form of imperialism (Carthak has conquered most of the lands to its south and east, and is looking hungrily to the north) and internally in the form of slave-holding. Everything is meant to be captured, controlled and either put to use or admired as part of a collection—from slaves to animals to immortals. Everything serves at the whim of the emperor.
Which, great. Empire bad. Tortall good. Except…Carthak is so very clearly coded as not-white. Pierce models a lot of her fantasy countries after actual places, with Tortall being more Englandy, Scanra is very Viking Scandanavia, Tusaine is French-coded, Tyria is kinda Italian, the Bazhir are Bedouin, the Yamani Islands are feudal Japan, the Doi are Tibetan/Nepalese, and the Copper Isles are more Indonesia with a mix of Malay culture.
In a lot of posts I saw Carthak as being influenced by ancient Egypt. There’s the huge river, the many temples to the gods, and the structure of society is similar to ancient Egypt. I also see a lot of Islamic influence—which I don’t feel is done very well—with a little Ottoman Empire and Mughal Empire.
While there is a lot wrong with Carthak, specifically the rampant inequality and subjugation of its people built into its system, I also think that the positioning of Tortall good, Carthak bad, is a bit too black and white in the narrative. This is a book meant for children, but there’s a lot of nuance to how the world is developed, especially when Carthak is explicitly mentioned as being populated by mostly Black and brown people.
I think it is important to note that while Tortall and Carthak remain governed by kings and emperors, Kaddar’s reign seems to be one that is set up as a more egalitarian rule. Not that we want government ruled by one (which sets up the potential for another Ozorne, because ultimate power corrupts ultimately), but it’s interesting that Carthak is positioned to be reborn as something better than it was, jettisoning all that was wrong and moving to something fairer. After Tempests and Slaughter, I kind of really want something more on Carthak—like, featuring Kalasin and Kaddar’s kids (spoiler!)
On Ozorne
In a lot of ways, like how Carthak is Tortall’s mirror, Ozorne is Jonathan’s mirror.
Both are mages. Both are kings. Both were raised, more or less, with the path to power laid before them, although Ozorne was born not expecting to rule and Jonathan was. Both were spoiled little brats as children and teenagers (see, Ozorne in Tempests and Slaughter and Jonathan in pretty much the entirety of Alanna’s quartet), and both had the privilege of having two underprivileged best friends as guiding lights in the midst of all of their sycophants.
Jon had Alanna (and Roaul and Gary and George). They quarreled and broke up for a bit and Jon had his dabblings with not-so-great people, but it was his friendships with George and Alanna who really helped him get his head out of his ass. And I can’t underestimate how much Thayet plays into that, as well. Thayet is really the neck that turns Jonathan’s head, to bring My Big Fat Greek Wedding into this review. Throughout everything, Jon learned that sometimes it’s better to cede control and let his people do what they have to do to make things better.
Ozorne…never learns this. He also has the little bug in his ear nagging him on toward “greatness” in the form of Chioki. As a child who never had control of anything in his life, Ozorne seems to relish the absolute control he has over everything else in his adulthood. His every whim is indulged, and his desire for control manifests in his love of animals—what he loves must be caged and controlled for his pleasure alone. His birds live a life of luxury, but a gilded cage is still a cage. When he meets Daine, he sees her not as a player, but something unique and useful that he alone wants to possess. That she is also Numair’s weakness is a delightful bonus.
What can’t be controlled must be destroyed. See: Tortall. See: Numair. See: the temples. While we don’t know exactly what went down with Numair and Ozorne, we do know that their once-tight friendship is irrevocably shattered to the point where Ozorne is willing to risk literal war with another country in order to destroy his former bestie.
Although Ozorne doesn’t always completely destroy what he can’t control. He can be urged to moderation, particularly in not destroying all the hyenas within his empire (part of a prophecy of his downfall). Anywho, Ozorne is a man who grew up smart and talented and was told by a bunch of people he was smarter and more talented than anyone else, and now his ego takes up an entire empire.
Coming back to the theme of climate fiction that was evident in Wolf-Speaker. In that book, human hubris was averted just in time—we fixed climate change by changing our ways before it was too late! Huzzah! In Emperor Mage, human ego in the form of Ozorne continues to say Fuck You to the gods and both Ozorne and Carthak reap the consequences. It does end, however, with a note of hope that says, we have failed and destroyed ourselves, but this is not the end. We will rebuild, and we will address the errors of our past.
Bitches & Pretty Women
Switching gears, entirely, to a subject I’ve thought of a lot in Pierce’s early works. Specifically, Alanna and Daine’s quartet (she kind of addresses this issue in Kel’s quartet, and a bit in The Woman Who Rides Like a Man).
Pierce is noteworthy in her depiction of bad-ass girls with swords and magic crushing the patriarchy and evil. Like, literally in this book, Daine takes down an entire corrupt government long before Katniss Everdeen was even dreamed into existence. Daine is literally the prototype for the dystopian heroines of the late 2000s and 2010s.
Pierce’s heroines are noteworthy for their lack of conformity and their headlong pursuit into their own desires outside of traditional femininity. Alanna wants to be a knight instead of a lady. Daine forges her own path outside of village-woman and bastard. Beka becomes a cop. Their relationships with men are, for the most part, as friends and colleagues first, and lovers second. They are not positioning themselves as objects of desire but as persons of talent. They are pushing back against the patriarchal structures that keep women from doing anything but mother and wife.
On the reverse side of things, you have people like Beka’s sisters and the Provost’s wife; Delia and Josaine with Alanna; and Varice and Yolene for Daine. Each of these women (to a lessor extent the women in Beka’s trilogy, as Pierce seems to course-corrected a little bit here) weaponize their sexuality. They are hot, they are going to seduce the men in order to raise themselves up and slam the door on everyone beneath them. They are the paragons of white womanhood—embracing and reinforcing the patriarchy at every point.
When Alanna, Beka and Daine wear pretty clothes and explore their femininity, it’s to realize that they like pretty things and that they are still badasses and warriors.
When Delia, Yolene and Josaine are looking hot, it’s to benefit themselves and reinforce their own positions in society. And reinforcing their positions in society (or working on raising themselves higher), means pushing down any woman who does not conform to the standard of femininity being paraded about as ideal. When they are rejected, as they all are, surprisingly, by Jon (this man and his magical peen), they decide to destroy the system itself. If they can’t be on top, no one can.
Where I have a problem with this image is that up to this point in the books (remember, Alanna and Daine came first and second), there are no conventionally hot women who are not absolute bitches and mean girls. Sure, Thayet, but Thayet is more like Alanna—she’s hot but she’s more like Alanna in her utter lack of conformity, and Thayet is also really nice and not at all concerned about jewels and riches. Thayet is a warrior first, queen second.
A lot of this positioning mirrors the pop culture at the time. Think about any teen movie in the 80s and 90s. The hot, popular girl was generally horrible and at odds with whoever the protagonist was. She weaponized her sexuality against everyone around her to get what she wanted or to maintain/elevation her position in society. She made herself a victim, often at the expense of those beneath her. This character is also a counter to some other stereotypes of evil being ugly. But then again, most of the women mentioned here are not in charge of their own fates but rather are acting at the whims of a man. Delia and Josaine are Roger’s pawns. Varice does what Ozorne wants in order to maintain her position of favor. Yolene, for all her grandiose desires to be queen, is a pawn to both Tristan and Ozorne.
Of course, a lot of this is a round-about examination of white womanhood and its relationship to white supremacy, but in a children’s book I kinda wanted more nuance? Like, does every conventionally attractive woman have to be complicit or actively working to reinforce the patriarchy? Does every woman who is rich and hot and dresses in revealing clothes have to be a mean girl? Or worse, absolutely useless.
“You must think I’m useless and silly. Maybe I am. I just like things pretty. Is that so bad, to want people to enjoy themselves?”
Varice
Varice, at least, adds a little more greyness to the black-and-white dichotomy presented. Not so much in Emperor’s Mage, moreseo in Tempests and Slaughter. In Emperor’s Mage, she’s initially positioned as Numair’s ex: his hot, talented, rich, and age-appropriate ex. Varice is literally everything Daine is not—her magic is feminine, she conducts herself within her station, always, and she’s really fucking hot. At first, it seems like Varice is acting on Ozorne’s orders to seduce Numair, but thankfully Pierce adds a little more complexity to this relationship. It’s not quite enough in Daine’s eyes to redeem her, and Daine doesn’t see any benefit in a woman who has remained complicit in Ozorne’s rule. I feel like this viewing of the world through rose-colored glasses has been Varice’s survival mechanism, but it’s an instinct that only protects her.
And perhaps, that is what Pierce is pointing out. That complicity in wrong-doing is always wrong, that there are ways to resist, always. Perhaps not ways that are flashy, but subtle. There are ways to change the patriarchy and the world, but you have to get uncomfortable to do so.
I just wish that the depictions of conformity and complicity didn’t always have to be the hot, non-warrior girl.
Numair & Daine
“If I’m not careful, you’ll be grown and married to a deserving fellow before I know it.”
Numair, to Daine
Speaking of love interests that are not age appropriate, let’s talk, briefly, of Numair and Daine.
While Emperor Mage is my absolute favorite of The Immortals quartet, the increasing interest in Daine’s sexuality and hotness kinda gives me the ick in a way that it didn’t with Alanna (or Beka). While there was a lot of Alanna’s love interests that I did not like, with Daine I just…it’s hard to put into words. I felt it when reading it as a kid, and I feel it even more as an adult. Daine is fifteen in this book. Kaddar is sixteen. Numair and Ozorne are…pushing thirty. And there is more talk on how pretty Daine has becoming. I dunno, but the sexualization of a teenager is weird. It was less weird in the 90s, but more weird now.
Numair and Daine don’t have a lot of page time together. But while Daine was briefly jealous of Yolene’s attempts at flirting with Numair in Wolf-Speaker, there is something about Varice that just pings the ever-loving shit out of Daine. Perhaps because Varice is everything Daine is not and Daine’s a little insecure about it all. Perhaps because she and Numair are teacher-student, although they feel more mentee-mentor at this point. Numair calls Daine magelet, as if to reinforce both her student-relationship and childishness with him. It’s a boundary between them.
It becomes very clear, however, that Numair is equally as jealous of any affection toward Daine—and he’s not above showing it. He practically pisses all over Daine and screams “MINE!” to Kaddar when Kaddar seems to flirt with her. He takes a swing at Ozorne when Ozorne implies nastiness on Daine’s virtue. Daine’s virtue has always popped up, with her being alone with Numair for long stretches, but it pops up a lot more in this book as Daine blossoms (hate that term) into a young woman.
Anyhow, because subtlety is not Numair’s forte, Ozorne quickly realizes Daine is his weak spot and becomes een more fascinated with her, to disastrous (for Ozorne) effect. This fascination turns…real weird in Book 4, by the way.
When reunited at the end of the book, Numair reveals his feelings and calls Daine sweetling instead of magelet. The self-imposed boundary is, for a moment, broken.
Wrapping Up
Before I end this entirely too long post, I do want to mention the preciousness that is Alanna and Daine’s relatinoship. Alanna is like Daine’s older sister and mentor and friend wrapped in one. Alanna helps Daine navigate this strange world of diplomacy and weirdness, and is one of the first people Daine turns to to tell things that are happening with her powers. And, at the end of the book, it’s Alanna who comforts Daine over being taken over and used by a god, because who better than Alanna to know how that feels? It’s also fascinating to see how Alanna has matured over the years—she’s an adult, hampered by adult rules. She sees the big picture, sometimes to the detriment of the immediate picture. But that doesn’t mean that she isn’t going to try to make things right in her own way.
And for my last bit: for those of you rereading this book, I recommend a small drinking game. Doesn’t have to be alcoholic. But the game is: have a drink after every time Daine blushes. Remember how Alanna had her crying book? This is Daine’s blushing book.
Not really mentioned in this review is all the immortal and Divine Realms stuff—Book 4 covers a shit ton of it and that is where I’m going to talk about it.
Final Rating: 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲/5
Previously in my 2023 Tortall Reread Series:
- Beka Cooper’s Trilogy:
- Terrier (book 1)
- Bloodhound (book 2)
- Mastiff (book 3)
- Song of the Lioness Quartet:
- Alanna: The First Adventure (book 1)
- In the Hand of the Goddess (book 2)
- The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (book 3)
- Lioness Rampant (book 4)
- Tempests and Slaughter
- The Immortals Quartet:
The Suspected Bibliophile 
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