Street Magic (The Circle Opens, #2)

Street Magic (The Circle Opens #2)

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4.02 of 5 stars 4.02  ·  rating details  ·  10,669 ratings  ·  129 reviews
Briar is a plant mage - he can distil medicines, grow a garden in the blink of an eye and persuade a tree to trap a criminal. Learning how to channel your power is vital. Briar's empathy with nature can heal - but it could kill just as easily.

Evvy is a street rat. She doesn't even know she has stone magic, let alone how to control it - and she doesn't want to learn anythin...more
Paperback, 296 pages
Published February 15th 2002 by Scholastic Point (first published April 1st 2001)
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(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
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Wealhtheow
After becoming a council-recognized mage in his own right (at only 13!), Briar and his crotchety teacher Rosethorn start traveling their world, seeking new magics and spreading knowledge of their own. Briar has taken to cultivating the magical equivalent of bonsai trees, and while selling them in the bazaar he discovers a young street kid has magic. Convincing her to listen to him takes a great deal of effort--Evvy's as skittish as her bevy of cats--but eventually she agrees to be taught. The on...more
Kris
Enter three of my favorite characters in the series (after Tris because she's so awesome): Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy, in one of my favorite books in the world of Emelan. Chammur is one of the msot fascinating cities I've read about. It is set in a more Asian culture in a city surrounded by rocks and where gangs run rampant on the streets. The people dress differently, they have multiple roads (down in the streets and up on roofs), and they have a strict social hierarchy (from slaves and the poo...more
JoLee
Street Magic, book two of The Circle Opens Series, centers on Briar's adventures. In a city that had an Old-Baghdad feel, Briar meets Evvy, a street girl, and an untrained stone mage. In, what is becoming the formula for this series, Briar must find Evvy a teacher and in the meantime teach her himself. At the same time, Evvy is unwillingly part of a gang war that involves some very nasty business and an even nastier noble woman pulling the strings.

I have always loved Briar. I think he's my favo...more
Peep (Pop! Pop!)
Wow, I don't think I can fully express just how much I love Bruce Covill and the entire Full Cast Audio team. Those people know their stuff, and they know just how to make an audiobook a great listening experience! I found myself, days later, randomly yelling out, “Pahan Briar!” I loved the audio version of this book. I don't know if I would have liked it as much if I had read it, but listening was very enjoyable!

Normally I wouldn't be interested in any book about gangs, but this one was differ...more
Elley Murray


This quartet follows the four young mages from the Circle of Magic quartet as they go their separate ways and take on first students on their own. Briar, Daja, and Tris all go to distant lands and Tamora Pierce has some pretty interesting world building going on in these novels, which was really fun to read.

In the Circle of Magic quartet, Daja's Book and Briar's Book were by far and away my favorites, and I was pleased that this time I loved Daja's, Briar's, AND Tris's stories. My favorite new...more
Serendipityxxi
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Ashes
Tamora Pierce did it again! When I read her series Song of the Lioness I feel in love instantly. I knew the next book I read by her was going to be amazing regardless.

So I found Street Magic at my local thrift shop and saw Tamora Pierce on the cover and purchased it instantly, without even reading what it was about.

Over halfway through the book I was already in love with each character, Evvy, Briar and Rosethorn can all be stubborn and thickheaded which sometimes made me mad but that's what mad...more
Lindsay
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Shoshana
I love love love Briar, and I like Evvy too. I like that in these books Tammy plays with students of different ages - Pasco was 12, Evvy is 9 or 10, and later Tris teaches an adult. I actually don't totally love the plot, with the gangs and the bored noble lady, although if we'd gotten more of her motivations I might have been more into it. I like that Evvy was crucial to the climax, which based on the acknowledgments was a change from the first draft. I love Rosethorn, obvs. And I thought that...more
Korynn
This book finds Briar with Rosethorn in a new land where in no time at all he finds trouble in the form of street gang warfare and responsibility in the form of young Evvy, an untrained stone mage. Briar is a fairly untamed person but Evvy puts him to shame with her feral nature and his disillusioning about streetgang life shows him how much he has grown and what more he has to be thankful for. Unable to find a willing teacher for Evvy he begins to train her himself only to discover a spoiled pa...more
Anu
Street Magic is about Briar and Evvy. Briar and his teacher Rosethorn are helping the farmers in a city.One day, Briar happens to see magic coming from a girl polishing stones in a shop and he asks her about it.She is Evvy, a street rat, who is even more wary than Briar was.But finally, she begins to trust him. Briar wants to find a stone mage to teach her or else he will have to be her teacher.The streets of the city is controlled by gangs and one gang wants Evvy.

I loved the culture & life...more
Erin
I wasn't sure what to expect of this one, given that Briar's first book was such a pulse racer/heart rencher. This one was a little more upbeat, though there was still a grand display of power that was worth of raised eyebrows at the end.

I loved seeing Briar get a glimpse of how he was when he first came to Winding Circle...and being exasperated by the behavior. And I really liked Evvy; she's an awesome character and will totally fit in with the group. I'm glad to know already that she features...more
Terri
So far, Briar’s story is my favorite. He’s an interesting character, and he’s a mischievous but ultimately caring 14-year-old boy. As with Sandry, he reads “older” because of his life experiences living on the street, followed by his apprenticeship as a mage in the Circle of Magic quartet. He meets Evvy, who is obviously living alone on the streets much like he did before his crimes caught up to him, and senses her magical potential. Briar works to protect and teach Evvy, whose talents are valua...more
Rosemarie Herbert
I originally reviewed this book on my blog - The Cosy Dragon. For more recent reviews by me, please hop over there.

Briar Moss is on the road with his teacher Rosethorn and they have stopped in a drying out city of stones. Briar is looking forward to leaving - he doesn't like stones as much as he likes plants. Imagine his surprise when he finds out that he must become a teacher of a stone mage.

Briar has made friends with one of the gangs that inhabit Chammur, and so he becomes entangled in their...more
Holly
Briar was one of my favorite characters from the Circle of Magic books, and its fun to read another book about him, in a different setting and as a more grown-up teenager. I liked the character of Evvy and thought that once again Tamora Pierce did a fantastic job creating a girl who you can be proud of and feel is real. Dealing with the issues of gangs and violence was well done, and the message was conveyed without preachiness or being too forceful. I enjoyed it. I'm excited to read the other t...more
Barbara ★
This magical fantasy is all mixed up. The people's names, place names, etc are all based on Chinese but the forms of address are all Indian in nature. Makes for really strange reading. I liked Briar in the previous books and here he is again causing trouble. As a former street rat (homeless thief), he really feels for Evumeimei Dingzai (Evvy). She's an unknown stone mage whom he sees unintentionally working magic. By the rules of The Winding Circles Initiate Council, the mage who finds an uninit...more
Bonnie Gayle
Briar is visiting a new town with Rosethorn, his teacher, and one day in the market, he spots a girl polishing rocks, and can see the glow of magic around her. When he tries to speak to her about it, she runs away. He learns that her name is Evvy, and she is homeless and parentless, and did not know that she had magical powers. Briar knows that she needs to be trained, or her power can get out of control and become dangerous, but there is only one stone mage in the town, and he is stuffy and con...more
Magpie Driftwood
The second book in the "Circle Opens" quartet features Briar Moss, now a powerful fourteen-year-old plant mage, living with his teacher, Rosethorn, in the distant land of Chammur. While wandering the market place, Briar discovers Evvy, a ten-year-old girl who has stone magic. Like Briar at that age, she is a child of the streets, without friends or family to care for her. Unable to find her a suitable and willing teacher, Briar reluctantly takes her on as a pupil, but quickly comes to enjoy the...more
Odette
I have a soft spot in my heart for Rosethorn, and though she's not featured much in this book, she still has some great moments. I also really like her relationship with Briar, and that's definitely in this book. Beyond that, Briar has to confront some of the values that he learned early on, which is an interesting journey to see. The main problem with the book is that the "mystery" plot is pretty easy to figure out.
Christina
In this 2nd book in the quartet, Briar takes on an apprentice while he's visiting the city of Chammur: a street urchin girl who has the magic of stones. Evvy can bring a magical sheen to any rock, and do even more with them. Briar is not keen to become her teacher, but no one else will do for her. Along the way there are also street gangs to watch out for and a nasty woman who wants to have Evvy and her talents for herself.
Valerie
While I really like the character Briar Moss from the Circle of Magic series, I had to stop reading this one. There was a lot of violence towards and between children, and maybe it was just the mood I was in, but I had to stop. Maybe I'll finish it someday, and maybe not. I will be holding off on the other books in this series as well (Cold Fire and Shatterglass), but I'll still try The Will of the Empress and Melting Stones.
Erin Price
Reading Magic Steps, the first book in this quartet, leaves you pleased to get back to the world, but in a lot of ways Sandry hasn't changed very much. I was excited to see that that's not the case with Briar-he, unsurprisingly, has grown enormously over the four year gap between Briar's Book and Street Magic. It was lovely to see how well he and Rosethorn work together and to see him as a self-assured and confident young mage. His student Evvy is a strong character, too, and one I look forward...more
Juliana
I think Briar may be my favorite character in this quartet; I'm not quite sure why. I'm also fond of Rosethorn. In any case, they have interesting stories. Although the way Pierce does more mystery-oriented plots kind of frustrates me-- it's so obvious what the answer is . This is partly because it's YA, and partly because she's not a mystery writer, I think.
Monica&spikey
Okay, so I guess I kind of pulled a something like the Emperor Mage for this one. Remember how in the Immortals quartet, Emperor Ozorne called Daine Veralidaine even though she insisted he call her Daine? He said it was beause why should she have a pretty name if no one uses it?
That's what I did. Instead of calling Evvy Evvy, I call her Evumeimei. Cuz Evumeimei is pretty and fun to say!
Ann Carpenter
This is my least favorite of the Circle books, though I still like it. Briar is one of my favorite of the characters (though Tris holds the top spot) and I love Evvy. But the gang stuff just doesn't do it for me, neither the initial assumption that gangs are good, nor the final decision that they are not (which felt a bit forced to me.) The other books in this second series about the Circle are mysteries, and I much preferred them. There is no mystery here, which is a disappointment. I still enj...more
Sandy
Briar and Rosethorn are in a new city, and Briar finds a girl with stone magic in the marketplace. Now he must find her a teacher - whom she rejects, so he must teach her himself, and also protect her from a gang. This gang is currently being controlled by a twisted rich woman who is becoming way too involved with the gang's dealings.
Neill Smith
Briar and Rosethorn stop at Chammur on their way to Yanjing and decide to stay since the farmers are having so much trouble raising crops on the depleted soil. While there Briar discovers an untutored stone mage. When he is unable to entice a local stone mage to teach her he is compelled to undertake her instruction himself placing himself in the midst of the battles between the gangs.
Lisa (Harmonybites)
Aug 07, 2009 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: Kandice
I liked this book where Briar, the student, becomes Briar the teacher. Tamora Pierce is known for her strong female protagonists in her young adult high fantasies and she's unapologetic about that. I've seen her state more than once that little boys and young men have enough fictional heroes they can identify with, but young woman not so much. Briar and this book therefore is unique among Pierce's novels in that the focus is on a male protagonist. Briar has the roughest background among the four...more
Megan
Briar and Rosethorn are two of my favorite characters from the Circle of Magic series, and Evvy is a perfect addition to their dynamic. In my opinion, the only way this book could be improved is with the addition of Dedicate Crane (who we don't see often enough). I could read a whole series based on these characters.
Grace
Briar and Rosethorn are traveling and Briar spots a street kid in a marketplace who seems to have magic with stones. Because he is the first to spot the magic, he must teach Evvy the basics or find her a teacher. One of the best in the Circle of Magic universe books. I really enjoyed the character of Evvy.
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Street Magic (The Circle Opens, #2)
Street Magic (The Circle Opens, #2)
The Circle Opens #2: Street Magic: Street Magic - Reissue (ebook)
Street Magic (Circle Opens (Prebound))
Street Magic (The Circle Opens, #2)

8596
Hey, folks! I just discovered that apparently I have given some very popular books single-star ratings--except I haven't. How do I know I haven't? Because I haven't read those books at all. So before you go getting all hacked off at me for trashing your favorites, know that I've written GoodReads to find out what's going on.

I return to my regularly scheduled profile:
Though I would love to join gro...more
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“You're more trouble than you're worth."
"I'm a girl. That's my job.”
123 people liked it
“Briar: "So I guess I was the last to know."
Rosethorn: "Of course you are. You're a man, aren't you?”
66 people liked it
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