Realms of the Gods (The Immortals Series #4) » (Reprint)

Tamora Pierce lives in Syracuse, New York, with her husband, Tim, five cats, two birds, and various freeloading wildlife. Visit her online at www.tamorapierce.com.

During a dire battle against the fearsome Skinners, Daine and her mage teacher Numair are swept into the Divine Realms. Though happy to be alive, they are not where they want to be. They are desperately needed back home, where their old enemy, Ozorne, and his army of strange creatures are waging war against Tortall.

Trapped in the mystical realms Daine discovers her mysterious parentage. And as these secrets of her past are revealed so is the treacherous way back to Tortall. So they embark on an extraordinary journey home, where the fate of all Tortall rests with Daine and her wild magic.

VOYA

In this fourth and final volume of Immortals, which can be read without the others, we meet Daine Sarasri, age sixteen, who can "mind-speak" to animals, and her lover-to-be, the great mage Numair Salmalin, age thirty. They are attacked by nasty enemy agents called Skinners. His Gift and her wild magic seem to be no match for these creatures that horribly destroy everything in their path. Things look bad, but just in time, the two get pulled from earth to safety in the realm of the gods. Here Daine meets her dead mother, Sarra, and the father she never knew about, the god Weiryn. The courageous pair cannot stay. The barriers which once protected humans have tumbled and all of those "near and dear" at home are now at peril as war rages. It takes "pilgrim's progress" kind of arduous journey to get them to the land of dragons and a beggar's chance of a way home. The plot is standard good vs. cunning evil. It is the detailed descriptions of the characters that etch the tale in memory. The stinky stormwings, the daring tentacled darklings and the individual dragon characters are equal to the "entities" found in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials (Workman, 1987). Daine is a feisty, liberated lady. Her human problems provide special spice not found in conventional teen fantasy. The epithet "illegitimate" had caused her much pain, but after seeing her "da," a muscular man with a crown of antlers, she better understands why he was not around for her childhood. Daine and Numair become aware of passionate feelings for each other, yet they remain chaste. (Girls with crushes on teachers will identify). When Numair accidentally sees her naked, he blushes! The attractive cover portrays Daine with her protector, the badger god, her parents, the handsome Numair, and Gainel, Master of Dreams, "said to be terrible at good-byes." Who could resist the invitation to join this improbable group wherein humor, action, and human foibles freshly mix? The series opener, Wild Magic (Atheneum, 1992), was published five years ago, and readers are still waiting for the series to be out in paperback. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, Broad general YA appeal, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).