Briar's Book
Encyclopedia
Briar's Book by Tamora Pierce
, is a fantasy
novel set in the fictional duchy of Emelan
. It is the fourth and final book in the Circle of Magic
quartet, starring the four young mages Sandry
, Tris
, Daja
and Briar
as they learn to handle powerful magic, form intense bonds of friendship and stand up against destructive forces of nature.
mage
, having ambient magic with all forms of plant life. Through his eyes the book explores themes of poverty and social injustice, as a deadly plague named the Blue Pox strikes The Mire, the poorest quarter of Emelan's capital city, Summersea.
and then a thief in Deadman's District, the poorest quarter of his native Hajra, before his magic was discovered by the great mage Niklaren Goldeye and he was taken to Winding Circle, a temple school for ambient mages. One day while out running errands with his teacher, Rosethorn, Briar is summoned to the Mire to examine Flick, a poor friend affected by a strange illness. Puzzled by what he has encountered, Briar enlists Rosethorn's help. The two bring the feverish girl to Urda's House, (a small charity hospital), where they learn that Flick is by far not the only one affected; many other people from the poorest parts of Summersea are ill as well. They also learn, to Briar's dismay, that the hospital has been put under quarantine to help stop the "blue pox" - so named for the bluish sores that mark the skin - from spreading even further.
Trapped in Urda's House due to the quarantine, Rosethorn and Briar are kept busy with caring for the patients. Together with the healers, they come to the conclusion that it isn't the blue spots that are necessarily dangerous, but the fever. Even more troubling is the fever's apparent resistance to willowbark tea, a usually successful remedy.
These revelations don't make the task of caring for patients any easier, however, and over the next few days many of them - including Flick - pass away. Eventually it's realized that the quarantine on Urda's House is useless; the plague has already spread to the whole of Summersea. Briar and Rosethorn are given leave, and travel back to Winding Circle, where Sandry, Tris and Daja spend the night with Briar in the altar room to help him cope with Flick's death.
Rosethorn works with Dedicate Crane and a team of Air mages to find a cure for the sickness. But it is Briar's sharp-eyed friend Tris who discovers the first real breakthrough; the origin of the disease. With Niko's help, she learns that the disease was a result of a magical experiment gone wrong and disposed of incorrectly.
Unfortunately, just as things start to look bright in the search for a cure for the blue pox, an accident in Crane's lab causes Rosethorn to become sick with it as well. This causes Briar to work twice as hard, determined not to lose Rosethorn as he had lost Flick, and slowly a cure begins to develop. (Rosethorn continues to send notes to Crane through Briar.)
After several days, the cure is deemed to be safe and Crane tests it on Rosethorn. She starts to recover, but has a bad cough, which develops into pneumonia. Lark goes to find a healer, but while she is gone, Rosethorn has a seizure. Briar, not wanting to lose his teacher, plunges after her into death, magically linking himself to the three girls and his beloved shakkan, or miniature tree. Suspended in a sort of limbo, he finds Rosethorn in a garden, and they argue fiercely. Only after he threatens to sever the magical cords linking him to life does she agree to return with him.
Upon their return, they discover that Rosethorn has temporarily lost her ability to speak, due to the seizure and the accompanying block of oxygen flow to her brain. But that appears to be the only lasting damage, and the blue pox has vanished for good.
A month later, Briar and the girls on on the roof. Sandry comments that it is the four's birthday, they have all been at Discipline Cottage for a year. Everyone has to leave for various reasons, leaving Briar alone. He contemplates birthdays, and decides his birthday will be the following day, the day Rosethorn invited him to her garden. She calls up to him and tells him to come down and start weeding.
Tamora Pierce
Tamora Pierce is an author of fantasy literature for young adults. She is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania. Best known for writing stories involving young heroines, she made a name for herself with her first quartet The Song of the Lioness, which followed the main character Alanna...
, is a fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
novel set in the fictional duchy of Emelan
Emelan
Emelan is a fictional realm that provides the main setting of the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce, primarily in the capital city of Summersea and the nearby temple of Winding Circle...
. It is the fourth and final book in the Circle of Magic
Circle of Magic
Circle of Magic is a quartet of fantasy novels by Tamora Pierce, set in Emelan, a fictional realm in a pseudo-medieval and renaissance era. It revolves around four young mages, each specializing in a different kind of magic, as they learn to control their extraordinary and strong powers and put...
quartet, starring the four young mages Sandry
Sandrilene fa Toren
Lady Sandrilene fa Toren, or Sandry, is a fictional character from Tamora Pierce's quartets The Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens as well as the stand-alone The Will of the Empress. She is described as having light brown hair prone to sun-streaks, bright corn-flower blue eyes and an unusually...
, Tris
Trisana Chandler
Trisana Chandler, Tris for short, is a character in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets and the book The Will of the Empress. She has curly red hair , gray eyes, and wears spectacles. She believes herself to be fat and is called "Fatty" a few times by some of the series'...
, Daja
Daja Kisubo
Daja Kisubo is a character in the Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens quartets and the standalone novel The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce. She has ambient magic with metal and fire....
and Briar
Briar Moss
Briar Moss, once known as 'Roach', is a fictional character from Tamora Pierce's quartets Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens as well as the stand-alone The Will of the Empress.Briar is of unknown, multiracial parentage...
as they learn to handle powerful magic, form intense bonds of friendship and stand up against destructive forces of nature.
Plot introduction
The main protagonist of the book is Briar Moss, a young ex-thief and "green" or plantPlant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
mage
Magician (fantasy)
A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
, having ambient magic with all forms of plant life. Through his eyes the book explores themes of poverty and social injustice, as a deadly plague named the Blue Pox strikes The Mire, the poorest quarter of Emelan's capital city, Summersea.
Plot summary
To Briar, the Mire is familiar territory, having been first a street-ratStreet children
A street child is a child who lives on the streets of a city, deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old.Street children live in junk boxes, parks or on the street itself...
and then a thief in Deadman's District, the poorest quarter of his native Hajra, before his magic was discovered by the great mage Niklaren Goldeye and he was taken to Winding Circle, a temple school for ambient mages. One day while out running errands with his teacher, Rosethorn, Briar is summoned to the Mire to examine Flick, a poor friend affected by a strange illness. Puzzled by what he has encountered, Briar enlists Rosethorn's help. The two bring the feverish girl to Urda's House, (a small charity hospital), where they learn that Flick is by far not the only one affected; many other people from the poorest parts of Summersea are ill as well. They also learn, to Briar's dismay, that the hospital has been put under quarantine to help stop the "blue pox" - so named for the bluish sores that mark the skin - from spreading even further.
Trapped in Urda's House due to the quarantine, Rosethorn and Briar are kept busy with caring for the patients. Together with the healers, they come to the conclusion that it isn't the blue spots that are necessarily dangerous, but the fever. Even more troubling is the fever's apparent resistance to willowbark tea, a usually successful remedy.
These revelations don't make the task of caring for patients any easier, however, and over the next few days many of them - including Flick - pass away. Eventually it's realized that the quarantine on Urda's House is useless; the plague has already spread to the whole of Summersea. Briar and Rosethorn are given leave, and travel back to Winding Circle, where Sandry, Tris and Daja spend the night with Briar in the altar room to help him cope with Flick's death.
Rosethorn works with Dedicate Crane and a team of Air mages to find a cure for the sickness. But it is Briar's sharp-eyed friend Tris who discovers the first real breakthrough; the origin of the disease. With Niko's help, she learns that the disease was a result of a magical experiment gone wrong and disposed of incorrectly.
Unfortunately, just as things start to look bright in the search for a cure for the blue pox, an accident in Crane's lab causes Rosethorn to become sick with it as well. This causes Briar to work twice as hard, determined not to lose Rosethorn as he had lost Flick, and slowly a cure begins to develop. (Rosethorn continues to send notes to Crane through Briar.)
After several days, the cure is deemed to be safe and Crane tests it on Rosethorn. She starts to recover, but has a bad cough, which develops into pneumonia. Lark goes to find a healer, but while she is gone, Rosethorn has a seizure. Briar, not wanting to lose his teacher, plunges after her into death, magically linking himself to the three girls and his beloved shakkan, or miniature tree. Suspended in a sort of limbo, he finds Rosethorn in a garden, and they argue fiercely. Only after he threatens to sever the magical cords linking him to life does she agree to return with him.
Upon their return, they discover that Rosethorn has temporarily lost her ability to speak, due to the seizure and the accompanying block of oxygen flow to her brain. But that appears to be the only lasting damage, and the blue pox has vanished for good.
A month later, Briar and the girls on on the roof. Sandry comments that it is the four's birthday, they have all been at Discipline Cottage for a year. Everyone has to leave for various reasons, leaving Briar alone. He contemplates birthdays, and decides his birthday will be the following day, the day Rosethorn invited him to her garden. She calls up to him and tells him to come down and start weeding.
Characters
- Lady Sandrilene fa Toren (A.K.A Sandry) : A girl who was of noble birth, and a friend of Briar's. She is an ambient mage, with control over weaving. She is also the first of the four to get a student (in Magic Steps).
- Trisana Chandler (A.K.A Tris): Another friend of Briar's who can control the weather. Commonly called as a weather witch, she studies weather and the sea with Niko.
- Daja Kisubo: A Trader girl who is Briar's friend. Her ambient magic consists of metal and fire. She is able to put magic into the creations that she smiths in the forge.
- Briar Moss: The main character in this book. He has plant magic, which allows him to grow plants, nourish plants, and talk to them for information. His studies extends to the use of plants as medical herbs.
- Niklaren GoldeyeNiklaren GoldeyeNiklaren "Niko" Goldeye is a character of Tamora Pierce's creation, who appears in The Circle of Magic quartet and in Shatterglass of the The Circle Opens quartet, although he is mentioned in all four books of both quartets....
(A.K.A. Niko) : A powerful mage that brought Sandrilene, Tris, Daja, and Briar to Winding Circle. Niko is also Tris's teacher, since there wasn't another mage with the same magic as Tris. - Frostpine: Daja's teacher, and is the only other mentioned smith mage.
- Rosethorn: Briar's teacher, and also the other protagonist in Briar's Book.
- Lark: Sandry's teacher because she also has thread magic.
- Little Bear: A fast growing dog that Sandry and her friends had rescued in Sandry's Book.