Pierce, Tamora ~ Melting Stones ~ Scholastic, 2008 ~ 312 pages ~ older children,  teens, some adults.

"'Hey kid -- stop hanging off that rail!' A sailor, one of the women, was yelling at me. 'We've only told you a dozen times! If you fall overboard, we'll not turn back!'."

Evvy is a student mage, originally from Chammur, who has survived a most difficult life before coming to the Winding Circle temple to learn to become a full-fledged stone mage. Her life experiences have made her distrustful of people and happiest when she is alone. We learn bits and pieces of her previous life as the story moves forward. As has been true of other young mages in the "Circle of Magic" and "The Circle Opens" series, she has considerable power but does not yet understand both her limits and when to best use her power.

Evvy accompanies plant mage Rosethorn and water mage Myrrhtide to the Battle Islands to discover what is killing plant, animal, and bird life. There are three major threads: Evvy's difficult interactions with others, especially Myrrhtide; identifying the cause of the deaths; and how to prevent a great disaster from destroying those who live on Starns island.

World-building, character development and interaction, and action is similar to the books in the series mentioned above although here there are no other young mages to form a group as in the Circle. Evvy can be difficult to like, but the back story helps to explain why she is the way that she is. Rosethorn plays a relatively minor role here. The other major character is Luvo, a jade figure who was formerly the heart of a great mountain, who has considerable understanding of the earth world as well as strong magical power. He is also thoughtful and is both a bit of a father figure and close companion for Evvy.

The story, originally created to be an audio production, focuses on what Evvy and Luvo can do to limit the disaster. The plot focuses on how magic can be used against the elements rather than people. There is considerable discussion of volcanoes, magma and the like. There are no surprises here. Some may find that the magical interactions with the volcanic elements take too much of the plot. Others may find Evvy's transformation at the end a bit too quick and too total.  Still, Pierce is a solid story-teller with a variety of interesting characters and the pages turn quickly.

Recommendation:

Any fantasy work by Pierce should be an automatic selection. Besides telling a good story, the lessons learned by the young mages are clear and helpful without being preachy. Cover art by Jonathan Barkat shows Ivy gazing at a landscape while clearly showing her oriental heritage. The image appeals and is true to the story.  Print is reasonably large with good white space.

Melting Stones is a continuation of the "Circle" series--the Circle of Magic quartet and the Circle Opens quartet.  This one tells the story of Evvy, a 14-year-old mage-in-training whom we first met in the Circle Opens quartet as a stone mage discovered by Briar.  In this book, she is traveling with Rosethorn and Myrrhtide, two full-fledged mages who have been summoned to an island in the middle of the ocean where trees and other plants have been spontaneously dying overnight in random locations.  Evvy is a girl emotionally damaged by slavery and war, and this story is really more about her learning to trust more than the six people she lives and trains with at Winding Circle.  Tamora Pierce once again does her usual excellent job of depicting teenagers with all their talents and flaws.  And I loved how she anthropomorphized the magma "spirits"--I thought it an excellent way to describe what happens before an eruption.

This book was originally written as a full-cast audio book, which I didn't realize when I put it on hold all those months ago.  I'm very curious now to listen to it.