An enjoyable story, invoking characters and a thrilling plot. Everything you want from a good novel. Would recommend this to others.

I've never read any of Tamora Pierce's books before but I really enjoyed this tale of a magical university and three of the students attending it.

Arram was a really interesting main character, and it worked well seeing him learn about the world of the university and its staff through his eyes. The descriptions of the classes and the teachers, antagonism with other pupils, fear over examination marks, friendships and romances were all dealt with really well. The Masters were particularly interesting, and I loved the hints and suggestions about strife between members of the teaching staff. A lot of it is rooted in recognisable prejudices, particularly around tribal magic traditions, which some staff were brought up using and others had little or no respect for. I loved how different students were guided along their own individual paths, whether it was with one-on-one teaching or small groups, and how we saw Arram going into the healing arts while Ozorne focuses on war and fire magic, and Varice on less-well-regarded kitchen magic.

I liked the descriptions of magic, the Art, and the different ways it is both depicted and used throughout the novel as Arram learns more about how to use his strength.

Varice was a fantastic character, and I loved her strength and attitude. Ozorne was more of a pain in the arse, but I feel like this is setting up later conflicts in the series. It never distracted from the narrative, but gave an opportunity to explore both racial prejudice and imperial propaganda first hand.

This novel doesn't shy away from potentially controversial elements. There's a lot of discussion in there about slavery, from various perspectives, and particularly through the gladiators in the arena. This sets up a potentially large future conflict as our main characters take different sides on the issue.

The gods too, the gods are awesome! I loved Enzi the crocodile god so much, and the Hag does some very foreboding foretelling. I'm quite anxious to see what happens to Preet too, one of the most adorable animal sidekicks I've seen in a while.

Tempests and Slaughter is an excellent magic school novel, and the first in a very interesting looking series.

Excellent fantasy story. Good characters and world building. Enjoyed this very much. Would recommend

I made the mistake of thinking this was the first book. But apparently its best to read other books beforehand. Which I didnt.
Therefore I found myself confused what the world was about.
But I am also not intrigued enough to read those books and then try a reread of this book.

Please note that this book is not for me - I have read the book, However I had to DNF and because i do not like to give negative reviews I will not review this book fully - there is no specific reason for not liking this book. I found it a struggle to read and did not enjoy trying to force myself to read this book.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused and thank you for the opportunity to read this book

I really liked the setting of this book however the plot didn’t really do it for me. It might be because it’s my first Tamora Pierce book but there was just something missing in this book. Interesting but not great.

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

I really wanted to like this book, but honestly it just wasn't for me.

The story was heading in a great direction but certain things put me off finishing it, I think it's great for a male YA though so didn't want to rate it too low even though I couldn't finish it myself.

Tempests and Slaughter is not my usual read, however, the premise did really intrigue me so I was looking forward to picking it up. Upon starting the book, I knew that I would enjoy it. It kept me interested and wanting to know what would happen next. For me, this felt like a lot of other books in the genre, however, I did go in expecting this so it didn't affect my enjoyment.

I’m afraid this book just wasn’t for me at this time. This is due to it being my first read of this author and I feel it will mean more if you have read some of her other books. So nothing against the author, just my situation with her. If you are a big fan I’m sure you will love it.

This was my first Tamora Pierce book and I’d heard great things but this one just didn’t grab me. The pacing felt slow and there was a lot of world building which contributed to the pace. It might be a series I revisit in the future in the hope that it will improve later on.

Tempests and Slaughter was my first Tamora Pierce book, so I went into the story blind with no knowledge of any of the characters, their futures or the world they lived in.

At its core, this book was a magic school story about a young boy named Arram Draper who was training to be a mage. I've always been a huge fan of magic school books so I was excited to dive into this. Arram was a likeable kid who was powerful but not very in control of his Gift. At the Imperial University of Carthak, he befriended Prince Ozorne and a girl called Varice, who quickly became his two closest companions.

We got to find out a lot about the magic system in this story, which was fun, and much of the book focussed on Arram and the magic classes he attended. I enjoyed seeing him progress and I thought that the different classes, and the mages who taught them, were really interesting, and more in depth than you'd usually see from this kind of novel.

The three friends, Arram, Ozorne and Varice, were close in this book and attended a lot of classes together. I liked getting to know each character and finding out about their pasts. It was clear that there were already seeds of conflict between them all, especially between Arram and Ozorne, and I was curious as to how things would turn out as they got older and change their friendship dynamic.

Not a lot else really happened in this book, it was very much centred around the school, the magic classes and the main trio. This meant the pacing was a bit slow but I've always preferred character driven stories so I didn't mind too much. Some parts of this book were a bit obvious and I think Arram's feelings for Varice were a bit forced, almost in a "it must be like this or else" kind of way. But those were probably the main things I had issues with.

Overall, as someone who really loves the fantasy genre, I found it easy to enjoy this book, and will very likely read the next one.

Unfortunately, this book ended up not being for me. I would like to try it again at some point and may buy the completed copy so that I can experience it as a physical book. As it was, I didn't manage to finish it - which is unusual for me. It really didn't grab me. Sorry Tamora Pierce, I think you're great usually!

The formatting of this book didn’t work so I cannot review it unfortunately. I’ve given a neutral rating in this case.

Definitely an enjoyable read. Tamora Pierce definitely brings something to fantasy books that has you hooked from the first to the last page.

What a wonderful and beautiful book this is! Once again, I was in that situation where I had no idea what to expect from this fantasy book. And for me, it did not disappoint one bit. In fact, my opinion of it changed altogether.

From what I gathered (and doing some snooping afterwards) this book is a prequel of sorts to a series of books set in Tortall. I haven't read these other books, so I was glad to be starting with Tempests and Slaughter.

I was hoping that this was going to be a fast-paced adventure book and I was slightly disappointed, when I discovered less than half-way through, that it wasn't going to be that sort of story.

So I did something different, I accepted the book for what it was, embraced it and really dived into this amazing world. AND I LOVED IT.


The worldbuilding was absolutely fantastic. The author really explores every possibility within this world and made it seem more real. I liked the magic system and felt that it was explained reasonable well. Sometimes all these magical systems can get confusing, thankfully this was not the case!

I enjoyed the development of politics and how it shaped Arram's views and beliefs. It wasn't overbearing in politics. Slavery and Politics are a central theme and very important to the story and I look forward to seeing how this is developed further in the next book. I loved Arram's friendship with Gladiator and Slave, Musenda. It showed what sort of because Arram is and I think it is the beginning of so much more for him.

Because it is slow-paced, I was able to see the growth in the friendship of Arram, Varice & Ozorne, as well as individuals. It was exciting to watch them all grow up and shape into teenagers and how they bond with one another. It gave me some STRONG Harry Potter vibes which I thought was so comforting and heartwarming.


I cannot wrap up this review without mentioning wonderful, little Preet. HOW FREAKING ADORABLE. Just go and read the book and you will understand how this little chirpy bird makes the story even more special.

Even though this wasn't the story I was hoping for, it was definitely the story I did not expect to enjoy and love. I can only give it 5 stars! If you look past the fact it's slow and perhaps not crazy adventurous, what you will get is a deep and meaningful story.

Good day! Before anything else, I would like to extend my deepest, sincerest gratitude for sending me a digital review copy of this book (via NetGalley). Thank you very much for the opportunity!

Unfortunately, I am sad to say that I have lost interest in this particular title, and consequently, I have decided against finishing it. Forcing myself to finish a book I am disinterested in (solely for the sake of finishing it) can only negatively impact the entirety of my reading experience, which, in turn, could result in me writing an unfairly negative review. That is a circumstance I hope to avoid. With that said, I believe that the best course of action is for me to simply not read it and to refrain from publicly posting any feedback regarding this book.

I hope you understand where I'm coming from. Again, thank you for the lovely opportunity!

DNFed at around 65-70%
It's a shame I have to DNF this book as it was a netgalley review copy but the story was so incredibly boring and felt like a rip-off of Harry Potter that I couldn't continue it. I might have finished it but time ran out and the copy was not accessible anymore when I wanted to go back to reading (netgalley limits accessibility and closes the file after a certain time). However, this book was great for tutoring as it had many passages that were wonderful to analyse in terms of storytelling and stylistic devices, so I give this read 2 stars.

I’ll be honest here; not much really happens by the end of this book. Being a trilogy this is something that usually happens on the first books as you have to take time with the worldbuilding and the characters. There is not much plot itself but it is heavily compensated with the building up of characters and the world itself.

I think the author’s powerful character study of Arram and the intimacy of his tale will go a long way in making up for that lack of story progression. Throughout it all, I never lost interest and her writing style is superb. If anything, my curiosity about the book’s world has only grown, and I find myself wanting to read more of Pierce’s work.

A big fan of Tamora Piece so I loved getting into a new story with her. Pierce is amazing at the female narrative, so it did take a little while to get into the male perspective (especially as he starts going through puberty), but it got better as the book went along. Looking forward to the next installment.