The Realms of the Gods by Tamora Pierce

I quite enjoyed The Realms of the Gods even if it did feel long at times. I do feel like The Realms of the Gods is supposed to be more epic feeling than it is. That might just be a me thing, but Daine and Numair’s encounters and travel through the Realms are just over really quickly. There’s no time to dwell on even descriptions of the places they’re traveling through, unless you’re an old rickety bridge. That said, it was a rather convenient way to skirt around writing a whole war. That last battle, though, was a proper epic battle. I’ll have to read it again to catch all the details.

I really did not remember the Darkings origins were in this book. It is both interesting and scary that Ozorne created them. As I definitely remember reading the Daughter of the Lioness, I remember the Darkings, but I do not remember them being nearly as active as Leaf and Jelly. They’re stirring pots! Definitely not a skill Aly’s Darkings display later in the continuity.

I should probably mind the Daine/Numair romance… but I don’t. Probably because I’m use to it. My second and most-read of Tamora Pierce’s books was The Protector of the Small quartet in which Daine and Numair were already a couple. Seeing the beginning of that relationship is kind of fun, even if it does bring the age difference into it… which also doesn’t bother me. Like, at all. Genuine love and affection can happen between people of disparate ages, which is fine if they’re adults. I think Daine’s either an adult or close to at this point so… zero issues.

Honestly never thought I’d see the day when a main character uses their own poo as a weapon. Wow.

I did quite like the representations of the gods there at the end. The Cat putting in an appearance was a nice little wink to the audience. I did think, as I said before, that the actual Realms could have done with more description, though I did like what we got. I only wish there was a map.

In Other News

I finished an OviPets project! This is Tyrannomon, based on the Digimon of the same name. Tyrannomon took me approximately 5 months to complete.