Tempests and Slaughter is amazing! I cannot say enough good things about this book. Arram Draper is the perfect protagonist. He is smart and talented but also short-tempered and impulsive. He learns and grows so much in this volume. While a treat for fans who already love Numair from the Immortals series; it is also a stand-alone novel that will compel readers to explore more of the magical worlds of Tamora Pierce.

I've been waiting for this since it was announced, and while it didn't let me down as a fan, this isn't a book for a new reader of Pierce. I don't believe the story would be enough to engage a reader who wasn't aware of the outcome of the friendship between Arram and Orzone, and who Arram becomes as he grows up. For one, it has a slow, drawn out pacing, and for another the plot doesn't follow a rising action/climax because it IS the rising action for Numair's story. As the whole novel is kind of a rising action for Numair's growth into an adult, you have have smaller climaxes, but they'll lack the impact of new to readers character.

However, for a fan, especially one who has read the Wild Magic series and loves Numair, it's going to be delightful to fill in his backstory.

To say that I've been waiting for this book for twenty years is not an understatement. Numair was my favorite character when I purchased Wild Magic on a whim at the age of eight, and this book answers so many of the questions I have had since journeying to Tortall. This book is an intimate look at the education of Arram Draper at the Carthak school of mages, focusing on his studies and friendship with Ozorne Tasihke. Knowing the end and having the foreshadowing of Emperor Mage provides a kind of Grecian tragedy backdrop, which Pierce plays to her advantage, adding in direct parallels and themes that resonate throughout the series. It's a thrilling read, and I am now awaiting the second volume with the same veracity I waited for this one. In the meantime I'll just have to reread all of Tortall again. Oh well.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tamora Pierce, and Random House for the opportunity to read this book. I can't wait to buy a copy in hardcover to grace my shelves.

I loved the Tortall books since I first read them, and the immortals series was probably my favorite. Numair is such an amazing character it’s wonderful to see who he was as a child. I love the friendship Arram, Ozorne, and Varice share- I’m not looking forward to the inevitable decline of their friendship.

Tamora Pierce is quite possibly my favorite author of all time. That said I was not certain how I would feel about this book because I love Numair so much with Daine I was not sure how I would feel about a book about him in which she was not there. I should never have worried though because this story waws great on its own but also served to flesh out the back story of several characters. I loved it and flew through reading it. I am reviewing this book based on an ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.