The second book in the Circle of Magic series, and I liked it as well as I did the first. I continue to enjoy the emphasis on crafts, and I continue to think that there's a lot stuffed in here and that the story is perhaps too rushed to do it all justice. (Perhaps if some of the endless references to Tris' uncontrollable hair were removed, there might be more space to work.) And, you know, I also like the idea of these four kids working together, and how when working together they are more of the sum of their parts. It's an argument for cooperation and mutual support, and I always enjoy those. The way they're accumulating power, though... I fully expect them to be able to mimic the effects of a nuclear bomb by the next book, and to swat down planetary threats by the series end. I recognise that over-powered pre-teens are wish fulfillment fantasies for the primary audience of this series, and that I'm several decades too old to be that audience, but they're all so easily and massively gifted that there's no real sense of threat.

I did like the bird, though. Shriek is a good name for him, too.