YMMV / The Circle Opens

• Fridge Horror: The arsonist in Cold Fire turns out to be Ben Ladradun, the famed firefighter who taught Kugiskans how to battle fires and saved many buildings and people. Teaching firefighting methods turned out to be a necessity, as Kugisko is mainly built from wood. However, after the man who taught people how to fight fires was revealed to have caused some of the worst in the city's history and killed dozens, if not hundreds, how many people are going to keep up his methods now, since they're tainted by association? And they don't have any other teachers, so there's now nobody who can continue to teach the Kugiskans.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Magic Steps has Sandry sadly comment that Tris is too far away to mind-speak with, and consoles herself thinking that she can still reach Briar and Daja if she strains. She never does this, even when missing them, nor is there any contact in Street Magic or Cold Fire.
  • Magic Steps is also the one book of the quartet where the student and the villain have the least to do with each other, and in fact the one book where the student has the smallest role. Sandry befriends the Too Cool to Live harrier mage Wulfric Snaptrap, and her student Pasco — mage child of harriers — never speaks to or thinks about him. Pasco also has no connection with the killers, no thoughts or concerns that his family can't protect their targets, and despite repeatedly getting in trouble for not thinking about consequences never seems to learn.
  • Additionally in that same book, the unmagic mage seems to like Sandry in their two very brief encounters. She's the first person to really see him and realize that he's a child, but they never actually get to talk.
  • None of the quartet goes into the joy of having and using ambient magic properly quite the same way the first quartet did. Craft is somewhat de-emphasized, and Nia and Jory are barely shown even using their magic once it's discovered.