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I read this series in early-2000s (I'm not sure how old or new it was when I read it at the time), borrowed from the local library. Looking back it was probably just teenager-aimed, but was still really good (well, for an early teenaged-self at the time). Wouldn't mind reading it again, see if it's as good as I remember it... I think it was at least three books long.

I remember several details about the book series, but not more than the details. Still, spelling out the details I remember here, hopefully someone can help me.

  • Main protaganist is (teenage?) female. During the adventure she got sucked into, she also spends most of the series hiding the fact that she's female.

  • Travels with two male companions.

  • Medieval-ish setting.

  • Rings of power are involved, each bestowing a specific magical gift when worn. Later in the series, it's found out that each of these rings are actually individual rings from a very powerful chainmail chest-piece. Quest to recover all rings (from possible evil-doing bad-guy?) and add them back to the chainmail chest-piece ensues.

  • Words of power are also involved. Expends your physical stamina if used, and the magic often takes the form of blue (and spiking?) energy - e.g. a word of binding wraps the opponent up in blue-energy-rope.

  • Obviously, lots of character development. I think she starts off pretty hesitant and soft-spoken. By the end of the series, and a successful big fight with the baddie, she's quite an incredibly strong fighter, and has developed self-confidence to spare.

  • End of the series, has to re-integrate into society. The point I think the book ends on is, while struggling to get herself back into the "going back to school regularly" mentality, these mean girls come up to her and mock her for something-or-other. Such pettiness no longer affecting her, but not beyond showing up the girls and letting them know not to mess with her, she easily speaks a quick word of binding/silencing to them, and then walks off smiling/contented, thinking something along the lines of "they'll be fine, especially once the word wears off in an hour or so".

Maybe I'm just daft (it's entirely possible), but even with all these points I remember, I still haven't been able to lock down the exact series by myself... Anyone?

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    Was this set in a medieval sort of timeline or a more contemporary one? The mention of the schooling at the end feels like a sort of "high school" setup.
    – FuzzyBoots
    May 18, 2017 at 5:14
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    I'm confident it was medieval-ish, with medieval-style weapons, blacksmiths, etc. in the setting. But yeah the school bit at the end may not have been school as much as just being in society, but if the latter, at a school-like place for learning... dunno, looking back, the school bit at the end does sound a bit a bit out-of-place... maybe she was transported to medieval times for the adventure and then got sent back at the end? While I remember that last moment quite clearly for it making me smile at the time, I honestly can't remember other details about the final chapter or two...
    – RPBCL
    May 18, 2017 at 5:19
  • Also, how long ago did you read this?
    – Adamant
    May 18, 2017 at 5:21
  • Sometime early-2000s (though series could obviously have been older than that)... Will add that to the question.
    – RPBCL
    May 18, 2017 at 5:22

1 Answer 1

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The Jelindel Chronicles

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This is the Jelindel Chronicles, by Paul Collins. From the Goodreads description of the first book, Dragonlinks:

An all-powerful, enchanted mailshirt from the stars. Six links are missing. An orphan, a streetwise urchin and a swordsman must find the links before the greatest evil known descends upon Qzar. Jelindel dek Mediesar led a charmed life until lindrak assassins murdered her family. Fleeing to the markets Jelindel dresses as a boy to avoid detection. Here she teams up with Zimak, a street-wise urchin, and Daretor, a warrior on a quest to destroy an alien artifact. Murder, betrayal and deceit are just some of the hurdles they must face in order to find the missing links from a star-dwellers’ mailshirt six powerful links, whose individual powers are nothing compared with that of the complete mailshirt.

We have the all the main elements right there.

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  • Good find! I'll have a look into it further to confirm, but I'm fairly certain this (and/or the series itself, The Jelindel Chronicles) will be netting you a green tick pretty soon.
    – RPBCL
    May 18, 2017 at 5:55
  • Well, it really looks like this is the one, so unless I find it this book somewhere, read it, and find that it's not actually what I was looking for, have a check mark. Thank you :)
    – RPBCL
    May 18, 2017 at 6:31
  • Yes! Thank you I've been trying to remember this book for probably a decade now!
    – Tanenthor
    Dec 6, 2018 at 12:32

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