Bookish Thoughts

Lioness Rampant , the fourth book in Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet is by far the best. It has a coherent plot that ties all of the chapters together. It ties up all the loose ends that have been left hanging in the rest of the series. It highlight's Alanna's growth and gives everyone a happy ending. It's actually impressive how much Pierce improved over the course of this series. I think part of that is that she was given more room to develop her characters and plots. The fourth book is nearly twice as long as the first one. It also helps that the main character has grown up a lot since the first book. The final book completes Alanna's journey to adulthood, which follows the classic hero's journey beat for beat. But Pierce manages to keep it fresh and interesting. I'm definitely keeping this series around for my hypothetical future daughter (who already has an entire shelf on my bookcase). I'll probably get around to the r...

I enjoyed this, the third book in Tamora Pierce's Alanna quartet, a lot more than the previous two. As a whole, it's more cohesive. Whereas the previous two books seemed largely like a series of vignettes, this book actually had a plot that carried through all the chapters and connected them into a single story. Alanna is now a knight and off looking for adventure. While riding through the desert, she's taken hostage by a tribe. Eventually the tribe accepts her as one of their members and even makes her their shaman so she can train their gifted children. Even though she's technically an adult now, it turns out that Alanna still has a lot to learn. She becomes more comfortable with her talents and has a couple of romances. The final two chapters seemed more like setup for the final book, and it all wrapped up a little hastily. But Pierce continues to improve with each subsequent book. I'm definitely hanging on to this series for my future daughter.

The second book in Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet is a big improvement over the first, though I'm not sure I'd call it great. Part of this may be that it's the first series Pierce ever wrote (I've heard her later work is much better than her earlier work). Part of it is probably that the four books were originally meant to be a single book aimed at adults. But the publisher thought the story was better suited for children and had Pierce divide the book up. In the Hand of the Goddess is still choppy in places, but it's far more coherent than the first book was. Duke Roger is plotting to kill the king and the prince so he can ascend to the throne and the threat of him hangs over the entire book, providing a solid reason for the various problems Alanna faces. Although it gets frustrating that she never suspects him of being behind the numerous attempts on her life, a reason for this is given in the final chapter. The main problem I h...

Alanna : The First Adventure is the first book in the Song of the Lioness quartet, written by Tamora Pierce in the 1980s. Somehow I missed these books growing up, which is a shame because I would have loved them. The first book follows ten year old Alanna, who switches places with her twin brother in order to go train as a knight (he wants to be a sorcerer, not a knight). The book follows her first three years as a page in the castle of Duke Gareth, where she makes friends, studies hard, and learns what being a knight really means. All the while she takes pains to hide her true identity, which results in some great scenes when she hits puberty. Overall the book is entertaining, if a little rushed. Children's books tend to have a shorter length requirement, especially in the days before Harry Potter , so the plot lurches forward a few times without much warning. But the characters are warm and intriguing. Overall I'm excited to see what happens in the next bo...