Alanna by Tamora Pierce

[meganbmoore]

Alanna of Trebond wants to be a knight. Her twin brother, Thom, wants to be a sorcerer. Their father doesn’t care what they want, or even realize that they want anything, and declares that Alanna shall be sent to a convent to train with priests, and Thom will train to be a knight. So Alanna comes up with a plan to dress like a boy, and change her father’s letter so that he has two sons, allowing the twins to follow their dreams.

The only Tamora Pierce books I’ve read before are the Circle of Magic quartet, which are set on a different world from this one. Alanna is Pierce’s first book (I believe this quartet was originally one long book that Pierce was told to break up, because no one in the target audience wanted to read a book that long) and it shows. Alanna follows all the normal for the “crossdressing girl who wants to be a knight” genre-actually, it probably helped solidify the tropes-right down to setting up what appears to be a future love triangle for Alana that includes Jon, the prince of Tortall (the world the book is set in) and George, a young thief who befriends Alanna.

If I’d first read this in my teens, I suspect I would have responded very strongly to it. As it is, I quite like Alanna as a character and enjoyed her supporting cast, but am less than amazed by the book itself.

Comments

[mistaria.livejournal.com]

I read all the Tortall based books that were out in... 2005ish for the first time. The first set I read was Protector of the Small which I would highly recommend. I absolutely love Kel and her spirit, and especially the fact that she's just a normal girl -- she doesn't have any magical abilities. My second favourite series is the Immortals quartet. I love all of her books but these are the two sets that I reread nearly every year.

Her more recent Terrier was super good too -- can't wait to get my hands on Bloodhound!

As for Alanna I have to say... while I enjoy all of Pierce's books there was always something about Alanna that annoyed me. Maybe it is because she falls into way more of the cliches. Though I have the same sort of "it's good but..." feeling for her daughter in the two Trickster books. ::shrugs::

I've never read any of the Circle books (though I recently read Melting Stones which I think is set in that world), would you recommend them?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Character type preference, maybe?

[mistaria.livejournal.com]

Probably.

So... ::points above:: Circle books?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

I knew I forgot something. The story is pretty decent, though not necessarily stunning. But I really like most of the characters, and their relationships, and the magic system and its place in society are very interesting.

[mistaria.livejournal.com]

Haha, it's cool.

Someone told me originally that they were more for the youngin's so I never read them but I do like Tamora Pierce's writing/characters so I'll probably check them out.