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

[the_rck]

I think 'too old' is something that varies from person to person. I envy your ability to enjoy these books. I think there was a time in my life when I'd have loved them and that, if I'd read them then, I'd still love them. I missed my particular window.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Ah well. I bet there are some books that you've discovered recently that I couldn't get into for the life of me. We all have different twists that tickle our fancies, and that way lots of different authors can make a living, so yay for that ^^. It's just that I don't think age specifically has to be the reason that a person does like a certain book or not, there can be others.