Lioness Rampant

Lioness Rampant is the final book in Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet, and the main reason I reread the series. It was published in my birth year, and is the final book in the Birth Year Challenge (I know, it ended December 31. Fortunately I just needed to have read the book by then, not written the review!)

Lioness Rampant is the account of Alanna's first true knightly quest. While she has had some adventures living with the Bazhir and acting as their shaman, she is restless now to complete a "real" adventure. When she hears tales of the Dominion Jewel, a mystical object rumored to make a good ruler invincible, she knows she needs it for her friend Jonathan, the future king of Tortall (and her ex-lover with whom she is currently pretty awkward). On her journey to find the Jewel, Alanna meets Liam, a Shang warrior so deadly he doesn't need weapons to defend himself. Once Alanna returns to Tortall, she finds that much has changed while she was adventuring, and the security of the kingdom is at stake.

This book seemed like it should have been two shorter stories rather than one novel. It seems to be divided in half - in the first part, Alanna seeks the Dominion Jewel. In the second part, she helps Jonathan save his kingdom and acquires a new role as King's Champion. They were both enjoyable stories, but the part of the book that connected the stories was slow. The middle section described court intrigues and plots against the king, which were important to the story, granted, but seemed out of place with the rest of the story. I expected action, and I got seven or eight clandestine meetings.

I also felt like some of the characters could have been better developed, in particular Alex of Tirragen. I had a hard time connecting the malicious Alex in Lioness Rampant to Alanna's good friend in previous books. In the previous books, he did sometimes challenge her in ways that led to injury, and he was the squire of Alanna's arch-nemesis, Duke Roger. However, in the previous books, he seems to still really like her, despite his competitiveness. In this book, he is completely against her. I was left wondering why and when the complete transition took place.

I did really enjoy the further development of Alanna's character, especially in her relationship with others. She becomes romantically involved with Liam, despite continuing feelings for George Cooper, her best friend and the king of thieves, who is currently defending his title against the mysterious and nasty Claw (see what I mean about too many intrigues? Hard to keep them all straight!) Alanna learns through this new relationship that attraction and passion do not necessarily lead to a good partnership - lovers need to accept everything about each other to truly love each other.

Alanna also continues to develop more friendships with women, a species basically unknown to her until she revealed herself after becoming a knight. While she spent time with women in the Bazhir tribes, in Lioness Rampant she has her first opportunities to befriend women more similar to her - Thayet, a princess and exile from her homeland, and Buri, a trained K'miri warrior.

Lioness Rampant had many twists and surprises in who was actually plotting against the king, as well as the unexpected return of several of her enemies. The book was definitely a fun read, but I think it was my least favorite of Song of the Lioness. Still, rereading this series has shown me that I didn't just enjoy the books because they were exciting when I was in middle school - these really are great stories. I'm glad I got the opportunity to read this as my final Birth Year Challenge choice!

Accessibility/readability - Easy to read.
Literary merit/Aesthetics - 3
Plot- 3
Characters - 3
Personal response: 3
Overall: 3

In the Hand of the Goddess

This review is going to be a speedy one - busy time of year. But I want to keep up so I don't forget the details of the lovely books I have read.

In the Hand of the Goddess is the 2nd book in the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce (my review of the first book is here). Because this was a book I had already read, I decided to revisit it in the form of book-on-CD. Audio books tend to drive me crazy - my mind wanders, or I want to revisit a passage and can't. However, listening to this one on CD was delightful. I couldn't remember many details of the story, and Alanna's adventures had me excited for my weekly hour drive.

This story picks up where Alanna: The First Adventure leaves off. Alanna is now a squire to Prince Jonathan, her best friend. Because she is so small, she is constantly challenged to prove herself. When war breaks out with a neighboring kingdom, Alanna goes with her knight to battle. However, the war appears to be more than a border skirmish - sorcery and intrigue is involved, with almost certain betrayal within the kingdom. Add to this Alanna's fear of her upcoming Ordeal of Knighthood (which not everyone survives), her fear of love and her growing desires to dress and behave like a woman, and she has enough on her plate.

This book has more action than the first novel, with all of Alanna's conflicts and fears being confronted. The characters' personalities are very well-developed, even though adventures and plot are the main focus of this novel. We also get a little romance in this novel, as Alanna is pursued by not one but two admirers (who know that she is a woman). She has to face the conflict of her desire to be independent like a man and her own feelings of love.

I didn't like that Alanna's cat could talk. Talking animals seem kind of hokey to me, unless it's Redwall when all the animals could talk. I also didn't like that everyone was completely blind to the villain of this novel. At the end, the reason for this blindness is explained, but it still drove me a little crazy.

All in all, however, I had even more fun with this book than the last one. I don't usually read YA or fantasy, and it is nice to have a little break from the heavy stuff while I focus on school. If you need a good adventure or some lighter reading, give this adventure a try.

Accessibility/readability - Very.
Aesthetics/literary merit - 3. It's definitely a "just for fun" book. But it isn't written poorly by any means.
Plot - 4.5
Characters - 4.5
Personal response: 4
Overall: 4

Alanna: The First Adventure

Tamora Pierce was my main reading fare for sixth grade. Every day, my friends and I would meet in the library before class and during our ten minute break, on the back wall over by the P authors. I don't remember if we found Tamora Pierce by accident or not. I know my friend Jess was the first one to pick up Alanna and then we all followed, vying for the next book in the series and others by Pierce as we got through all of them.

I decided to reread this little gem because I am rereading the final book in the series as part of the Birth Year Challenge hosted by Hotchpot Cafe. I've already enjoyed a few revisits to Alanna over the years (just the first novel) and I was excited to do it again.

The premise: Alanna and her twin brother are about to be sent away by their noble, absent-minded father - Alanna to a convent, to learn how to be a lady, and Thom to learn how to be a knight. Alanna has always been a tomboy and wishes she could be a knight. Thom wants to learn more about the powers he and Alanna possess in order to become a sorcerer (and conveniently, the place to learn about these powers is the convent). They decide to switch, and the book follows Alanna through the "page" phase of learning to become a knight.

I've heard that you shouldn't go back to the books you loved in earlier days, because the magic will be gone. However, I don't think this was the case with Alanna. Her adventures are still interesting to me and as I couldn't remember exactly how everything turned out, still exciting as well. This book has a little of everything - fighting, politics, friendship, magic, and of course, a taste of the awkwardness and change of puberty, compounded with the fact that Alanna is hiding the fact that she is female. On this revisit, I really enjoyed the magic aspect of the novel. I have been needing a little more magic in my life. :)

Another thing I really appreciated was that while Alanna does have a lot of help (becomes friends with strong, respected pages, has a contact in the city she can trust, has magical powers) she also works really, really hard to excel at becoming a knight. She has to - she is short, inexperienced and a girl (and no matter how capable girls are, they still have proportionally smaller lungs, hearts, and muscles). Alanna is a character we can respect, which I think is important in YA fiction, and also a character we can like, which is important in all fiction.

I give this book 4 out of 5, keeping in mind that it is a YA novel. It is primarily a plot-driven story and there isn't a ton of complexity, but it is a good, light, entertaining read.

Library Party!

Three days ago, I received an email from the library informing me the book I had put on hold three weeks ago was ready for me. I ran into my sister on my way off campus and made her come with me on my library adventure, telling her I only wanted to pick up the one book. Well, I only have three, and a movie (for Friday night when my husband will be in the testing center solving the mysteries of organic chemistry). Disregarding the fact that I have five tests in the next 9 days. And the fact that I haven't finished all the books from my last library run. My husband took one look at my nightstand, shook his head and told me I was crazy. Oh well, at least I'm happy in my insanity.

Here's the damage for this week...

Reading Challenge

Well, I'm slowly making my way into the world of "book bloggers" and therefore have decided to participate in my first ever reading challenge. The challenge is to read books from your birth year. My choices are ...

Satanic Verse by Salman Rushdie. I have been wanting to read this one for awhile and was therefore happy to see that it was written in 1988!

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. My husband read this recently so I will have someone to talk it over with. :)

Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce. OK, confession on this one. I read it in middle school. But the ironic thing is, I have been thinking about that series lately and wanting to reread it. My friends all read the Alanna books together and obsessed over them - I remember learning "A Time For Us" on the piano and thinking it fit Alanna and Jonathan's lives so perfectly. Anyway, so I have an emotional attachment to this book. Must be because it was written in the year I was born.

Anyway, if I can get through one of these each month, I should be able to defeat the reading challenge by December. I'm excited because I win a book if I meet my goals. According to Hotchpot Cafe, who is hosting this challenge, it will be "a gently used trade paperback." But a free book is a free book, when you can't afford to buy anything because you are busy saving all your money for nursing books and dental school interviews.