Tamora Pierce – Page 6 – Tales of the Marvelous

When I did my end-of-year round-up of reading, I also mentioned the book I was most looking forward to in 2011: Tortall and Other Lands, by Tamora Pierce. I finished it recently, and was pleased to find that it didn’t disappoint.

I admit I was a little worried about that “Other Lands” part of the title. I was hoping she wouldn’t throw us one Tortall story, and then write about unfamiliar places for the rest of the collection. But I should have had more faith–she gave us a great collection with a high number of stories in Tortall (or nearby countries), and the ones that were in other lands were good ones too.

The book is probably most appealing to people who already know Tortall, as several of the stories, especially the longest ones, revisit characters we’ve already met. For fans of The Immortals series, Kitten the baby dragon gets her own story. For fans of her Trickster series, we get to read a story about Nawat, Aly and their children. Other stories feature minor characters from other books, or at least recognizable creatures–the Darkings, wonderful, funny inkblot-like creatures, are back in force.

The non-Tortall stories didn’t make a huge impression on me, but I remember them as enjoyable. And how do you create a world as vivid in twenty pages as has been created in, let’s see, going on 18 books now. Two of the stories, the last ones in the book, are set in the…well, I hate to say “real world” because it seems insulting to these other so vivid worlds, but let’s say the world you and I (I assume!) live in most of the time. One was, I think, the first non-fantasy thing I’ve ever read by her–and I’ve read everything (really–I just checked her website bibliography to make sure!) The other was a fantasy in the present-day, and darker than most. A small warning that I think this one had an older target audience than most.

That story led me to an interesting observation on the distinction between Juvenile (or perhaps young YA) and higher level YA or adult fiction. For the younger readers, people will still be shot by an arrow, but it will be in the shoulder, or just a vague, unmentioned place that may cause death. In older-level books, you’re more apt to have someone be shot in the eye. Or really any specific, gruesome location. I never thought about that as a distinction before, but I think it’s true.

But I digress. So watch out for “Huntress,” it’s dark. And I highly recommend “Nawat” and “The Dragon’s Tale” and “Lost.” And really all of the collection, but those three were my favorites. And I enjoyed a little snippet of background on how Tamora Pierce wrote The Song of the Lioness quartet to begin with.

I would have loved a short story about Alanna, the heroine of The Song of the Lioness, but no such luck. I’ve been hoping for a story about Alanna and her squire–they’re in The Protector of the Small series, and seem to have had wonderful adventures–but I’ll have to go on hoping for that.

No matter. It’s a wonderful collection all the same. If you’ve read my gushing earlier post about Tamora Pierce’s books, I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you that I felt that way! A fun note also–that best friend I mentioned in that post, who I met because we both were reading Tamora Pierce, loaned me Tortall and Other Lands. So we’re both still reading her, almost ten years later.

Author’s Site: http://www.tamorapierce.com

…and Blog: http://tammypierce.livejournal.com/ Just discovered this while I was writing this review! (I swear I’ve tried to find a blog by her in the past…) Kind of thrilled to discover it. 🙂 And to discover that she uses her cat as her avatar…

I’m going to try–I really am–not to wax too enthusiastic today. But it’s hard when I’m talking about a favorite series–when it would actually not be inaccurate to use phrases like “changed my life” and “favorite character ever.”

Am I talking about some great inspirational work? Well…not a traditional one. I’m talking about the Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce.

The first book is Alanna: The First Adventure. Alanna is a girl who wants to become a knight, except that girls aren’t allowed to become knights. So she disguises herself as a boy and sets out to become one anyway. Alanna is an incredible character. When I was younger, I basically wanted to be her when I grew up. She’s stubborn, determined, and incredibly brave, but also human–she makes mistakes, she has struggles, and she’s not always sure of herself. She was my favorite character when I was a kid, out of any book I’d read.

The series has a host of memorable characters, with new ones arriving in later books as well. A couple of favorites include Prince Jonathan, every girl’s dream of a handsome and charming prince, and George Cooper, the roguish and equally charming King of Thieves.

They all live in a world of swordplay and tournaments that is nevertheless grounded and believable–swing a sword around too long and you’ll have sore muscles. They also live in a world of magic. Alanna possesses the Gift, which she can use for various spells, some practical and some dramatic. There is also an entire pantheon of gods who occasionally step into mortal affairs.

The books are funny, exciting, engaging…amazing.

And they changed my life. I’m a firm believer that a girl can do anything a boy can do, that women have the same rights as men, and that we all ought to be equal, whether in pay rates or in who cleans the house. I’m sure a lot of that belief comes from my parents, especially my mom, but I think reading about Alanna at a young age helped.

I also met one of my best friends because of Tamora Pierce. We were freshmen in high school, and were both shy book-lovers. We were in a class together, but hadn’t talked. She was reading a Tamora Pierce book, and so was I. I can’t remember now who talked first, but we’ve later admitted that we each noticed the other one’s book, and each took out our own book before class started in the hopes that the other one would notice and use it as an excuse to start a conversation. She’s still one of my best friends; we’re both eagerly awaiting Tamora Pierce’s next book, promised for this February.

You may also be recalling right now that in Fiction Friday, I’ve featured some of my writing about a girl who disguised herself as a boy so that she could become a pirate. It’s not a coincidence that my character’s name is Tamara.

Song of the Lioness is my favorite quartet by Tamora Pierce. She’s written other books set in the same world, and many characters, Alanna included, turn up in those books. I recommend those as well.

Much as I still love her, I don’t think I want to be Alanna anymore. Now, I think that when I grow up, I want to be Tamora Pierce. I don’t know anything about her personal life, but I’d like to be her from a writing perspective, at least. 🙂

Author’s Site: http://www.tamora-pierce.com/