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These are well-written lovely books for young folks - especially girls aged 9-16 or so. A bit too boring and simplistic for adults. Tamora Pierce has done a great service for young people and I highly recommend them for anyone 16 or younger.
Received books on CD's quickly. Can't wait the rest of Tamora Pierce's books to come out on CD.
I first read this book a long time ago in middle school and I still have the full series both Lioness and the Immortals they are no joke bound with duck tape because over the last 11 years or so I have read them soo many times that they are indeed falling apart and I just had to replace my In the Realm of the Gods copy because half the book fell out. Once my kids get a little bit bigger these books will be read to them and I hope that when they get even older that they will pick up these books and read them over and over again like I did.
Easy read and jam packed with story. Great book for youths and adults alike.
So much for powerful sorcery.I found myself rolling my eyes regularly at Alanna, her situations and the resolutions to all her problems. It was light, pleasant and fun so I was eager to read the second book, The Hand of the Goddess. While many of the supporting characters remain interesting, they're not enough to carry the story. And all the inconsistencies throughout the book are wrapped up tidily at the end: everyone was acting like an imbecile because there was a spell cast over them all, though there were moments of lucidity when one character or another would have suspicions.I loved Alan's determination and need to prove herself in the first book, when she was just out of childhood and was developing emotionally and physically.
I liked Alan, nee Alanna, in her single-minded determinedness and her unawareness of self and the effect she had on others. I enjoyed the first book, Alanna: The First Adventure. I expected the book to be less geared to 8-12 year-olds, as the first had been, and more written with teenagers in mind. She is also chosen of the Goddess, who even comes to visit the young heroine, bestowing gifts aplenty.
What about her makes her so endearing to all these men and one woman.Furthermore, everything she puts her hand to leads to success. I expected Alan to grow up and have to deal with identity issues, romantic issues and other problems that come with becoming a young adult. These are the expectations I had before reading the boook.I was terribly disappointed.Alan does grow up and does have to deal with all the problems I had expected. Also, the book is not aimed at the 8-12 year-old set but is also not aimed at anyone over the age of 16. I've read several of Tamora Pierce's books, but had not read the Song of the Lioness quartet and thought it time I start.
She manages to snare the love of the two most eligible bachelors in the realm and has to choose between the two. In choosing, it's not so much that she makes an informed decision based on her feelings as she defaults to the one who is more available, falling into his bed out of convenience and because everyone keeps telling her she needs to learn to love. She is instrumental in winning wars, she thwarts attempts made on her life without realizing they were attempts on her life. She is kidnapped but rescued before anything horrible can happen. It was like reading a long-volumed shojo manga without the pictures in that the heroine is now a cute, determined girl whose existence is based on a lie, but those who know the truth love her even more because of her lie. I liked the supporting characters. However, in this volume, it comes across as lack of awareness and the inability to react to her environment as a believable, instead relying mostly on luck, her steadfast friends, the Goddess and the writer's love of keeping her character safe.I was even more disappointed with the continuing villain who is supposedly the most powerful sorcerer around.
The story is tiresome and riddled with cliche. Although she has very little sense of self and almost no discernable personality, she has a strong sense of right and duty and this is how she comes to all her decisions. He's slowly killing the queen, he has everyone under his control, he makes lame attempts on Alan's and Jonathan's lives and he dies easily. I am hoping this book was just a flimsy bridge to get to Alanna's adult life as a knight and I hope her further adventures prove to be more interesting and I hope she grows as a character, otherwise this is going to become a tedious series.
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