The
Library
PIERCE, TAMORA
BOOKS ON MY SHELF...
Alanna: The First Adventure: A young woman, gifted in both the magical and combative arts, disguises herself as a man and begins her training as a knight. Under the name "Alan," she acquires powerful friends (and even more powerful enemies), begins to learn the depths of her own power, and gets slapped upside the head with the reality of a knight-in-training's life.
This is the first in the Song of the Lioness quartet that chronicle the adventures of Alanna, her twin brother, the magician Thomas, and her chivalrous friends.
OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR
The rest of the Song of the Lioness Quartet:
In the Hand of the Goddess
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man
Lioness RampantThe Immortals Series:
I have to admit, I don't really like this paperback release. The font in which the titles are printed, not to mention that pink shape in which they're printed, make them look like romance novels -- which is ironic, given that the main character is trying to escape all the assumptions generally made about women!
It should also be mentioned that unlike some timeless young adult novels, this series really is written on a finite level. Many years after the first reading, I find some of the language grating. But I still reread it for the story, which is a wild ride and not at all predictable. I mean, haven't you always wanted to wield a sword in the name of justice, make things happen by magic, and have adventures that just don't fit in the suburbs and big cities you might have grown up in? Weren't you, in your secret life, a hero -- whether you were a boy or a girl?
(And if you were a girl, wasn't it a relief when the She-Ra cartoons were released? Now girls could ride a fantastical mount -- one that flew! -- and swing a fantastical sword, right alongside the boys with their He-Man action figures.)
I first read these books in my high school library, when I ran out of books by Meredith Ann Pierce and sort of kept going down the shelf. Now that they've been released in paperback (or re-released?), I've started adding them one-by-one to the rest of my collection -- one per paycheck, just to keep the spending under control. Paperbacks are pretty costly these days. Remember when they were $1.25? (I'm afraid the fifty cent novels were before my time.) So I'm due to pick up the second Lioness novel anyday now. Possibly this evening. I'll let you know.
And someday I'll get around to writing the rest of her stuff, if they would appeal to a grown-up and jaded adult. We'll see!
table of
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