I discovered Tamora Pierce and her books through Gail Carriger (one of my favorite authors). I started with what Gail recommended “Protector of the Small” series. I couldn’t believe it! How in Gutenberg’s name I’ve missed these books, this great author, how?! So all through summer, whenever life was getting unbearable; I would pack my bags and go to Tortall.
Tortall is the land where magic and adventure are still alive. Knights protect and fight, mages some good some evil exist and fantastic creatures roam the land and gods play with mortal lives. The story of contemporary Tortall starts with “The Song of the Lioness” series. It includes four books: “Alanna: The First Adventure”, “In the Hand of the Goddess”, “The Woman Who Rides Like a Man” and “Lioness Rampant”. Everything starts when a noble and neglectful father send his twin children to be trained in respected establishments. The boy Tom to become a page and be trained for knighthood and the girl Alanna to temple learning genteel art of becoming a lady and healing magic. The twins however have other ideas: Tom good with magic and hating any physical activity wants to go to the temple and learn serious magic, Alanna good with a sword and loving adventure wants to become a Lady knight. There hasn’t been any lady knight in the realm of Tortall for hundreds of years. What choice these sibling have except to switch places and disguise themselves? Alanna adopting the name Alan poses as her brother and goes into training with other boys to become a knight… and this is just the beginning, as Alanna finds friends, learns fighting skills and saves lives, Tortall enters a new era of conflicts, wars and new alliances. Alanna and her friends shape this new Tortall.
Some ten year or so after the Alanna’s adventure in “The Song of the Lioness”, a little girl in northern Tortall asks a horse trader for a job. Her name is Daine and she is good with horses. Actually she is good with all animals; she can talk to them, order them and tame them. There starts Daine’s story “The Immortals Quartet”. Books include: “Wild Magic”, “Wolf-speaker”, “Emperor Mage” and “The Realms of the Gods”. As Daine learns about her magic and animals, politics and relationships; Tortall is facing new threats: immortal creatures from the other world have come to the land and are staying: Winged horses, centaurs, dragons and monsters. People have to learn to live with these new neighbors but more importantly they have to learn to live without war. We get to meet many of our favorite characters from Alanna’s adventures again, all grown up! It’s the time of Immortal Wars.
Despite Alanna’s knighthood it takes another four years for the first girl to apply to the king, wanting to become a knight. Kel is a tomboy, an athlete and her dearest wish is becoming Squire to Alanna the Lioness. But old nobles think the proper place for genteel women is in court doing embroidery. That’s how Kel’s struggles and story, “Protector of the Small” series starts. Four books, “First Test”, “Page”, “Squire”, “Lady Knight”; and more war and heroic follows.
Then it is time for Alanna’s daughter, Alyanna to find her proper place in the world. The daughter of a knight and a spy, granddaughter of king’s spymaster, god daughter of king and queen and two famous mages, she has a lot of expectations to live up to. Will she be able to? Where in the world she can carve a place for herself? We read about Aly in “Trickster’s Choice” and “Trickster’s Queen”.
A collection of tales from our favorite characters is “Tortall and Other Lands”, where we learn what happened to the tree Numair changed to a man, some playful darkings looking for amusement , how Kit the dragon learns to talk and how the life goes after Aly and Nawat have children.
Then there is the new series: “The Legend of Beka Cooper” happening chronically some five hundred years or so before the start of Alanna’s adventures. Beka is a Dog, one of provost’s guards who polices the city of Tortall. Books include: “Terrier”, “Bloodhound” and “Mastiff” which I’m right in the middle of this last one.
