The Song of the Lioness Quartet
(Alana: The first adventure, In the Hand of the Goddess, The
Woman Who Rides Like a Man, and Lioness Rampant)
by
Tamora Pierce
Book
Reviews by : Matt McConnel
The four
books that comprise Tamora Pierce's quartet are in fact written
for pre-teens and teenagers. Regardless, Pierce is a fine
storyteller who weaves as good a plot as any of her peers
in 'adult' fantasy. The story concerns young Alana who conspires
with her twin brother to trade places as they are sent off
by their father to be trained as a lady of the court and a
knight of the realm. Alana is the tomboy, while her brother
Tom is more magically inclined. So they trade places hoping
that they'll pull off the ruse long enough to complete their
training. This is only the first two book's plot however,
and the latter two books deal with Alana's adventures subsequent
to her training. The story in long, but fairly direct, and
can make for a refreshing read if one is not inclined to deal
with the deep characterizations of a Gaiman or the descriptive
world building of a Jordan or Tolkien.
It is
always interesting to see what a female fantasy writer will
do, and Pierce is no exception. Her world is fairly stock
fantasy, although she takes great pains to limit herself to
one kingdom for three entire books. The depth that is invested
in this place is very real and provides an excellent foundation
for not only these novels, but also for no less than two follow-up
quartets. Pierce also invests a lot into her characters, and
to their interaction; this is her greatest strength. She feels
no compunction to focus on the action, and ignore the internal
monologue. Furthermore, she only lets the reader into the
minds of the protagonists, and not the minds of the villains,
making the actions of the hero more sympathetic, and the actions
of the nare-do-well more dastardly.
Unfortunately,
it is this same characterization that may leave an older audience
cold. At times Alana and her compatriots are rather two dimensional,
leaving no gray areas, only right and wrong. Right and wrong
here are completely relative seeing that one of the protagonists
is the king of thieves George Cooper. Nevertheless, who is
a good guy and who is a bad guy is very clear with a few notable
exceptions. These exceptions occur only when a good person
becomes corrupted, and there are really only three instances
of this. As the series goes on, things become decidedly more
complex, but the line between black and white remains, there
is really no attempt to develop the narrative beyond this
point, but this is an observation that an older reader would
make and not something that would bother a younger one.
The overall
narrative is one that delights. It is the rise not only of
the king that Alana serves and the downfall of his great enemy,
but also that of Alana herself discovering who she really
is, and the world she really lives in. While the characterization
is simplistic, it is deep, and especially to those who have
been enjoying the antics of a certain Mr. Potter of late,
will find the Lioness Quartet to be an ample tide over.
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