Books 67 and 68

Books 67 and 68 were The Woman Who Rides Like a Man and Lioness Rampant, both by Tamora Pierce. There are the final two books in her Song of the Lioness quartet, the first two of which I read earlier this year. 

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man and Lioness Rampant deal with Alanna's life after she becomes and knight and goes off on her own for while for some adventuring. Once again, I enjoyed her adventures-Alanna is a lot of fun, and it was great to watch her grow over all four books and make her life just want she wanted it to be, no matter what others wanted her to do or be. Alanna grew up a lot in these two books-she finally accepted her magic, and being a woman. 

These two books were better than the first two in terms of pacing-great gaps of time weren't skipped so much, and things flowed a bit more coherently. I still would have liked more detail, but I can deal without it in a YA book. 

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

Lioness Rampant

Tamora Pierce

5/68

Book 64

Book 64 was The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.

Earlier this year I read General Winston's Daughter by Sharon Shinn. At the time, I noted it was quite similar to the Blue Sword. It is-they both have the same feel to them. A girl in her late teens heads off to a far off land to join a male family member in a vaguely middle eastern country that is occupied by their Britishesque homeland. The male family member is in the military, and the ladies end up falling in love with their land.

The stories diverge from that point. The Blue Sword follows Harry on her journey from a semi proper young lady to becoming a King's Rider in the land of Daria. Coincidentally, that is the same land from The Hero and the Sword , only Harry's tale takes place long after Aerin has become a legend to her people. Harry fights a war, finds her magic, and becomes a warrior. It's pretty awesome, and has over time become a comfort book for me.

I am now current on reviews. Go me!

The Hero and the Sword

Robin McKinley

1/1/64

Book 63

Book 63 was The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley.

This is a coming of age tale about Aerin, a princess who was disqualified from the throne at birth due to the dubious origins of her mother. Aerin, while ranked first among the ladies of the court, is considered last by everyone else. She is tall and awkward, tongue tied in public and worst of all, had little to none of the magic that is inborn to all royals. An outcast, she does her best to make her way in world she doesn't fit into. Naturally, she ends up becoming a great warrior and the savior of her people in the end-although to be fair, it was an uphill battle for her.

One of the main themes of this book was Aerin's struggle to find out what she could be. Unable to fit into court life, she made her own place. With some assistance from a friend, she teaches herself to fight mounted and becomes a dragon killer (dragons are a small pesty beast in this world), the least respected of all fighters. She finds more effective ways to do this all on her own. When her country needs to be saved, she goes off alone, without endangering anyone else to do what she can to help. She becomes a hero by doing what others don't want to do, instead of setting off on a big quest with lots of fanfare and helpers.

The Hero and the Crown

Robin McKinley

no known/63

Books 61 and 62

Books 61 and 62 were Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen, by Tamora Pierce. These books follow Alanna's daughter.

Aly is the daugher of two very prominent people in her country. Neither of them is willing to allow her to join the family business of spying, which is what she wants to do. They just want her to grow up. In a fit of pique, she leaves to visit friends. On her journey there, she is abducted by pirates and sold into slavery in the Copper Isles, a kingdom far from her native land. She plans to escape asap, using her spy skills, only before she can accomplish that, she is informed she was chosen by the Copper Isles' main god, the Trickster, to help keep two young girls alive so one of them can lead the land into rebellion and become the promised Queen.

Wow, that's a lot to process. And since this is a YA novel, Aly is able to make this all happen. The books were good, except for one thing-Aly is able to accomplish all of these goals without a single failure or misstep the whole time. I will admit that the author goes out of her way to show us how well Aly is trained as a spy, and that Aly covers all of her bases like ten times each. But still, it was hard to swallow that a young girl, in a strange country, never makes one mistake. That bothered me, and ruined some of my enjoyment of the story overall. 

Trickster's Choice  Trickster's Queen

Tamora Pierce

you know the drill/62 

Book 53

Book 53 was Spindle's End, also by Robin McKinley. This is probably on the list of my favorite books-not quite top ten, but I would notice if I didn't have it around. 

This is a take on the story of Sleeping Beauty, set in a land where magic is a living, extremely crazy thing. Our little princess is raised by two fairies, taken away from her real parents after a nasty curse is put on her. Rosie, our princess, is the most normal of girls except for the fact she is raised by fairies and has no magic herself, despite being presumably related to two fairies, except for the ability to talk to animals. Rosie goes through the normal problems of growing up, only two find out just before her twenty first birthday she is a princess and heir to the throne. You can guess how it goes from there.

I love this book because I love Rosie-she is wonderful. Stubborn, quiet, and loyal, she ends up saving the day for everyone she loves as best as she can. The supporting characters are excellent as well-especially Katriona, the fairy who is given Rosie to care for. She puts her life on hold to raise Rosie for a number of years, and does everything she can to care and protect her. Rosie's two best friends, Peony the village beauty, and Narl, the blacksmith and Rosie's boss, also add to the book's theme of help comes from unexpected places and that friendship and love can and save anyone.

Spindle's End

Robin McKinley

I don't even know why I bother/53

Book 52

I am the worst book blogger ever. I went on a crazy reading run, and then watched season 1 & 2 of Gilmore Girls. Because of these two things, I haven't updated anything in forever. 

So, book 52 was Beauty by Robin McKinley. If I ever have a daughter, I will giver her every book written by Robing McKinley to use as a guide to how to be a kick ass female. Seriously.

If you couldn't tell, this was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I am a sucker for redone fairy tales, so this was a keeper for me. It was a quick read-Beauty was YA. It follows the basic Beauty and the Beast premise, only the heroine isn't really a beauty, just the bearer of an unfortunate nickname. The story moved quickly, and the prose was quite lovely.

Beauty

Robin McKinley

0/52/52

Books 50 & 51

50 and 51 are the first two in a YA fantasy series of four books-Alanna and In the Hand of the Goddess, by Tamora Pierce, from the Song of the Lioness. 

I enjoyed both books-they concern Alanna, a young mage born noble who doesn't want to go to a convent school to learn magic. She wants to go to Court and learn to be a knight. With her twin brother's aid, she assumes the name Alan and goes to Court in her brother's place. These two books take her from her start at court to her eventual knighthood.  She deals with various obstacles along the way-bullies, being the smallest and weakest page and squire, hiding being a girl, her first crush and learning to deal with her magic.

I liked the books. The world was engrossing, and following Alanna's struggles was fun. It was a bit mature for some YA audiences-Alanna does have an ongoing sexual relationship during the second book. The whole sex part was very tame and mild, and I thought it was a nice touch of realism in the story. 

My main problem was pacing-the book skipped lots of time, moving over a year in the space of a chapter. I also got annoyed by the perspective-it was third person, told mainly from Alanna's POV, but there was some skipping, and it was often done within a paragraph, which caused some confusion here and there.

Alanna

In the Hand of the Goddess

Tamora Pierce

?/?/51

Book 29

Almost caught up on write ups! Yay!

Book 29 was Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley. A teenage boy ends up adopting a dragonlet by mistake, and the novel follows his struggles to raise her and keep her safe from the outside world.

This was an excellent book. The dragon concepts used in it were fresh and novel-with so many fantasy novels about dragons out there, it's always nice to get a book with a new variety of characteristics for them. The book also captured the feeling of being a young person becoming a "mom" very nicely. The world was quite nice-the setting for the story was a remote dragon preserve, and the feelings of isolation and the "us vs them" mentality of the preservers vs the outside world was well done.  This was truly worth reading.

Dragonhaven

Robin McKinley

1/7/29

Book 27

Book 27 was General Winston's Daughter by Sharon Shinn. It's was a YA novel, and quite similar to The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. This is a good thing, since I like the Blue Sword a great deal.

The novel is loosely based on/set in the empire period of English history. The main character, Averie, is going to join her father in Chiarrin, an Middle Eastern style country that is in the process of being taken over by the country she is from. Her father is in charge of the take over, and the story follows her experiences there.

While short, the novel packed in a lot of topics and storylines, but never felt over stuffed. Averie grows up quite a bit throughout the course of the novel, and learns who she really is and what she wants from life. The romance part of the story is pretty tame, but still touching and believable. Averie is a fun character, and the secondaries were nicely fleshed out as well. My only complaint is that the Chiarrin's resistance to the take over could have been expanded upon more, as well as the avaricious nature of Averie's home country. I was able to make a lot of connections between the story and the British empire building of the late nineteenth century, but I think for the book's sake it would have been better to have a bit more historical context in terms of the book's world.

General Winston's Daughter

Sharon Shinn

1/5/27

Book 18

Book 18 was The Phoenix Unchained by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. It's a new series set in the same world as her Obsidian Trilogy. It's a basic fantasy world-elves, magic, etc..

I tend to find Mercedes Lackey books comforting. They are reliable for me-always decent at the very least, with relatable and likable characters, solid world building and uncomplicated plots. This one was no exception-the two main characters set out on a coming of age adventure and meet challenges along the way. 

The greatest strength of the story is the friendship between the two main characters (Tiercel and Harrier). The depiction of their relationship is great-they have little arguments and disagreements, get annoyed with each other. It feels like they are real, and their friendship certainly read as though it is. Other than that, they book is a bit lackluster-it's a set up book, and ended a bit too soon-at only 398 pages (hardcover), they didn't really get anywhere with the bulk of the story (it's a trilogy!). Another 100 pages or so would have been nice. 

The Phoenix Unchained

Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

1/18/18

Book 15

Book 15 was The Sweet Far Thing, by Libba Bray. It the final book in a series of three, that recount the adventure of Gemma Doyle, a Victorian girl raised in India sent to boarding school after her mother dies under mysterious circumstances. 

I really like this series, and the final book wrapped things nicely. The main plot line, restoring the balance of magic between "the Realms" (a darker version of fairyland) and the real world is completed, and completed in a realistic way. By realistic I mean that lives are lost and it's not an instant, perfect battle by any means. Gemma loses her love and protector to the battle, and one of her closest friends turns on her. The loss of Gemma's love intrest was a major blow to me-he was a great character throughout the books. 

I also enjoyed these books for their look at the live of Victorian young women. I thought the portrayl of how few choices and options they had was a nice touch. Gemma and her two friends and companions were shown throughout the books as being "different" and their struggles with coming of age in a restrictive society very realistic drawn. All three girls end up getting their heart's desires, but for none of them it's perfect, fairytale ending.

The Sweet Far Thing

Libba Bray 

1/15/15