Book Review: Trickster's Queen
Book review of Trickster's Queen, by Tamora Pierce. Warning: Spoilers, squeeing, fangirling and rantage abound.
Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce (2004)
Pros:
-TAYBUR TAYBUR TAYBUR.
-Darkings squee!
-Political intrigue, and lots of it.
-Duchess Nuritin. As Aly said, "I want to be you when I grow up."
-SHE NAMED THE SECOND KID RIKASH!!!!!1!!fourteen!!
-Sarai runs away and Dove gets to rule hooray!
-Ulasim: BEST. EXIT. EVER. You totally owned Rubinyan.
Cons:
-Little ambiguity on part of each group.
-Very few failures, too easy to take over, no "mop up" (what I get for being a Star Wars Girl)
-Aly didn't chew Kyprioth out after the boat incident. I so totally would have pwned him righteously, sooper powers aside.
-Ochubu's death was very underdone, and it got about half a page. And it happened for not very much of a reason.
-Characters not really characterized as much as in the first book. Woo, we are all generic rebels yay! Boooooooring. Where's the FIRE? Specifically, where are the aliens that stole Ochubu's soul?!
-Not enough Taybur. NEED MORE TAYBUR. [/fangirling]
-Weirdo Nawat. He's all cool and funny in the first book and he's all normal in the second one. No fun. We need funfunfun!
General:
Don't think I hated the book--it was a rather enjoyable read, I thought, although it took a little longer to get started, certainly. There were also a number of aspects that I liked, too. However... (yes, however)
Man, I found a lot of the main characters annoying.
Seriously, I wanted to scream at Aly and Nawat. "Stop the pointless angst! And you can get together afterwards, it's not like either of you is going to die." And Nawat lost all his birdie charm and he was just like a regular guy. And I wanted to plaster a sign on it that says something to the effect of, "Don't feel pressured to have sex! Be STRONG!!!!!11!!!fourteen!!!"
And then Ochubu lost all of her flavor and became a useful tool rather than a person, let alone an ANGRY person who hates luarin. Rebels are supposed to be rebellious. You know?
And someone should have seriously pwned Kyprioth for the boat stunt. Like Aly. Because I so would have chewed him out for that if I'd been in her place. Super powers be damned, that was not nice. I will commend Ms. Pierce for that kind of ambiguity, but I would have been angry, for a long time. Of course, Elsren was kind of a background piece, and Aly didn't really get to know him well, but that was cold, man. That was cold.
All in all, it was okay, but I think I liked Trickster's Choice better.
Oh, and I wanted to see a Tamora Pierce version of the Ragnarok, since in my mind Kyprioth = Loki, and so forth, but I suppose that's a job for fanfiction.
THE END.
Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce (2004)
Pros:
-TAYBUR TAYBUR TAYBUR.
-Darkings squee!
-Political intrigue, and lots of it.
-Duchess Nuritin. As Aly said, "I want to be you when I grow up."
-SHE NAMED THE SECOND KID RIKASH!!!!!1!!fourteen!!
-Sarai runs away and Dove gets to rule hooray!
-Ulasim: BEST. EXIT. EVER. You totally owned Rubinyan.
Cons:
-Little ambiguity on part of each group.
-Very few failures, too easy to take over, no "mop up" (what I get for being a Star Wars Girl)
-Aly didn't chew Kyprioth out after the boat incident. I so totally would have pwned him righteously, sooper powers aside.
-Ochubu's death was very underdone, and it got about half a page. And it happened for not very much of a reason.
-Characters not really characterized as much as in the first book. Woo, we are all generic rebels yay! Boooooooring. Where's the FIRE? Specifically, where are the aliens that stole Ochubu's soul?!
-Not enough Taybur. NEED MORE TAYBUR. [/fangirling]
-Weirdo Nawat. He's all cool and funny in the first book and he's all normal in the second one. No fun. We need funfunfun!
General:
Don't think I hated the book--it was a rather enjoyable read, I thought, although it took a little longer to get started, certainly. There were also a number of aspects that I liked, too. However... (yes, however)
Man, I found a lot of the main characters annoying.
Seriously, I wanted to scream at Aly and Nawat. "Stop the pointless angst! And you can get together afterwards, it's not like either of you is going to die." And Nawat lost all his birdie charm and he was just like a regular guy. And I wanted to plaster a sign on it that says something to the effect of, "Don't feel pressured to have sex! Be STRONG!!!!!11!!!fourteen!!!"
And then Ochubu lost all of her flavor and became a useful tool rather than a person, let alone an ANGRY person who hates luarin. Rebels are supposed to be rebellious. You know?
And someone should have seriously pwned Kyprioth for the boat stunt. Like Aly. Because I so would have chewed him out for that if I'd been in her place. Super powers be damned, that was not nice. I will commend Ms. Pierce for that kind of ambiguity, but I would have been angry, for a long time. Of course, Elsren was kind of a background piece, and Aly didn't really get to know him well, but that was cold, man. That was cold.
All in all, it was okay, but I think I liked Trickster's Choice better.
Oh, and I wanted to see a Tamora Pierce version of the Ragnarok, since in my mind Kyprioth = Loki, and so forth, but I suppose that's a job for fanfiction.
THE END.