Song of the Lioness re-read - "Alanna: The First Adventure"
I'm at In the Hand of the Goddess in my Alanna re-read, so I decided to go ahead and post my thoughts for The First Adventure.
Keep in mind...although I've read these books before and I know how they end (the big bad and so on) the middle is all a blank to me. This is partly due to the fact that I first read them in elementary school; being an impatient child, I skimmed. So it isn't like there are any SPOILERS but I'm going to be talking about each book as if I don't know what happens next.
Also, I have horribly abused the "highlight" function of my Nook for key moments and phrases.
So, Song of the Lioness, Part One
It's such a wonderful book. I mean, it's very clearly a first novel, and it's very clearly a product of the days when there was less of a line between children's fiction and YA fiction. I feel like it would be much harder for someone to get away with a book that's 145 pages today than it was 10 or 15 years ago. There are some mistakes and in places it seems choppy, but I also feel as though it's less wordy than a lot of Pierce's later work. Not that there's anything inherently WRONG with either one, but my attention span (as a reader AND a writer) definitely likes books that get to the point.
I found the bit in the beginning with Alanna training herself to fight Ralon. Each time he tried to push her around...she pushed back even if he ended up hurting her. I think that her unwillingness to back down is a really interesting look into the difference between the way girls are EXPECTED to deal with bullying and how boys are expected to deal with bullying.
I've seen lots of stories with the main character just sitting back and taking it for a very long time, so it was refreshing to see her not just taking his punches, but knowing her faults and training herself. It's really a wonderful preview to the person Alanna is going to become and the willingness to look to untraditional training methods to give herself an advantage. It's also a sign that she's a person who really should be a knight standing up to a person who shouldn't be a knight, who would abuse that power (and probably wouldn't survive his Ordeal).
The other thing that really interests me about the issue with Ralon is the support Alanna gets; Jonathan and his friends, Duke Gareth, Sir Myles, George. They KNOW Ralon is a bully, and they were bothered that he was picking on the little page. They tried to help and make Alanna's life easier whenever they could. Like Duke Gareth says as she's leaving his office, "If you have to hit - hit low." The scene where she goes to George for hand to hand training is really touching in a lot of ways - namely because of his initial reaction when Alanna "Alan" asks him for a favor. "A favor, you say. What's it to be? A throat cutting? Some of my bully boys taking Ralon into an alley for a chat?" Then, when Alanna is offended, his response, "I've known nobles who thought I should be grateful for their friendship - grateful enough to do them all sorts of favors. They wanted a theif, not a friend." He expects to be used, initially, and when the little page instead wants to fight his own battles...it's really touching. It just IS. You can tell he's been hurt, and it's sad because if you have George as a friend, he's a good friend, but he's had to survive through suspicion
I mean, it's a little thing, but I love scenes like that --- characters that have been hurt having their expectations shifted, characters that think they've seen everything being surprised. I love that moment when a character says to themselves, 'wow, this person's legit'.
On that same line of thought: "George, if you ever want my life, you can have it," Alanna said quietly, meaning every word.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMM. WHAT COULD THAT MEAN? Yeah they're talking about her horse but that line was still really touching to me.
I also love that he's the first one she tells about being a girl...he's really chill about it, all things considered. I can't help but feel that if this were ANY other YA series he would have threatened to use that against her as soon as the love-triangle-ish thing between him, Alanna, and Jonathan crept up. I don't know which emotion is stronger; that it makes me go 'oh, what a sweet guy', or that it actually strikes me as rare to see a character that doesn't behave like a total fucking asshole in a love triangle.
The scene where Alanna pulls Jonathan back from the well between worlds is still one of the most vivid and powerful scenes I've read in a book. It's the scene I remembered from the first time I read the book, and it stayed with me even more than the finale in the Black City.
The scene where Alanna retrieves Lightning from the Old Ones ruined city has VERY strong similarities to the legends surrounding Jeanne D'Ark finding the Sword of St. Catherine.
I love Pierce's attempts to make Tortall multicultural in many ways, and I love that she was writing about a people based on Middle Eastern nomads about 20 years before most people in the US were aware of their existence. Bazhir culture is interesting, and I love the respect she shows for them as a writer even when her characters don't like or understand their ways. It's very nicely done.
Roger, you bastard. That is all until I get to my review of In the Hand of the Goddess.
What Alanna does is simply amazing, she's exceptional and it's a really powerful portrayal of how people can really do astonishing things and use the expectations of society against them. Part of why Alanna was able to maintain 'Alan' was because when they looked at her, they expected to see a boy. Another thing that I noticed about her story is, again, the support she receives. Her accomplishment is her own, but lots of people supported her along the way, which tells me that the cultural conditions were right for women warriors to return. She's the harbringer, but the fact that when her friends find out they don't oust her immediately, and that the Goddess took such an interest tells me that things were ready for change and that Alanna was brave enough and strong enough to be the catalyst for that change to begin. Like, the fuel was there and she was the spark (to use a totally cliched and overused metaphor that also conveys my point).
I love the idea that any character can be believable under the right circumstances. The line between "unbelievable" and "exceptional" is a line that Pierce walks wonderfully.
Is it just me, or is Tortall filled with exceptionally reasonable people? It's kind of a common thread in all of Pierce's books. Like, there's conflict, but it's usually removed from the inner circle of characters. In YA, there is usually a close circle of friends that confide in each other and stand against great odds, but Pierce's is one of the few I can think of with so many reasonable ADULT characters. It's really pleasant.
Coming up next: In the Hand of the Goddess aka, In Which Duke Roger of Conte Understands What It's like to be Wile E. Coyote
Keep in mind...although I've read these books before and I know how they end (the big bad and so on) the middle is all a blank to me. This is partly due to the fact that I first read them in elementary school; being an impatient child, I skimmed. So it isn't like there are any SPOILERS but I'm going to be talking about each book as if I don't know what happens next.
Also, I have horribly abused the "highlight" function of my Nook for key moments and phrases.
So, Song of the Lioness, Part One
It's such a wonderful book. I mean, it's very clearly a first novel, and it's very clearly a product of the days when there was less of a line between children's fiction and YA fiction. I feel like it would be much harder for someone to get away with a book that's 145 pages today than it was 10 or 15 years ago. There are some mistakes and in places it seems choppy, but I also feel as though it's less wordy than a lot of Pierce's later work. Not that there's anything inherently WRONG with either one, but my attention span (as a reader AND a writer) definitely likes books that get to the point.
I found the bit in the beginning with Alanna training herself to fight Ralon. Each time he tried to push her around...she pushed back even if he ended up hurting her. I think that her unwillingness to back down is a really interesting look into the difference between the way girls are EXPECTED to deal with bullying and how boys are expected to deal with bullying.
I've seen lots of stories with the main character just sitting back and taking it for a very long time, so it was refreshing to see her not just taking his punches, but knowing her faults and training herself. It's really a wonderful preview to the person Alanna is going to become and the willingness to look to untraditional training methods to give herself an advantage. It's also a sign that she's a person who really should be a knight standing up to a person who shouldn't be a knight, who would abuse that power (and probably wouldn't survive his Ordeal).
The other thing that really interests me about the issue with Ralon is the support Alanna gets; Jonathan and his friends, Duke Gareth, Sir Myles, George. They KNOW Ralon is a bully, and they were bothered that he was picking on the little page. They tried to help and make Alanna's life easier whenever they could. Like Duke Gareth says as she's leaving his office, "If you have to hit - hit low." The scene where she goes to George for hand to hand training is really touching in a lot of ways - namely because of his initial reaction when Alanna "Alan" asks him for a favor. "A favor, you say. What's it to be? A throat cutting? Some of my bully boys taking Ralon into an alley for a chat?" Then, when Alanna is offended, his response, "I've known nobles who thought I should be grateful for their friendship - grateful enough to do them all sorts of favors. They wanted a theif, not a friend." He expects to be used, initially, and when the little page instead wants to fight his own battles...it's really touching. It just IS. You can tell he's been hurt, and it's sad because if you have George as a friend, he's a good friend, but he's had to survive through suspicion
I mean, it's a little thing, but I love scenes like that --- characters that have been hurt having their expectations shifted, characters that think they've seen everything being surprised. I love that moment when a character says to themselves, 'wow, this person's legit'.
On that same line of thought: "George, if you ever want my life, you can have it," Alanna said quietly, meaning every word.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMM. WHAT COULD THAT MEAN? Yeah they're talking about her horse but that line was still really touching to me.
I also love that he's the first one she tells about being a girl...he's really chill about it, all things considered. I can't help but feel that if this were ANY other YA series he would have threatened to use that against her as soon as the love-triangle-ish thing between him, Alanna, and Jonathan crept up. I don't know which emotion is stronger; that it makes me go 'oh, what a sweet guy', or that it actually strikes me as rare to see a character that doesn't behave like a total fucking asshole in a love triangle.
The scene where Alanna pulls Jonathan back from the well between worlds is still one of the most vivid and powerful scenes I've read in a book. It's the scene I remembered from the first time I read the book, and it stayed with me even more than the finale in the Black City.
The scene where Alanna retrieves Lightning from the Old Ones ruined city has VERY strong similarities to the legends surrounding Jeanne D'Ark finding the Sword of St. Catherine.
I love Pierce's attempts to make Tortall multicultural in many ways, and I love that she was writing about a people based on Middle Eastern nomads about 20 years before most people in the US were aware of their existence. Bazhir culture is interesting, and I love the respect she shows for them as a writer even when her characters don't like or understand their ways. It's very nicely done.
Roger, you bastard. That is all until I get to my review of In the Hand of the Goddess.
What Alanna does is simply amazing, she's exceptional and it's a really powerful portrayal of how people can really do astonishing things and use the expectations of society against them. Part of why Alanna was able to maintain 'Alan' was because when they looked at her, they expected to see a boy. Another thing that I noticed about her story is, again, the support she receives. Her accomplishment is her own, but lots of people supported her along the way, which tells me that the cultural conditions were right for women warriors to return. She's the harbringer, but the fact that when her friends find out they don't oust her immediately, and that the Goddess took such an interest tells me that things were ready for change and that Alanna was brave enough and strong enough to be the catalyst for that change to begin. Like, the fuel was there and she was the spark (to use a totally cliched and overused metaphor that also conveys my point).
I love the idea that any character can be believable under the right circumstances. The line between "unbelievable" and "exceptional" is a line that Pierce walks wonderfully.
Is it just me, or is Tortall filled with exceptionally reasonable people? It's kind of a common thread in all of Pierce's books. Like, there's conflict, but it's usually removed from the inner circle of characters. In YA, there is usually a close circle of friends that confide in each other and stand against great odds, but Pierce's is one of the few I can think of with so many reasonable ADULT characters. It's really pleasant.
Coming up next: In the Hand of the Goddess aka, In Which Duke Roger of Conte Understands What It's like to be Wile E. Coyote