Tag Archives: Female Protagonist

Book Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

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aliceAlice in Zombieland
by Gena Showalter
404 pages
Published 2012
Urban Fantasy

This was an interesting re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland. In Alice in Zombieland, Alice Bell’s life has always been curtailed by her father’s insistence that monsters exist. The family cannot leave the house after dark, she’s been taught how to fight hand-to-hand and with a couple of weapons, and they never – NEVER – drive past the graveyard. All of this changes in one night – when Alice “falls down the rabbit hole” as it were – and discovers her father wasn’t insane after all.

Now, living with her grandparents, haunted by visions of her little sister and glimpses of monsters in the dark, Alice – or Ali, as she insists on being called – finds herself being called on to fight the monsters alongside the roughest crowd in her high school. Falling in love with the leader of the bad boys doesn’t help her social life, but might help her stay alive.

I enjoyed this book and will probably pick up the sequel, Through the Zombie Glass, if I can find it at the library. The writing flowed well most of the time, and while Alice began a little whiny, by the end of the book she was pretty bad ass. It felt…. a little more “young adult” than some young adult books I’ve read; the emotions seemed detached or damped down a bit. While she was dealing with grief over the loss of her family, and possible death at the hands of zombies, it just didn’t feel as raw as I think those emotions should have felt. And the notion of a bunch of high school kids fighting zombies – with the support of adults, including the high school principal – was a little weird. Still an interesting book, and not a waste of time, but it felt a lot like “teenagers are special snowflakes!”

From the back of Alice in Zombieland:

SHE WON’T REST UNTIL SHE’S SENT EVERY WALKING CORPSE BACK TO ITS GRAVE. FOREVER.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone. Her father was right. The monsters are real. To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies.

Book Review: Wicked and Son of a Witch

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wickedWicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
416 pages
Published 1995
Fantasy

Son of a Witch
by Gregory Maguire
337 pages
Published 2005
Fantasy

I saw the musical version of Wicked two or three years ago, and ADORED it. I’d been wanting to pick up this book for sometime, and finally found both it and the sequel at my local library. (I just learned there are two more books, A Lion Among Men and Out of Oz, so I’ll be requesting those from the library soon!) I started the book knowing, from other reviewers, that it was very different from the musical. Unlike most of the reviews I read, that didn’t make me not like it. Quite the contrary. I loved seeing the politics and social unrest hidden behind the scenes. The musical hints at the pogroms against Animals (the sentient ones) but doesn’t go into the Whys and Hows like the book does. Wicked and its sequel are much grittier, much darker. At times they feel like political commentary. I loved them.

Wicked is the story of Elphaba, Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. Her story tells us about her birth, her childhood, her school years, and how she eventually came to be the Wicked Witch of the West. Throughout the course of the book we meet Glinda, the Good Witch (and Elphaba’s college roommate), the Wicked Witch’s flying monkeys, and the Wizard of Oz. The Wicked Witch, unsurprisingly, is not as evil as she’s painted to be. Her sister, though…I might not call her wicked, but dictatorial? Yes. Wicked also introduces Liir, Elphaba’s son. His story is the sequel, Son of a Witch.

sonofawitchIn Son of a Witch, we watch Liir try to decide who he is and what he wants to do with his life. Is he really Elphaba’s son? What does that mean for his future? Should he take up her mantle and her responsibilities? So many people seem to think it’s his duty to do so, but he’s not Elphaba. She never confided her dreams and goals to him, so he doesn’t even really know what those duties are, much less if he wants to take them up. Son of a Witch is really the story of an identity crisis, but it’s an identity crisis with the added pressure of entire tribes and races of peoples looking to Liir for help, or guidance, or simply answers that he does not have.

I very much enjoyed both books, and I’m excited to find out there are two more in the series. I definitely had some unanswered questions at the end of Son of a Witch, and was disappointed when I thought that was the end. I also plan to look up the author’s other, similar books – Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Cinderella), Mirror Mirror (Snow White), and many others not based on fairy tales. Or recognizable fairy tales, anyway.

Reading these two books has also made me want to re-read the Oz series – I read most of them years ago in middle school, but I think I may try to grab them from the library again. Oz is such an interesting world, and re-reading them after reading The Wicked Years might shine a whole new light on them.

From the back of Wicked:

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum’s classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

From the back of Son of a Witch:

Ten years after the publication of Wicked, beloved novelist Gregory Maguire returns at last to the land of Oz. There he introduces us to Liir, an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch. Bruised, comatose, and left for dead in a gully, Liir is shattered in spirit as well as in form. But he is tended at the Cloister of Saint Glinda by the silent novice called Candle, who wills him back to life with her musical gifts.

What dark force left Liir in this condition? Is he really Elphaba’s son? He has her broom and her cape – but what of her powers? Can he find his supposed half-sister, Nor, last seen in the forbidding prison, Southstairs? Can he fulfill the last wishes of a dying princess? In an Oz that, since the Wizard’s departure, is under new and dangerous management, can Liir keep his head down long enough to grow up?

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Book Review: Tortall and Other Lands

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TortallTortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales
by Tamora Pierce
369 pages
Published 2011

This is a collection of Tamora Pierce’s short stories, some of which have been published in other collections. There are six stories set in Tortall, four fantasy stories set elsewhere, and one contemporary non-fantasy story. I really enjoyed getting glimpses into other parts of Tortall – seeing stories of a few ordinary people, not just the extraordinary ones that star in her sagas and trilogies.

In one story we revisit Numair and Daine from The Immortals quartet, and see their foster dragon, Kitten, get into trouble and rescue a wild mage and her son. In another we see an apple tree turned into a man as a consequence of Numair turning a man into an apple tree half a world away. Another story shows us the birth of Nawat and Aly’s children. (Aly is the daughter of Alanna from The Song of the Lioness quartet, and has her own duology, Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen.) We see a girl learn to fight by watching animals squabble, and another girl learn to become an adult by rescuing a baby dragon.

I very much enjoy collections of short stories for a few different reasons; collections by one author show glimpses into rarely-seen parts of their established worlds, while collections around a theme introduce me to new authors. I also don’t feel bad about setting the book down between stories to go to bed! Tortall and Other Lands was a wonderful addition to the stories of Tortall, and has me even more eager to read The Immortals quartet and the Trickster set.

From the back of Tortall and Other Lands:

Years ago, the novel Alanna introduced fantasy lovers to the magical kingdom of Tortall. In Tamora Pierce’s subsequent fifteen books set in this medieval realm, readers have gotten to know generations of families; legions of friends, foes, and fantastical creatures; and much about the history, magic, and spirit of this extraordinarily well-drawn locale.

But epics do not always provide the smaller, more intimate tales. Collected here are six wondrous shorter tales from the land of Tortall, featuring previously unknown characters as well as old friends. These stories, some of which have never been published before, will lead old fans and new readers more deeply into one of the most intricately constructed worlds of modern fantasy. There are four more fantasy tales not set in Tortall. Two are historical and set in an unknown town; one takes place in a remote desert; and one is set in a very well-known town, New York City, in our time. 

And as a bonus, there’s one nonfantasy set in contemporary Idaho that proves that Pierce’s multilayered characters, finesse with dialogue, and impeccable storytelling are not limited to lands inhabited by dragons and magic. 

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Book Review: The Song of the Lioness quartet

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alanna1Song of the Lioness quartet
by Tamora Pierce
Young Adult Fantasy

Alanna: the First Adventure
308 pages
Published 1983

In the Hand of the Goddess
288 pages
Published 1984

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man
304 pages
Published 1986

Lioness Rampant
400 pages
Published 1988

Alanna2The Song of the Lioness quartet is Tamora Pierce’s first set of books. I read her latest trilogy (the Beka Cooper trilogy) first, which didn’t exactly prepare me for The Song of the Lioness. It’s obvious, going from the latest trilogy to her first writing, how much her writing has matured since the 80s. My first thought upon completing Alanna: the First Adventure was “I’m very glad she’s gotten better at writing!” The story itself is still interesting and worth reading, but the style is a little difficult to read when I KNOW how well she writes now. The characters are mostly one-dimensional; few of the side characters seem to have plots going or events happening to them when they’re not with Alanna. Characters pop up, have a significant interaction with Alanna, and are gone again, with no indication they exist outside of their usefulness to the main character. This is in stark contrast to her latest work, where every character that has a significant role to play has a history of their own, and thoughts and feelings of their own. They’re much more fleshed out in her recent books.

Alanna3That complaint aside, the Alanna books are really the foundation that the rest of Tortall was built upon. It’s interesting to see how Pierce has fleshed out some of the concepts she touched on in the Alanna saga, and it’s fun to see where some of the things from the Beka Cooper trilogy originated. It also pays to keep in mind that though the Alanna books were written first, the Beka Cooper trilogy is based two hundred years earlier. We learn a lot more about the office of The Rogue in the Beka Cooper trilogy, something that isn’t explained very well in the Alanna quartet, even though one of Alanna’s main romantic interests is George Cooper (yes, a descendant of Beka!), the Rogue. Pierce also never explains the origins of Alanna’s cat, Faithful, in the actual Alanna books. That explanation lies in the Beka Cooper books as well.

The Song of the Lioness quartet is the story of a girl who decides to rebel against tradition and follow her heart to become a knight. In her time, ladies simply do NOT become knights. They learn to organize households and marry well. Alanna, however, is lucky enough to have a twin brother who does not want to become a knight; instead Thom wants to be a mage. So when they’re sent off to face their futures, they switch places, with Alanna becoming “Alan”, the younger twin. (Thom stays Thom; the school that ladies are sent to is the same school mages start at.)

Alanna4Alan/Alanna begins as a page, then moves to squire, and eventually a knight. Her secret is discovered, but due to her influential friends, most of whom knew she was a girl by then, she is able to keep her status. Her adventures take her from uncovering a plot against the royal family, to being adopted by a desert tribe, to recovering a magic jewel of prosperity, with many small adventures in between.

I love reading Pierce’s heroines; both Alanna and Beka have problems reconciling their feminine natures with the work they’ve chosen. The scenes where Alanna’s love interests see her in a dress for the first time, instead of her normal boy-garb and armor, is heart-warming in one case, and sad in another. In both womens’ lives it’s the man who can accept all of their aspects who ultimately wins their heart, which is a wonderful message.

Ultimately, the technical flaws in the writing of the Alanna saga faded as I became absorbed in the story. I’ll be requesting more Tortall books from the library in the near future!

From the back of Alanna: the first Adventure:

“From now on I’m Alan of Trebond, the younger twin. I’ll be a knight.”

And so young Alanna of Trebond begins the journey to knighthood. Alanna has always craved the adventure and daring allowed only for boys; her twin brother, Thom, yearns to learn the art of magic. So one day they decide to switch places: Disguised as a girl, Thom heads for the convent; Alanna, pretending to be a boy, is on her way to the castle of King Roald to begin her training as a page. But the road to knighthood is not an easy one. As Alanna masters the skills necessary for battle, she must also learn to control her heart and to discern her enemies from her allies. Filled with swords and sorcery, adventure and intrigue, good and evil, Alanna’s first adventure begins—one that will lead to the fulfillment of her dreams and make her a legend in the land.

From the back of In the Hand of the Goddess:

Still disguised as a boy, Alanna becomes a squire to none other than the prince of the realm. Prince Jonathan is not only Alanna’s liege lord, he is also her best friend—and one of the few who knows the secret of her true identity. But when a mysterious sorcerer threatens the prince’s life, it will take all of Alanna’s skill, strength, and magical power to protect him—even at the risk of revealing who she really is…

From the back of The Woman who Rides like a Man:

Newly knighted, Alanna of Trebond seeks adventure in the vast desert of Tortall. Captured by fierce desert dwellers, she is forced to prove herself in a duel to the death—either she will be killed or she will be inducted into the tribe. Although she triumphs, dire challenges lie ahead. As her mythic fate would have it, Alanna soon becomes the tribe’s first female shaman—despite the desert dwellers’ grave fear of the foreign woman warrior. Alanna must fight to change the ancient tribal customs of the desert tribes—for their sake and for the sake of all Tortall.

From the back of Lioness Rampant:

Having achieved her dream of becoming the first female knight errant, Alanna of Trebond is not sure what to do next. She has triumphed in countless bloody battles, and her adventures are already legendary. Perhaps being a knight errant is not all that Alanna needs…but Alanna must push her uncertainty aside when she is challenged with the impossible. She must recover the Dominion Jewel, a legendary gem with enormous power for good—but only in the right hands. And she must work fast. Tortall is in great danger, and Alanna’s arch-enemy, Duke Roger, is back—and more powerful than ever. In this final book of the Song of the Lioness quartet, Alanna discovers through fierce combat and ceaseless searching that she indeed has a future worthy of her mythic past—both as a warrior and as a woman.

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Book Review: Debris

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debrisDebris
by Jo Anderton
464 pages
Published 2011
Modern Fantasy

Debris is Jo Anderton’s debut novel, and while it at times feels like it, the story at its heart is a unique take on the genre. I hesitated on which genre to list it as; it’s modern-ish technology, not on Earth, and more advanced than Steampunk. But it has magic, which makes it not sci-fi. Ultimately, it’s just GOOD. There were some pacing issues and the heroine seemed a little bi-polar, going from “I’M GOING TO GET MY OLD LIFE BACK” to “I don’t want to disrupt my new life” but other reviewers say that those issues are smoothed out somewhat in the second book, which I haven’t read.

The story begins with Tanyana exhibiting her talent for manipulating pions – the molecules that make up everything. She’s building a giant sculpture with the help of her circle. But something goes wrong – whether it’s a simple accident or someone targeted her is a mystery – and she loses her ability to see pions, but gains the ability to see “debris” – magical garbage created by the manipulation of pions. At least, that’s what she and her fellow “Collectors” are told it is. There seems to be more to the principles behind debris than just “junk,” though, and answers are not very forthcoming in this book. (Though plenty more questions are raised!) Other reviewers have said their are more answers in Suited, the next book in the trilogy. The third book isn’t out yet, and I’ll probably wait for that before picking up Suited, unless I happen past it on a library shelf or something. (Edit: Guardian is now out.)

I am very excited to see how this new author shapes up, given the quality of Debris.

From the back of Debris:

Tanyana is among the highest ranking in her far-future society – a skilled pionner, able to use a mixture of ritual and innate talent to manipulate the particles that hold all matter together. But an accident brings her life crashing down around her ears. She is cast down amongst the lowest of the low, little more than a garbage collector. But who did this to her, and for what sinister purpose? Her quest to find out will take her to parts of the city she never knew existed, and open the door to a world she could never have imagined. 

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Book Review: Beka Cooper Trilogy (Tortall Legends)

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terrierTerrier: The Legend of Beka Cooper #1
by Tamora Pierce
592 pages
Published 2007
Fantasy

Bloodhound: The Legend of Beka Cooper #2
by Tamora Pierce
560 pages
Published 2009
Fantasy

Mastiff: The Legend of Beka Cooper #3
by Tamora Pierce
608 pages
Published 2011
Fantasy

My husband has been saying for some time that I should read Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books, specifically the Alanna saga. While I haven’t gotten my hands on that yet, he did find this trilogy on a recent trip to the library and set them onto the library desk next to my stack with an expectant look. After reading them, I see why! These are GOOD. The world is well thought out and interesting, and the characters are lively. I will be looking into the other trilogies and sagas set into this world to see how characters and principles from these books wind their way through the other stories.

bloodhoundA little bit about the world and series as a whole, first. I believe the first series written about Tortall is Alanna’s story. The Song of the Lioness, as it’s called, is a set of four books. Alanna, basically, is a woman who decided to be a knight in a world where that simply isn’t done. So she disguises herself as a man in order to do it. The Beka Cooper trilogy, however, takes place about two hundred years prior to Alanna – in this time period, women are allowed to be knights and Guardswomen and any number of rough things. (In the third Beka Cooper book they talk more about the “Gentle Mother” religion that is starting to take hold, that says women are supposed to be gentle, sheltered things – I’m assuming by the time of Alanna that idea has taken root and spread much further.) Beka herself is a Guardswoman – or Dog, as they’re called. The Dogs of Tortall are guardsmen and women throughout the kingdom, usually based in cities. They call criminals “Rats”, men “coves”, and women “mots”. Having a unique vocabulary really serves to set the world apart. It’s not so many words that it’s hard to understand, but just enough that the first time or two they’re used you notice it.

In Terrier, Beka is serving as a “Puppy,” or Guardwoman-in-training. They spend their first year attached to a pair of senior Dogs, learning the ropes. By the end of the first book, Beka’s earned the nickname of “Terrier” for her refusal to let Rats go. She has some unique abilities to help her in her job – she can talk to ghosts and dust-spinners, learning things they’ve overheard to help her find guilty Rats. In Terrier she’s on the trail of the Shadow Snake, a Rat who’s stealing peoples’ children and killing them if they don’t ransom them back. Until the murdered children talk to Beka, most of the Dogs of the Lower City don’t think the disappearances are related to each other.

mastiffIn Bloodhound, Beka is a full-fledged Dog, and is sent to another city to track down a counterfeiter. A few years later, in Mastiff, she’s set on the trail of a kidnapped Prince and a far-reaching plot to cause the fall of the King. Throughout all three books she’s accompanied by Pounce, a black cat with purple, god-touched eyes. Pounce is no ordinary cat, but neither is Beka an ordinary Guardswoman! The books are written as Beka’s journals, read two hundred years later, to George Cooper, a descendant of hers who has a major role in Alanna’s saga.

The Epilogue of Mastiff has me itching to find and read the Song of the Lioness! The Song of the Lioness is not the only other set of books set in this world, either. The Immortals series follows the path of a Wild Mage in Tortall, while The Protector of the Small quartet follows the path of the first sanctioned lady knight after Alanna. The Trickster duology is the story of Alanna’s daughter. There’s also a book of short stories set in Tortall and other Lands, so I certainly have a lot of books to add to my to-read list!

From the back of Terrier:

Beka Cooper is a rookie with the law-enforcing Provost’s Guard, and she’s been assigned to the Lower City. It’s a tough beat that’s about to get tougher, as Beka’s limited ability to communicate with the dead clues her in to an underworld conspiracy. Someone close to Beka is using dark magic to profit from the Lower City’s criminal enterprises–and the result is a crime wave the likes of which the Provost’s Guard has never seen before.

From the back of Bloodhound:

Beka Cooper is finally a Dog—a full-fledged member of the Provost’s Guard, dedicated to keeping peace in Corus’s streets. But there’s unrest in Tortall’s capital. Counterfeit coins are turning up in shops all over the city, and merchants are raising prices to cover their losses. The Dogs discover that gamblers are bringing the counterfeit money from Port Caynn. In Port Caynn, Beka delves deep into the gambling world, where she meets a charming banking clerk named Dale Rowan. Beka thinks she may be falling for Rowan, but she won’t let anything—or anyone—jeopardize her mission. As she heads north to an abandoned silver mine, it won’t be enough for Beka be her usual “terrier” self. She’ll have to learn from Achoo to sniff out the criminals—to be a Bloodhound….

From the back of Mastiff:

This is the third book in the Beka Cooper trilogy, and Beka is a full-fledged Dog now, but it hasn’t made her job with the law-enforcing Provost’s Guard any easier. On this hunt, she’ll need all her resources, from her bare-knuckled fighting skills to her suspiciously intelligent cat, Pounce. 

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