Pierce, Tamora
TRICKSTERS [TRICKSTER’S CHOICE (and) TRICKSTER’S QUEEN]
Tamora Pierce
Science Fiction Book Club 2005 [separately published by Random House in 2003 &
2004]
Hb 588 pgs
ISBN#
0-7394-5145-6
Yum. This was my first exposure to Tamora Pierce but I’m hooked on her writing now. The style is just as I like it: full of fast-paced, well-plotted action that doesn’t skimp on characterization or world-building. You get absorbed into the pages and will bite the hand of anyone who tires to pull you out!
TRICKTERS is two books in one, the story of a young woman—Aly, daughter of the Lioness (a matron warrior) and Baron George Cooper (second in command of Tortall’s spies). Aly wants to be a spy like her father but her parents don’t want her to risk her life in that manner, so Aly runs away. And gets captured by pirates and sold into slavery in the Copper Isles. She’s smart, however, and manages herself into a kind family. Actually, the hands of the Trickster god are on her life, guiding this sly young woman where she can aid His choice of queen for the next ruler of the Copper Isles. So begins the ascent of a queen to her throne, an ascent that cannot happen without Aly’s wily ways taught her by her father, and the natural courage she inherited from her mother. She’s going to need it all, for the current insane ruler does not wish to step down.
Sword & sorcery. A little mystery. Action-adventure. Lots of court intrigue. And even a bit of romance. All in a delightfully presentation where the main character grows into someone special. What more can a reader ask of a fantasy story?!
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