Hello!
This is going to be my very first book review. I decided to pick a book I was currently reading/just finished.
The book I chose is a young adult novel in the fantasy genre. Now if you're not familiar with Tamora Pierce and any of her works I'm going to try to summarize it for you here.
:: Author Background ::
Pierce has been writing fantasy novels for many years. She usually releases stories in quartets, trilogies, and duologies (well so far only one duology). One thing I love about her works is that she has created two very distinct worlds: Tortall and the Circle universe. The Circle series/universe focuses mainly on 4 central characters and magic. The Tortall universe is more interesting and it is also where this novel takes place.
Tortall is a world very reminiscent of the medieval, the Arthurian, Middle Earth, and magic! It has chivalry, knights, mages, rogues, mots, and doxies galore. It's got a vocabulary of it's own and it's a very lively and spirited world to imagine.
Tamora Pierce also loves to write about strong independent young women who are coming of age and finding a place in the world they live in. If you read the quartets/series in the order they came out in, you'll notice fun details, like little mentions and cameos of past characters. The first series and also the first books she wrote are the Songs of the Lioness Quartet. So start there if you like!
:: Summary ::
Now about Terrier (finally!). Terrier is about a character named Beka Cooper. This series is set back about 150 years before most of the other books in the series (so it's like a prequel series I guess?).
In the city of Corus (capital of Tortall), Beka is training to be a law enforcer of the Provost's Guard (know as the "Dogs"). Trainees are called "Puppies" and are assigned to senior dogs to be trained. Basically it's like a police force.
:: SPOILER ALERT :: You've been Warned!
So basically the story is about Beka stumbling upon 2 related cases and how she is determined to bring them down to justice.
Enemy 1: The Shadow Snake. In the series the Shadow Snake is like a boogey man story parents tell their children to get them to do what they're supposed to do ("Eat yer greens or the Snake will getcha!"). But there is a serial kidnapper/murderer snatching children and ransoming the poor for their one thing of value to get them back ("Leave your lily pendant at the shrine to get your toddler back one week from today"). He goes unnoticed for 3 years because he's basically terrorizing the powerless poor.
Enemy 2: Crookshank. Basically the evil, wealthy, heartless tyrant of the projects. He buys off the black market, lives off of overcharging, and doesn't care if someone dies because of his actions. He's wealthy but it's dirty money. Currently he's hiring workers to mine very rare and precious stones in the city and killing them when they're done to keep the secret.
The Shadow Snake knows about the stones and wants to ransom for it. So he kidnaps Roland, the 3 year old great grandchild of Crookshank, and the son of Tansy (Beka's childhood friend). Crookshank doesn't pay up because he doesn't know about the Shadow Snake and he thinks of himself as someone who can't be trifled with. The Snake later kidnaps Herun (Roland's father, Tansy's husband and Crookshank's grandson and heir). So Crookshank goes a little nuts a tries to tear the city apart looking for him in all the wrong places and refuses to pay the ransom.
SO those are the major conflicts of the novel. There are some twists in the end and some expected outcomes (ex: Rosto).
:: END OF SPOILER ALERT ::
I really enjoyed the book. I am a little biased, since I have been a fan of Pierce's works since high school, but I really did find this one fun. As expected, she's created wonderful characters and of course some strong female ones.
Beka I find interesting. She's described as a hardworking girl from the slums who gets taken in by a benefactor and wants to become a Dog to protect the people faithfully. Her major flaw is her shyness. She doesn't like public speaking or meeting people in the eye when talking because she's shy or phobic about it. I find this trait a little exasperating and not quite well executed. I think Pierce likes to instill one major flaw in all of her characters so that they're struggling against something but I found this one a tad... cheesy? I wasn't quite convinced of it.
There are other great characters you'll find in this novel. Like Rosto the Piper, Tunstall, and Ersken are wonderful male characters. I wish I had these men in my life! They're charismatic, rogue-ish, and very easy to fall in love with! She's got some great ladies in the lineup as well. Like Kora, Goodwin, Aniki, and Lady Sabine. They're strong women who become Beka's support system and basically someone she can look up to.
:: REVIEW ::
The book is a bit hefty looking (many of her later books are!) but the pacing is great and I think easy to breeze through. There might be a couple of slightly boring or repetitive moments... but they won't be long enough to hinder the readability of the book. The story is engaging. It reminds me of Law and Order SVU a little bit (due to the theme and the crime solving aspect), but that's not a bad thing.
RATING:: B
A solid B. It's better than average, but it's not mind-blowing. I recommend it but it doesn't have to be a must-read.
A fun detail about this book (and probably the next two books) is the format. The books are written from the view of Beka writing in her journal. I like books written in the form of diaries or journals or even letters (epistolary novels!). I think you can get really creative nowadays on how to write them (I'll probably review a couple of my favorites in this style sometime later).
So that's all I have to say about Book 1. I'm starting the second book now. So I'll probably review next week.
Anyone else reading or read this book? What are your thoughts? Whose you're favorite character? What are you reading?? Do you like my review??
Let me know guys!
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