Review: Beka Cooper Trilogy Book 3: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Okay. Here we go- Book 3.

I almost... ALMOST wanted to give up on this book... lol. This is the last installment in the trilogy, and I actually finished this book maybe... late May? And since then I've read a book and half to give myself a good buffer before attempting this review.

Now as a big fan of Pierce I had high hopes for this trilogy... only to feel it crumble to bits as I got closer and closer to the end. So without further ado:

:: SUMMARY ::

"Beka and her friends will face their greatest and most important challenge ever when the young heir to the kingdom vanishes. They will be sent out of Corus on a trail that appears and disappears, following a twisting road throughout Tortall. It will be her greatest Hunt—if she can survive the very powerful people who do not want her to succeed in her goal."

—Original plot summary from Pierce's Website

So this time it's the great hunt. Beka is placed in a small group on a covert mission to retrieve the young Highness (4 year old prince) who has been kidnapped. She is joined on this mission by the scent hound Achoo, her partner Tunstall, Lady Sabine, and a new character named Farmer.

:: Spoiler Alert :: You've been Warned!!

Okay so here were my issues with the book. I was so incredibly bored. Maybe it was because I was reading these stories back to back? I'm not sure. I just know that initially I wanted the story to pick up faster.

Pierce does do a fine job of keeping some of the suspense in, because either from loyalty or curiosity, coupled with the suspense, I did trudge on to finish the book. Another thing I do miss is she never returned to doing a story in Corus. I wanted to see a bit more of the original crowd. I wanted to see more of Rosto, Aniki, Goodwin, Kora, and Ersken. But the story's beginning actually separates Beka from all of that. Not with just the hunt, but an interesting little story that happens between books two and three.

The beginning starts with a funeral. Beka's fiance's to be exact. At first I thought, "COULD IT BE SOMEONE I KNOW?!" But alas, it isn't Rosto and it isn't Dale. It's another Dog named Holborn, who gets killed when he recklessly and passionately runs in without back up to a slave trader raid. This leads Beka in an awkward place. While she is mournful of his death, she isn't as grief-stricken as many would think she would be. The love between them had fizzled out long before and she had been planning on breaking off the engagement...

But before she can dwell on this for long, she's suddenly summoned on a mission in the middle of the night.

Fast forward, she's on a mission with a small group which leads us to the introduction of a new character: Farmer Cape a kennel mage for the Dogs, from the city of Blue Harbor. I like Farmer. I thought he was a fun addition although suspicious at first because at some points you just didn't know where he stood with the rest of the group.

With this group (Farmer, Tunstall, and Lady Sabine), Beka roams all over Tortall while searching for the lost prince in secret. They can't trust anyone, because they know this is a coup to overthrow the king and they know nobles and mages are behind it.

Quick background: The nobles are mad at the king because during his youth he used to let them do whatever they wanted and taxed the people and etc. But when he married his second wife, she had an interest in the kingdom, and encouraged him (and he wanted to show off to her with his knowledge of current affairs and his how-to on running the kingdom when before he neglected it). So basically he started asking questions and enforcing rules and laws. Also when book 2 left off they said the harvest had been so bad that year. To help with the starving public, the King used the palace stores (which had been a privilege only to the nobles before) so they were upset about that too.
The mages were mad at the King because he wanted them to be licensed and taxed. Apparently this was outrageous.

So trying to follow the scent of the little prince who they found out was being disguised among a slave caravan, they travel all over Tortall. The closer they got to the little prince, the more danger they encountered.

You know how this is going to end. What kind of epic book ends in disaster? They succeed, of course, but what you don't know is how they complete the journey.

One, it ends with a great and tragic betrayal. So great I won't even speak of it again.

Two, many lives were lost in the process of such a journey. More tragedy.

Three, Beka finally finds love. And I won't say who!

:: End of Spoiler Alert ::

There's a bit more I want to really say about this book but I think I'm going to save it for the overall review of the trilogy.

:: Review ::

There were somethings I found fun about the books. I liked hearing names, properties, and titles of characters. Some of them are very familiar, because of her other books, and it's sort of like a mini history lesson.

You can definitely see current issues and Pierce's stance on them in the books. She's definitely supportive/respectful of the gay community (this was more evident in the second book) and you can see that with the relationship between Nestor Hayrse and Ohka Soyan. You can also see her stance on slavery (she's against them), and this book played a strong role in that.

One other issue you see in this book is the shift in religion. Women (men too but predominantly more women) prayed to the Great Mother Goddess. In this generation the shift was from a strong female goddess that protected women and had her own court and temple separate from the law of men. So basically lets say a man attacked a woman and said woman was on the run. She could seek refuge and be protected by the temple. The Goddess court could rule and punish that man accordingly. It gave protection to the women.

The face of the Goddess was changing with a new movement. They were calling her the Gentle

Mother. Women following the Gentle Mother didn't feel they should arm up and go to war... that was a man's duty. They were needed to do gentle womanly things like raise children and run the household and all sorts of domestic duties. They were too delicate for a man's work. It's interesting because it feels like it's setting up an explanation for the first book series Pierce writes for the Tortall universe: Songs of the Lioness Quartet. That one is about a girl disguising herself for years as a male to become the first Lady Knight in centuries.

Rating:: C+

I had a hard time getting into it in the beginning and it was kind of a disappointing end to a trilogy that had a great start and a lot of potential. I do like some parts of the ending, but I feel like Pierce just wanted to get this book over with. It's worth reading if you're a Pierce fan but I wouldn't recommend it to someone whose never read books on the Tortall series.

That's all I got now. I think I'll write a small review on the whole trilogy as a set later.

But yeah I might also review the following:

Love in a Nutshell by Janet Evanovich & Dorien Kelly

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Ophelia by Lisa Klein