Tamora Pierce is one of my favourite authors - has been since I was twelve. I can remember finishing the books in two days and ot being able to wait the rest of the week to go back to the library. And even though I'm all grown up and at Uni studying English I still have an abiding love of all her books, even the new ones. So this is a little page to tell you all about them, their characters, settings, etc.
The books are fairly original - standard fantasy fair, with touches of brilliance. They don't involve journeying the continents though, and the only quests have solid goals - no light shows here, people. If you want more info about the author or want to read excerpts, her page has lots of stuff. So, on with the show. By the way, the covers are of different editions - few of which match the ones I own. One day, I'm going to take mine to a scanner. If you click on the covers and maps, mostly you'll see a larger and clearer image. I thought about this, and have decided that I'm also going to use this page for my TP fanfic, but the only one I'm proud of is Kalasin, so I've stuck it up. It helps if you've read the Alanna books.

Alanna wants to be a knight, her twin brother Thom wants to be a sorceror. They swap places, Alanna disguises herself as a boy and wins her shield. She then goes travelling, battling personal and national enemies. The setting is a country called Totall, surrounded by seas and other countries to fight with. The land has a huge desert in the middle, which is populated by tribes calle Bazhir, who are focused on in the third book.

The books cover Alanna from age eleven to age twenty-ish, through all her progress as a page, squire and knight. We meet her friends - Prince Jonathan, heir to the throne, Gary and Raoul, fellow knights, Thayet and Buri, exiles from Sarain and royalty, George, King of Thieves and eventual husband and her brother Thom. Her arch-enemy is the soceror Duke Roger, whom she kills and her brother brings back to life for her to kill again. It rocks - the characters drip with reality. This is utterly the best series.

Daine is a bit different from Alanna. She quickly attaches a supporting cast who hang around for the next three books, especially Numair, the most powerful sorceror in the world, who is a bit of a dish. Daine posses Wild Magic that allows her to talk to, and change into, animals. As well as go mad when it gets too much. this is due to her father being a god.

The Immies has it's strengths, but many faults - the relative lack of development of Daine for one. But the settings are much more varied than in Lioness and everybody cameos. The expansion of the territory (all of Tortall, Carthak, across the sea and the Realms of the Gods and Dragons) adds a new layer of interest, and the villains are definitely wonderful. A lot of fantasy cliches do start to clamber in, as the author does appear to raid every bestiary on the planet. But really, I just object to a lot of the animal cutesyness, but that's a personal gripe.

I think that we return to more familiar territory with these books - we're back in the palace with the training pages, much like the first two books of Lioness. But the pace is again quite slow - it takes us these two books to get to the same point as the First Adventure. But Kelandry, the main character, makes no secret of her sex. Pierce seems to be deliberately creating new ground for her heroine, which is interesting. Page is far superior to the rather wishy-washy First Test.

The City of Summersea in the Dukedom of Emelan is the main setting for the books in this series. It is a new universe, and was a bit of a shock. I think that the books are aimed at a younger audience than the Alanna ones, where at least, the characters grew up quite considerably. The main characters: Sandry, Tris, Daja and Briar, are all children, and remain so - the book takes place over the span of a year. There is much more a focus on their magic here.

The characters are faily compelling - the new forms of magic are agian practical and entertaining. The whole Society is what makes these books the most interesting - you really get a sense of the whole fabric of society, which is something missing from the later Tortall series. The main base for this series is a temple complex called Winding Circle, which provides many useful adults with expertise, especially the ruling Duke.