Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce (100+ Followers ENTRY)

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Trickster's Choice

To the great joy of her many fans, Tamora Pierce with this book begins a new saga of Tortall to add to The Song of the Lioness Quartet, the Immortals Quartet, and The Protector of the Small tetralogy. At the center of each of these books is always a strong and resourceful young woman who masters the arts of swordplay and knightly warfare in the magical medieval country of Tortall. Alianne, or Aly, daughter of the warrior queen Alanna the Lioness, has all these skills, but also a delicious sense of humor, which serves her well when she is chosen by the trickster god Kyprioth to serve as his secret agent and a slave for a year in the embattled Copper Isles. There the dark-skinned natives, or raka, have been conquered and crushed by the laurin, light-skinned people from the mainland. The burning raka resentment is fueled by prophecies of a twice royal queen who will free them, aided by the "wise one, the cunning one, the strong one, the warrior, and the crows." Just how each of the colorful characters and Aly herself fit into this prophecy and Kyprioth's tricky plan keeps readers guessing. Aly plots to show her skill at spying as she flirts with the god and is courted by Nawat, a crow transformed into a handsome young man, who is puzzled when she rejects his attempts to mate-feed her with grubs and ants.

This is a re-read. I read this about two years ago and didn't have anything to read at the time so I picked it up. Let me tell you that before ever reading this book I didn't know any of Tamora Pierce's other works. Thankfully, you don't really need to read anything previous to this book because the references made are good without getting you confused of what happened before. Okay, now onto the actual review:

Alianne (Aly) is the daughter of the Lioness and definitely feeling the pressure. When on a voyage she gets caught by pirates and sold into slavery, all she wants to do is keep her lineage secret. She is visited by the Trickster God who giver her a task she must complete in order to go back home. This is not easy but with the help of her friends, Aly will try her hardest to keep the family she works for safe.

It took me a week to read this book since it's 400+ pages long. Significantly shorter time than when I first read it (1 month). This is a really heavy read and sometimes a bit slow but it's quite fast on the last half.

Aly is such a strong character of the likes of Katsa from Graceling. I loved how she was a strong woman yet she didn't seem overly tomboyish or nerdy. She was a flirt but not silly. This is one of my favorite characters in YA literature for sure.

Ah, Nawat. One of my lit boyfriends. He is so sweet and naive and innocent without seeming pathetic. And he's so brave and strong. This boy can't be compared. He's not arrogant or moody (or one of those dangerous boys we are seeing so often). He's like the perfect crow--I mean--boyfriend.

Sarai and Dove where good enough characters but we don't get to know them enough. There's definitely more of them in the next book that Tamora wants to keep under wraps. Dove is the youngest at twelve but she's wise beyond her years. I really love her.

Overall, it's a pretty heavy read but once you learn the names (correctly, I might add), you will find yourself flowing from page to page faster than you think. I think I re-read this book because I read it when I was 13-14 and I wasn't mature or interested enough to appreciate it for how an amazing piece of literature it is.

In one sentence:
"Trickster's Choice is gripping and classic fantasy."

Plot: 5
Characters: 5
Writing: 5
Cover: 5
Overall Feeling: 5
Average: 5