:/ I was hoping that I would enjoy this series better than Tamora Pierce's other Tortall books, which, while entertaining, didn't enamor me, mostly because they felt like they weren't original fantasy, and because Pierce seemed ham-handed with her messages. I put that off to the fact that many of the other Tortall novels were oriented towards younger readers (around 4th grade), and because the Alana books, in particular, are older, which would've made them ahead of their time as far as "feminist" content goes, but perhaps underwhelming to the contemporary reader.Trickster's Choice, while written at a higher reading level (more middle grade, early high school YA) and with more complexity insofar as the political plot, has several other problems for me. At the very least, I found it BORING. The main character is boring, and I can't think of any defining character traits to describe her. She's conveniently good at everything, and I don't actually *believe* or am drawn in by her supposed emotions (concern for her family, embarrassment at being courted, anxiety that her charges may be killed!). She's also smart-ass, but not enough of one to make her anything but mildly irritating and make her seem like a petulant child, which she is, since she's on her whole mission just to one-up her parents. She also conveniently possesses all the necessary skills and doesn't have to learn anything, except how to not overtly be an upper class snob since she's pretending to be a slave. The main character's romance is boring.The book doesn't have much action, which would be fine, except that the politics are stereotypical.(For convenience sake, I'm going to refer to the majority pale-skinned rulers (Luarans) of the islands as "white" and the dark-skinned population native to the islands who were enslaved (Raka) as "black.") Worse than being boring, it's hard to get over the whole Tom Cruise/Last Samurai aspect. For some reason the black population, who has leaders, mages, and an army, which have been built up over the last several decades needs a blue-blooded white girl to launch their revolution? Although Pierce mixes in some comments of admiration for the Raka's organization, she also writes things to the effect of, "To the Raka, who had never dealt with political intrigue before, Aly must have seemed like a godsend!" I'm not quite sure why Tamora Pierce didn't tell this story from some other character's point of view except that she figured that she could reel more readers in (probably rightly so) because Aly is the daughter of the beloved characters Alanna and George. Another statement that likely was thoughtless but which could potentially be construed as extremely offensive was the line after the crow-turned-boy Nawat commented after running his fingers through Aly's (of course light-colored and fine) hair, "Your hair is so easy to preen!" Um, since it's highly likely that all of the other girls whose hair Nawat "preened" were Raka (black) or part-Raka, they probably had textured hair. So...the main love interest in this book just showed a strong preference for white features. ::cringe:: Greeeeat message for girls, not. Something that might be dealt with better later on is the fact that the two girls whom Aly is supposed to be guarding are bi-racial (of royal Luarin and Raka bloodlines), and due to an old prophecy, everyone thinks that these girls will be the ones to overthrow the yoke of Luarin (white) rule on the Copper Isles. This...is just complicated, and Tamora Piere doesn't do a good job whatsoever, if at all (she just ignores it except for saying that they're beautiful, probably because of the whole, "mixed babies are beautiful" mentality), depicting what must be significant difficulties for these girls in dealing with not only their biracial heritage, but also their biculturalism, considering that it was definitely not the norm for their white royal father to marry a black woman. While it makes sense via the prophecy-as-plot-device for these girls to eventually play a role in overthrowing the current oppressive Luarin rule, it just seems in poor taste to me. This isn't the same as taking some European country's King and some other European country's princess and marrying them off to solidify political and economic ties. If mulattos could magically change the entire racial landscape, then WTF is up with the American South (and America in general)?! To add insult to injury, Aly berates the bitter black old woman mage who hates all white people about reverse racism, and how they can't kill off all Luarins since there has been substantial racial mixing (either through marriage or less consensual means).I don't think that Tamora Pierce intended to be racially and culturally insensitive, but Tamora Pierce isn't Shannon Hale. She apparently doesn't have the fine touch to deal with complex racial, cultural, and economic issues in a children's fantasy book.
There's so much to like about this book, but there's a couple of glaring problems with it that I have to cover first. 1. This is the first time Tamora Pierce has given us a series that takes place almost exclusively outside of Tortall, but it still has a white protagonist. Don't get me wrong, I like Aly. I also understand that the Tortall books are essentially a sort of family drama. However, introducing a white protagonist whose goal is the liberation of a nation of people of color who have been conquered and oppressed by white people plays into some unpleasant colonialist narratives. I mentioned in a previous post that one possible way to accommodate both the "family drama" style of the overall series and the Copper Isles setting would have been to have the main protagonist be a Copper Isles native with Aly as a secondary character. 2. Aly is continually critical of the planned revolution and asks several PoC characters about the possible loss of life to the mostly white ruling class of the Isles. I understand that revolutions can be a bloody business and that Aly is living with a mixed family in the book, which is a reminder to her that the white ruling class is not some nameless faceless evil. This does complicate things. However, on at least one occasion, it's suggested that the current white rulers of the country have only "inherited" their situation, as if that diminishes their responsibility for the ongoing oppression and enslavement of the indigenous people. This is, frankly, bullshit. No one gets to choose their parents, but people do get to choose whether or not to participate in the perpetuation of evil. Honestly, I just think that Aly has too much sympathy for and spends to much time worrying about what might happen to the oppressing class when shit hits the fan.These are some pretty major flaws, in my opinion, but I really liked the book in spite of these problems. Trickster's Choice is not as quick a read as most of Tamora Pierce's other books and it's far less action driven, dealing largely with political intrigue, but it's got a lot going for it.- A large and diverse cast of female characters. This is a hallmark of Tamora Pierce's work, but it's something that I never fail to appreciate because it's so rare. Each girl or woman in the book is well-characterized and unique, and they are constantly talking to each other and forming meaningful relationships.- I especially love how different Aly is from the protagonists of Pierce's other series. I like that I never feel like I'm reading the same story over and over with Tamora Pierce, and Aly is vastly different from Alanna, Daine, and Kel.- I loved getting to read about the Copper Isles and their people. It's really common for fantasy worlds to have places that are populated by people of color, but it's relatively rare for these settings to be explored in a way that shows those people as multidimensional people with complex societies, cultures, goals, and histories of their own. I like that, while Aly is from Tortall, the story of what is going on in the Copper Isles so far has nothing to do with how it is going to affect Tortall. I think the book is, for the most part, properly focused on the people of the Copper Isles and what they want for themselves.- While I already said that it bothers me that this story is being told from the point of view of a white outsider protagonist, I do like that, again for the most part, Aly is working with the people of the Copper Isles as a helper more than as a leader. She's an important helper, and she has a leadership position, but she's not the leader of the revolution she's helping to foment and it's pretty clear that this revolution would happen with or without Aly. This doesn't negate the problem that I have with it, but it does prevent it from being a Dances With Wolves/Last Samurai situation.- Nawat Crow is an interesting character. He's definitely the weirdest possible love interest for a protagonist that I've seen for a while, and I'm curious to see how that plays out.- I love Sarai and Dove. And Winnamine.
What do You think about Trickster's Choice (2004)?
This book was a real delight! It is always a relief to read a book with a strong female character, one that is also believably feminine as well. There is humor, tragedy, betrayal, and good friends as well. There also is a trickster god who makes a deal with the main character, Aly, that if she keeps the girls to a family alive through the fall equinox that he will free her from being a slave and send her back home. Aly ends up freeing herself in a very honorable way. This is well worth recommending to teens, both female and male. In it they will find the horror of war and the beauty of keeping promises and finding out the surprises of life. Any more details would result in me having to slap a spoiler alert so I don't want to say more. Just that I enjoyed this immensely, the characters and story are believable and griping and you really should run, not walk, and get a reserve on this in your local library! Now I need to take my own suggestion and place a hold on the sequel to this book!
—Joan
Still thinking about this one. There were parts I liked - Ally is not an Alanna clone. She is more like her father. She has some magic of her own, in an ability to see if people are lying. She wants to be a spy but her parents want her to do something safer. After arguing with her mother, Ally takes off in her boat and gets captured by pirates. She is then sold into slavery. She soon is making a deal with a god, protecting a future monarch and diving into international politics.Ally is resourceful, which I liked. The family she is placed with is very fair, as far as slaveowners can be fair. I liked the crows and Nawat. I would have liked more of their interaction, as well as more with the crows.I think that part of the problem was that I wanted a bit more personal hardship for Ally. SHe really didn't have to convince the family to follow her advice. THe god took care of that early on. She learns quickly, people are pretty nice to her, there isn't drama with her charges. Part of that was refreshing (ie, the no drama), part of it was just handled too easily.I'll still read book 2, but I'm hoping for Ally to be in more danger.
—Kathy (Kindle-aholic)
My initial reaction: what happened to all the good, easy to pronounce names like Jon and George? I seriously dislike a majority of the names in this book. I know Tamora was probably going for something exotic with the whole Raka thing but it was just weird I had a hard time remembering who was who.As a girl power book, I didn't like it as much as Alanna. Aly seemed to get thing more dropped into her lap than actually fighting for what she wanted, which bothered me. Also, I know she wants to spy like her "Da" but seriously? She has no other ambitions? I didn't relate to her character at all.So why did I give this book 3 stars? It got bumped up from two only because of Nawat. Perhaps because of the stupid name, he was stupidly funny. One thing Tamora has always been able to do for me is make me laugh and giggle at the awkward romances. And the fact that Nawat keeps trying to "mate-feed" her is hilarious.Also, the cameo roles of Alanna and George almost made me want to cry. They are not the characters I remember and loved. Maybe I'm just too young to appreciate them in their middle age ...
—Heather
