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I remember the first time I stumbled upon Tamora Pierce's work. I was eleven years old, had recently been introduced to roleplaying (the old red-box Basic D&D), and this had fired my interest in fantasy. I had read The Hobbit and a book of Greek myths found in the school library (I remember getting copies of the Lord of the Rings books as a Christmas present that year), as well as a cassette of King Arthur stories, and was looking for more books like them one evening at the local library.

I emerged with a copy of Tamora Pierce's In the Hand of the Goddess, and began reading books by an author I continue to enjoy in my adulthood.

Song of the Lioness was originally concieved as a single-volume adult novel, but ended up being published as a four-volume series for teenagers. At the time of writing, female heroes (or sheroes, the term I shall use here, from Pierce's message board Sheroescentral.com) were few and far between, and Pierce wrote the series in part to redress this lack. Now, she has over written twenty books, and has become somewhat of a "name" author in the teenage field. I plan on reviewing some of her later books in the future.

The Lioness quartet revolves around Alanna of Trebond, a noble girl who wants to become a knight. Unfortunately for her, girls are forbidden from training for such a career. Fortunately, her brother also wants something from his life other than what has been set out for him - he is expected to train as a knight, but wants to study magic instead. So the two of them hatch a scheme whereby Alanna, disguised as "Alan", takes the boy's place, allowing her to train as a knight, and her brother to study magic.

The quartet follows Alanna as she matures - Alanna - The First Adventure takes place during her years as a page, In the Hand of the Goddess chronicles her time as a squire, and The Woman Who Rides Like a Man and show her as a full knight. Over the course of the quartet, Pierce allows the reader to experience the growth in character and skill of Alanna who, always strong-willed, becomes a wonderful shero.

As with the Harry Potter books - or any good "children's" book for that matter - these are stories that both kids and adults can enjoy (okay, as stated, these are technically teenage, not children's books, but my point stands). I will warn that some parents may feel that the fact Alanna has to deal with the functions of her body as she approaches adulthood is inappropriate, but such matters are relevant to the story, and are dealt with in what I feel is an appropriate manner. Besides, the issue went straight over my head as a child.

The problem when reviewing a work that one likes a lot is that it sometimes becomes hard to identify flaws in the work - but I will try to address a couple of points here. One is the fact that the main villain of the piece, Duke Roger, is quite generic. He's a menacing, power-hungry evil mage, and that's really all there is to him. At least Pierce manages to endow him with some charisma.

The other issue I've noticed isn't really a flaw as such, but compared to her later books Pierce's style isn't as developed here. That's really only to be expected, and her mastery of the craft of writing develops in her later books (as do her villains, incidentally - the bad guys in the "Circle Opens" and "Protector of the Small" quartets are vastly superior to Roger.

The books are available individually or as a boxset - I own the boxset.

IN CONCLUSION

The quartet is an entertaining read for adults, and a great choice for kids looking for something else to read after they've finished Harry Potter and Tolkien. As far as role-playing use goes, the books could be useful as inspiration for a fantasy campaign where the PCs are knights or other nobility, and show that trainees in these professions can have adventures too, instead of being stuck practicing all the time. I plan on reviewing some of Tamora Pierce's later books in the future. In the meantime, you can check out these links for more info:

www.tamora-pierce.com - Tamora Pierce's website www.sheroescentral.com - Sheroes Central, a discussion board run by Tamora Pierce