[HPFGU-OTChatter] SPOILER: Ender's Game

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

Spoilers for Tamora Pierce ahead . . .

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Sherry:
> If you would care to read some other juvenile fantasy, Tamora Pierce 
> writes
> wonderful girls!  I particularly love The Lioness quartet series, 
> starting
> with Alanna.  This is a series about a girl in a fantasy kingdom who 
> wants
> to become a knight.  She is supposed to go into a convent and learn 
> magic,
> because that's what girls do.  Her brother is supposed to become the 
> knight.
> But he wants sorcery and she wants knight hood.  They do a switch, and 
> for
> several years, she disguises herself as a boy, goes through education 
> to
> become a squire and then a knight.  eventually, everyone knows she is a
> girl, but she still becomes a knight and has many glorious adventures 
> as a
> knight.  It's a fun set of books.

The Lioness quartet and the Immortals quartet were some of my childhood 
staples (I didn't have much access to new books -- small town, no 
bookstore, no library -- so I read the ones I had over and over).  Both 
are excellent, solidly written stories, although a good friend of mine 
brought up the point that Daine (of the Immortals quartet) was quite 
Mary Sue-ish, which is probably a fair assessment.

Imagine my horror when I tried to read the Circle of Magic books, which 
were complete trash (IMO).  I sort of gave up on Pierce after the 
second book in that line, although I've heard recently that she has a 
new Tortall quartet going and it's quite good.  I'll probably give it a 
go this summer, as well.

 From the feminism angle (which is *not* how I read books, mind you, 
it's just something I've never been able to help noticing), I really 
thought  the Lioness quartet did a great job of dealing with the 
differences between boys and girls -- and also Alanna's struggle to 
accept her femininity --  without being irritating, preachy, or archaic 
about it.

> I do agree with you statement though.  I've often found women authors 
> stick
> more closely to old biases about women than many male authors.  i hope 
> you
> enjoy Kay and Martin.  they are wonderful fantasies, with characters 
> you end
> up caring about.  Tigana haunted me for a long time, and it is in my 
> top ten
> favorite books of all time.

I look forward to reading them.  ^_^

Laura