#The song of the lioness

[rikashmoonsword]

How do i find Tortall fans I know they exist i just don't know Where

[bunabi]

Hey I can finally share these: some behind-the-scenes work for the Tamora Pierce x Dual Wield Studio Anniversary Collection!

You can find my final page overlay in the second wave of the rollout! Supplies are limited (the shirt I designed sold out before I could even tell my family it was there lol) so check it out!

[wutheringmights]

After I finished reading The Epic of Gilgamesh today, I entered a fugue state where I sat down and read the entirety of Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce.

On the record, I have had a lifelong love and adoration for Pierce's Tortall books. I first read the Song of the Lioness quartet when I was 11, and they rewrote my brain. I love them so much. I reread them and the other Tortall books on a semi-frequent schedule.

It's been a while since I reread any of the Alanna books, if only because my sister took our shared copies when she moved out. I've been meaning to buy my own set for a long while now but haven't been able to justify the purchase. The other week, I just so happened to find the first two volumes at my local indie bookstore. I bought them immediately, as well as ordered the third and fourth book. (And discovered that the store owner knows me by name-- when I went to pick up my order, she saw me and said, Hi Frankie! I got your books over here.) (I may be spending too much money there.)

So I have been in a bit of an emotional rut these past few weeks. Work sucks. Life stinks. The temptation to run off to Tortall and curl up in the fantasy story that captivated me as a kid has never been stronger.

Ergo, I ran off to read the first book as soon as I could.

If you're looking for any critique of this book, series, or Tortall in general, I will never give it. Sure, it's problematic and dated, and in many ways imperfect, but someone else can list out all of its issues. They're all perfect to me.

Anyway, the book. I should say something about this book in particular.

One thing I appreciate about Pierce's writing is how she handles school settings in fantasy. Learning and training is so mundane. All of her heroines have to work hard and put in extra hours of study in order to improve, much less keep up with their peers. It's so normal that it circles around to being weirdly refreshing.

Also, there is still no other fantasy author who handles period talk and birth control the way Pierce does. We make fun of the trope of fantasy birth control nowadays, but I rarely see it presented as it is here: as a part of normal puberty lessons and given long before sex is in the girl's radar. And even today with the glut of YA fantasy stories out there, I still have yet to see menstruation be portrayed as frequently or as bluntly as Pierce writes it.

There was a period of time publishers really tried to push the Tortall books as straight YA, which doesn't work for that reason alone. You gotta market them to middle schoolers. They're the ones just starting puberty talks, and getting scenes like this is so good for their brains.

Moving on: I fucking love these characters. Alanna was an icon of brash, temperamental heroines that have shaped my taste to this day. I love how even in the first book, Jon is kinda shitty. I adore George Cooper. Talk about a taste maker the way this man sets a standard.

I just can't be coherent when it comes to any Tortall books. I have no thoughts. Head empty. I am going to binge the rest of this series as quickly as I can before my library book comes in. Then normal book content will resume.

Before I go, I need to talk about the book covers.

Growing up, my sister and I had these covers:

Which, god. I love them. The black is striking. The art is incredible. Alanna looks so good. They were the perfect pocket-size too. I was going to buy the same edition for my copies, but instead I got the 40th anniversary reprints:

Not bad at all! These books have had some seriously bad covers, and these look great! Very anime, which will appeal to the 11 year olds who need to have their socks rocked by this series.

But, man. I really miss those black covers. One day I will splurge and buy a second set of them just so that I can stare at the art.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Quartet That Started It All

As followers of this blog will note, this is not actually the quartet that started it all for me, but it DID launch author Tamora Pierce's career in the 1980s, and Alanna remains absolutely beloved among Pierce's heroines. Let's talk the Song of the Lioness Quartet.

In a classic case of "if I can't do this as a girl, then I'll do this as a boy and I have a handy twin brother to go full Twelfth Night with," Alanna of Trebond begins The First Adventure by dressing as a boy to train as a page in Tortall's royal court. This book introduces all our main characters and establishes Alan the page amongst his peers and Alanna as she finds herself and her place in chivalry.

One of the other amazing things about Alanna's story overall is that she begins it absolutely terrified of her own magical gift. Her arc includes learning to work with her magic rather than to fear it, and that's a twist on magic users that I really appreciated. We often get overly confident magic users--indeed, we'll get TWO of them later in the series--but it's rare that we get magic users who are fully aware of their powers and are still absolutely terrified of them. So of course, the story and the world and Pierce herself keep throwing Alanna into situations where she has no choice but to develop and use her gift. It's so, so good. This first book covers Alanna's page years, and we move into her squire years in book two.

In the Hand of the Goddess really expands on Alanna's key relationship with Prince Jon on Conte, Duke Roger of Conte, and Geroge Cooper. Alanna moves into a wider world of adult politics and stakes in this book. From being able to defeat an older, stronger, and more experienced opponent in a duel to developing her healing skills when a wound puts her out of commission during a war, Alanna cements her skills, connections, and position in society. This culminates with unmasking Roger as an attempting regicide and the accidental reveal of her gender.

This book is really, really good, and extends Alanna's childhood fear of magic to her fear of Roger specifically in a really natural, logical way. I could say more about the details, but these two books have an episodic vibe to them, so I won't spend too much time exploring every single key plot event.

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man sees Alanna spending her first year as a knight in the desert, with a Bazhir tribe. She becomes their shaman by way of self-defense; she murders their first shaman when he tries to murder her for "being unnatural." Then it falls to Alanna to train three magic users for the tribe, and this is where we see more nuance into how different magic users relate to their powers, from sheer hubris to fear to "this is just part of me, let's do this." It's a phenomenal experience for Alanna, and she learns as much from her students as they do

Book three also sees Jonathan bitching to hell and back about having to be king, which is not a great look, and it's one Alanna calls him on. He spends most of the book alternating between pitching a hissy fit, begging Alanna to marry him, and training to take over as Voice of the Tribes. The interesting thing here is that Alanna refuses to marry Jon. He is trying to fit Alanna into his own fairy tale, and she very much goes "That isn't our relationship, I can't do that. We aren't meant to be like that, and that's ok." If I could inject that lesson into humanity's collective head, I would. It's well done and it's great.

Lioness Rampant picks up on Alanna's travels after she leaves the Bazhir, and eventually sees her return to Corus with a magical artifact to help secure Jonathan's position as king.

There's also the teeny tiny complication that Alanna's twin brother, Thom, has resurrected Duke Roger. Absolute chaos ensues, and Roger almost manages to take out the entire court during Jonathan's coronation. Nobody should have to kill an evil sorceror twice, but Alanna did.

If you want to dive into Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe, starting with Alanna is absolutely a good choice. These books hold a very soft spot in my heart, and they're never not engaging.

[chaoskiro]

Two minor moments I really enjoy in the Alanna series:

The important one:

In The First Adventure when Alanna's friends tease her for not bathing and she gets sick of it and tells them off. And then they apologise even though it was just in good fun, because it hurt her. Honestly a very valuable lesson to teach children that they're allowed to tell their friends to stop doing something that hurts them, even when it isn't meant to do so.

The funny one:

In the final book when Alanna gleefully ships Thayet and Jon. She is literally going "Oh my gods my ex is gonna fall so hard for this chick, he doesn't even know it's coming, but he will NOT be able to look away and she will NOT be taking any of his shit. I will get him so good."

It's just so funny to see the transition from "Fuck this guy he hurt me so much and I don't even want to THINK about him" to "Fuck this guy I have found the perfect wife for him, and they WILL marry, and he WILL learn to behave"

[starfish-enterprise]

Reasons I think Alanna the Lioness is is autistic:

since realizing I'm autistic, the more I think about it the more Alanna seems autistic to me. the only books I've listened to recently are Tortall books by going through them all then going back to the first one and listening to them all again (Immortals quartet, the Bekka Cooper books, the Song of the Lioness, Protector of the Small quartet, the trickster books, then Tempests and Slaughter.) going through them again and again I notice more things that I didn't when I was a kid (obviously,) and I'm more aware of the signs of autism since realizing I'm autistic. anyway here are my reasons:

is a girl and wants to be a knight, then actually does become a knight which goes against the societal norms of the time

becomes friends with George, and many others in the court of the rogue, who are in a different social class. she does start out believing nobles shouldn't marry commoners but she gets over that. two of her three romantic relationships are with commoners

she also becomes friends with the soldiers she and John are stationed with when they're fighting in the Drell river valley, and she eats with them instead of going to the fort to eat with the other nobles. she thinks it's silly for them to travel so far when it's more convenient to just eat in camp, which illustrates her disregard of social hierarchies. she is also open to learning from people considered to be "below" her

Alanna fights Ralon of Malven over and over even though she keeps losing, which could indicate she has really strong moral beliefs. she also talks a lot about how she hates lying to her friends

she is described as different from her friends, after yelling at them about how she doesn't want to go swimming, Garry (I think) says "you seem to think we won't like you if you don't do what everyone else does, but did you ever think we like you because you're different?" (not an exact quote but basically

most of Alanna's friends are older than her, in The First Adventure when John asks if she can come to Persopolis, the book says she's thought of as more of "a very small squire" than as a page. autistic people often relate better to people who are older or younger than them than to their peers

throughout the series Alanna is distressed by changes in her body like developing breasts and says multiple times she wishes she were born a boy. this is in direct contrast to Kel who states on several occasions she likes being a girl. this could be because she has to pretend to be a boy, but autistics are more likely to be trans or gender nonconforming

she is described as being very uncomfortable at parties and in social settings

autism is highly heritable (1) her father has several autistic traits. he is very focused on his academic pursuits to the point that he neglects everything else, he doesn't have any friends and doesn't seem interested in any kind of social interaction, he has the fixed rigid belief that all magic is bad because it couldn't save the twins' mother. according to Sir Gareth he had been that way since he was a child. (2) Tom seems to share a lot of these traits with his father. he is also very focused on his studies although he is studying magic, he leaves the management of Trebond to Alanna because he is not interested in it just being a mage, he also seems to have no interest in having friends or being social. according to an NIH study that came up when I googled it if one twin is autistic the other is also autistic 96% of the time

Alanna has to very consciously learn the social expectations and rules for being a boy and being a girl

Alanna goes to Miles for advice a lot, in one of the books it literally says she talks to him so he can explain why people act the way they do and for him to explain their motivations

she is known for her temper and saying what's on her mind very bluntly

she has a talking cat who's basically her best friend if that isn't autistic coded idk what is

there are probably more things I can't think of right now so I might add more later who knows. I also wrote most of this post before and it randomly deleted itself so I'm not sure if I remembered all of my points from before unfortunately.

[hubristicassholefight]

Swordswoman Showdown Round 1 Part 2

Alanna of Trebond (The Song of the Lioness) vs Mu Nihuang (Nirvana in Fire/Langya Bang)

(Better here in a "preferred character" sense, not "who would win in a fight")

Propaganda below cut

Alanna of Trebond

Literal lady knight, has never lost a duel as King's Champion

Disguised herself as a boy to train as a knight and learn the sword. Practices with a giant sword to increase inductance. Finds (is found by?) a special magic sword. One of the best swords people in her country.

She was the first lady knight in Tortall in centuries and paved the way for other lady knights like Kel. She's also a shortstack hero who regularly kicks butt. Won several sword fighting tournaments against her male peers while disguised as a man.

Can't stand the idea of getting sent to a convent, so she switches places with her twin brother and disguises her gender to go off and become Tortall's first lady knight. Engages in much sword-wielding badassery, not just through inherent talent but through working twice as hard as the boys who skate by on their size and comparitive strength. In later Tamora Pierce books she shows up again as a mother, but even having kids doesn't stop her from going off and doing more heroic sword-swinging. H*ck yeah.

She’s her realm’s first Lady Knight in centuries and a genuine hero. She disguised herself as a man to earn her shield. She was the King’s Champion for decades; One of the first major women heros in YA fantasy, from the 1980! According to the author, if Alanna had the words for it, she would be gender fluid

disguised herself as a boy entirely to learn swords and become a knight, becomes the first lady knight in her country in centuries; Alanna is so iconic that decades of queer fans have seen themselves in her and any author signing is accompanied by a mob of sobbing millennials over how much finally meeting and thanking the author for writing Alanna meant to them

Mu Nihuang

She's introduced to the narrative riding to the gates of the capital at the head of a caravan. She sees two characters we've just spent a couple of scenes getting to know, grins with delight, draws her sword, jumps off her horse and engages them in a two-versus-one duel, handily defeating them after a short exchange of blows and promptly complimenting them that they've obviously been practicing, because she would have won much faster last time. She's the most eligible bachelorette at the Imperial Court due to her control of a personal army of several hundred loyal soldiers. She's a respected general, whose favoured tactic is to personally lead a cavalry unit to outflank the enemy on a daring raid to kill their general, at which point the superior discipline of her troops will win the day; I'd love to say more about the quiet tragedy of her deep love for Lin Shu and the way she circles around Mei Changsu for most of the story, full of love and respect and pain from past loss, but if I get into it I'll have to do the fandom's traditional ritual: lie down on the floor, try not to cry, and cry a lot.

She arrives on screen to duel two competent swordsmen to a standstill (while her former (current? unclear) fiancé pines piningly from a distance). She's highly ranked on the in-universe BuzzFeed listicle of Swordspeople Who Will Kick Your Ass. When she's manouvered into being the prize in a martial arts contest for her hand, she stipulates that the winner has to defeat her to truly win, which is generally recognised as Not Going To Happen; She's also extremely proficient with a polearm on horseback, being the Gandalf-at-Helm's-Deep to everyone else's Everyone-Else-at-Helm's-Deep in a climactice battle. Also, she is just. So very ready to overthrow the emperor. (He deserves it.)

[muchadorks]

Coram Smythesson might have approved of Liam Ironarm, but I don't 😤

[ms-remington]

The Song Of The Lioness!l

I'm so excited to start reading! I got the English version for my little sister, so we're planning on reading at the same time,.so I'm gonna have to wait a bit to read this version

Best Images of Book 1

Best images of book 2

Best Images of Book 3

best Images of Book 4

[peiapixie]

Song of the Lioness

About two years ago i read the song of the lioness by tamora pierce and it really took me back to my childhood where i spent my summer holidays in my aunt's cottage. As a child I always imagined myself as a knight who would one day rule the world instead of me being saved. I always stood on the white sand towers of the beach and fought with my infallible sword.

I spent most of my summer reading the four books and then recreating the scenes from the book that I liked best. But all books end and when this one ended I felt that Alanna had become one of my best friends, despite her impatience and pride. Throughout the time afterwards I hoped more and more that a film would come out but I hoped in vain.

this book is full of battles, magic and fantasy for the best reader. and if you have a slightly too long summer holiday without knowing what to do, you must read it.

[black-cat-showdown]

Black Cat Showdown Round 2

[beartrice-inn-unnir]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Tortall - Tamora Pierce, PIERCE Tamora - Works Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Baird of Queenscove/Wilina of Queenscove Characters: Wilina of Queenscove, Baird of Queenscove, Roanna of Naxen, Myles of Olau, Gareth I of Naxen, Roger of Conté, Lianne I of Conté, Roald V of Conté, Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau, Jonathan of Conté, Gary of Naxen Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Missing Scene, reasonable adults and angry mages contemplate the tusaine war, bureaucracy and paperwork Series: Part 10 of rampant Summary:

Somehow, whenever she thinks about war and politics and magic and Tortall, it always seems to come back to Roger. Well-traveled, cosmopolitan, master mage of abstruse and astonishingly varied interests, head of the Council of Mages, second heir to the throne—and now, unexpectedly, commanding the Tortallan forces in the Drell Valley.

or, the sensible adults and angry mages think about the Tusaine War.

[anxi0us-0p0ssum]

I wanted to be Alanna of Trebond.

[teachingmycattoread]

New episode is up! Alternative titles include "There's A Girl! Loose In The Knight School!" and "While You Were Busy Being Cisgender I Studied The Blade"

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