Customer Reviews

Trickster's Choice

5 star:		(83)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the best book Tamora Pierce has written. I love all her other heroines, but Aly is by far the most interesting.

Personally, I enjoyed the book. However, be forewarned that it ends with a bit of a cliffy and you'll be screaming for certain truths to be reveiled by the end of the book. All I have to say is that Tamora Pierce better hurry up with that sequel everyone will want to have pretty quickly!

I have read all of the Tamora Pierce books, and many of them more than once. I love the characters, the action, the intrigue, and the growth of each character. I loved all of the characters in Trickster's Choice. Aly, was very different than any of the other heroines. She also grew as a person, but it was a little annoying because she was a bit perfect by the end of the book. Although I thought that the characters were developed well in Trickster's Choice, I felt that the book was lacking in action. There was defiantly a climax, but that was basically the only conflict, other than one other episode. The rest of the 400pg novel was getting ready for these conflicts, and they seemed to be doing basically the same thing in each chapter. Though I won't complain too much, because I devoured it like a ravenous wolf. I enjoyed reading, but like I said not as much as her other novels.

I've loved Tamora Pierce's books about Alanna, the Lady Knight of Tortall for nearly fifteen years, ever since I picked up her first book, "Alanna: The First Adventure" as a sixth grader. Featuring Aly, Alanna's daughter, "Trickster's Choice" is a wonderful addition to the world that first captured my imagination, full of the delightful details and careful plotting that Tamora Pierce is so skilled at. I loved getting to know Aly and her careful, crafty character as she makes her through the dangerous and unfamiliar land of the Copper Isles, Tortall's unstable neighbor. Aly's adventures introduce a host of interesting new characters, as well as catch the reader up with many beloved characters from Tamora Pierce's other books. I enjoyed "Trickster's Choice," and I can hardly wait for its sequel.

It was an absolutley wonderful book. I have read all of the Tamora Pierce books and think that this is one of the best so far. Other girls or women who love heroines and adventure along with a little magic thrown in will love it

Don't get me wrong- I love Tamora Pierce, and I have read her books about Daine, Keladry, and Alanna countless times. However, this book was a let down.

The book centers around Ali, the daughter of Alanna and George. Ali has lived a rather sheltered and protected life until she is kidnapped by pirates and taken to the Emerald Isle where she if sold as a slave.
As if this isn't enought trouble, Ali's masters are forced to go into exhile, and take her along as a God tells them that Ali will help them. Togethor, Ali and her masters move to a crude castle in the middle of the jungle where they are forced to fight off assasins, and make peace with the minorities. Ali becomes a trusted companion to her masters, and helps save them multiple times. As this book is part of a two-book series, not much of the conflict is resolved by the end of the book.

Things I disliked:
1- Ali is a Mary Sue (a female character who is perfect). She is good at everything she undertakes, and really has no failings. This makes her a boring character. It is the flaws that can make a character interesting.
2- Nawat, so it seems, is going to be Ali's love interest. This would be fine, except for the fact that Nawat is a crow-turned man and retains his bird brain in human form. So, about every sentence out of his mouth is "Let's have nestlings and mob them!" In short, he is Tamora Pierce's equivolent to Jar Jar Binks. There really can be no salvaging of this character.

Things I liked
1- This books focuses on politics, instead of the usual action. Pierce claimed that she tried to model a lot of the court and politics on Tudor England, and you can tell. Because the emphasis of this book was on politics, it made the story more complicated (in a good way), and it added a new level of intrigue.
2- The time before Nawat came. This book was fairly decent in the begining. Ali's Mary Sue tendencies hadn't really appeared yet and the evil Nawat hadn't entered the scene.

In short, this was an OK book, and I probably would have given it a four, if Nawat hadn't showed up. If you've never read a Tamora Pierce book anymore and you figure you might as well read her latest first, I would strongly urge you not to. Pierce is a great author with a lot of talent, as can be exemplified in her earlier series (particularly The Immortals quartet).