Lioness Rampant (Song the Lioness #4) (original 1988; edition 1990)

I've read this multiple times, but I just finished listening to the audio as read by Trini Alvarado. Alvarado did a fine job for the most part, but there were some pronunciations that seemed off - I don't think I had ever heard swathed pronounced with a long "a" even though the dictionary lists is as a variant pronunciation. However, the ending still made me cry (which was probably not the safest driving situation ever) despite knowing ahead of time what was going to happen. ( )

This, I think, was the best book of them all.

Pierce really hit her stride with the storytelling, and kept things moving. Love was lost, and found. Friendships were made.

And I cried a little when Faithful died. Poor Faithful!

Sometime in the near future, I will be moving on to the next quartet in the universe, though I have many more books to read between now and then. ( )

Lioness Rampant is the last in the Song of the Lioness series. Alanna is now the first Woman Knight in hundreds of years. She travels to the Roof of the World to retrive the Dominion Jewel. This will prove that she is a worthy knight and help Jonathan. Jonathan makes her his Champion when she comes home. She and others expect soomething to go at his Coranation and are right. Roger, brought back from the dead by her brother, and other are planning an attack on the King. She defeates Roger and Jonathan uses the Jewel to save the Place but her brother, Liam and her companion Faithful die. George retires from crime and they get married.
I loved this book like all of her others. Although she could have the end where her and George decide to get married more creative. After him, Liam, and Jonathan all wanting to marry her it should have been more interesting. Although other than that is was wonderful. I wish there where more than four books. It's always sad to finish a good book. I am glad that Jonathan and Thayet are going to get married though, then Alanna wouln't feel bad about not marring him. Tamora Pierce write truly amazing books.

This is the conclusion to the Song of the Lioness quartet and should only be read after reading the first three novels since this is most definitely not self-contained. The first half of the book is classic high fantasy--a quest. Alanna goes to find the Dominion Jewel and that section of the book delivers on plenty of girl power action adventure to satisfy the teenager in all of us.

The second half deals with the second coming of Duke Roger, and I feel a bit mixed on that. For one, I didn't get when I read this why Thom was so tied to Roger. A friend told me that originally, Roger and Thom were lovers, but that part got cut when Pierce went the YA route. That makes sense of a lot I felt wasn't developed here--but really, if it's not in the text, it doesn't count. I also feel a bit mixed about Alanna's romantic relationships. On one hand, I rather like this isn't all one true love. That it is messy the way life often is, and doesn't favor the idea you should necessarily wind up with a first love--or that there should be a one and only from the start. On the other hand, I felt it left what became the main relationship feeling underdeveloped.

I think Pierce became a better writing over time. For me her best lady knight isn't Alanna but her successor Keladry and I prefer George's daughter Alianne and his ancestress Becca to Alanna. But this is still fun sword and sorcery featuring a kickass heroine. ( )

It's amazing; almost 2 decades after my first reading of "Lioness Rampant," I still find it thrilling and adrenaline-pumping. Alanna the Lioness grows up in this book, for while she already has her shield, she has struggled to find her place in her realm, and in the lives of the people she loves.
The arc of the quartet comes to fruition tightly and brilliantly in this book. Alanna follows the pull of her destiny to cement her reputation as a true knight-errant, silencing those who doubted the validity of her shield. The quest on which she explicably finds herself proves to be more important than she could have ever known, as the threat to the kingdom thought long dead and buried rears back to the surface just as her prince must assume the throne. The characters introduced in "Lioness Rampant" are just as fully developed as the old familiar faces from Alanna's younger years. Thayet, in particular, is very well drawn as a refugee noble from a land torn by civil war. Pierce's characterizations pull the story together almost tangibly as the people whose lives are at stake fight to make things turn out right.
As always, however, Alanna is the living, breathing, pulsing heart of the story. She is still vividly realized and just as fiery and stubborn as ever, even if maturity has come to her at last. ( )