Ally is totally my favourite of Tamora Pierce's heroines. I love that she isn't a fighter, but a politician and trickster. I love her manipulative feistiness and that she's trying her best to do what's right, even when she has to do dodgy things to have that happen. ( )

Ally is totally my favourite of Tamora Pierce's heroines. I love that she isn't a fighter, but a politician and trickster. I love her manipulative feistiness and that she's trying her best to do what's right, even when she has to do dodgy things to have that happen. ( )

Aly is kidnapped to the Copper Isles, where she rises above her station as slave with her spy education and the help of a trickster god.

Aly's story is a sequel to the popular trilogy by Pierce centered on Aly's mother. The world inhabited by the series characters is wholly imagined, right down to the geography, and completely believable. Along with the high fantasy of mages and shapeshifters, this novel contains themes of feminism, race equality, and misunderstandings between parents and children. Trickster's Choice would be a wonderful read for middle school girls able to handle violence from swordfighting and some light sexual content. ( )

Fantasy, Science Fiction, the Supernatural & Utopias Book Review

Pierce, Tamora. Trickster’s Choice. 2003. Random House: New York.

Genre:
Fantasy, Science Fiction

Themes:
Magic, Heroes, Tricksters, Family Problems

Age / Grade Appropriateness:
15/ Eighth Grade and above

Awards:
South Carolina Junior Book Award Nominee
ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Censorship Issues:
War, Slavery

Plot Summary:
This novel takes place in the world of Tortall. The novel is about a fifteen year old girl named Aly. Her mom Alanna the Lioness and her father George is the head spy for the entire country. Aly longs to be a spy that works for her father, but her parents refuse to allow her to become a spy. She runs away from home for a few weeks and is captured by some pirates. She is sold into slavery in the Copper Isles. She then makes a deal with the trickster god Kyprioth. Aly is assigned to keep two sisters safe, which are half-Raka and half-Luarin. If Aly can keep the two sisters safe by autumn (through out the summer), then the trickster god will send her home and talk to her father on her behalf about her becoming a spy. Aly manages to keep the sisters safe.

Critique:
This novel fits the bill of a YA book because it is based on a fifteen year old girl. The girl (Aly) is very much like a normal teenager in a much different setting, which would keep many young adults’ attention. I thought this was a great book, but I think it gave away the ending at the beginning of the book. I could pretty much map out what was going to happen before it happened. I think it would have been better if it would have been more suspenseful.

Curriculum Uses:
This novel could be used for entertainment. This great novel is part of a sequel, so you could continue to enjoy these novels. I also thought that it could be used in a Literature or History class to use for discussions. ( )

This book is the first in the Daughter of the Lioness/Tricksters subseries, and is about Aly, who, like the title says, is the daughter of the Lioness (aka Alanna- the first of the Tortall heroines). Unlike most of the other books in the series, this one doesn't involve Tortall much and mostly takes place on a set of islands west of that country, which I found to be a fresh and interesting spin- not that I'm bored of Tortall; I just think it's cool when we get to learn about the surrounding countries.

I found Aly to be just as interesting as her predecessors and I enjoyed her relationships with the other characters. The only flaw I found in her was that she was almost too clever and lucky. (I'm trying to not go into more details than you can get from the back cover or on Amazon or something, so how can I word this...) Granted, a lot of her luck can be based on the fact that a god is helping her out; although that's dubious in itself since it's a trickster god involved. The other main thing that made her so clever and lucky was her vast knowledge of spywork. I know that she was raised to have those skills, but it just seemed like she always knew what to do in any situation. Somewhere along the lines a teenager is bound to mess up, right? Still, though, that flaw wasn't a problem because it didn't really detract from her character; she's still witty, intelligent, and strong. It just kind of made me go "hmm..." after I finished the book and I realized how lucky and skilled she was the whole time.

The other characters in the book are well-rounded and interesting, too. I'll admit that I now have a crush on Nawat, one of the main characters; he's adorably innocent, although there's a reason for that, but I don't want to give it away. Suffice it to say that he's not really *human* per se. He brings a lot of humor into the story (although all this talk about eating bugs was kind of gross, now that I think about it) and is a good counterpart to Aly, and keeps her from being too serious about things. The other character I really liked was Dove, one of the girls in the family where Aly ends up. I have no idea how she is in the next book, but as of now, I'd love to see a series with Dove as the main character. Even as a 12 year old, she's just so smart and level-headed, and just seems like a good candidate for a series heroine.

As for the plot, I enjoyed the change to a different location we didn't previously know much about, and I loved the bits of humor throughout; without that humor, the book wouldn't have been nearly as good because it's a pretty dire situation that Aly is dropped into. I loved all the spying and sneaking stuff Aly is able to do (even if she is really good at it), and I thought the storyline was deep enough to hold your attention, but not so bogged down in politics and race issues that it became boring. I also enjoyed the cameos of previous characters (Kel! Daine! Numair! Hi, guys!).

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I'm not sure if it's my favorite in the series (I think I prefer Daine or Kel to Aly), but it's definitely a good continuation to the super good Tortall series. I certainly wasn't disappointed by this book; I think it's just about as good as the rest. :) I'll give this 4 1/2 stars out of 5. ( )