The Oracle's Queen

Even being read far, far, far after I read Bone Doll's Twin and [b:Hidden Warrior|74274|Hidden Warrior (Tamir Trilogy, Book 2)|Lynn Flewelling|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170850396s/74274.jpg|2492], Oracle's Queen managed to pull me back into this universe so swiftly and amazingly, I was gripped into reading it in less than a day.

The lead up and the war are written in such harrowing yet compassionate stead that I spent the last eighty pages of this book having to read through being teary-eyed or in tears. The conclusion to this trilogy very much so befits the story it has told all along, and I'm glad to see this trilogy, in complete, will still sit on my second favorites of fantasy shelf.

Third and final entry in the Tamir Trilogy, in which Princess Tamir (once Prince Tobin, Tamir being revealed in the previous book when a mystical fire burns away her male body, a shell and illusion held in place by magic) takes her place as the leader of Skala from the prophesy--or she will as soon as she can thrust her cousin Korin and his evil wizard Niryn from the usurper's role. Gathering her army and supporters, Tamir begins without much confidence, but grows in assurance as the leader of her country each day. Her personal life is a shambles, of course, what with the big adjustment to her new gender ('there's an empty spot in my breeches!' LOL) and her feelings for Ki, her squire plus her worries over Korin, believing him to be a show more victim of Niryn's dark wizardry and manipulation . The ending to this was fairly predictable, but I really enjoy Flewelling's writing style and her characterizations, and this was certainly among the most unique series I've read in recent years with its strange premise and storyline. Will be checking out other series by this author for certain! show less

The Tamir Trilogy is truly a `proper' trilogy - that is, a single story, broken up into three volumes, as opposed to a series of self-contained, interconnected books. Book 3 (The Oracle's Queen) brings all the threads together for a triumphant conclusion. War comes to the kingdom, forcing an end to the awkward stasis that has plagued the land. When the King is slain, Prince Korin must take the throne, having already proven himself a poor choice to lead the land in battle. In order to save the realm from Korin's failings (and the greater failings of his court wizard), Tobin must reveal herself to the world and declare herself Queen Tamir. Even though we, as readers, know it's coming - it's inevitable, in fact - the dissolution of the show more magic, revealing Tobin as Tamir, is absolutely breathtaking. It's bold, it's beautiful, and (for the sake of regal legitimacy) it's very much public. This is an act that needs to be witnessed, and witnessed it is! If her coming out doesn't leave you in tears, then you have my condolences for your absent heart. Sadly, this magical moment does not mark an end to Tamir's suffering. If anything, it adds to it. Many across the kingdom refuse to believe it, either accusing her (ironically) of being a boy in drag, or simply distrusting the magic used to disguise her for so many years. I have no idea whether Flewelling has any transgender friends, or whether she intended to so accurately mirror the experience of a modern day transsexual, but she does a magnificent job. show less

The story begins (two books earlier) with a kingdom where the god has decreed that rule must be held by a queen of the blood. He meant it; the few times a man has usurped the throne there have been plagues, famines, and other signs of deific displeasure. However, the last queen was completely mad, and her son wound up with the crown as his sister was too young to rule... and then it turned out the sister had inherited a bit of the mother's mad streak... The king was a good ruler, and beloved despite the plague and invasion and bad harvests (he was better than his mother had been), and, well, female offshoots of the blood just sort of started disappearing. It was a definite pattern of elimination, though no one dared voice the show more observation (there was a wizard at work there), and finally the god gave a vision to a wizard of more loyalty to the land: the king's sister was pregnant, and would have twins, a girl and a boy. The only way to restore the throne to a queen would be to make it appear that nature did the king's work: that the girl was stillborn. In reality the task that was set before them was terrible: the boy, perfectly healthy, must die, and the girl must take on his appearance until the time she might take the crown.

Naturally, nothing goes smoothly - there is an interruption just as the boy is born, and the witch midwife does not smother him quickly enough - he has time to draw a first breath, which in this world is all that is needed to create a demon/ghost. And boy does it...

The trilogy follows the life of the "boy", who is until puberty totally ignorant of his true birth, as is everyone else in the world but the parents, two wizards, the midwife, and the wetnurse. The revelation, the transformation, the battle for the kingdom - that's the trilogy, and I loved every word. With some books I skim because I'm bored; with these there were places I galumphed through the pages and missed chunks just because I wanted to know what happened next. These books were nearly perfect. show less

A worthy final book in the trilogy. Every now and then I felt for a short moment like I had ended up in an old-fashioned rather standard fantasy world, but it never lasted long for Tamir's transformation and its consequences to take first place again. This is what makes these books interesting.

Well. There was a very long lag between my reading book two and book three. I don't recall the early books being so YA. This one is, kinda... well... the content is a bit mature, but the characters are YA in how they act/react. And I don't really enjoy immature "romance"... but I lean toward much darker stuff so...

Well, crap. I accidentally deleted my review, which was blessedly short ('blessedly short,' in the context of my usual reviews and comments, meaning 'a paragraph or so'). Basically, I loved this trilogy. It's not the best I've read, but I'd place it somewhere among my favorites. This third and final book brought it to a bittersweet but satisfying conclusion. I worried, about halfway through the book, that the ending would be rushed, compressed to fit into the remaining pages--I even wondered, briefly, whether there was a fourth book that I'd overlooked. But that was just everything building up to the conclusion, and so it all came together nicely without feeling forced.

One thing I feel was done particularly well was the relationship show more between Ki and Tobin/Tamir. It evolved in a believable, realistic (if 'realistic' can be used, in light of events) way; and if it was lacking in some way, this was still handled far better than in many other stories. The characters were memorable--good, since I have trouble enough keeping track of secondary characters, even interesting ones--and their interactions kept my attention as much as the actual events.

So, looks like I managed to regenerate my previous, tragically lost review. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything. show less