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Having been promoted from "Puppy" to "Dog," Beka, now a full-fledged member of the Provost's Guard, and her former partner head to a neighboring port city to investigate a case of counterfeit coins.Tags
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magelet87 Not only do both have fantasy elements, they are written by authors who are wonderful and brilliant. They write strong female characters who are kick-@ss; who dont need saving. They do a most of the saving, in fact. Also, both books are GLBT inclusive. Magic, wonderful creatures, strong, independent young women who dont accept the hand they are dealt in life, so they set about to change their place in the world. In fact, this description can work for any book by either author.
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Summary: The second book in the Beka Cooper series. This time Beka has graduated from being a trainee police officer (a “Puppy”) into a full fledged “Dog.” New ranks mean new responsibilities, and soon Beka and her fellow Dogs face a counterfeiting ring that requires them to go undercover.
Review: I am hugely fond of Pierce’s Beka Cooper series. I like all her books but the Beka Cooper series has a special place in my affections because it’s not about magic or grandeur or aristocracy. It’s about a girl on the gritty streets, a girl who uses her fists, who uses her brains, and who gets dirty. The tight intrigue in Pierce’s latest works (I’m thinking of this series and the Trickster series) appeals to me. As usual, Beka show more is a great narrator, endearing me to her even through diary format, which is a format I’m not normally crazy about. I’m still not sure if the diary format is the best one for this book, but it didn’t bother me and it got the job done.
It was fun to see Beka leave Corus and go undercover. It forced Beka out of her comfort zone and introduced new characters and romantic interests. Her fling with Dale, while it didn’t thrill me because I never liked Dale that much, was a good stepping stone nonetheless. It was a little disappointing that we got to see so little of Corus characters like Rosto and Tunstall and Ahuda, but that’s what the next book is for. Also, there is a new animal character in this book: Achoo the scent hound. I liked Achoo but I can’t help but wonder if the animal companion thing is getting a little ridiculous. Then again I’m not an animal person, so maybe I’m just biased.
But the best part has to be when I realized that one of the major characters is gay and is lovers with a transvestite. Only in a Tamora Pierce novel. I love it, I love it, I love it, because Pierce always manages to bring genuine diversity to her cast, which is why her books keep me salivating even seven years after I first picked one up.
Conclusion: Another rollicking ride with Pierce’s trademark strengths. A little heavy on the animals and some characters don’t appear as often as I would like, but if it has a transvestite I’m satisfied. show less
Review: I am hugely fond of Pierce’s Beka Cooper series. I like all her books but the Beka Cooper series has a special place in my affections because it’s not about magic or grandeur or aristocracy. It’s about a girl on the gritty streets, a girl who uses her fists, who uses her brains, and who gets dirty. The tight intrigue in Pierce’s latest works (I’m thinking of this series and the Trickster series) appeals to me. As usual, Beka show more is a great narrator, endearing me to her even through diary format, which is a format I’m not normally crazy about. I’m still not sure if the diary format is the best one for this book, but it didn’t bother me and it got the job done.
It was fun to see Beka leave Corus and go undercover. It forced Beka out of her comfort zone and introduced new characters and romantic interests. Her fling with Dale, while it didn’t thrill me because I never liked Dale that much, was a good stepping stone nonetheless. It was a little disappointing that we got to see so little of Corus characters like Rosto and Tunstall and Ahuda, but that’s what the next book is for. Also, there is a new animal character in this book: Achoo the scent hound. I liked Achoo but I can’t help but wonder if the animal companion thing is getting a little ridiculous. Then again I’m not an animal person, so maybe I’m just biased.
But the best part has to be when I realized that one of the major characters is gay and is lovers with a transvestite. Only in a Tamora Pierce novel. I love it, I love it, I love it, because Pierce always manages to bring genuine diversity to her cast, which is why her books keep me salivating even seven years after I first picked one up.
Conclusion: Another rollicking ride with Pierce’s trademark strengths. A little heavy on the animals and some characters don’t appear as often as I would like, but if it has a transvestite I’m satisfied. show less
Beka has survived her Puppy year and is now a full-fledged Dog, but her vehement passion for chasing down every criminal that comes in her path has made it difficult to hang on to a partner. However, she has managed to acquire Achoo, a scent hound. When signs of colemongering (counterfeiting) arise in the city, Beka and Goodwin are sent to another city up the coast to investigate. What they quickly discover is that the colemongering operation is far worse than even they could imagine.
An excellent second entry in the series, I continued to enjoy Beka's adventures. With a fantastic mix of fantasy and mystery, the novel moves along at a steady pace. In moving the central character from her home city to another city gives the opportunity of show more encountering a diverse cast of new characters who are all intriguing. It also gives Beka the chance to grow as a character, not only in her career but as a person. The novel also does a great job of setting up the political implications of the central mystery and not just focusing on the counterfeiting itself. I really look forward to finding out how the arc resolves itself in the third novel. show less
An excellent second entry in the series, I continued to enjoy Beka's adventures. With a fantastic mix of fantasy and mystery, the novel moves along at a steady pace. In moving the central character from her home city to another city gives the opportunity of show more encountering a diverse cast of new characters who are all intriguing. It also gives Beka the chance to grow as a character, not only in her career but as a person. The novel also does a great job of setting up the political implications of the central mystery and not just focusing on the counterfeiting itself. I really look forward to finding out how the arc resolves itself in the third novel. show less
Love this book. It's just as rich as Terrier. I was amused by the excuse the author used to make Beka start writing her journal again after a gap - sergeant's order to get her reports back to the quality they used to have when she was a Puppy! I was fascinated by the different reactions to the false coins. It was interesting seeing how a different city handled Dogs and Rogues - it would have been more interesting if both weren't so clearly dysfunctional. The Rogue reminded me of the one who tried to take over from George in the Alanna books - but watching her being handled more-or-less by Dogs was great. And Beka still jumps first and thinks later - fetch, Puppy! The thing I like best about Pierce's books is the total immersion her show more writing allows. It feels like I'm really there, or at least hearing the story from someone who was there. Complete suspension of disbelief. All of hers are like that, but I find Beka Cooper even stronger - possibly because I can admire knights and warriors and mages, but I can imagine being a cop. Even one with magic to help. Pierce says in her afterword that she was worried counterfeiting wouldn't be a strong enough crime. Admittedly, the first book had kidnapping and multiple murders as the primary crimes - but the counterfeiting is not a gentle, hands-off crime either. And much more than the first book, it leads to others compounding the crime - passing back false coin, hiding it, charging 'fines' to those who try to pay with false coin...There are also discussions of the long-term effects of counterfeiting, especially the way this one's being done. They seriously consider whether it might be enemy agents trying to disrupt the kingdom to weaken it for an attack. No, I don't think counterfeiting is a minor matter... Excellent book. I hope the next one doesn't take as long as this to come out (I believe there's a next one!). Beka's got an interesting career ahead of her. And I want to see Goodwin in her new spot, and lots more. show less
Beka Cooper is becoming one of my favorite Pierce heroines. She works hard, she knows what she wants, and she's shy! It can be difficult to portray shy heroines as tough or effective, but Pierce handles the task with ease. In "Bloodhound," Beka has become a full-fledged Dog after surviving her year as a trainee, but she is having trouble keeping a partner. Her intensity and drive for her work scare off the other Dogs she's partnered with.
However, when counterfeit silver coins start popping up in alarming frequency, she and one of her old training partners are sent to another city outside the capital to track the counterfeit coins to their source. If they aren't able to find and stop those responsible, the country's currency will lose show more all its value and the economic system will collapse.
The descriptions of detective and police work here are thorough and clearly come from a lot of research. Once again the stakes are high; as fake coins flood the market, the price of food climbs and the common people, those Beka feels bound to protect, will begin to starve.
It's a pleasure to read Pierce when she's at the top of her game, with this strong heroine and her rich palette of friends and foes (and all the ambiguous characters in between). If you have not read this series from Tortall's history, read "Terrier" first and then pick up "Bloodhound." I highly recommend it. show less
However, when counterfeit silver coins start popping up in alarming frequency, she and one of her old training partners are sent to another city outside the capital to track the counterfeit coins to their source. If they aren't able to find and stop those responsible, the country's currency will lose show more all its value and the economic system will collapse.
The descriptions of detective and police work here are thorough and clearly come from a lot of research. Once again the stakes are high; as fake coins flood the market, the price of food climbs and the common people, those Beka feels bound to protect, will begin to starve.
It's a pleasure to read Pierce when she's at the top of her game, with this strong heroine and her rich palette of friends and foes (and all the ambiguous characters in between). If you have not read this series from Tortall's history, read "Terrier" first and then pick up "Bloodhound." I highly recommend it. show less
[Review of Audio version, read by Susan Denaker.:]
I was very impressed by Denaker's ability as she completely embraced Pierce's unique use of language. Young Adult writers in the business of creating fantasy worlds often create their own dialects and style after the example of Tolkien (though usually not to that technical, linguistic extent). Pierce is very grounded in her world, and though this book occurs earlier in the timeline than previously published books, Beka's world is of the "Lower City" or poorer neighborhoods, and her characters have dialects depending on their city and economic position. Denaker does a fantastic job making all of these sound unique and credible.
I was surprised to see Pierce address several modern moral show more questions in her novels, despite their unmistakably medieval setting. Torture (even water-boarding, specifically described in both use and effects), capital punishment, bribery, inflation and economic environments are painstakingly addressed by the rock-steady Beka in her strange colloquialisms ("rats" are criminals, "kennels" are prisons, "gixies" as girls, "coves" as men and "mots" as women, to name only a few). I enjoyed the long line of interesting characters, most of all the transvestite Oka.
Despite the book's many merits (and my vague memories about earlier Pierce novels I read when I was a young teenager myself) many of Pierce's moral questions went totally unanswered as Beka deemed them out of her reach, and the action stretched too long to really keep a thrilling pace up while avoiding the surprises of a detective novel. Not a novel I would recommend to a young woman first, but it's a great follow up to Pierce's other works, which are a good introduction to the fantasy genre. show less
I was very impressed by Denaker's ability as she completely embraced Pierce's unique use of language. Young Adult writers in the business of creating fantasy worlds often create their own dialects and style after the example of Tolkien (though usually not to that technical, linguistic extent). Pierce is very grounded in her world, and though this book occurs earlier in the timeline than previously published books, Beka's world is of the "Lower City" or poorer neighborhoods, and her characters have dialects depending on their city and economic position. Denaker does a fantastic job making all of these sound unique and credible.
I was surprised to see Pierce address several modern moral show more questions in her novels, despite their unmistakably medieval setting. Torture (even water-boarding, specifically described in both use and effects), capital punishment, bribery, inflation and economic environments are painstakingly addressed by the rock-steady Beka in her strange colloquialisms ("rats" are criminals, "kennels" are prisons, "gixies" as girls, "coves" as men and "mots" as women, to name only a few). I enjoyed the long line of interesting characters, most of all the transvestite Oka.
Despite the book's many merits (and my vague memories about earlier Pierce novels I read when I was a young teenager myself) many of Pierce's moral questions went totally unanswered as Beka deemed them out of her reach, and the action stretched too long to really keep a thrilling pace up while avoiding the surprises of a detective novel. Not a novel I would recommend to a young woman first, but it's a great follow up to Pierce's other works, which are a good introduction to the fantasy genre. show less
In Terrier, Beka Cooper completes Puppy training and in Bloodhound, she's now a certified Dog (although a junior member of the Provost's Guard). Beka's just been turned back over to the Dogs who trained her, Clara Goodwin and Matthias Tunstall, because she can't seem to hold on to a Dog partner of her own.(she's just too intense). After a Food riot leaves Tunstall with his legs broken and healing in bed, Beka and Goodwin follow the trail of a counterfeiter to Port Caynn. I loved the world crafting by Tamora Pierce and appreciated the change of scenery in Bloodhound. Tamora Pierce has created such a vivid fantasy realm of Totall and now get to explore Port Caynn, as we did with Beka's home of Corus.
A bit more romance is thrown our way show more in this book and it was nice to see Beka remember that while she's a Dog first, she's also a woman who can enjoy a little attention. To that end, we actually get to see a lot of character growth in Beka. Where once she was so shy and could barely speak to strangers, now she's more comfortable in her own skin. She still makes some stupid rookie mistakes and admits them to Clara, but she's grown into a pretty confident Dog.
There's a killer mystery going on in this book along with a villain we can all love to hate, and a dog (Achoo Culeypaws, a scent hound) that Beka takes on as it's handler. I certainly liked Bloodhound even better than Terrier and I know Beka's life's about to change in significant ways. I finished Bloodhound and already I can't wait for the next book in the Beka Cooper series, Mastiff. show less
A bit more romance is thrown our way show more in this book and it was nice to see Beka remember that while she's a Dog first, she's also a woman who can enjoy a little attention. To that end, we actually get to see a lot of character growth in Beka. Where once she was so shy and could barely speak to strangers, now she's more comfortable in her own skin. She still makes some stupid rookie mistakes and admits them to Clara, but she's grown into a pretty confident Dog.
There's a killer mystery going on in this book along with a villain we can all love to hate, and a dog (Achoo Culeypaws, a scent hound) that Beka takes on as it's handler. I certainly liked Bloodhound even better than Terrier and I know Beka's life's about to change in significant ways. I finished Bloodhound and already I can't wait for the next book in the Beka Cooper series, Mastiff. show less
Great plotting, and less harping on Beka's shyness to make me wince. But then there were digressions about Dale and how he made Beka feel that I still found something to roll my eyes at. However, aside from that I really enjoyed this book.
It was particularly interesting to learn that Corus's Rogue isn't the Rogue of all Tortall, and that each city had its own. I found the characters that Beka and Goodwin encounter in Port Cayne very interesting. Once the action got going, it was awesome.
It was particularly interesting to learn that Corus's Rogue isn't the Rogue of all Tortall, and that each city had its own. I found the characters that Beka and Goodwin encounter in Port Cayne very interesting. Once the action got going, it was awesome.
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Author Tamora Pierce was born in South Connellsville, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1954. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Her first book, Alanna: The First Adventure, was published in 1983 and she became a full-time author in 1992. She writes fantasy books, mainly involving young heroines, for young show more adults. She is the author of numerous series including Song of the Lioness; The Immortals; Circle of Magic; Protector of the Small; The Circle Opens; Daughter of the Lioness; The Circle Reforged; Beka Cooper; and The Numair Chronicles. Her novel Battle Magic was a New York Times bestseller. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Bloodhound
- Original publication date
- 2009-04-14
- People/Characters
- Beka Cooper; Clara Goodwin; Matthias Tunstall; Dale Rowan; Hansevor Remy; Pearl Skinner (show all 15); Sir Lionel of Trebond; Gershom of Haryse; Pounce; Achoo Curlypaws; Tansy Lofts; Rosto the Piper; Koramin Ingensra; Aniki Forfrysning; Ersken Westover
- Important places
- Corus; Port Caynn; Tortall
- Important events
- Bread Riot (247 H.E.)
- Dedication
- I want to dedicate this long-delayed second volume of
Beka's adventures to my assistants,
Sara Alan and Cara Coville.
I think that without them
I might have gone just plain nuts.
I would also like to dedicat... (show all)e this book to
Joel Sweifach, my first accountant.
Joel, you kept my ship afloat! - First words
- Thursday, September 6, 247 H.E. I should have known tonight's watch would kiss the mule's bum when Sergeant Ahuda stopped me after baton training.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Tunstall tapped his fist on top of mine, then I tapped mine on top of his. We'd made a Dog's bargain of it.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Fantasy, Teen, Young Adult
- DDC/MDS
- 813.54 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PZ7 .P61464 .B — Language and Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Juvenile belles lettres
- BISAC
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- Popularity
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- Reviews
- 80
- Rating
- (4.18)
- Languages
- Danish, English
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 18
- ASINs
- 9