First Test

It's been many years since I first read the Alanna books as a young teen myself. I loved the story of Alanna, daring to pretend to be a boy and seek the honor and responsibility of becoming a knight of the realm. It was so wonderful to see a girl out there kicking butt, doing magic, and being a hero.

So when I discovered there was a series about another girl trying to become a knight, some years after Alanna's success, I was hesitant. Hadn't I already read that story? Would it really be engaging and new?

Well, I'm sorry I doubted because Kel's story is indeed engaging and new. For one, she's not pretending to be a boy. She's earning her way as a girl, and fighting for every inch of respect. And she's definitely her own person: quiet and show more reserved, but fierce in defense of the weak and thoroughly dedicated to her purpose.

Alanna may have paved the way, but Kel doesn't have it easy. I love a good underdog story, and FIRST TEST delivers that, along with a "school" setting, magic, adventure, nastiness and warmth, prejudice and compassion, plus some very insightful comments on bullying and the moral responsibilities of those with power.

I am definitely looking forward to the rest of this series! show less

Tamora Pierce was a big inspiration for me when I was younger, and I liked many of her books (especially the Song of the Lioness series, to no one’s surprise). But I hadn’t read this series, and it had just been sitting on my to-read list for years and years, so I decided to give it a go. It has a lot in common with the Lioness books, but its brand of older “feminism” is a bit grating, and there’s a lot of things I don’t think aged very well.

Content warnings:
- attempted sexual assault
- ableist c slur (used many times, sometimes as a comparison between abled and disabled people, unfortunately)
- racism

Keladry of Mindelan is going to be the first girl training to become a knight in the medieval-inspired Tortall. She’ll not show more only be facing the rigorous, difficult academic and physical challenges that come along with it, but also bullying that goes beyond the traditional hazing -- and worse: Lord Wyldon, the old, sexist training master deeply set in his ways. He gives Kel a probational year to prove she belongs to be a page, something no other page has had to endure. But Kel is not to be underestimated, and she’ll do anything to show Lord Wyldon, and everyone else, that she deserves her place there.

Okay, I won’t lie, I understand why I’d probably love this when I was younger. A girl protagonist who kicks butt among a sea of boys who want her to fail -- and she doesn’t have a love interest! Yeah, this would have been right up my alley. For it’s time, it’s definitely something worth applauding, though I think I’m happy to leave it in the past and move on to other stories.

It’s okay to have a world steeped in sexism and have a main protagonist who succeeds in it -- but wow, this seemed like overkill. Kel is ten years old, and there’s an attempted sexual assault in this book. Kel is repeatedly beat up (and though she does pick half of those fights, it’s mentioned she’s had worse before she ever comes to train as a page. How? She’s ten! The fights in this book are those to genuinely harm, disable, or even kill each other; they’re not skirmishes), and her training master treats her like crap. In a book where the protag is ten, and it feels like, despite the content, it’s addressed to an MG audience because of the writing and simplistic plot. I can’t wrap my mind around it.

However, it was the racism that killed my enjoyment completely. Lots of books for younger audiences explore the darker sides of history and oppression. I can understand it, even if I don’t have to like it. But instead of actually working on world building, it seemed Tamora Pierce just inserted Japan into her universe and called it the Yamani Isles. Her Japan also feels like a strange caricature of the real thing (the only physical things mentioned as being from them were the lucky cats and kimonos; Yamani people only have depth as far as being “made of stone”, aka not letting emotions show on their faces, and wanting to preserve honor).

Two characters also seemed to be from a place like Western Asia -- and all we see from this place is the physical features it gives the characters themselves and the “Islamophobic misogyny” white women love to bring up whenever Islam is mentioned. Zahir, one of the bullies, literally tells Kel, “It’s time for you to take your place behind the veil, where you belong! [...] A woman out of her place is a distraction to men!” He doesn’t have many other lines, so this is really ugly.

I don’t think I’ll reread Tamora Pierce’s other books; there’s just too many others coming out that seem to be more of my thing now as an adult. I’m ready to leave this era of “a girl must be better than all other women and be better at everything men are good at to be great!” behind. Kudos to an author who influenced lots and lots of young girls, though! show less

I almost burst into tears when I finished this book. My reaction took me by surprise because I've read First Test at least four or five times. It shouldn't still affect me like this, but it does. It's a fairly simple story, but I love it so very much, and I adore Kel.

The only thing I can recall being interested in when I was younger that was "for boys only" was comics. There was this comic shop right near my high school that I used to go to during my lunch period. It had a fabulous bargain section, perfect for someone just starting out and still trying to figure out their tastes. I'd buy something every week or two and put up with the grumpy guy who owned the place. Except I eventually figured out he wasn't grumpy with everyone, just show more me. He was nice and helpful towards adults and teenage boys, while I got lectured about the way I touched the comics, or about being in the store too long without buying something. After a while, I stopped buying individual comics and just read graphic novels, which I could get at bookstores or libraries. No more grumpy comic shop guy.

Kel dealt with a lot more than just lectures. After Alanna the Lioness became the first female knight (by spending several years pretending to be a boy), it was proclaimed that girls could become pages. Ten years later, Keladry of Mindelan became the first girl to request to become a page. Her request was granted, but, to satisfy Lord Wyldon, the hidebound training master, she was put on probation for a year.

Like I said, this story was pretty simple. There were no “dark political intrigue” subplots, just “can Kel make it through her training and be accepted back next year?” She had an uphill battle. The boys wrecked her room, hardly anyone wanted to be her sponsor, and bullies picked on her whenever the teachers weren't looking. No one expected her to be around next year.

Kel was quite possibly the most mature 10-year-old ever, stoically putting up with a certain level of treatment and fighting back when her sense of justice demanded it and the rules permitted it (sort of). She had spent six years of her life living in the Yamani Islands (the fantasy equivalent of Japan?) with her parents and had picked up the Yamani custom of hiding her feelings and controlling her emotions. She had also had a little bit of weapons training, because even the most timid of Yamani court ladies got such training.

Kel was probably the most perfect possible first official female page, but she wasn't disgustingly so. She'd get frustrated from time to time, and her brutal schedule and the bullying she had to endure meant she couldn't always finish all her coursework. Her prior weapons training sometimes meant she had habits she needed to unlearn when learning to use similar but differently handled weapons.

I enjoyed Kel's growing friendships with the various other pages, and I liked Neal, her sponsor. As a fan of fantasy animal companions, Kel's little flock of sparrows and grumpy Peachblossom made me happy. Kel wasn't magically gifted herself (which I actually kind of liked), but some of the other characters were. Bonedancer, a living archaeopteryx skeleton, Numair, a mage, and Daine, a Wildmage, all made appearances.

The only way my copy of this book is ever leaving my possession is if I one day gift it to one of my nieces or it falls apart.

Extras:

A map of the kingdom of Tortall, a "cast of characters" section, and a glossary.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

After King Jonathan took the throne, he decreed that women could train as knights as well. But more than a decade has passed since Alanna was unveiled as a female knight, and still no other female member of a noble house has come forth to be trained. No one--until Keladry. The daughter of ambassadors, Kel spent her childhood in lands where women were trained warriors, and intends to become one herself. Jonathon's hide-bound nobles aren't pleased with this change of tradition, and to placate them, Jonathan agrees that Kel will be merely a probationary page, subject to being tossed out at her first failure.

Kel, however, is too damn awesome for that crap. She's the kind of person who, when she discovers her lance has been unfairly show more weighted with lead, keeps training with the weighted lance in order to become stronger. No matter what they throw at her, she rises to the challenge.

This book was so much fun to read! Energizing and inspiring and thrilling--altogether my favorite kind of wish-fullfillment fantasy. show less

Keladry, I have been missing you all my life.

First Test is about Kel of Mindelan, the first girl to apply for pageship since Alanna the Lioness became the first lady knight. Kel is allowed to enter the program on a one year probation to prove herself – not as an individual, but to prove that girls can do whatever boys do. She trains hard, works hard, and suffers hazing just like the boys – but she is not without her allies.

I cannot believe I waited twenty years to read this book. Yes, twenty. My first Tamora Pierce book was Wild Magic when I was eight, and I’ve read all Pierce’s other Tortall books. I have Tempests and Slaughter pre-ordered. I’ve read quite a few of her Emelan books as well (and I own all of them). I’ve been show more actively avoiding The Protector of the Small for years, figuring Alanna, Aly, and Daine were good enough… and I have fooled myself. First Test far surpasses both Alanna and Wild Magic.

The prejudice Kel faces as a girl in a boy’s club is so much different than Alanna’s experience. Kids can be cruel. But it’s not just the kids – many of her own teachers don’t believe a girl belongs in knighthood training, and are sure the Lioness cheated with her magical abilities. Watching Kel react to this and her inner monologue as well as her incredible discipline, is wonderful.

Additionally, Pierce has added a whole new layer of culture to Tortall. Kel was raised among the Yamani as an ambassador’s daughter. These islanders believe in a culture of deep respect and obedience, reminiscent of ancient Japanese culture. It’s an interesting mix with the brutish medieval culture at the palace, but it’s also refreshing. And also proof that Pierce is a master worldbuilder.

I love, love, loved this book. Kel’s a deeper character than the other girls – driven by a sense of virtue rather than her passions – but we still get all the delights of the palace. There are cameos by Daine, Numair, Alanna, and King Jonathan as well as others. The side characters are fantastic (I love Neal). There’s nothing to dislike about this book and my new goal in life is to get my friends’ daughter to read it. Keladry is an amazing role model for young girls.

Except for the picking fights bit? But she does it for all the right reasons. show less

I love Tamora Pierce. Love, love, love Tamora Pierce. I'm so sad that I missed her when I was reading YA books as a YA. I want to foist her on every girl I know. And yet, every time I go to read another of her books, I'm resistant at the beginning. I always expect it to be dreadful and it's always completely the opposite.

It's because I think I hate fantasy. Except I obviously don't hate fantasy. I just finished The Protector of the Small quartet, another series set in the kingdom of Tortall, like the Alanna books and the Trickster books, which kingdom is just crawling with mages and people with the Gift and the Sight and thus and such. And I loved it. However, Kel, the heroine, is not magically assisted in any way. She just gets up show more before dawn and trains with weighted weapons and does everything possible to make herself a total bad-ass in order to defend small creatures and children and servants and the like.

Tamora Pierce's books always make me proud to be a woman. It's like Clare Booth Luce said:

"Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes.' They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes.' "

These girls represent! All her heroines succeed far beyond expectation in a man's world, without surrendering their female-ness at all. They take lovers or not, as they wish, they alone decide when to marry and when to have children, they become completely fearsome warriors and commanders but with "womanly" mercy ... Dare I say it? They are great role models! Would that every twelve-year-old I hand these to is similarly inspired. show less

A new tradition that I started a few years ago when I realized that I was getting book burnout is back, and true to form I'm choosing to re-read another of Taora Pierce's quartet's from Tortall. When I first read Keladry's story when I was younger I was a lot less interested in it because it seemd to be a bit of a copy of a copy of Alanna's story - young girl determined to be a knight, overcomes adversity, etc. Yet, Keladry's story actually has much to tell as well, being largely concerned with themes around bullying but also exploring the larger politics of Tortall and its neighbours, knightly training etiquette , and of course exploring Keladry's unique personality. It's been so long since I've read these books that it's great getting show more to re-experience the story, and I can't wait to get started on book #2! show less