You're Gonna Hear Me Roar

Alanna: The First Adventure / In the Hand of the Goddess / The Woman Who Rides Like a Man / Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: January 6, 2005

Source/Format: Bought || Paperback

There’s nothing quite like the joy of revisiting a book series that you absolutely love. Last month, PierceFest provided me with the perfect excuse to re-read the Song of the Lioness Quartet. As with my previous experiencing with these books, I fell in love with Alanna and her epic adventures! There were daring feats of bravery, a clash of wills, some extremely entertaining friendships, a dash of magic and, of course, a bit of romance. The Song of the Lioness Quartet will always come highly recommended from me, as it was my gateway series into the wonderful world of Tamora Pierce.

[I’ve talked about these four novels individually on the blog before (though they were early reviews from me and thus, a bit spoilery), so this post is more of a general one about the series.]

Alanna is an incredibly courageous character, as she makes a habit of facing difficult things head-on and not shying away from anything that appears too hard. I admired her drive to succeed, to achieve what she wanted with her life. And I also loved that she wasn’t cowed by the fact that she was training to be a knight alongside boys who were probably bigger and stronger than she was! At the beginning, she’s fiercely determined to ignore her female qualities, especially if they got in the way of her training. But it’s really cool to see how she eventually embraces both being a warrior and a lady as the series continues. She’s definitely an admirable person, and the way she’s written is just so delightful and true.

Each novel feels like a successive chapter in her story. We witness her at the beginning of her journey during Alanna: The First Adventure, where she learns what it truly is to train for knighthood. And then we join her as she rises in the ranks, passing all her tests, including one final unprecedented one in In the Hand of the Goddess. In The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Alanna adventures into the desert and stays a while with the Bazhir and in the last, Lioness Rampant, she goes on the craziest of quests and also faces the greatest evil she’s ever had to face. Pierce was clearly able to showcase Alanna’s growth and transformation over these books, and it felt very much like I was reading about Alanna’s life story as I proceeded from book one to book four.  

The Song of the Lioness Quartet boasts a fun, magical story, complete with intense action scenes, quieter contemplative ones and silly, sarcastic one-liners from various characters. There’s so much for me to gush about when it comes to these books, but it mostly boils down to how Tamora Pierce has crafted an excellent main character and a memorable story. If you haven’t read this series, I insist you must. And if you have, I encourage you to do a re-read. It certainly never gets old for me when I do, and I end up loving it even more!