Rating: Summary: Grace Review: I'll begin with the bad, since my first reactions were mostly negative. My first problem with this book is that it's overly formulaic. Disguised as a boy, the courageous and stubborn heroine trains to become a knight. She makes loyal friends. She makes enemies with a classic bully, gets tormented, and later beats the bully to the cheers of her friends. She gets the perfect horse. She finds a magical sword reserved just for her. She manages to awe everybody she meets with her skill. She recieves hints to her supposedly great and difficult destiny through awed healers and other magical people. Everybody else seems below her potential, because in the end she manages to overcome or amaze her superiors. In short, its an overly retold story. It's a mary sue. It's predictable. The good guys are overly charming and have faults that just make them more "endearing". The bad guys are overly rotten and have real faults that make them look even more rotten. I would almost call them two dimensional characters since they are so overdone. Despite these faults, I couldn't help but be charmed by the witty King of Theives. He's an overly done character as well: dangerous but honorable, skilled and handsome, befriends main character. Admittedly, its an excellent book for younger audiences and shameless romantics. It's great, mindless fun. But if you're looking for originality and depth...don't look here.
Rating: Summary: It's sooooooooooo good! Review: If you haven't read this book, you are missing out on a big chunk of the greatest fantasy books out there! In this book Alanna of Trebond avoids going to the convent in an interesting way. She disguises herself as a boy, and studies to become a knight. While at the palace, she meets the Duke Roger of Conte, who is to charming to be good....
Rating: Summary: The beggining of a quartet that will go down in history Review: Alanna is the daughter of a scholar that could care less about his children Thom and Alanna's welfare. Alanna is going to become a noble lady and Thom a soldier. Somehow it just doesn't seem right that each of them should have to suffer in a life that they will not enjoy so they switch places. (Thom is not a noble lady he's a mage.) Thom really isn't much part of the story. Alanna goes to train at the palace to be a knight. She has amazing adventures and well a little bit more but I shouldn't tell you what happens now should I. I think this is appropriate for ages 7+
Rating: Summary: Heroine hops into bed with just about every male character Review: Although I felt the storyline was pretty good for the four books in this series, I was very disappointed in the moral standards. As the heroine gains new skills and new experiences, becoming a superwoman, she fails to develop one of the most important qualities: self-respect. A lot of bed-hopping, little romance. A poor example for todays teens.
Rating: Summary: Another Outstanding Book by Tamora Pierce Review: Alanna and her brother's thoughts are gloomy, when they think of their future. Thom is to become a knight, while Alanna is to be sent to a covent to learn to be a lady. They switch their places, so that Alanna will go to the Royal Palace and learn to be a knight, and Thom to the covent to become a sorcerer. This is a wonderful book that you will find yourself reading again and again...
Rating: Summary: Alanna:The First Adventure Review: This book is an amazing write, with laughs, and drama. It has romance and is very interesting!!
Rating: Summary: Great Fantasy Review: This is such a good book! I love all the adventure & excitement. the one thing i don't like is all the sex scenes. They are really unappropriate & this would be a good book if not for 7-10 year olds that way. still a great book though.
Rating: Summary: MY FAVORITE SERIES Review: For starters, Alanna the First Adventure is an amazing book! The main character Alanna, wants to become the first lady knight (in over a century) in her powerful kingdom of Tortall. This first book displays the events over the first four years of Alanna's journey in becoming a famed knight-icon. Her four years of being a page. It tells of the bully Ralon she must face and their many brawls, the unpredictable friends she makes, and all the difficult tasks she must overcome to prove she is worthy of her shield. Over the last four years, this book and it's companions have remained my favorite, and amazingly, have won their way into the hearts of many of my friends. You'll be turning pages and frantic to read the next book.
Rating: Summary: Alanna the First Adventure Review: I just loved this book, I knew I would before I read it because Tamora Pierce is such a good author. This is the first book in the Song of the Lioness Quartet. In this book, Alanna of Trebond is determined to become a knight...so she disguises as a boy to train at the palace. It wasn't easy. She soon learned that she needed to work hard every moment of the day. She quickly made friends with Prince Jonathan, Raoul of Goldenlake, and Duke Gareth's son(also named Gareth). It was hard to keep her secret because she had to deal with "becoming a woman" and everything. After saving Jon from the fatal disease, Sweating Fever, Jon's cousin comes to the palace. Upon meeting him, Alanna feels extremely ditrustful, without knowing why. She feels that Duke Rodger is plotting to take the throne...by killing Jon! He dares Jon to go to the evil Black City to defeat the Nameless People. Alanna goes with him & uses her mysterious magical sword to prevent the People from killing them. Great book, I know my summary's bad so don't say so.
Rating: Summary: Why is it so popular? Review: Even as a children's book, it's overly simplistic and trite. Girl is seized by misguided feminism that is all too rampant among teenage girls of our own world, girl disguises self as boy, girl goes to become a knight and is bullied, girl proceeds to train and beat up the bully, girl is additionally compassionate and has hidden, special uber-powers. Where have I heard it before? Oh -- wait for it -- from another hundreds of other books of the same ilk.Okay, so it's said that there are only so many stories to tell, and you always find a unique twist in each author's presentation of it. Sadly, Pierce's take on this same-old cliche isn't unique in the least. It's absolutely, utterly, formulaic and predictable. A children's book doesn't *have* to be so simple; works such as, say, Michael Ende's A NEVERENDING STORY or MOMO are evidence that a children's book can be complex and detailed. My priority when rating a book is in this order: character, plot, then setting. The characters in ALANNA: THE FIRST ADVENTURE are stereotypical and as deep as cardboard cut-outs; the plot I have already commented; the setting has nothing special going for it. It's just another bland fantasyland. For the record, I'm female, and I find Alanna's being oh-so-independent and determined and "feminist role model" fake and laughable. That is all.
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