Terrier

Ahh okay. When I announced my intention to read my first Tamora Pierce book, a lot of people were very excited for me, and a few people said they thought maybe you had to grow up with Tamora Pierce to really appreciate her, and I could totally see that being the case.

I thought it was cool that it was a fantasy police procedural rather than a straightforward fantasy quest, and I liked the social commentary aspects of it. And I could totally, totally see how young girls would love this kind of plucky, magical, talented orphan girl protagonist.

Anyway, overall I thought this was... fine? A bit too long for my taste, and a bit too... well, it had a map of a made-up place in it. And a super long list of characters. Yet it did not have a glossary for all the weird made-up slang. Like, I get why you need new words to describe magical stuff, sure, but why in magic land are we calling girls “mots” and boys “coves” now? Why. BUT that's me and my grumpfest, I know there are plenty of people who would view that as a bonus.

So, lots of appeal factors for plenty of readers who like fantasy/intro to second wave feminist characters/police procedurals, but not a lot of appeal factors for me personally. But you keep doing what you're doing, Tamora Pierce, cuz I know I'm in the minority here.

PS apparently this is a prequel to some of her other books? Which I do remember the beginning being a letter to somebody about Beka being their ancestor? Possibly there are things a reader would appreciate more if they already knew this world and understood some of the references. The plot certainly stood on its own to a new reader.