#TRICKSTER CHOICE SERIES#

I was quite taken in with Aly’s story and her growing relationship with all of the characters of the Balitang household, from the headstrong and intelligent noble ladies, Dove and Sarai to the leaders of the secret rebellion, people like Chenoal, the watchful arms-dealing cook, and Ulasim, the head footman who keeps everyone in check.

#TRICKSTER CHOICE SERIES#

You could clearly see Tamora’s desire to make this a well-researched, thoughtful take on the dangers of colonialism, and it’s certainly her most political, least-fantastical series to date.įor the most part, I think she accomplished her goals. I’ve read this once before, but coming back to it now was like reading it for the first time, and I was easily able to follow along with the complicated history of the islands. Aly learns of a rebellion brewing after centuries of unrest and unjust behavior from the Rittevon royalty, now an inbred family prone to madness and in-fighting, and the rebellion’s desire to place a prophesized raka-luarin queen on the throne.Ĭoming from previous Pierce series where the Tortallan world was already established, there is a lot to unpack and familiarize yourself with before the story can really get started.

We come to the Copper Isles almost three hundred years after the laurin (the white men) from previously-visited places like Tortall, Scanra, and Gallan have invaded and conquered the raka (the copper/brown-skinned native people of the former Kyprish Isles) and installed themselves as the ruling class.

Tamora decided to tackle a very meaty topic with this series: colonialism. Nawat is totally infatuated with Aly, and you’d think that would make their romance dull, but Aly is the kind of person who thinks kissing is a fun pastime and gets bored easily by overly dramatic romanticism, so to see her flustered and off-balance by someone who simply runs his hands through her hair is a delight. He’s a loveable and innocent character, and he makes the perfect foil for Aly, who believes herself to be quite world-weary, coming from such a well-connected background. Nawat comes from an unusual place, and his interactions with Aly are most amusing. You might almost find yourself jealous of how easily things come to her, but Aly recognizes she still has more to learn, and her charisma will make you feel bad that you had a negative thought about her. Because she’s angling to be a spy, she may not always be that forthcoming with her secrets, but she is a loyal friend and would look out for your back. She’s definitely George Cooper’s daughter, with charm and smarts coloring every interaction and more than a dash of Alanna’s confidence. Aly thinks this will be the perfect opportunity to demonstrate her spying skills and show her father that she’s worthy of a spot in his spy network, but the more she learns about the political unrest within the Copper Isles, the more she realizes she may have just gotten in way over her head. She’s confident in her abilities to escape her relatively nice and newly exiled masters, but the Trickster god, Kyprioth, has a wager for her: stay with the Balitang family for the summer and keep their half-luarin, half-raka daughters alive and he will send her home instantly. Unfortunately for her, slave traders also roam Tortall’s shores, and Aly gets picked up and sent to the Copper Isles to be sold as a slave. So when Alanna arrives home and begins to take Aly to task for being a sixteen-year-old laze-about, Aly considers this to be the most convenient time to take a solo sailing voyage to visit some friends. All she really wants to do is by a spy like her da, but George Cooper knows that life and he doesn’t want that for his only daughter (forget the fact that his son is training to be a knight and his wife is the most famous knight in Tortall-both people who could end up dead at any moment because it’s literally their job to fight bad people). This is the unspoken mantra Alianne of Pirate’s Swoop gets from her famous parents. Or is she hiding under black silk sheets? Wearing a fancy old-timey veil? And why does the title look like it was done using Microsoft Word Art? None of these things have anything to do with Aly or this story.ĭo something with your life, but not the thing you actually want to do.

Maybe it’s because of my residual love for Sister Act, but my first thought when seeing this cover is that it’s about a nun-in-training. In addition, Aly’s story will be a lot richer and more rewarding if you start from the beginning. While it could be read as a standalone, the series does contain some spoilers for how the previous books ended. Bonus Factors: Old Friends, World Building, Animal SidekicksĬaution: This is the fourth series set in the fictional world of Tortall.

Trickster choice