Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness, #1)

by Tamora Pierce

Eleven-year-old Alanna, who aspires to be a knight even though she is a girl, disguises herself as a boy to become a royal page, a learning many hard lessons along her path to high adventure.

• ISBN10: 0614289459
• ISBN13: 9780614289459
• Publish Date: 1 March 1997 (first published 1 September 1983)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 18 January 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
• Imprint: Random House Children's Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Alanna is, hands down, the most important book I own, because it guided me into being the person I am today - as a reader and a human. I could gush on and on about how much this books means to me.

More objectively, though, this is a book with a story that has mostly held up well, but a writing style that feels distinctly more MG than YA. I have to give it lost points for the simplicity of the writing and the predictability of the plot, as well as the sparseness of the world building. While all of these things improve later in Pierce's works, in this, her debut, it's all rather accepted and uncomplicated. Alanna is no literary masterpiece.

But that doesn't mean it's not fun, or that you won't fall in love with the characters. I loved Alanna from page one, the very first time I read it. Jonathan is an old favorite, one I forgot and I enjoyed rediscovering. I appreciate the empowerment of Alanna's character and all the subtle themes in the novel. I'd still recommend this one for the right age group, and I really enjoyed re-reading it myself.

For a more detailed review of the different elements, check out the full post on The Literary Phoenix.

[Jack]

This was a really quick read. A little young for my liking, on the younger side of young adult as some people have described it. But I enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the next books.

The pacing was a bit off, with barely a word mentioned about how much time had passed. I wished that had been made more clearer.

I was frustrated that Alanna clearly hated being a woman, and that she just wanted to be herself.

The next books in the series deal with her as a teenager and older, so I can't wait to dive into those as well as the rest of the series.

[jnikkir]

Probably a high 3.5-stars for me! I read it in one sitting (a long car ride), and really enjoyed it. I can tell that I'll probably like the later books even more.

PS DON'T KILL ME FOR SECRET-READING THIS, ANGIE

[Katie King]

**1.5 stars**

The characters were this book's strong suit. I thought Rolan was a good bully, and Alex, George, Raoul, and Jonathan were great friends. The underlying motivation to be friends was fuzzy but I thought they worked well together. Alanna is a weaker character, coming across as strong-headed and loyal, but sometimes straight-up annoying. She develops very little. Coram seemed fairly important to Alanna until he disappears and is never mentioned again.

There were a lot of problems with the storyline. It bothered me that the boys all accepted her so easily. It bothered me that things such as her first period and her horse Moonlight had big moments and were then never mentioned again. It bothered me that she was seemingly struggling to keep up with her work and lacked any talent, but then she not only defeats Rolan but also the mysterious and purposeless Ysandir. Speaking of, where did they come from? Who are they? Why are they in the climax of the book? There was nothing tying them to the plot except that our protagonist had stumbled upon them and gotten herself into trouble.

On a similar note, the Bazhir were equally useless. We know nothing of them except that they are at war with Tortall and have a city friendly to the king, Persopolis. Why are they at war? Where do they come from? Why do Alanna and her friends go to Persopolis? The world-building is non-existent in this novel. I know nothing of the people and places Alanna encounters. I know nothing of their customs, rituals, and ways of life. I do know that Alanna gets everything handed to her like she deserves gold stars for breathing regularly.

Magic plays a small role in this book. It is mentioned Alanna hates magic but then goes on to use it on a large scale multiple times, like saving lives. Many characters are distrustful of magic, but once Alanna saves Jonathan, even the king reverses his opinion and institutes lessons for those with "the Gift." Duke Roger is seen as the greatest magician they know, even referred to as popular, but on numerous occasions is shown to be disliked or distrusted. Maybe Pierce couldn't make up her mind.

One last thing: the crystal sword Lightning. Alanna goes with Sir Myles to the ruins near his house where he tells her he's been having visions of the two of them for the past 7 years. She decides the only logical thing to do is to go down this man-hole type thing alone that NOBODY HAS EVER BEEN ABLE TO OPEN UNTIL THEN where she finds a crystal sword that saves her life from the magical darkness choking her by...lighting up once she accepted her death. Upon returning to the palace, she shows Duke Roger the sword, he flips out about how she got it (literally whether or not she found it or was given it), and then it's over and he never brings it up again.

Adventure? Keep looking. Fantasy? Forget about it. Nothing happens in this book. Alanna splits up with her brother, goes through training for 75% of the book, and then defeats some random villains. That's it. You don't need to read it now because I've told you the whole story. Pierce exacerbates this issue by doing a lot of fast-forwarding. Hours, days, weeks, even YEARS pass by between paragraphs and we are given no clues to it. Sometimes Alanna mentions a birthday, sometimes she doesn't. I could not tell you over how long of a period of time the book occurs.

Some things cannot be commented on, but need merely to be summarized for full intended effect: Jonathan almost dies, but Alanna-the-hater-of-magic draws upon the extremely powerful god magic that she admits that she doesn't know how to use nor should be using, and pulls Jonathan from the hands of the God of Death in the hallway to hell with her special purple magic hands. Yep.
 
Summary
At times I questioned why I continued to read this book. Poorly developed plot, no world-building, and a seriously bratty main character has turned me off. In reading up on the other books in the series, I am very confident in my choice to abandon the Song of the Lioness series.

[nitzan_schwarz]

Originally posted on my blog. 

YESSS!! I've rid myself of my Tamora Pierce virginity! Woohoo~ Tamora Pierce has been high on my Must Read authors for a while now. I've never heard of her before I found Goodreads, but once I did it seemed every favorite new blogger I found was a HUGE fan of hers. Finally, I decided to take that final step and see what its all about. So, did I get what I wanted?

Yes and no.

Alanna was definitely a fun, fast, interesting read. I was actually surprised at how short it was, I expected a bulk of a story. I enjoyed Alanna (the character) greatly, and I loved watching her grow, watching her doubt herself, and watching her overcome her doubts. I also kind of adored how she had such disregard for boys' nudity. Like, when some people find out she's girl they're like YOU SAW ME NAKED and she's like 'yeah, so?'. HEART! 

I loved how the book span years, instead of weeks like a lot of books do today, and I enjoyed the fact the book deals, in part, with womanhood. I was wondering if it will go there - periods and all that, and I was pleased to see it did. Some books just seem to ignore the existence of those. 

I also loved George and Jonathan. I loved how George treated Alanna good and kindly even before he knew she wasn't really Alan. He was just so sweet and didn't ask for anything back. He also makes an interesting king of thieves - what with being so nice. And Jonathan... I liked seeing a prince who's not a prick. He's nice, kind, protective, a bit of an idiot sometimes (Seriously, dude) but he's a boy so... 

Both were good, "possible love interests in the future" kind of characters. Still not sure who I root for, but I kind of spoiled myself on who's the cannon at the end, and kind of spoiled other things that I wish I didn't (the curse of being too curious! I need to stop this bad habit...). 

All that being said, this book also kind of disappointed me at parts. For example, there's almost no build up toward the climax and The Black City. It's just kind of whacks you in the face on the final chapter. It's all dealt with very loosely and offhandedly, too. I was shocked at how unrealistic and easy the climax was. It was all like... almost an after thought. I kind of felt like there was no real relations between everything that happened prior to the last chapter and the last chapter. 

The whole book also read very young. This may have something to do with the character's ages, but I've read books with similar ages that didn't feel half as young. I wonder how it would read to me in the next books, in which she grows even older. If the writing style matures together with Alanna, then I'll regard this as a stroke of genius as opposed to a shortcoming.

Basically, the book did not compare in details and complexity to books like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson (please don't stone me for this!), which have a similar vibe and characters. Those books tie everything so amazingly well, which wasn't the feeling here. I dunno how this series will fare in the "bigger picture" kind of thing (lots of things happened in this book that will probably carry on to a series long arc), so I'll have to get back to you on that.

That being said, I have ordered the second book already, and will read the next books in the series ;)

[wyvernfriend]

Alanna becomes Alan in order to become a page and eventually a knight. Hiding her gender is difficult but not impossibe and there are hints that there is attention from the goddess on her future. An interesting beginning with lots of possibilities to the future to the series