Protector of the Small

by Tamora Pierce

[nannah]

Tamora Pierce was a big inspiration for me when I was younger, and I liked many of her books (especially the Song of the Lioness series, to no one’s surprise). But I hadn’t read this series, and it had just been sitting on my to-read list for years and years, so I decided to give it a go. It has a lot in common with the Lioness books, but its brand of older “feminism” is a bit grating, and there’s a lot of things I don’t think aged very well.

Content warnings:
- attempted sexual assault
- ableist c slur (used many times, sometimes as a comparison between abled and disabled people, unfortunately)
- racism

Keladry of Mindelan is going to be the first girl training to become a knight in the medieval-inspired Tortall. She’ll not only be facing the rigorous, difficult academic and physical challenges that come along with it, but also bullying that goes beyond the traditional hazing -- and worse: Lord Wyldon, the old, sexist training master deeply set in his ways. He gives Kel a probational year to prove she belongs to be a page, something no other page has had to endure. But Kel is not to be underestimated, and she’ll do anything to show Lord Wyldon, and everyone else, that she deserves her place there.

Okay, I won’t lie, I understand why I’d probably love this when I was younger. A girl protagonist who kicks butt among a sea of boys who want her to fail -- and she doesn’t have a love interest! Yeah, this would have been right up my alley. For it’s time, it’s definitely something worth applauding, though I think I’m happy to leave it in the past and move on to other stories.

It’s okay to have a world steeped in sexism and have a main protagonist who succeeds in it -- but wow, this seemed like overkill. Kel is ten years old, and there’s an attempted sexual assault in this book. Kel is repeatedly beat up (and though she does pick half of those fights, it’s mentioned she’s had worse before she ever comes to train as a page. How? She’s ten! The fights in this book are those to genuinely harm, disable, or even kill each other; they’re not skirmishes), and her training master treats her like crap. In a book where the protag is ten, and it feels like, despite the content, it’s addressed to an MG audience because of the writing and simplistic plot. I can’t wrap my mind around it.

However, it was the racism that killed my enjoyment completely. Lots of books for younger audiences explore the darker sides of history and oppression. I can understand it, even if I don’t have to like it. But instead of actually working on world building, it seemed Tamora Pierce just inserted Japan into her universe and called it the Yamani Isles. Her Japan also feels like a strange caricature of the real thing (the only physical things mentioned as being from them were the lucky cats and kimonos; Yamani people only have depth as far as being “made of stone”, aka not letting emotions show on their faces, and wanting to preserve honor).

Two characters also seemed to be from a place like Western Asia -- and all we see from this place is the physical features it gives the characters themselves and the “Islamophobic misogyny” white women love to bring up whenever Islam is mentioned. Zahir, one of the bullies, literally tells Kel, “It’s time for you to take your place behind the veil, where you belong! [...] A woman out of her place is a distraction to men!” He doesn’t have many other lines, so this is really ugly.

I don’t think I’ll reread Tamora Pierce’s other books; there’s just too many others coming out that seem to be more of my thing now as an adult. I’m ready to leave this era of “a girl must be better than all other women and be better at everything men are good at to be great!” behind. Kudos to an author who influenced lots and lots of young girls, though!