Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
ALANNA: THE FIRST ADVENTURE
A review by Jeana To
DISCLAIMER: I have not actually read all three books of the series yet, this may be severely limiting my opinion of Alanna.
NOTE: Please don’t yell at me if you have read this book and disagree with what I think about the romantic plot
Tamora Pierce’s books are famous for their feminist ideals, and this book is no exception. The story is told from the perspective of Alanna. Alanna’s dream is to become a woman knight. Her twin brother Thom wishes to become a great sorcerer. Unfortunately for both of them, women are not allowed to become knights. Instead, the first sons of noble families become knights. This means that as the twins reach a certain age, Alanna will be shipped off to a school to learn magic, while Thom must go train at the capital to become a knight.
And so, Alanna comes up with the genius idea to switch places with her brother. She plans to fulfill her dream by posing as Thom’s twin “brother” Alan. Meanwhile, her brother Thom will travel to the school to train in magic, something he’s always wanted to do.
Alanna: The First Adventure follows Alanna’s adventures as a woman knight in a culture where knights are men, not women, and women are extremely restricted. It is a feminist novel, and throughout the entire four-book series Alanna herself can be seen advocating for women’s rights in the world that she lives in. Pierce does a good job of showing the independent and courageous young woman that Alanna is as she trains hard and shows the world that women can be knights, too.
In the author’s note at the end of Alanna: The First Adventure, Pierce said that she wanted to create a strong female protagonist who was not too girly to be unrealistic or so that she seemed to be slightly “lesser” than other male protagonists, but just enough to show that a woman can be feminine and strong at the same time. One of the ways she claimed to do this is through the romantic plotline, by showing that strong females could have love interests, too.
In my honest opinion, I found the romantic arc of the novel very lacking in many different ways. It was much too cliche and shallow for my taste. Alanna has two guys randomly fall in love with her for no reason, one of them (of course) being her crush. Many of the romantic moments didn’t make sense at all. There was not much backstory or foreshadowing OR chemistry to any of the potential couples in the book. For example, one of Alanna’s love interests, George, suddenly claims one day that he loves her and then goes to extremes for her even though she’s never done anything for him. Alanna claims that she loves another person, Jon, but there was almost absolutely no foreshadowing to that and it doesn’t really make sense. Jon suddenly out of the blue confesses to Alanna, which also doesn’t really make sense (he acts like he's in love with someone else for the first half of the second book) but they end up together anyway, which again, DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. Pierce may have succeeded in painting Alanna as a strong and independent young woman, but I did not enjoy how she told the story of Alanna’s love life.
Another criticism I would make is the fact that Alanna does nothing to try and change her country’s sexist laws. Even though she is a female knight whereas knights are usually men, Alanna does not seem to care about the laws that state that knights cannot be female, instead of focusing more on her own life’s trials and tribulations. She does not show any interest in changing the laws of her country, even though she herself goes against them. She only shows interest in helping herself or people that she knows, not creating opportunities for other women.
All in all, Alanna: The First Adventure was a book that helped break the stereotypes of the time about the roles of women and men (despite the awful romantic storyline). I would recommend this book to any and all feminists who are interested in Alanna’s story.
If you are interested in more Tamora Pierce, I recommend Tempests and Slaughter, which is one of her newer books that I really enjoyed!
This sounds like an interesting book (especially speaking as a feminist). I haven't read this book, but I feel like a lot of novels these days don't have well-written and developed romance story lines so I like that you point that out. The story also sounds a lot like Mulan :).
ReplyDeleteDo other people (besides her brother) know what Alanna is doing? Also, you said that you wished she did more to actually change the laws of the kingdom, but wouldn't revealing that she is a female knight get her in a lot of trouble?
This post was very informative :).
Yes, I agree! I hadn't thought about the Mulan reference before, but I can definitely see how these two books relate to each together.
DeleteIn answer to your questions: Yes, some other people do know or find out about Alanna's true gender. As you can imagine, it would be pretty hard to hide that for 6-7 years from people you basically live with. And the reason I commented about how I wished that she would do more about the laws of her kingdom was because (warning: slight spoilers but nothing you wouldn't be able to guess without reading the series) her real gender is revealed by the end of the second book, but in the third book NOTHING CHANGES. That was what frustrated me.
Thank you. :D
While I would probably never read this, I think the first few paragraphs or so of the review were fairly captivating. However, I think that after that the review felt more like a rant than it did a review, and I think you should have made the critique more concise, especially since the critique was most of the review and you left on a positive note.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment! I'll keep this in mind the next time I write a review.
DeleteI think you did a really good job on your review! I've never heard of this novel or author, but your review was interesting and made me want to read this book. In the first paragraph of your review, you mentioned that Thom is being forced to train to become a knight while Alanna is told she learn must magic. I was curious about whether Thom tries to break gender stereotypes at the magicians’ school, or if he has to keep his true identity hidden. Additionally, I was wondering if the plot follows both Alanna and Thom, or if Thom is just a side character. I’m curious about whether Tamora Pierce uses her book to talk about both male and female stereotypes or if she prefers to focus on just Alanna’s story. Overall, I thought your review of the book was well-written and gave a broad overview of the plot without actually giving away the entire story.
ReplyDeleteThom is actually more of a side character. Throughout most of the first, second, and third books, the only times the reader hears about Thom is when he and Alanna write the occasional letters to each other. Also, in this world, it's not okay for women to become knights but it's perfectly fine for men to be wizards or magicians, so Pierce mainly focuses on gender discrimination against women rather than men.
DeleteThis is a great review! You added interesting personal views about the book which I really liked. But if Alanna pretends to be a male, how do the "love interests" realize that she's a girl? You gave many details and I might read this book someday.
ReplyDeleteAs I've mentioned before in one of the replies, some people do come to recognize her true gender. These people become her love interests over time...if you want to know how they figured it out, you'll just have to read the book! ;)
DeleteI have never heard of this author before but this review was a great way for me to know more about her books. I tend to enjoy books with strong female characters so this seems like a good book. You described the characters and the plot well. One this that kinda caught my attention was your opinion on the terrible romantic arc. Finding a good way to implement romance into a novel is important. I can't wait to hopefully start reading this book!
ReplyDeleteFrom your summary, this sounds like an interesting book. I probably wouldn't read it but I could be interested in other books by this author. I like your honesty about the book. I think you could go into a lot more detail but considering the reviews shouldn't be too long, I think you did I really good job.
ReplyDelete