Product Description

Tamora Pierce brings readers another Tortall adventure! Alianne is the teenage daughter of the famed Alanna, the first lady knight in Tortall. Young Aly follows in the quieter footsteps of her father, however, delighting in the art of spying. When she is captured and sold as a slave to an exiled royal family in the faraway Copper Islands, it is this skill that makes a difference in a world filled with political intrigue, murderous conspiracy, and warring gods. This is the first of two books featuring Alianne.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #572775 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-23
• Released on: 2003-09-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Amazon.com Review
To the great joy of her many fans, Tamora Pierce with this book begins a new saga of Tortall to add to The Song of the Lioness Quartet, the Immortals Quartet, and The Protector of the Small tetralogy. At the center of each of these books is always a strong and resourceful young woman who masters the arts of swordplay and knightly warfare in the magical medieval country of Tortall. Alianne, or Aly, daughter of the warrior queen Alanna the Lioness, has all these skills, but also a delicious sense of humor, which serves her well when she is chosen by the trickster god Kyprioth to serve as his secret agent and a slave for a year in the embattled Copper Isles. There the dark-skinned natives, or raka, have been conquered and crushed by the laurin, light-skinned people from the mainland. The burning raka resentment is fueled by prophecies of a twice royal queen who will free them, aided by the "wise one, the cunning one, the strong one, the warrior, and the crows." Just how each of the colorful characters and Aly herself fit into this prophecy and Kyprioth’s tricky plan keeps readers guessing. Aly plots to show her skill at spying as she flirts with the god and is courted by Nawat, a crow transformed into a handsome young man, who is puzzled when she rejects his attempts to mate-feed her with grubs and ants.

The pages of this long but fast-paced adventure zip by, enlivened by intrigue, skirmishes, comedy, romance, and lots of dramatic clothes. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell

From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10-Alianne, daughter of Alanna (Alanna: The First Adventure [Random, 1989]), is ready to create her own legend. As the book opens, Aly, 16, longs to follow in her father's footsteps as a spy, but her parents refuse to allow it. Annoyed, she sails off in her boat, only to be captured by pirates and sold into slavery, fortunately to kindly Duke Balitang. She meets Kyprioth, the Trickster, and strikes a bargain: if Aly keeps the Duke and his family safe for the summer, Kyprioth will return her to her family and persuade her parents to let her be a spy. With magic, spells, winged horses that are part human and part metal, crows that take human form (and provide a romance for Aly), brutal fighting, treason, and attempted kidnapping, this fantasy has plenty to hold readers' attention. It also offers an interesting examination of race, as well as a look at an adolescent's finding her independence, an especially difficult task with such a powerful mother. Aly is a strong, intelligent, and resilient feminist who stretches this fantasy to a parable of girl-power. The book at times bogs down in the sheer number of characters and relationships, and in the author's zealous attention to descriptive details, but Pierce's fans will enjoy it.
Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 7-12. Readers who have delighted in the tales of Alanna the Lioness will be equally thrilled by this rich and complex tale of Alanna's teenage daughter, Aly. Aly longs to be a spy, like her father, and is prickly with her often-absent mother. When the 16-year-old dashes off, she is instantly captured by pirates and sold into slavery to a noble family, the Balitangs of the Copper Isles. There, the trickster god Kyprioth binds Aly to him: she is to keep her charges, the Balitang children, safe for the summer, and then she can go home. Aly hides her skills in magic and weaponry and her fierce intelligence in plain sight; watching her mind work is a wonder. She learns the language of crows and teaches them hers, and a crow of great power and sweetness makes himself into human form for her sake. A marvelous cast of characters, human, mage, and animal; a tangled web of political and racial tensions; and the promise of other Aly stories to come will engage Pierce's legions of fans and win over even more. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Be careful what you say, or you'll give yourself away...
First of all, I'd like to offer my congratulations to Ms. Pierce. After years and years of simply awful covers that publishers have slapped onto her books, she has finally been given a decent one. I mean, have you see some of her other covers? I'm not talking about these incredibly cool ones like the one for "Trickster's Choice". I'm talking about the ones created for such classic tales as "Wild Magic" or "Alanna: The First Adventure". Ms. Pierce has paid her bad-cover dues. Now she has truly earned a couple beautiful ones. I admit that much of my attraction to this tale was due to its alluring cover illustration. It was just my own good luck that the story inside was wonderfully gripping and well written as well.

This book follows Pierce's "Lioness Quartet", a series of books that centered on the lady knight Alanna. In "Trickster's Choice", Aly (Alanna's daughter) is now the center and focus. Aly is the daughter of a famous knight and a famous spy. Both her parents are fighters by nature, but somehow they just can't get it through their heads that all their sixteen-year-old daughter wants to do is become spy like her dad. When Alanna decides that her daughter has become too bull-headed about the matter, Aly takes off on a small adventure of her own. She gets more than she bargained for, however, when her boat is captured by pirates and she is sold as a slave to a foreign noble family. The fact that she has winded up with this particular group of nobles is no accident, however. The trickster god Kyprioth is determined to use Aly's spy skills to protect the family's children, whatever the cost. Before she knows it, Aly is caught up in court intrigues and a political battle between the dark skinned raka and their white skinned luarin oppressors.

I wanted to read my first Tamora Pierce book without having to read through all her previous novels. So I picked up "Trickster's Choice" and hoped for the best. As it happens, you don't necessarily need to have read its predecessors, though it certainly couldn't hurt. Pierce is fond of explaining all past activities and events in such a way that even a person beginning with this book (like myself) catches up easily. Admittedly, I was disappointed with her decision to continually comment on characters and events that had little to no bearing on the current plot. Still, these moments mostly came at the beginning of the book. If you can get through three chapters of this story you'll be successfully hooked and ready to read on.

As for the book itself, it's excellent. I was amazed to find it a wonderful spy novel. Forget Modesty Blaise and Emma Peal; Aly is the best female spy I've encountered in a long time. Pierce has a way of making her quick on her feet without rendering her perfect or flawless. She is mature for her sixteen years but very much the teenager. She's smart as a whip but incredibly funny and endowed with an excellent sense of humor. Maybe it was this humor that made me greatly prefer her to her well meaning but laughless mother. Tamora Pierce has a website dedicated to, what she calls, "sheroes". Aly is a worthy addition to this particular feminist genre. I even liked her choice of mate. Rarely do I ever understand the male heartthrobs in teen girl novels. But Aly's fella is not only adorable but danged sexy to boot. And I loved that though Aly was a fighter, she was by no means invincible. When Aly fights she does so to the best of her abilities. She's Buffy without the super powers, this one.

I was pleased to see that the sequel to this book, "Trickster's Queen", is available and promises to be just as good. If you've any interest in reading about a gal who outwits nobles and gods and is the companion of crows, this might be just the book for you. It's a great tale and one worth reading again and again. If you're tired of books in which the girls gossip and giggle, cleanse your palate with a little "Trickster's Choice". You're hardly gonna find action, humor, and great writing as easily anywhere else.

Tamora Pierce, at her best
I have been reading Tamora Pierce for years now. I first picked up the Alanna series when I was about eleven or twelve and I absolutely loved them, I have enjoyed all of her books, Totallan or not.

This is the newest installment in her Tortallan books. The other characters from Tortall include: Daine, Alanna, and Kel. I have read about and loved each of these characters. The newest heroine in Trickster's Choice is Aly, Alanna and George's daughter. Unlike the other heriones Aly as a very noticeable sense of humor, she is more real than the other characters. She makes mistakes, she acts cocky, she loves her mother but gets easily annoyed by her. All of these things make Aly endearing to me. She isn't really good at the physical part of things like the other three heroines were, she uses her mind, her wit, and skill. I really liked the god, Kyprioth, he provides a lot of the humor in the book. I loved catching up on our old friends, Alanna and George, Daine and Numair, and Jonathan and Thayet, it's fun knowing what they're doing now.

I didn't really find this book fitting for the nine to twelve catagory that it's placed in. No there is nothing in it that wouldn't be suitable for that age group but I don't know if kids that young could follow the plot. This is a different kind of book than the rest of Ms. Pierce's collection. It is filled with an intricate plot and a lot of political intruige, I find this book more suitable for 12 and up, they would appreciate the plot more than anyone younger than that.

All in all, this is a wonderful book and a fantastic installment to the rest of the Tortallan series. Now... When does Trickster's Queen come out?

Absolutely Fabulous Addition to the Series
I was so excited about this book. I went out and bought it ... well, as soon as I could, since I wasn't able to on the 23. And it definitely didn't disappoint.

Aly is very different than Ms. Pierce's other heroines, to be sure. But then, they're all very different. Kel was previously by far my favorite, but now I'm really unsure. I think it's a tie. Aly has a sense of humor, and she doesn't have the blind idealism found with Kel or Daine, for example. She also doesn't have their ambition, their determination, their focus, which keeps her from being too perfect. She's definitely a real character, and one I, for one, can relate to.

She also had some good friends, while they can't, of course, compare to Neal and Dom and Owen and such. Nawat is incredibly sweet, and I love him to death. Sarai and Dove are also fun, interesting characters. Alanna, George, Jon, Kel, Neal, and several others make appearances in this book, which is good, although I would have preferred to see more of them, personally, but there's a perfectly good reason for that.

The plot has to do with Aly's arguments with her mother over what she should do with her life. Alanna wants her to do something, anything, and Aly's found something - spying - but neither of her parents will let her. She runs off to Port Legann, in the hopes of winning them over, and in the process gets captured by Copper Isle slave runners. She gets sold to a duke and duchess who are related to the royal family and are very kind to her, but they end up being sent into exile. Aly, not being an essential part of their household, would get re-sold except for one thing - Kyprioth. The trickster god appears to Duke Mequen and Duchess Winnamine in the form of Mithros, telling them she is his chosen, and makes a bet with Aly - if she can keep all of the children of the family alive for the entire summer, he'll provide her with a way home at the end of all that, and speak to George about letting her spy. She accepts the wager, and they move into exile. Aly, in her turn, has to figure out why exactly Kyprioth wants them alive, and what the raka (dark-skinned) people have planned for Sarai, the oldest, half-raka daughter of the family. She's provided with help in some of the other servants, Sarai herself and the younger daughter Dove, the duke and duchess, and an assortment of crows, including one who turns into a man.

I enjoyed the plot. It had a lot more to do with politics than the previous books, and was much more intriguing. There certainly isn't nearly as much in terms of action, although there is some, but this new thing of multiple secrets, and no one knowing who she really is, is fascinating. There are also some grey areas as opposed to the blindly idealistic views of Protector of the Small, which is good. There's some of the romance that was lacking in Lady Knight, as well, and just as much humor as any of Tamora's other books. The only thing I have a serious objection to is the ending.

It wasn't that the ending wasn't well-written or enjoyable, it was just that, like Lady Knight, it didn't seem to really end. It just ... sort of ... stopped. And the way George acted wasn't exactly out of character, but it certainly wasn't the way one would expect a loving father to act (and the idea of George not being a loving father is ... not possible). It didn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the book.

It did, however, leave me desperately awaiting Trickster's Queen! I absolutely cannot wait!