Song of the Lioness is an award winning quartet by Tamora Pierce. Pierce created a fictional world with fictional countries based off of different cultures in our world today. Most of her stories in this fictional world take place in the country Tortall, a mirror of our North American culture. The stories are set in a Medieval time period. The story is about a young girl named Alanna of Trebond, who is part of the aristocracy. In Tortall, at ten years old, girls are sent to the convent to become ladies and boys are either sent to the capital to become knights, sent to the university to become scholars, or sent to the convent City of Gods to become sorcerers. The Lord of Trebond decides to send his daughter to the convent and her twin brother Thom to the capital to become a knight. The only problem is that Thom and Alanna don't want to go. In fact, Thom wants to be a sorcerer and Alanna dreams of being a knight. Unfortunately, their father would never allow it and at this time in Tortall, girls cannot become knights. Luckily for Thom and Alanna they have an advantage that most people don't, they look almost exactly like. So Alanna chops off her hair and goes to the capital pretending to be Thom's twin brother Alan, and Thom wears a dress so his father is convinced that it is Alanna who is leaving for the convent. The rest of the series follows Alanna and her adventures in the capital, where she fights evil knights and sorcerer, befriends a prince, and is forced to bind her breasts to conceal her gender.
I only own the first book, Alanna: The First Adventure, but I have read the entire series through at least twice a year. It's an amazing series because it really explores social issues in our society today (well it was written in the 80s but you get what I mean) while it still has a magical feel. Did I mention that Alanna is a kick ass character? She has a terrible temper and is hilarious, plus she has magical abilities, just like her brother. This series has it all, humour, romance, war, magic, teenage issues, and good ol' friendship. Pierce really gets into the history of the world she created. It's almost as good as J.K. Rowling's accuracy in her creation of Harry Potter. Plus Tamora Pierce writes a few more series in the world of Tortall and trust me, once you read this one you will want to read the other as well. There were some setbacks, Alanna could be irritating at times, she has a few love affairs in the last two books and makes some stupid decisions, but I guess she's only human right? I rate the series a five out of five.
