Tamora Pierce Rant

[specks]

Tamora Pierce has been my favorite author since pretty much the beginning of time. Her Lioness Rampant series sucked me in and much of her subsequent novels have been equally good. They're excellently written and preserve a wonderful innocence about them that allows the word nobility to really mean something. Her novel The Will of the Empress,

Comments

[violaclaire]

I read The Will of the Empress a couple of years ago, and have never wanted to reread it, which probably says something about the book. Really the only thing I still remember is that she retconned Lark and Rosethorn's relationship, which made me a little sad--it felt as though she didn't have the guts to write a lesbian couple in The Circle of Magic quartet, so she tried to just slip it in to the sequel.

[specks]

I agree, except for the slipping it in part. I felt like I was getting hit over the head with a sledghammer with it. Usually she does things slowly with the character development, but there was no hint of it in Circle and then suddenly, ooh, Daja's gay. Right...what? I commend her for trying, but it just seemed too heavy handed.

I've read plenty of novels with lesbian relationships featured here and there (see the companion series by Mercedes Lackey) and they work really well because they're subtle. It's just one aspect of a wonderful character and it becomes such a normal thing that half the time you totally forget about it. Here, she's demoted Daja to being a poster child 2-d cut out when before she was actually quite a complicated character.

[specks]

Sorry it ended up being so long, I might still be annoyed. Just a little bit. :)