Why You Need To Be Reading Tamora Pierce

Have you heard of her? I’m guessing probably not: outside of a very specific subset of feminist young adult fans, she’s not very well known. But she should be: her books are some of the best young adult fiction I’ve ever read, much better (in my opinion) than those of more popular writers like Suzanne Collins or John Green.

Not that I have anything against either of them, I just don’t like their writing all that much.

Tamora Pierce’s books have been just as much of a fixture in my life as JK Rowling’s have, just in a much more understated way. Actually, until a couple years ago, I was completely unaware that Ms. Pierce had written anything beyond one of my favourite quartets: The Immortals.

My copy is a lot more busted up

In a phrase, these books are about a girl from the boonies called Daine who makes her way to a big city and gets into all kinds of trouble. Also, she can talk to animals. Shenanigans ensue.

But Pierce’s canon extends far beyond that. In the Tortall universe alone (where the Immortals takes place), she has written three quartets, a duology, and a prequel trilogy. Each series follows a different protagonist, but characters from previous series show up regularly. In fact the protagonist of the first quartet, Alanna, shows up as a mentor figure for the third quartet’s hero, Kel.

And completely apart from Tortall is the Emelan universe, with at least two more quartets, probably more. (I haven’t read all these books yet, though not for lack of trying. I can’t seem to find them in the format I want [paperback].)

But what is notable about the Tortall universe in particular is that every single series’ protagonist is female. Pierce is perhaps the best writer I have ever read at creating diverse, nuanced female characters that stand on equal ground with their male counterparts. While Alanna and Kel fight the patriarchal society directly by becoming the realm’s first and second lady knights, respectively, Daine works to master her wild magic, and Aly, Alanna’s daughter, finds her calling in becoming a spy.

These women are not forced to behave like men to earn respect from both their peers and the reader, but neither are they vilified if that is the route they choose to take. They are agents of their own fate.

This is remarkable mainly because it is, sadly, so very rare. The traditional fantasy narrative, if it contains women at all, usually relegates them to the role of love interest/plot device used to fuel the real hero’s journey/egregious manpain. (This is where things get feminist, folks; duck and cover.) The lack of excellent ladies is one of the biggest weaknesses of the fantasy genre as a whole, and though Ms. Pierce does an excellent job of attempting to remedy that imbalance, I wish more authors would join her.

Not that I’ll complain about reading these excellent books for the 30th time.

Excellent ladies