FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS discussion, pt 1: Girls’ Field Hockey (by YASubscription)
Discussion among YA author Kristin Cashore; Children’s Literature Professor Deborah Kaplan; Amy Stern, assistant agent at the Sheldon Fogelman Agency; and children’s literature critic Rebecca Rabinowitz (offscreen).
Wolf-Speaker
Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce
The Immortals, book 2
Daine’s wolf pack from her former home asks her to talk to the humans in their new territory about the destruction of the land, the water, and the hunting grounds in the new valley they have moved to. But it turns out that the situation is much different - much worse - than anyone could have guessed.
Wolf-Speaker is a lovely Tortall book. Although the main characters are (as usual in Pierce’s books) just a touch too good to be true, Daine makes mistakes and grows and learns throughout the story, and interacts wonderfully with the secondary characters. I particularly like Maura, a young noblewoman who is terrified but brave, and Tkaa, one of the immortals that Daine meets and befriends.
Wild Magic
Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
The Immortals, book 1
Even in a world filled with magic, Daine Sarrasi’s gift with animals stands out - and between her unusual gift and having to hide the secrets from her past, it’s easier for her to connect with animals than people. It takes time (and some gentle and not-so-gentle coaxing from friends and mentors) for Daine to come to trust her new acquaintances.
I enjoy these books and always like the strong women characters that Pierce writes. Sometimes, however, she repeats something in a story so often that it becomes less like a hint and more like a sledgehammer. Fewer - or more subtle - mentions of how Daine can’t trust these new people with her secret because they’d surely hate her would have been just as effective, if not more so. But that aside, it’s a good story and a fun, easy read.
Sunshine
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Sunshine is a reluctant heroine who would rather bake cinnamon rolls than kill vampires.
The world McKinley creates for her is so fascinating (and terrifying) that I love reading about it and learning all the snippets of information that come up along with the story - what different kinds of demons are like (physically and socially), how using magic can effect the user, how Sunshine started baking in the first place. These details make the world a more solid and interesting place for the characters to inhabit.
It goes without saying that I love McKinley’s style. It was her wonderful prose and great female protagonists that drew me to her books from the start, and this is no exception. Sunshine has become one of my favorite books, and each time I read it I get something else out of it.
Starters
Starters by Lissa Price
The vaccine was given to the most vulnerable - the very old (Enders) and the very young (Starters). Everyone else died. But that was a year ago. Now Callie, not only a Starter but an unclaimed minor with no Enders to look out for her, is desperate for money to pay for her brother’s medical care. The easiest way to get that kind of cash is to go to the body bank, to let an Ender control her body for a day, a week, a month.
Starters was creepy and unsettling from the beginning and constantly kept me (and Callie) off-balance. Who can Callie trust? What is really going on? Who is real and who is a “renter” riding someone else’s body? The idea isn’t new, but Price puts it into a new context and does an excellent job at it. Many things are ambiguous right up until the end of the book, leaving a clear setup for a sequel I will be eager to read.
Shay’s Story
Shay’s Story by Scott Westerfeld
Shay’s Story takes place parallel to Uglies, telling the same story from a different perspective. Most of it is simply filling in details behind broad strokes that we already know, such as how Shay first meets David and why she didn’t go to Smoke the first time. Interesting, but not vital plot detail.
Shay doesn’t look great in this book. In the novels, she’s seen as a leader, strong and sure of herself and what she wants. In Shay’s Story she is whiny, pushy, a hanger-on, even in some of the crossover scenes that are in both books.
The art is fine, but not amazing and possibly not the best match for this story. The wide-eyed style of the faces rather undermined the Ugly/Pretty juxtaposition, especially in a medium where everyone is already generally drawn as Pretty (especially women). Mostly the Uglies just look young and the Pretties look older, even when they are the same age. Faces aside, it was a very dynamic style of art, which is important in an Uglies story where everyone is hoverboarding here and there and running and hiding and doing tricks constantly.
Overall I enjoyed Shay’s Story but I would recommend it only to dedicated Uglies fans.
Bloodhound
Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
Beka Cooper, book 2
As much as Keladry (Protector of the Small) is still my favorite Pierce heroine, the Beka Cooper trilogy is certainly Pierce’s best work to date. Bloodhound is well-written with believable and interesting characters, a strong and intriguing plot, magic used occasionally and not as a constant crutch - and Pierce is not afraid to put characters in real, even deadly danger as fits the plot and setting.
I do have two minor technical issues with the book. The first is that, as with Terrier, Bloodhound is supposedly a journal but reads like a first-person novel. This doesn’t really detract much from the book, though. The second is to do with the counterfeit coins. The way it’s implied that they’re made wouldn’t work, and also no “silver paint” could match real silver well enough to fool suspicious people. The latter probably wouldn’t have bothered me as much if I wasn’t so impressed with how Pierce handled metalworking in the Circle series.
Those two things aside, I thoroughly enjoy this book and recommend the series to anyone who likes a fun fantasy read with a bit of crime drama mixed in.
Terrier
Terrier by Tamora Pierce
Beka Cooper, book 1
Terrier is a fun, fast-paced story about Beka Cooper, a former street urchin who is training for Dog (police) work. It’s set several hundred years before the other Tortall books.
The book is set up as Beka’s journal but reads like a first-person novel, and as with many of Pierce’s heroines, Beka has special features and abilities which help her on her chosen path (icy blue eyes that people find disconcerting, magical talents that are useful and unique). It’s an enjoyable book, though not without flaws, and a good set-up for the excellent sequels.
Specials
Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Uglies, book 3
And now Tally is not only Pretty but Special, a super-human commando whose body and brain have been surgically altered to make her the perfect weapon against her old friends. Can Tally rewire her own brain to save herself, her friends, and the world?
Well, maybe not the whole world, but their corner of it, anyway.
Like in Pretties, Tally is confused about the past and uncertain about the present. But unlike Pretties, she doesn’t know she’s confused about the past and it isn’t until she sees Zane and David again that she really starts to question her new role in Special Circumstances.
Specials barrels forward at the same pace as previous two books, helped along by Tally’s confusion and frustration and Special enhancements. She is forced to choose, over and over again, between Zane and Shay, or between David and Zane, or between the new Specials or her old friends. Much of the book takes place with Tally alone, or nearly alone, so some of the introspection and internal struggle that was in Uglies but missing from Pretties returns.
Overall, it’s a great trilogy; action-packed stories with characters that it is easy to care about (if not Tally, then Shay, David, Maddy, Zane) and fun to read about. Beyond that, there are powerful messages skillfully mixed into the action. You may get different messages, but here’s what I got: Looks don’t matter as much as you think. Protect the environment. Cherish your friends. Body autonomy and free thought are vital.
Pretties
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
Uglies, book 2
In Uglies, Tally couldn’t wait to be Pretty and put her old Ugly life behind her. Now that she finally is, all kinds of niggling doubts keep her from fully embracing her new life - and Zane, the head of her new clique, isn’t helping: instead of calming her doubts, he encourages them. Why does Tally feel guilty whenever she talks to Shay? Why can’t she really remember anything that happened before she was Pretty? And who is this Ugly who’s crashed their party?
Like Uglies, Pretties starts in a hurry and keeps up the pace throughout: parties, tricks, and stunts; hoverboarding, hot-air balloons, and helicopters; if it’s not one thing, it’s something else.
Pretties is a good (and fun) story, though maybe not as poignant or powerful as Uglies. There are more tricks and games and less internal struggles, even though the tricks and games are for a greater purpose. Tally is again caught in a web of lies and betrayal, although she doesn’t realize it until it’s too late.
This may be the weakest book in the trilogy, but a weak Scott Westerfeld book is still miles better than the average book off the shelf.
