Reviews - Alana: Pirmasis nuotykis

2.88k reviews for:

Alana: Pirmasis nuotykis

Tamora Pierce, Paulius Uziela

4.22 AVERAGE

aklaux's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Well, that was a surprise. I definitely didn't expect a young adult book from the 1980s to be that good. Shows how biased I am...

Alanna is a 10-year-old girl who dreams of becoming a knight instead of an expected sorcerer. Problem is, only boys can become knights. When her emotionally absent father ships them off to school, she convinces her twin brother to trade places so that she can train to be a knight (disguised as a boy), while he takes her place to become a sorcerer (no disguise needed because no one limits boys...)

The plot was super smooth and read like a timeless coming of age story. Each page was rich with Alanna's persistence and stubbornness to prove herself among the boys. We have some classic "close calls" that bare resemblance to comedies I grew up with like Mulan (1998) or She's the Man (2007). I kept thinking I've seen this done before, but I’d then realize this was written before any of those familiar references. Silly me.

I really loved Alanna's character development as we begin to see how she starts to accept who she is. I also enjoyed several of the supporting characters, though a few of them blended together at points. I could have done with fewer friends to remember but with more depth to each of them.

Finally, I was surprised how well the writing style holds up as an adult, given that the protagonist is so young. And I'd never read it, so nostalgia wasn’t even a factor. Brava, Pierce! I love to see such early influences of powerful female protagonists in the fantasy genre. I'll be reading the rest of the series ASAP.