A review by fuchsiarascal
Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce

adventurous inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Alanna comes back strong for this final installment of her series. Finally, we see her actually going off on a knightly adventure like the ones she's always talked about, and having all the unexpected rescuing and character growth that comes with it. While I do think some things should have been fleshed out more—Liam is almost obnoxiously afraid of magic, yes, but Alanna should have faced character growth repercussions of letting Faithful magically spell him to sleep—I'm still mindful of how this book was truncated for the acceptable length of YA fantasy books of the time. That's the main flaw with all of the Alanna books, they have a great core of the story but are unfortunately a product of publishing standards of the 80s.

I love all the character growth we see here. We see Jonathan grow into his role instead of being the spoiled prince he was in The Woman Who Rides Like a Man. We see George
lose most of his loyal supporters
and lose his taste for the Rogue in pursuit of other people and things (like loyalty to Jonathan). We see the opposite of character development in Thom, but framed in such a way amidst everyone else's growth that it's stark and wrong... oh, how I hated Thom when I first read these! I understand Alanna's emotional attachments to him now, but I still don't feel sorry for what he brought upon himself. I love the introductions of Thayet and Buri—Buri more, to be honest—and the K'mir. If I had any sway in future Tortall books, I would like some set in the Eastern lands to know more about the K'mir... or the far lands across the Inland sea, to know more about the Old Ones, the Ysandir, and what lies beyond our current scope. But anyway, I'm getting off topic. The K'mir are fascinating to me, and are thankfully written in a less appropriative way than the Bazhir.

In the end, we see Alanna grow into who she is, not just a warrior but also a person, someone who embraces her femininity as well as the "masculine" traits she always had to uphold as a warrior. She finds herself the most in this book, and does so in a way that doesn't so much compromise who she is but redefines what she wants. A conversation with Faithful sums this up perfectly, where Faithful (chidingly) points out that all Alanna wanted when she was young was to have adventures and not think about love, and Alanna responds that she was young and foolish (and idealistic) at the time. (Sorry, I didn't mark the exact quote, but you get the gist. I'll update here if I find it later.) Alanna is still, you know, fairly immature as all 21 year olds are, but she has grown up a lot between the beginning of the previous book and the end of this one.

Semi-related content note: 
I lost my black cat, Felix Felicis, this week, in the middle of this Alanna re-read, and somehow blocked out the fact that Faithful dies in this until it was too late. Probably not good timing for me. Oh, how I sobbed the first time I read that part... and the second... and the twentieth... Still, knowing what I know with Beka Cooper's story, it was less of a blow now. But still terrible timing!