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A review by nonsensicaljourney
Tortall: A Spy's Guide by Timothy Liebe, Tamora Pierce, Julie Holderman
3.0
I read this book as part of the Tamora Pierce Book Club with Life's Library. For context, this book is more or less a random offshoot of the well-established Middle Grade / YA books set in the Tortall universe. I read all of those books when I was in middle school, so I'm coming at this series again after maybe ten years, and my feelings are complicated.
It's a simple book, full of little random exerpts and no underlying plot, and it was very fun to read in some parts. It's got stories about Aly, notes from Daine, notes about Numair, and hilarious timelines of the Tortall universe written by Alanna's ten-year-old son. The formal timeline at the end is helpful and interesting, but everything in this book is a bit all over the shop. It's nice to read little snippets of their lives, but this isn't the kind of book I'd need to ever pick up again. I'm very glad I got it from the Library.
I'm very glad I got to re-live this universe afresh, just for a bit, but ultimately I would have preferred to start with re-reading one of the fully-fleshed-out novels rather than colour my experiences of this universe with random stories I often didn't entirely understand. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading this book with the Tamora Pierce Book Club, and reading it out of order is entirely my own fault.
If you already know the Tortall universe and it hasn't been too long since you've read one of the full novels, you'll love this book. Even if it's been a long time, you'll still get something out of it - and better yet, it might inspire you to pull out your old books and re-read them all...
It's a simple book, full of little random exerpts and no underlying plot, and it was very fun to read in some parts. It's got stories about Aly, notes from Daine, notes about Numair, and hilarious timelines of the Tortall universe written by Alanna's ten-year-old son. The formal timeline at the end is helpful and interesting, but everything in this book is a bit all over the shop. It's nice to read little snippets of their lives, but this isn't the kind of book I'd need to ever pick up again. I'm very glad I got it from the Library.
I'm very glad I got to re-live this universe afresh, just for a bit, but ultimately I would have preferred to start with re-reading one of the fully-fleshed-out novels rather than colour my experiences of this universe with random stories I often didn't entirely understand. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading this book with the Tamora Pierce Book Club, and reading it out of order is entirely my own fault.
If you already know the Tortall universe and it hasn't been too long since you've read one of the full novels, you'll love this book. Even if it's been a long time, you'll still get something out of it - and better yet, it might inspire you to pull out your old books and re-read them all...