Tamora Pierce, Emelan, and the world of tortall

I didn’t even know how good I had it

In middle school I got to hang out in the library after school. My aunt was a teacher and she would take us home after school and that meant I had time to kill while she got work done. Being the book child that meant I made a beeline for the book place. The librarians would let me help shelve the books and I got to know the shelves in a very intimate way. That is how I found her.

Tamora Pierce.

I’m pretty sure it was the covers. I mean.

C’mon.

It had swords. It had swords. And magic? Done. Sold. I was starved for it and everything at that age was new. The writing was different too. There was a humor to it and a unique personality that most books I had read at the time didn’t have. Alanna felt real with temper tantrums, frustrations, and quirks. She would never go home the same way she left it. That was something I did too.

Then I found out there was a whole world. Tortall was huge and there was more to see, more characters to get to know, and more new magic. The Immortals quartet and the Protector of the Small all of them were good, all of them featured female leads with unique personalities and strengths. Plus there were so many different designs.

Tamora Pierce had representation before there was a loud cry for it and brought a beautiful world to life with a creative and unique flair.

Emelan was just as rich but the magic to me was top tier. Based more on the medieval Middle East and Central Asia than the Western European, the characters had powers like weather magic and weaving magic. They were kids who had gone through so much and found strength in themselves to come out so much better.

Pierce has given me so much to love and lean on. I felt like I grew up in this world, like these characters were my friends and their journeys something I got to be a part of.

These stories are full of adventure and realistic women dealing with the world around them. They are a go to recommendation to young readers and honestly to anyone who likes adventure stories with a creative touch of magic.

I haven’t read all of her works yet and I am going to use this deep dive to rectify that. I’m also going to use it as an excuse to reread my favorites and fall in love all over again. I want to see if they hold up past the nostalgia and how they would fit in with the way books are today.

So, to start, I am going to tackle The Circle of Magic series. I loved the original series but I never finished the second or the third and it is time.

The Series

Tortall

Song of the Lioness

Though a girl, Alanna has always craved the adventure and daring allowed only for boys; her twin brother, Thom, yearns to learn the art of magic. So one day they decide to switch places: Thom heads for the convent to learn magic; Alanna, pretending to be a boy, is on her way to the castle of King Roald to begin her training as a page.

The Immortals

Young Daine’s knack with horses gets her a job helping the royal horsemistress drive a herd of ponies to Tortall. Soon it becomes clear that Daine’s talent, as much as she struggles to hide it, is downright magical. Horses and other animals not only obey, but listen to her words. Daine, though, will have to learn to trust humans before she can come to terms with her powers, her past, and herself.

The Protector of the Small

Keladry of Mindelan is the first girl to take advantage of the decree that permits females to train for knighthood. Up against the traditional hazing of pages and a grueling schedule, Kel faces only one real roadblock: Lord Wyldon, the training master of pages and squires. He is absolutely against girls becoming knights. So while he is forced to train her, Wyldon puts her on probation for one year. It is a trial period that no male page has ever had to endure and one that separates the good natured Kel even more from her fellow trainees during the tough first year. But Kel Is not a girl to underestimate, as everyone is about to find out.

Tricksters

Alianne is the teenage daughter of the famed Alanna, the first lady knight in Tortall. Young Aly follows in the quieter footsteps of her father, however, delighting in the art of spying. When she is captured and sold as a slave to an exiled royal family in the faraway Copper Islands, it is this skill that makes a difference in a world filled with political intrigue, murderous conspiracy, and warring gods.

Beka Cooper

Beka Cooper is a rookie with the law-enforcing Provost’s Guard, commonly known as “the Provost’s Dogs,” in Corus, the capital city of Tortall. To the surprise of both the veteran “Dogs” and her fellow “puppies,” Beka requests duty in the Lower City. The Lower City is a tough beat. But it’s also where Beka was born. She’s assigned to work with Mattes and Clary, famed veterans among the Provost’s Dogs, tough, and capable, and none too happy about being saddled with a puppy for the first time in years. But Beka has a special talent that sets her apart from the other puppies. She’s a good listener.

The Numair Chronicles

Arram Draper is a boy on the path to becoming one of the realm’s most powerful mages. The youngest student in his class at the Imperial University of Carthak, he has a Gift with unlimited potential for greatness–and for attracting danger. At his side are his two best friends: Varice, a clever girl with an often-overlooked talent, and Ozorne, the “leftover prince” with secret ambitions. Together, these three friends forge a bond that will one day shape kingdoms. And as Ozorne gets closer to the throne and Varice gets closer to Arram’s heart, Arram begins to realize that one day soon he will have to decide where his loyalties truly lie.

Other Tales

A collection of short stories and a guide thst includes the first official timeline of Tortallan events from when it became a sovereign nation to the year Aly gives birth to triplets.

Emelan

The Circle of Magic

 Four young people from very different walks of life come together for an education.  One is a merchant’s daughter who discovers a fantastic magical talent for manipulating the weather.  One is the daughter of a people who live by trade alone, the sole survivor of her family’s ship, the possessor of the power to work metal in many ways.  The third is a nobleman’s daughter, the great-niece of Summersea’s ruler, whose unladylike preoccupation with sewing, weaving, and the manipulation of anything resembling thread is revealed to be pure magic.  And the fourth is a boy, reared on the streets as a thief, rescued from slave labor to discover he has magic with plants and the making of medicines.

The Circle Opens

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The Circle Reforged

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Tamora Pierce

She was one of the first writer’s that made me feel I could write too. Tamora Pierce was born on December 13, 1954, in South Connellsville, in western Pennsylvania. When Pierce was five, her parents moved her and her two younger siblings to Dunbar, Pennsylvania, where her uncle provided her with her first books— Winnie the Pooh and The Cat in the Hat—and fostered her love of reading.

At age eight, Pierce’s family moved to San Mateo, California, where her parents’ marriage began to fall apart. Pierce dealt with the tension in her parents’ marriage by telling herself stories. One day her father suggested that she start writing these stories down. Pierce, fascinated by Star Trek and The Lord of the Rings, began to focus on creating her own imaginary lands, unusual characters, and, what other fantasy novels failed to include—teenaged female warriors.

In 1969, Pierce’s parents divorced, and she and her siblings moved with her mother back to Fayette County, in western Pennsylvania. The differences between California and Pennsylvania made Pierce feel out of place, and during the rest of her high school career at Uniontown Area Senior High School, Pierce focused less on her writing and more on helping others feel better about themselves.

In 1972 she attended college at the University of Pennsylvania, studying psychology, sociology, education, and a variety of languages. During her junior year of college, Pierce rediscovered her interest in writing, and in her senior year she took a writing class. After graduating with a degree in liberal arts, Pierce spent some time in Idaho as a housemother in a group-home for teenaged girls. At that time, she was working on a novel for adults, but in telling the story to her girls, she adapted the content to appeal more to their teenaged interests.

In 1976, Pierce moved to New York to publish her writing and, after working a few non-literary jobs to pay the rent, began working for a literary agency. Her agent suggested Pierce rework her 732-page novel for adults into four separate books for teens. Having already told a teenage version of her book to her girls in Idaho, Pierce decided to take her agent’s advice. She published Alanna: The First Adventure in 1983. Alanna: The First Adventure is the first book within The Song of the Lioness quartet, and it tells the story of a strong young woman training to become a page, a knight’s servant, in the land of Tortall by pretending to be a boy.

After publishing her first quartet, Pierce went to work on others. Throughout the 1990s, Pierce wrote her second and third quartets, The Immortals and The Circle of Magic. She continued to write, and she began to make appearances in schools, encouraging students to write. In 2000, Pierce traveled to England for her first publisher-sponsored tour, to promote her most recent quartets, The Protector of the Small and The Circle Opens.

Critics agree that Pierce’s books have made a great impact on young female readers, encouraging them to be strong and to overcome challenges like those faced by the characters she develops. Although courageous, Pierce’s characters all have their own flaws, which, critics agree, allows readers to identify with them easily. After receiving such positive reactions to Alanna, Pierce decided to write about Alanna’s daughter Alianne in two books, Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen. In 2004, the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, included Trickster’s Choice on their annual list of Best Books for Young Readers.

Pierce, who continues to write, currently resides in Manhattan with her husband Tim Liebe, himself a writer and an actor. Pierce has several cats and birds and enjoys rescuing animals in need of help and a good home. Although Pierce has no children of her own, she loves spending time with her many nieces and nephews, as well as with her friends. She travels around the country, including Pennsylvania, visiting libraries and appearing at young writers’ conferences.

Source: Lyons, Deborah. “Tamora Pierce.” Pennsylvania Center for the Book, https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/bios/Pierce__Tamora.