Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce

Every time I think I've finally finished all the Tamora Pierce books, Jess keeps handing me another. I'm appreciative, they are good books, but whenever I start one I get trapped in it until I finish it. It's a nice problem to have I guess, but I'm looking forward to reading books that I can put down when I need to.

Trickster's Choice is the start of a the "Daughter of the Lioness" storyline set in the Tortall world. This story-line follows Alanna and George's daughter Aly. Aly takes after her father, the ex-master thief turned spy. She's headstrong and a thrill seeker and completely uninterested in the traditional life-pursuits for a young noblewoman.

What she really wants to be is a spy. However, Mom and Dad don't want their little girl in that much danger. Who would? It's infuriating to Aly though, and after a heated discussion with her mom, Aly decides to sail down the coast a little and cool down. That's where she runs into the pirates who capture her and sell her into slavery.

Soon, Aly finds herself tangled up in the local politics of the Copper Isles and talking to local gods, specifically Kyprioth the trickster god.

So, in reading Pierce it seems that she like's coming sideways at real world issues in her books. She's taken on gender issues and slavery. This one seems to be coming at issues of race and conquest. It's interestingly pragmatic about the issues in a way that we often aren't. One of the things I've always valued about books is their ability to shed light on the issues of our world without the baggage so that we can think clearly about it. Most people seem to take literature, especially fantasy, at face value, but I think when it's well done, it can be more thought provoking than even the best history which must always be examined for agenda.

In any case, good read. Appropriate for high schoolers and precocious middle schoolers. Solid themes and thought provoking. Some, minimal romance but nothing lascivious. Strong characters both female and male.