These moments let us get to know the characters better and experience Alanna’s emotions more fully. Time moves quickly at first, almost like a montage of Alanna’s everyday life as a page, but then, gradually, more and more scenes come up that the readers can fall into a bit more. Where things happen very, very quickly at first – Alanna arrives at the castle, meets her fellow students, immediately makes an enemy and some friends – things take a bit longer later on. Something that fascinated me was how the writing matures over the course of the book, though. So Alanna cuts her hair, blackmails/convinces Coram, her blacksmith/swordsmaster, to keep her secret and help her out once they’re in the capital, and the adventure begins. A lot happens very fast and there is little description but tons of dialogue. I mean, in the first few pages, Alanna and her twin brother Thom are introduced, decide they are going to switch places because Alanna wants to be a knight and Thom wants to be a sorcerer (their father had different plans) and they see a vision in the fire of the local sorceress promising adventures to come. There’s something very comforting about picking up a childhood favorite, a book so clearly written for kids that it just lets you relax while you read it. As Alanna masters the skills necessary for battle, she must also learn to control her heart and to discern her enemies from her allies.įilled with swords and sorcery, adventure and intrigue, good and evil, Alanna’s first adventure begins – one that will lead to the fulfillment of her dreams and the magical destiny that will make her a legend in her land. 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.īut the road to knighthood is not an easy one. 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. I’ll be a knight.Īnd so young Alanna of Trebond begins the journey to knighthood. He was already looking at a book.įrom now on I’m Alan of Trebond, the younger twin.

We need not discuss it,” said the man at the desk. No matter how long it’s been, I still want to finish the Song of the Lioness series and in order to refresh my memory, I thought I’d simply re-read the first book. There aren’t many things about it I still remembered but one was that it was the first fantasy book I read that mentions menstruation and the second was that I really liked it. I think I must have been around fifteen or sixteen when I first read this book but I sadly never continued the series.

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