tamora pierce, the beka cooper trilogy
Jun. 19th, 2012 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbard*fans self* I just read all three of the Beka Cooper books in two days. The first two were rereads, but I hadn't reread in so long that it was more or less like reading them for the first time -- although I'm amused to note that you can tell which chapters in Dust I was writing when I was reading Terrier for the first time, because I am not that subtle.
I like this world. I like it a lot. I grew up reading Tamora Pierce -- I've probably got the Song of the Lioness quartet practically memorized -- and it's interesting to see how with each book and series she writes the world and characters get more and more complex, more realistic, even -- dirtier, for lack of a better world. And, okay, literally on that, since Alanna: The First Adventure starts in the palace and Mastiff ends in the streets. I almost wish Pierce would go back and rewrite Song of the Lioness so that that world is as rich and full -- but no, I don't wish that.
Actually, one of the things I'm most impressed with in the Beka Cooper books is the slang and dialect, because I can tell you from experience, that's the hardest freaking thing to do! Especially if you're trying to get the flavor of the streets in such a way that it sounds like cops and criminals are swearing as much as they are, but so that it's still acceptable for the YA audience. So that impresses me most about the world-building.
This trilogy was interesting because it's a prequel to what we're familiar with from Song of the Lioness and the following series. It's a very rich world, but it's both familiar and unfamiliar. You've got familiar family/place names -- Naxen, Trebond, Olau, and so on -- but you've also got lady knights who are accepted and legal slavery, as well as far more foreigners than appear in any of the later books. I was amused to see that the very familiar names we're used to from Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small are either (a) the bad guys or (b) the not-so-good guys in this series. Don't get comfortable just because you recognize a family! Plus there are lots of new families.
Another interesting thing is the cult of the Gentle Mother and what's clearly the slow corralling of women into the very set roles we're used to by the time of the later series. There are some hardass ladies in these books! And I love them. (CALL ME SABINE. YOU'RE SINGLE NOW.) And I kind of wince at what happens to those that follow them in the two hundred years between these books and Song of the Lioness. I mean, I'm curious about how it got that way, but I suspect: not well.
The one thing that is puzzling me about the ending of Mastiff is the fact that the King changes Queensgrace's name to Princehold, but by Protector of the Small we have a Queensgrace again. You'd think that isn't a name they'd bestow again lightly because of the, you know, GIANT TREASON. --*checks* And I'm wrong, because it's actually Queenscove in the later books, not Queensgrace. Whoops! Sorry, Neal.
I am a little sad that there's not going to be another book set on the streets of Corus, because I like Rosto, Aniki, Kora, and Beka's Dog pals, and it would be cool to see -- especially if it dealt with the repercussions of the end of Mastiff. But I'm pretty sure this series is just a trilogy, not a quartet.
Obviously I ended Mastiff going AHAHAHAHAHA poor George Cooper, man. He just doesn't know what's about to hit him. Too bad we'll never see what Beka thinks of Alanna of Trebond and George ending up Baron George of Pirate's Swoop. And the Rogue, first. :)
And now that I have remembered just how much I like Tamora Pierce, I have to see about collecting all the Tamora Pierce books that have come out in the past couple years that I haven't bought -- Mastiff I got from the library, but the last one I bought was Bloodhound, and obviously I have to complete the set, and there are at least two books that have come out that I don't own. So I shall get on that with some of my graduation money.
I like this world. I like it a lot. I grew up reading Tamora Pierce -- I've probably got the Song of the Lioness quartet practically memorized -- and it's interesting to see how with each book and series she writes the world and characters get more and more complex, more realistic, even -- dirtier, for lack of a better world. And, okay, literally on that, since Alanna: The First Adventure starts in the palace and Mastiff ends in the streets. I almost wish Pierce would go back and rewrite Song of the Lioness so that that world is as rich and full -- but no, I don't wish that.
Actually, one of the things I'm most impressed with in the Beka Cooper books is the slang and dialect, because I can tell you from experience, that's the hardest freaking thing to do! Especially if you're trying to get the flavor of the streets in such a way that it sounds like cops and criminals are swearing as much as they are, but so that it's still acceptable for the YA audience. So that impresses me most about the world-building.
This trilogy was interesting because it's a prequel to what we're familiar with from Song of the Lioness and the following series. It's a very rich world, but it's both familiar and unfamiliar. You've got familiar family/place names -- Naxen, Trebond, Olau, and so on -- but you've also got lady knights who are accepted and legal slavery, as well as far more foreigners than appear in any of the later books. I was amused to see that the very familiar names we're used to from Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small are either (a) the bad guys or (b) the not-so-good guys in this series. Don't get comfortable just because you recognize a family! Plus there are lots of new families.
Another interesting thing is the cult of the Gentle Mother and what's clearly the slow corralling of women into the very set roles we're used to by the time of the later series. There are some hardass ladies in these books! And I love them. (CALL ME SABINE. YOU'RE SINGLE NOW.) And I kind of wince at what happens to those that follow them in the two hundred years between these books and Song of the Lioness. I mean, I'm curious about how it got that way, but I suspect: not well.
The one thing that is puzzling me about the ending of Mastiff is the fact that the King changes Queensgrace's name to Princehold, but by Protector of the Small we have a Queensgrace again. You'd think that isn't a name they'd bestow again lightly because of the, you know, GIANT TREASON. --*checks* And I'm wrong, because it's actually Queenscove in the later books, not Queensgrace. Whoops! Sorry, Neal.
I am a little sad that there's not going to be another book set on the streets of Corus, because I like Rosto, Aniki, Kora, and Beka's Dog pals, and it would be cool to see -- especially if it dealt with the repercussions of the end of Mastiff. But I'm pretty sure this series is just a trilogy, not a quartet.
Obviously I ended Mastiff going AHAHAHAHAHA poor George Cooper, man. He just doesn't know what's about to hit him. Too bad we'll never see what Beka thinks of Alanna of Trebond and George ending up Baron George of Pirate's Swoop. And the Rogue, first. :)
And now that I have remembered just how much I like Tamora Pierce, I have to see about collecting all the Tamora Pierce books that have come out in the past couple years that I haven't bought -- Mastiff I got from the library, but the last one I bought was Bloodhound, and obviously I have to complete the set, and there are at least two books that have come out that I don't own. So I shall get on that with some of my graduation money.