Trickster’s Choice by Tamora Pierce March 7, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Your mother is the King’s Champion; your father is second in command of the realm’s spies.
Your godfathers are the King and one of his advisers.
Your godmothers are the Queen and her governess.
Your adoptive uncle is the realm’s most powerful mage who is married to your adoptive aunt who is also a mage as well as half goddess.
You were raised amongst wonderful and powerful people and expected to be great. So, what do you do when you are kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery?
You follow the path that Tamora Pierce created for Alianne Cooper of Pirate’s Swoop in her novel, Trickster’s Choice. Alianne, or Aly, as most people refer to her, is purchased by a noble family in the Copper Isles and must choose her path: try to escape and risk death if caught, or stay with the family and try to rise through the slave ranks.
Aly chose to stay with the family and began a journey that she would not soon forget.
One of the Isles Gods, Kyprioth, needed to free his people, the raka, from beneath the Luarin’s oppression and decided to utilize Aly’s spy skills to their full extent. He started by making the Balitang family believe that she was chosen by Mithros, a Great God. Because of this, they looked to her, a mere slave, in confusing and trying times.
Forced to move from their home in Rajmuat, the capitol of the Copper Isles, to their ancestral home on Lombyn Island, the Balitang family began to see the Aly was more than just a merchant’s daughter from Tortall. Aly had the Gift of sight. She could “see” when someone was lying, if there was magic about, or spells on buildings. She could also talk to crows; this Gift was given to her by Kyprioth who is patron God for the crows and raka alike. The crows become Aly’s eyes and ears over the castle village and estates, so that Aly can keep the family safe. The two oldest Balitang girls are not only half Luarin nobility, but they are half Raka nobility as well. Their mother was the last heir to the throne before she died. The Raka used to be the rulers of the Copper Isles, but the white Luarins came from another realm and overthrew the Raka in their time of weakness. Since then, the raka have been oppressed and slaved, and the raka nobility has been in hiding.
Lady Saraiyu and Lady Dovasary are the raka’s last surviving heir’s to their lost throne. The raka have started a conspiracy to get the current Luarin rulers off the throne and to place a raka queen back in her rightful position. The Balitang girls are their last hope. As Aly begins to discover their plan, the conspirators try to shake her off their path, until they realize that Aly has some amazing tools that can aid them in their goal. They soon begin to recruit people to aid in the resistance. These new conspirators include some sympathetic Luarins who are tired of the Rittevon’s tyrannical control over the islands, as well as a strange crow-man who has fallen for Aly.
This novel marks the first half of Aly’s story on her journey to free the Copper Isles from oppression. The magic, conspiracy, and love in the story have something for every type of reader and would be a great choice for anyone who enjoys fantasy/fiction books. Aly’s story continues in Trickster’s Queen where she becomes further involved in the lives of the Balitang household and the raka’s future.
Find this series and other books by Tamora Pierce below:
well i just realized that i checked this book out of my school libary and i think its pretty awesome