Allison Freeman

APA Citation:

Pierce, T. (2011). Tortall and other lands: A collection of tales. New York: Random House.

Genre: Short Story

Format: Print

Selection Process:

Baker, D. F. (2012). Tortall and other lands: A collection of tales. Horn Book Magazine, 87(2), 122-123.

Review:

Many of the stories in this collection have been published in other works but Tamora Pierce includes eight previously published tales and three written specifically for this collection.

Kylaia is the narrator of the first story called Student of Ostriches. She learns to fight and run like the animals she observes on the plains as she tends goats for her village. As she grows and matures, her large build and fighting ability forces her to fight and protect the honor of her sister when she is shamed and insulted by her ex-fiancé.

Elder Brother is the second story and connected to Tamora Pierces series The Immortals. Numair, a very powerful mage, changes and enemy into a tree but the magical price is that a tree becomes a man a world away from him. Qiom is tree that suddenly becomes a human but knows nothing of being a man. He learns to be a man by watching the people around him, questioning the mage Numair in his dreams at night and Fadal, a young woman who disguises herself as a boy to find work after she runs away from home and an arranged marriage made by a strictly religious stepfather. Qiom learns what it means to be a man and uses his extraordinary strength to protect those he cares about and find his way in a new world.

The Hidden Girl is the story of a traveling priest and his daughter Teky are living with relatives in the same village where Qiom and Fadal stayed along their journey. Teky’s father taught her to read, which was forbidden by the temple priests. She uses her reading abilities to bring the laws of The God in the Flames to the women and set them free from their oppressive paternal society.

Nawat is a follow-up to the Tricker’s series, which chronicles the birth of Aly and Nawat’s triplets and the problems; they have with the youngest of the triplets Ochobai.

The Dragon’s Tale is about Kitten, the young dragon saved by Daine in The Immortals series. Kitten, Daine and Numair are on a journey with the Emperor of Karthak. Kitten is left to her own devices and is bored one day. She decides to go exploring and discovers an outcast young mother by the name of Afra who has a two-colored Gift, magical abilities, living in a cave with her baby. Kitten decides to help the mother and unleashes a chain of events that spins quickly out of control.

Lost is about a Darking, a small, black blob creature used as spies in the Immortals series. Lost is lost in Tusaine, a neighboring country of Tortall and finds a mathematically talented young girl named Adria who is abused by her father and punished for being gifted by her math teacher Instructor Park. Lost helps Adria find confidence in her skills by catching the eye of a famous architect and finding her place in the world.

The Year of Proving is about Arimu of the Wind People, a young girl who is on a quest to map new land and prove her worth to the tribe. Halfway through her year, she finds an injured bull-man named Sunflower who she helps to heal and teach the ways of survival in exchange for his talents of music, art, and poetry.

Plain Magic is told from the perspective of Tonya, a young girl, living in a village where a merchant with strange abilities has arrived and she is suddenly offered up as a virgin sacrifice to a dragon that has laid siege.

Mimic is about a young girl name Ri from a far away land, much like China, who rescues an injured young lizard and nurses the lizard back to health. Ri’s village is about to be destroyed by a horrific storm when Mimic is discovered to be more then just a small defenseless lizard.

Huntress is a story told by Corey, a young woman whose family believes in a strange religion ruled by a goddess. Corey begins going to a new prep school in New York City where she joins the track team and goes up against a pride of preppy and dangerous lions and lionesses.

The last story Testing is an autobiographical piece where X-ray or Tamora Pierce was constantly tested in many different ways by a group of girls in an all girl home located in Idaho.

The stories are all told in a fashion that the reader needs not know the plot or characters from Tamora Pierces previous series. Some of the stories connected to each other either by the characters, Fadal and Teky, or by the realm they take place in, such as Tortall. Many of the stories showcase the same strong and resilient female characters that Tamora Pierce features in many of her series, which makes the characters especially appealing to young teen girls. Tamora Pierce is an amazing author and through her stories readers are transported to new worlds and meet back up with characters that they have come to love by reading her previous series or reading about them for the first time. Highly Recommended. Grades 7+

Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales - Likewise Book Reviews

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