Reddit reviews Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness series Book 1)
We found 7 Reddit comments about Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness series Book 1). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
He might like the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. The Phantom Tolbooth is a good one I think and anything by Tamora Pierce.
In the land of good timing, /r/fantasy is also having a discussion about sex in fantasy today.
I also find these rants (from Limyaael's Rants, of course) to be quite topical: 1 2 3 4 5 6
And I'm probably going to beat /u/bethrevis to the punch even though it's her blog entry, but this conversation seemed to sum up "Adult" attitudes towards sex in YA quite well and stuck in my mind:
>Attendee: Oh no, violence is fine. Is there sex?
>Friend (starting to feel awkward): There's a scene in the book that does get a bit graphic, sexually. But it's relevant to the plot, and it's not gratuitous, and--
>Attendee: puts the book down on the table No. We can't have any sex in the books for the school.
>Friend: But it's a relevant issue. The girl in the scene is nearly raped and--
>Attendee: Oh? It's not consensual sex? Well, that's okay.
For context, graphic sex in books has always kinda squicked me out (though maybe the poor production value in erotica is more to blame - poor grammar also makes me cringe), but before I actually started having sex, I was fairly oblivious to the references in books. As in, totally missed what was going on in books like Brave New World or Song of the Lioness. Just totally skipped it. Didn't bother me or turn me into a sex-crazed deviant like people seem to fear or anything.
Now that I'm older, I do find it conspicuous when a world's meant to be gritty and completely detailed and cover everything from depression to bathroom habits to violence to inner turmoil, but even references to sex remain absent. For example, in the Mistborn trilogy (skirting the YA/genre fantasy border, supposedly), it's all [spoilers](#s "OK, so we're 20 and married and the most powerful people in the land and have no one to answer to and the world is ending and we really need a way to blow off steam... Let's never have sex ever.") It cuts into the believability of the stakes and to me, it seemed like possible justifications for that mindset were skipped over. [Possible justifications being things like ](#s "a political marriage, past trauma, fear of bringing a child into the world and complete ignorance of birth control, traditions built into that fantasy world, etc.")
That's not to say that you need to have sex in order to have a believable romance for high school or college-age characters. I think I'm in love with Levi from Fangirl without anyone getting naked even off-page, and I'm not even sure there was kissing in Boy Proof despite the sexual tension being through the roof. The lack of sex at that point in the story fit those characters and those relationships.
YA-ish books with sex I've recently read: Trickster's Queen (made sense for the characters involved), The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy (props for having lots of build-up re: acquiring birth control and waiting for it to take effect), The Jewel (fittingly thematic, since it's a book about forced surrogacy and there was [spoiler](#s "a contrast between forced, mechanical impregnation and natural, chosen sex"), Eleanor & Park (fittingly awkward and open-ended, just like every other interaction they had), Looking for Alaska (public conversation about private awkwardness seemed really believable).
Edit: Looks like /r/fantasywriters is also having a discussion today, though with more of an LGBTQ slant.
I’m a bit late and I love a lot of the recommendations you’ve been given. Here’s one more author though: Tamora Pierce. I really like her Tortall universe and reread her stuff every couple years. I’d start with the Song of the Lioness, it’s fun knight and magic school fantasy. If you like it, she’s got a ton more books to check out too!
Link to the First Book
Edit: just noticed someone else mentioned Tamora Pierce before me too, awesome!
1.Steve
2. Crabbs Von Vinklepincher
3. Captain Hermit
4. Hermit the Crab
5. Krabby
I would love Song of The Lioness or a surprise! Thanks!
http://www.amazon.com/Alanna-ebook/dp/B002ZJCQYW/ref=pd_sim_kstore_3
Tamora Pierce is a wonderful author, who creates wonderful strong female characters that fumble and fail, and mess up. Great series for any young girl.
Well, in that case!
This is my favorite book of all time. It draws you in and makes you feel like the characters are family. I also really enjoy the underlying themes of ethics in TV and new technology contrasted against small-town America. Sad and funny and heartwarming.
The autobiographical comic of a teenage boy and his overbearing parents, his relationship with his little brother and his first love. It perfectly captures the confusion of growing up and dealing with the lot life gives you.
Wickedly funny, but also a melancholy look at racial tension and prejudice. The audiobook is fantastic!
Dark, very wtf, confusing at times, but overall a really cool take on the Wizard of Oz universe. Dark City meets Heat meets Wizard of Oz.
A fun, whimsical story about spoiled children being terrible. Ibbotson's books are all really great in that bad people aren't just misunderstood or lonely. They are also assholes. And everyone calls them on it. It is really refreshing in children's/YA books.
This book changed my teenage existence. It's very simple, yet beautifully crafted. It's everything Alice in Wonderland fans have built that mythos into, without any of the pretentiousness/needing to be zany for zaniness' sake.
This is my favorite dark fairy tale. The beginning gets into some heavy stuff, but it has everything that I love: a strong lady protagonist, excellent character growth, and dogs. SO MANY DOGS. Dogs are the real love story.
I stole this from my high school library because I didn't know where to get my own copy. It's a really excellent look at disability in the middle ages, couched in a very sweet romance.
This is the ultimate vicarious experience book. The protagonist goes from mousy and trod-upon to "I don't care what you think, I'm gonna run away with misfits and unemployables and have a grand time, thankyouverymuch". It's everything you want to happen in a non-contrived, excellently paced way.
The first of a classic series! They're short, which is nice, and very dated but still so much fun. Tarzan is the ultimate early 20th century Mary-Sue but it works for him.
I really enjoyed the world built in this book. It's silly at times without trying to be, but it's a cool horse-flavored dystopian coming-of-age story.
The first quartet focuses on a young girl who pretends to be a boy so she can become a knight. The second is about an orphaned country girl who discovers she can communicate with animals just in time to help with a war between humans and immortal monsters. The third is about the first girl allowed to train as a knight and a non-magical war.
The duo is about a spymaster's daughter stuck in a civil war based on the British occupation of India.
The trilogy is set in the past and is a series of intense mysteries/police dramas. Pidgeons are carriers of the dead in this mythos and the main character can hear their voices.
I loved those stupid treehouse books as a kid. Around that same level, Puppy Patrol series and The Secrets of Doon series are fantastic, though I doubt neither are on Kindle.
Everyone has made some excellent suggestions, so I'll throw in some of my own lesser known ones. On Kindle, and varying a bit from what I'd go with:
The Supernaturalist Which is a book about kids with psychic abilities in a featuristic-ish sort of world, facing off against supernatural critters.
The Charlie Bone series is sort of similar to Harry Potter, just with a lot more mystery and a lower reading level.
Gaurdians of Ga-Hoole is one about battling owls, it was rather popular a few years ago, got its own animated movie.
In the same vein the Warriors series was one of my absolute favorites growing up. It's about four clans of cats, and their battles with each other, humans, etc.
The same author also wrote Survivors Which is a dogs take on what happens during/after a huge natural disaster.
Wings of Fire runs similar to the last two, but is about dragons and dragon clans.
I never read it but all my friends back in middle school were obsessed with The Sight and it's sequel Fell which details two wolves with powers fight against an evil witch.
The Song of the Lionness series is another good one, its about a girl and her twin brother who secretly switch places-she goes off to knight school, he off to magic school.