AfterEllen.com Book Club discussion

Tamora Pierce has been a huge feminist YA fantasy author for decades, and I'm excited to FINALLY read a book by her, and was happy when this tied with Ammonite for this month's choice. What are your thoughts?

Hella wrote: "*SPOILER WARNING*


Also (for those who have read other Circle books) was I the only one who didn't realise Rosethorn and Lark were gay?? "

*SPOILER WARNING* (for CoM and for her Tortall books)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who missed that. It's fairly subtle, but I read in an interview once that there are a few characters in her books who are gay, but her publishers wouldn't just let her make them gay without 'dealing with it' in some way. So in the same way she never explicitly mentions that Lalasa and Tian are gay in the Kel books or Thom gay and Roger bi in the Alanna books. It's kind of the same as with Lark and Rosethorn - once you know it's there, you can see it. But it was nice that she can finally have an explicitly gay character without having to make too big a deal out of it.

Hella wrote: "Oh my god, Lalasa and Thom were gay too? Yeah it is cool that the gay characters can now be explicit, I think publishers hesitate with gay characters because they worry it'll make the book too nich..."

Yeah apparently the original Song of the Lioness manuscript was more explicit about the nature of Thom and Roger's relationship but when it got made into a quartet of teen books, she had to cut that part. But has said that in her mind, it still happened and is still the motivation behind a lot of Thom's actions.

But has said that in her mind, it still happened and is still the motivation behind a lot of Thom's actions.

That's amazing... Particularly because I read those books over the span of about five days, many years back now... I wondered why I was so drawn to them. Must've been the subtext. I knew she had taken a lot of the original story out, something about the thank-you she'd left to her publisher or agent made me think so. I wonder what would've happened if those books had been published now?

Sorry, this is probably slightly off-topic, but I just wanted to express some flail.

Lore wrote: " I wonder what would've happened if those books had been published now?"

Well she's still writing in both universes. Who knows, maybe Kel's squire or Neal's daughter or someone will end up not being straight. And yes...we should likely go back on topic now.

Pierce is one of my favorite authors and I remember anticipating this release and worrying about how she would handle the queer romance angle.

As it turns out, I'm delighted with the way Daja and Rizu's relationship was written. It was just a relationship; the sexual orientation of the characters barely seemed to matter. That's a nice change from the usual deluge of "coming out" stories.

I am so glad to read some Pierce fans here, because this was my first book of hers, and it took me forEVER to get through. It's not that I disliked the writing, or the characters, I was just bored most of the time. And I feel positive that it's because I wasn't already familiar with the world/characters. I had read that you could read it as a standalone book, but it was clear to me it would've been a million times more enjoyable if I already knew all of their back stories. But like I said, I'm glad that others were able to enjoy it more--And this conversation about her other gay characters was really interesting.

with which book by pierce should i start then?