Book Investigation Case#:0002 Subject: In the Hands of the Goddess, Song of the Lioness Series Book 2 Originator:Tamora Pierce
Reporter Emcee Macintosh here. We’ve followed the Song of the Lioness Series from book one to this book two case. (Notably investigated on 2/2/2022) Does the second Alanna adventure appear all that it seems? Let’s find out in this month’s book investigation.
Questions for the Subject:
Emcee: Where are we in this book?
IHG: Back in Tortall. Alanna as Alan is 14 and squire to Prince Jonathon. She’s juggling her duties at court, her family estate responsibilities, the safety of her friends, and the whole girl-disguised-as-a-boy situation.
Emcee: In your words, what would you say she’s dealing with this time?
IHG: If I had to pick three, I’d say she’s confronting, or more often being confronted by, the fears in her life. Coincidentally, she must survive a chamber where she will face her worst fears in order to achieve her goal of becoming a knight. It’s a few years from the start of the book, but whole matter has her anxious.
Second, Alanna is also ashamed and worried about lying to her friends about her true identity and how she will tell them.
And third, there is a certain, unsavory character who always seems in close association with the catastrophes that emerge in her life, particularly around her friend Prince Jonathan.
Emcee: That villain of yours seems a right nasty fellow. How ever do you manage to contain him between those covers?
IHG: Oh, he’s slippery, that’s for sure. But Alanna’s no shrug-off, either, and even though she’s still quite young, she manages a reputation for herself among her elders and her enemies.
Emcee: What do you expect readers, I mean other investigators, will take from studying your contents?
IHG: I’d say it’s educational to see someone face their own personal terrors. One can learn how to and how not to do so when your turn comes.
Emcee: As it inevitably does. And what’s Alanna’s tactic?
IHG: She’s a call-it-out charge-forward type in a few of instances, but there are others like her relationships that she’d rather shy away from.
(Emcee aside: I understand that)
IHG: What did you say?
Emcee: Oh! Nothing, um. Are there any new features in this story that you like? Your elder book 1 wouldn’t pick.
IHG: Well, there is a delightful black cat that I can’t help but adore. Readers, or rather other book investigators will meet him in the first chapter along with another quite notable character sighting.
Emcee: And the rest of this Lioness family, are they like this?
IHG: The other two take different approaches, but still have the same wonderful characters. You should check them out. The Woman who Rides Like a Man is next in line, it’s got a grittier air about it.
Emcee: I might just have to.
Summary and Conclusion
Reporters Opinion:
A swiftly paced, easy-binge book, likely to provoke heroic ambitions in its observers.
Take your magnifying glasses to these retailers for a closer look: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indie Bound, Kobo
Further notes:
Content relating to intercourse, violence, and sorcery should also be expected in a reader’s perusal.
Details Summarized:
Title: In the Hand of the Goddess, Song of the Lioness Series
Author: Tamora Pierce
Original Publication Date: 1984
Current Edition Publication Date: 2011
Keywords: fear, knights, war, magic, trust, love, treachery
CASE CLOSED
