Heather's Reviews > Trickster's Choice

Yeah, the names were kind of confusing. But that's no good reason to not like a book.

I so totally agree! Made reading a distraction ....

I have to say... How many 16 year olds know what they want to do FOREVER? I am 24 and just now going back to graduate school to get certified for what I want to do...

Great review! You pretty much summed up everything I was feeling but couldn't figure out in my own head.

I completely agree about the names and the development of Alanna and George. The names are so distracting. And I'm a linguist! I have no problems picking up new names - it's just that they are too ambiguous in their spelling. I spend the whole time thinking well maybe you say it this way. No maybe that way....argh. I wanted to love this book as much as the first series, but I'm having trouble getting through it. I don't mind Aly. She sounds like a typical teen and no matter how cool Alanna and George used to be, no one can avoid becoming parents who "just don't understand." So the parent - teenager interaction is interesting. Anyway....

I think the problem wasn't so much the difficult names as that they were all introduced so quickly and so soon. It was difficult to keep them all straight and know who was the most important for the storyline. It made the read harder, at least in the beginning, because I had to try and remember which was who and sometimes backtrack.

I think that it is a pity that you found the names "difficult" because it shows how limited your experienced with non-white culture is. Names such as Jon etc is very Eurocentric, and I believe that Pierce aims to take you to a foreign land, and I feel that it is very reasonably consistent with the setting. I would be more inclined to agree with Lisa that perhaps the characters were introduced rather quickly.

Same sentiments as "Jedi on the Carpet" writes - it's really a shame that a major problem for you are the names of the characters. At least they weren't full of random apostrophes like Paolini did in Eragon - what is actually meant by those apostrophes?? - these were proper names. There are a lot of references to India and Indian culture through the choices of names in this book; complaining that the names were "too hard" or even "stupid" is really quite shallow. It would be worse to have a book set as deeply into another country as it is with native peoples, and have them all named Jon and Sarah and nonsense like that.

And as someone who has never really had any particular drive to do just ONE THING with my life, at least on that point I liked Aly. There are loads of people in the world, especially at her age, and especially those surrounded by super successful people like she is, who don't have a particular goal they want to do with their lives. And Aly DOES have a goal - to be a spy - it's just that her family won't let her.

I had problems with this book with how 'just so' everything was - oh, Aly's going to sail down the coast. On her own. By herself. Sailing a boat. With no one else. What?? And - oh, darn. There are some pesky pirates. Whoops, just got captured! Heh, no big deal, I'll just go along with this and work out something awesome. Seriously - the entirety of the book hinges on her being caught and sold into slavery, and it was written as no big deal, like she just went for tea or was deciding an outfit for the day. It was weird.

I'd love to know if an older-you doing a re-read of the Tortall universe feels the same about Alanna and George!