Retro Friday Review: Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce

Retro Friday is a meme hosted by Angie of Angieville and "focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc."

Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce
Publisher: Listening Library
Publication date: Hardcover in 2003
Length: 11hrs 57 min
Source: Audiobook from Library
For: Fun
Series: Trickster series, Book 1

Alianne has grown up daughter to Alanna the Lioness and lived in that shadow all her life. Her parents are reluctant to let her out on adventures, so she takes matters into her own hands and ends up as a slave to a royal family in the distant Copper Isles. Undaunted, Aly must use all her skills as a spy and daughter of a knight to work out a deal with the trickster god Kyprioth and to not end up dead amidst all the political intrigues and conspiracies around her.

Things I Liked:
I made the mistake of listening to this one before I finished the Song of the Lioness series.  There are some spoilers for the end of that one, since this is about Alanna's daughter :)  Ah, well.  I enjoyed it very much.  It's got all the elements of a great fantasy story, complete with complex cultures and wonderful characters with difficult choices.  I love Ali for her sheer determination sometimes to do exactly what she wants when she wants.  Does it get her in trouble?  Definitely.  But she's still so fun.  And Nawat was both creepy and fun.  Kept me interested and invested to the end and fortunately I have the sequel waiting for me to read. Trini Alvarado did a pretty good job, but more on that below.

Things I Didn't Like:
I have to admit, high fantasy is not the best option for audiobooks sometimes.  I think because there are so many fantasy-names (that are ridiculous, but we love them that way) and so many characters and so many cultures and details that it's best to imbibe those things visually.  I got quite confused a number of times and I would tune things out when I didn't know what was happening.  The Trini Alvarado does a pretty good job and despite not really doing many different voices, her expressive voice does make it enjoyable.  Glad I have the next one in print, though.

Read-alikes:
Might be good to read Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce first :)
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Reminded me a bit of The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@
a few

mrg-factor:X
some implied stuff

v-factor:->->

Overall rating: ****

What books do you prefer in print versus audio?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage