Having achieved her dream of becoming the first female knight errant, Alanna of Trebond is not sure what to do next. Perhaps being a knight errant is not all that she needs . . . but Alanna must push her uncertainty aside when a new challenge arrives. She must recover the Dominion Jewel, a legendary gem with enormous power. She must work quickly, for Tortall is in great danger and Alanna's arch-nemesis, Duke Roger, is back - more powerful than ever. It was good to have Thom, Prince Jonathan and George back. Thom - one of my favorite characters - played a much larger role this time after his cameo in The Woman Who Rides Like A Man and he is a lot darker than in the first two books of the series. The first half of the book is very confusing and can be rather tedious giving the book a rough start. I have to have several parts explained to me. However, the second half is much more straight forward and faster paced - like Alanna, The First Adventure and In The Hand Of The Goddess. Unlike, The Woman Who Rides Like A Man, which was much slower and a lot more boring, Lioness Rampant is much more entertaining and is a nice cross between adventure, fantasy and drama. The final book in the Lioness Quartet has solid characters - Alanna, Thom, Prince Jonathan and George - which you need otherwise the fantasy will fall flat. I think out of the entire Quartet, this book has the best drama. I actually felt sorry for Thom even though he did raise the Duke and thought that it was unfortunate that he died. Finally, since everyone discovered Alanna's a woman in the second book, the suspense is ruined for the rest of the series unless, of course, she wants to prove herself. Overall, this is a decent book, which is quite entertaining and so much better than the third. It still, however, is not quite as good as the first two and that's because of its roughness in the first half. On a side note, Lioness Rampant is the only book in the quartet that wasn't banned, much to my surprise.
Having achieved her dream of becoming the first female knight errant, Alanna of Trebond is not sure what to do next. Perhaps being a knight errant is not all that she needs . . . but Alanna must push her uncertainty aside when a new challenge arrives. She must recover the Dominion Jewel, a legendary gem with enormous power. She must work quickly, for Tortall is in great danger and Alanna's arch-nemesis, Duke Roger, is back - more powerful than ever. It was good to have Thom, Prince Jonathan and George back. Thom - one of my favorite characters - played a much larger role this time after his cameo in The Woman Who Rides Like A Man and he is a lot darker than in the first two books of the series. The first half of the book is very confusing and can be rather tedious giving the book a rough start. I have to have several parts explained to me. However, the second half is much more straight forward and faster paced - like Alanna, The First Adventure and In The Hand Of The Goddess. Unlike, The Woman Who Rides Like A Man, which was much slower and a lot more boring, Lioness Rampant is much more entertaining and is a nice cross between adventure, fantasy and drama. The final book in the Lioness Quartet has solid characters - Alanna, Thom, Prince Jonathan and George - which you need otherwise the fantasy will fall flat. I think out of the entire Quartet, this book has the best drama. I actually felt sorry for Thom even though he did raise the Duke and thought that it was unfortunate that he died. Finally, since everyone discovered Alanna's a woman in the second book, the suspense is ruined for the rest of the series unless, of course, she wants to prove herself. Overall, this is a decent book, which is quite entertaining and so much better than the third. It still, however, is not quite as good as the first two and that's because of its roughness in the first half. On a side note, Lioness Rampant is the only book in the quartet that wasn't banned, much to my surprise.
