As an audiobook, again -- though it looks like I haven't read or listened to this since I started using Goodreads in 2009, which is surely not right. Or maybe I've read it out of order, bits at a time, while doing research for the Tortall companion!

I was just looking for something familiar and soothing to listen to while I set up my new apartment, but it turns out that First Test is the perfect book to listen to before starting an intense eight-year commitment to a future profession, ie, medical school. Still looking for a Neal to my Kel! Or, wait, I'm the superannuated first-year with the big mouth and sardonic eyebrows -- maybe I'm looking for a Kel! Either way, five stars and one thousand hearts.

(And four horse shoes.)

Continuing my reading of the Tortall books to William, on to Protector of the Small!

I started this series with the thought that it was going to be a do over of Pierce's previous, successful Alanna the Lioness Quartet, which followed a girl (named Alanna, of course) who dressed like a boy and took her twin brother's place in page training while he took her place in magic school (not dressed as a girl). The four books of that quartet follow her progress from page, to squire, to knight and king's champion--with her sex being discovered along the way. I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only does Pierce give Keladry her own unique strong personality and story, but also that in some ways I enjoyed Keladry's story more than Alanna's.

Keladry's struggle to be the first openly female page in Tortall strikes me as being braver than Alanna's secret struggles. Being openly female Keladry has to deal with all the aggression and contempt of the males who don't want to her to succeed, as well as a blatant double standard (even though the law since Alanna's time says that girls can train as pages, Keladry is put on probation for her first term).

On top of that, where Alanna has the help of her magical powers and the Mother Goddess of her universe, Keladry works through her problems on her own.

Definitely a girl empowering story!

My first ever Tamora Pierce. Why did I wait so long?
Now to grab the back catalogue and read about this wonderful world full of kick-assistance, yet modest, heroines.

What a great series for young girls! Keladry rises to all occasions as well as or better than the boys in her group, despite the great prejudice against her as a girl training to be a knight. Exciting battle scenes, great characters, and inspirational girl power.

Honestly, I've read and reread this book so many times since I was about eleven that I've lost track.

8/18/2023 - squeezing in my annual summer reread just before classes start.