Alanna: The First Adventure
Alanna: The First Adventure, published by Atheneum in 1983, opens Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet and introduces the kingdom of Tortall, the setting she would go on to build across several later series. Alanna of Trebond has no interest in the convent education waiting for a noblewoman's daughter, and her twin brother Thom has no interest in becoming a knight. So they trade places: Thom is sent off to study sorcery, and Alanna arrives at the royal palace as "Alan," a boy with a secret to keep through years of page training.
What follows is a coming-of-age story told through hard, unglamorous work — drills, bruises, tutors, and the slow business of earning a place. Alanna makes an ally of Prince Jonathan, an enemy of the bully Ralon of Malven, and unlikely friends in Sir Myles of Olau and George Cooper, king of the city's thieves. She also discovers she carries the Gift, a magical talent she distrusts and would rather not use, and which she must eventually turn to healing when a sickness reaches the palace. The book closes in the desert ruins of the Black City, where Alanna and Jonathan face the ancient Ysandir.
Pierce wrote Alanna's story first as a single long novel for adults before reshaping it into four young adult volumes, and the origin shows in a book that treats gender, self-acceptance and prejudice as real obstacles rather than scenery. It won its author the American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2013 for lifetime contribution to young adult literature, and in 2020 TIME named it among the 100 best fantasy books of all time.
A nobleman's daughter who trades places with her twin to train as a page under the name "Alan," hiding her sex through years of knight's training.
An older, bullying page who torments Alanna during her first year at the palace until she defeats him in combat.
Prince Jonathan's cousin, a powerful and charming sorcerer whom Alanna distrusts from their first meeting at the palace.
Alanna's twin brother, who trades places with her to study sorcery at the convent instead of training as a knight.
The crown prince, three years older than Alanna, who becomes her closest friend and training companion among the pages.