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booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Finishing off the Protector of the Small quartet, LADY KNIGHT is an excellent end to a good series. It's the story of Kel's first big assignment as a knight: running Haven, a refugee camp near the border with Scanra. In her Ordeal of knighthood she was given a task by the Chamber, and chafes at the feeling that running the camp is holding her back from going after the man killing children and turning them into strange metal monsters. There are new storylines related to her time running Haven, and her care of Tobe, a boy with horse magic. I don't think anything is both introduced and resolved here, since the biggest rescue relates to the task the Chamber set her in SQUIRE. Technically a great many characters' storylines are "resolved" through death, but those who are met and then later killed are nearly as many as those whose first mention on the page is when Kel finds their bodies.
As the final book in the quartet it leaves open the idea that Kel and her comrades will have further deeds when this is done, and it settles what she'll do after Haven. It resolves the magical threat posed by the killing machines, and gives an idea of what her friends will do next. It teases a few things that could happen later for secondary characters, but these won't necessarily show up in future Tortall stories.
Kel is still the narrator, with the exception of a brief section from someone else's perspective. She definitely sounds older than the first two books, and her characterization in LADY KNIGHT is consistent with the end of SQUIRE. Other than the fact that Kel was set a task before the book begins, this is self contained enough that it could mostly make sense if someone read it without any of the other books. It covers only a few months, rather than years, and focuses on events within a small area once it gets going. The ending will definitely be more satisfying for someone who at least read SQUIRE, but there's still a lot to love for any readers who try starting here (especially if they're familiar with Tortall as a setting from other series).
Kel has grown up a lot but is very aware of how much she still has to learn. She has a lot of strong relationships which get a chance to pay off here. She's not hanging out with people as much, since her duties and her organization of the refugees take the narrative place that training filled in the earlier books. However, Neal, Dom, and Owen have a strong presence, and I'm fairly confident that this has more of Merric than the rest of the series combined. The animals play an even bigger role this time, made possible by some help from Daine.
The worldbuilding focuses on the logistics of running Haven, as Kel begins having to to many things herself and gradually gets infrastructural support and clerks to make some aspects easier. There's some detail about the war, but as the fourth book of a quartet set in a world already filled with stories, it doesn't pause to explain quite as many things as the earlier books did. There's still enough to make the relevant things make sense, and it works overall.
The plot is the most focused of the quartet. Kel has two main things she needs to accomplish, and she works on running Haven until she gets the information she needs to act on the directions from the Chamber. I enjoyed the process of turning Haven into a defensible position filled with confident civilians who know how to defend themselves. The story conveys the shape of Kel's days without dragging, never letting go of the need to stop the source of the killing machines as soon as she can.
As the final book in the quartet it leaves open the idea that Kel and her comrades will have further deeds when this is done, and it settles what she'll do after Haven. It resolves the magical threat posed by the killing machines, and gives an idea of what her friends will do next. It teases a few things that could happen later for secondary characters, but these won't necessarily show up in future Tortall stories.
Kel is still the narrator, with the exception of a brief section from someone else's perspective. She definitely sounds older than the first two books, and her characterization in LADY KNIGHT is consistent with the end of SQUIRE. Other than the fact that Kel was set a task before the book begins, this is self contained enough that it could mostly make sense if someone read it without any of the other books. It covers only a few months, rather than years, and focuses on events within a small area once it gets going. The ending will definitely be more satisfying for someone who at least read SQUIRE, but there's still a lot to love for any readers who try starting here (especially if they're familiar with Tortall as a setting from other series).
Kel has grown up a lot but is very aware of how much she still has to learn. She has a lot of strong relationships which get a chance to pay off here. She's not hanging out with people as much, since her duties and her organization of the refugees take the narrative place that training filled in the earlier books. However, Neal, Dom, and Owen have a strong presence, and I'm fairly confident that this has more of Merric than the rest of the series combined. The animals play an even bigger role this time, made possible by some help from Daine.
The worldbuilding focuses on the logistics of running Haven, as Kel begins having to to many things herself and gradually gets infrastructural support and clerks to make some aspects easier. There's some detail about the war, but as the fourth book of a quartet set in a world already filled with stories, it doesn't pause to explain quite as many things as the earlier books did. There's still enough to make the relevant things make sense, and it works overall.
The plot is the most focused of the quartet. Kel has two main things she needs to accomplish, and she works on running Haven until she gets the information she needs to act on the directions from the Chamber. I enjoyed the process of turning Haven into a defensible position filled with confident civilians who know how to defend themselves. The story conveys the shape of Kel's days without dragging, never letting go of the need to stop the source of the killing machines as soon as she can.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug use, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Excrement, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
inferiorwit's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy
charm0nix's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Violence, and War
house_of_hannah's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I don't know what it was, but this took me a lot longer than normal to finish. It just felt dull, and I had no desire to read it with how repetitive it felt.
This is definitely the darkest of the 4 books, but was one of the least interesting. The last 100 pages has most of the action, and the rest is basically just people living their lives in a Fort. It did feel nice to see/learn more about the side-characters, but it also felt a bit "too little too late".
Kel was the same as she's been in all of the books. She really never changes, nor has any difficulty accomplishing anything. The final climax of the book was about 2 pages, and that was it. Even the MC commented on how it wasn't what she expected.
This is definitely the darkest of the 4 books, but was one of the least interesting. The last 100 pages has most of the action, and the rest is basically just people living their lives in a Fort. It did feel nice to see/learn more about the side-characters, but it also felt a bit "too little too late".
Kel was the same as she's been in all of the books. She really never changes, nor has any difficulty accomplishing anything. The final climax of the book was about 2 pages, and that was it. Even the MC commented on how it wasn't what she expected.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Animal death and Rape
manarnia's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
And so ends another quartet! Kel and her friends are fantastic. Parts of this book dragged for me, but overall, it was a good ending to Kel's story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, and Trafficking
Minor: Torture
victorianrogue's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, and Kidnapping
Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy
iamsammie27's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder
matttruss's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Is it hyperbolic to say this series is a masterpiece? Perhaps, but I'm head over heels for it. Kel is so relatable and such a great role model. Kel is hyper-competent, hyper-focused, super thoughtful and so darn hard-working. The character arc of her and so many other characters is just fantastic. This final book in the series does get dark, almost like the content matures as Kel ages through the series, but Pierce pulls no punches with her young readers regarding death, war, killing, etc. I appreciate this willingness to put hard topics out there and even after a brutal battle scene we get to see the inner dialog of the main character as they consider their actions. I'm floored, I loved it, Kel is BAE, don't @me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death
meganpbennett's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
At the end of Squire, the Chamber of the Ordeal gave Kel a mission: she is to find and kill the mage who uses necromancy to power the killing devices with the souls of children. As a Knight of the Realm, she is forced to follow the orders given to her by her King, and those orders include constructing and governing a refugee camp. When the Scanrans destroy the refugee camp, taking all adult survivors as slaves and bringing the children to the necromancer, she has a choice: does she obey her King or does she track down the Scanrans and recover her people?
This was not my favorite of the quartet - I found the ending very abrupt, and it felt a bit like the author was trying to tie off loose ends by force. That being said, not-at-her-best Tamora Pierce is still leagues better than other authors at their best.
This was not my favorite of the quartet - I found the ending very abrupt, and it felt a bit like the author was trying to tie off loose ends by force. That being said, not-at-her-best Tamora Pierce is still leagues better than other authors at their best.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Grief
Minor: Misogyny and Slavery
anacereading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and Blood
The pedophilia is implied rather than described.