After convincing their two caregivers, the healing woman Maude and the soldier Coram, that their plan will succeed, they set off.Īt the palace, 'Alan' trains as a page, meeting many friends, such as Raoul of Goldenlake, Gareth the Younger of Naxen, Francis of Nond, Alexander of Tirragen, and Prince Jonathan of Conté.

Thom will go to the City of the Gods, where he will be able to train as a sorcerer. To avoid their respective fates, Alanna and Thom hatch a plan Alanna will disguise herself as a boy, call herself Alan, and take Thom's place as a knight. Unfortunately, Alanna is shortly to be dispatched by their inattentive father to a temple in the City of the Gods, to learn to become a young lady-to her, a fate worse than death-whilst Thom is similarly destined for the royal palace, where he will train as a knight: his worst nightmare, as he believes that his destiny is to be a sorcerer. Despite this, he chooses her as his squire when he becomes a knight.Īlanna of Trebond and her twin brother Thom may be twins, but are very different Alanna is a tomboy who dreams of being a knight, and Thom wishes to become a sorcerer. In the process, Jonathan learns that Alanna is a girl. There, she and her friend Prince Jonathan defeat the much-feared Ysandir, a race of demons that has kept the Black City captive for generations. Alanna befriends the heir to the throne and the charming King of Thieves, copes with the magical power she possesses and her mistrust of it, faces the palace bully, struggles with her suspicions of the prince's cousin Duke Roger, and finally travels to the southern desert, where the Bazhir tribesmen guard a Black City that has invaded her dreams. The book, set in the fantasy kingdom of Tortall, follows Alanna's growth as a page in the royal court, where she keeps her gender a secret, while learning to fence, fight, ride, and study alongside the male pages. Edwards Committee Chair Jamie Watson commented that the books in both these quartets 'have been influencing both readers and writers of fantasy since their inception'. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in recognition of her two quartets Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small. Set at a time and place where girls are forbidden from becoming knights, the novel details the beginning of Alanna of Trebond's training as a knight as she hides her real gender from teachers and fellow pages. Originally published in 1983, it is the first in a series of four books, The Song of the Lioness. Alanna: The First Adventure is a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce.

The Realms of the Gods by Tamora Pierce