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The Queen’s Readers: A Collection of Essays on the Words and Worlds of Tamora Pierce
by
Over the course of her career, Tamora Pierce has created two worlds that continue to inspire readers more than 30 years after her first book was published.
In The Queen's Readers, contributors explore a myriad of topics as only fans can: with love and a critical eye. With more than 30 essays covering topics from feminism to Pierce's mythical creatures Stormwings, no fiction ...more
In The Queen's Readers, contributors explore a myriad of topics as only fans can: with love and a critical eye. With more than 30 essays covering topics from feminism to Pierce's mythical creatures Stormwings, no fiction ...more
Kindle Edition, 301 pages
Published
August 2014
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Start your review of The Queen’s Readers: A Collection of Essays on the Words and Worlds of Tamora Pierce

THE QUEEN’S READERS: A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON THE WORDS & WORLDS OF TAMORA PIERCE edited by Amanda Diehl and Holly Vaughn contains more than thirty essays about Tamora Pierce’s books. The essays cover a variety of topics from the author’s experiences with the book, to feminism and other academic based topics; each essay varies in length. They are described in the introduction as being “by her fans, for her fans.”[1] The collection also contains a foreword by Mark Oshiro about his experiences in
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I went to this year’s Murderbooze with not a lot of reading material, because I had been intending on writing instead (which did not happen; thanks, body). This resulted in me resorting to reading stuff on the Kindle app on my actual phone, a thing I do relatively rarely even when I have taken Twitter off the stupid thing, because apparently I’d rather fuck around on social media when waiting for the bus instead of doing any of the million other things one can do on a phone, many of which I spec
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Too many of the essays felt like the stopped before they really got started, skimming the surface of things without exploring them in any depth. Others just offered a retelling of events, without drawing any conclusions or assigning any significance to them. And finally, there were the articles that seemed to be more about the writer listing off the traits they shared in common with specific characters, which was just dull. All in all, very few of the essays in this book contained the depth I wa
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This is a collection of essays that examine Tamora Pierce's various works. Many are personal reflections about how a particular character or narrative impacted the life of that essay's author, but a few adopt a more formally academic approach. I think overall it's probably more interesting / valuable for existing fans than anyone else, but I've been reading Pierce since Alanna first hit paperback, so I definitely fit in the group.
If nothing else, it's made me want to re-read the Song of the Lion ...more
If nothing else, it's made me want to re-read the Song of the Lion ...more

!!!!!
That was my reaction when I heard of this book’s existence, it was my reaction upon receiving it, and it’s still my reaction after reading it. I have loved Tamora Pierce’s books since I picked Alanna up by sheer chance when I was in elementary school, and as I get older I only see more good things about her universes. One of my favorite things about all her books is the inclusion of everyone. And The Queen’s Readers holds itself to that standard. Just read the dedications in the back of thi ...more
That was my reaction when I heard of this book’s existence, it was my reaction upon receiving it, and it’s still my reaction after reading it. I have loved Tamora Pierce’s books since I picked Alanna up by sheer chance when I was in elementary school, and as I get older I only see more good things about her universes. One of my favorite things about all her books is the inclusion of everyone. And The Queen’s Readers holds itself to that standard. Just read the dedications in the back of thi ...more

It's hard for me to come at this unbiased, because I spent so much time wishing for more Tamora Pierce scholarship while I was pursuing my MA in Children's Literature; and while The Queen's Riders does contain several essays that could be built upon in future scholarship, the majority of the content is more amateur-ish than I wanted; however, this does not negate the fact that it is a highly praiseworthy work.
The amount of effort the editors must have put out to organize an anthology of fan ess ...more
The amount of effort the editors must have put out to organize an anthology of fan ess ...more

The Queen's Readers is a book for fans by fans and for the most part is a very enjoyable read for those who have taken the plunge into any or all of Tamora Pierce's work. Like many such books the insight into the stories is a wonderful thing to experience, for who better to delve deeper and explore the themes and characters at work than those who love them most. As a fan you get the unique position, should you choose to take it, to take a critical eye to the stories that you love and still be ab
...more

This book was by turns awesome and frustrating. Like many anthologies, the pieces were of varying quality. Some were insightful, others deeply moving. And then there were the ones that were dull of overly sweeping gneralizations, claims about the texts that were not supported (and in at least two cases, are directly refuted by the text).
My biggest complaint is that it's poorly edited. As far as I can tell, the editors collected pieces and provided proofreading, but there can't have been made ch ...more
My biggest complaint is that it's poorly edited. As far as I can tell, the editors collected pieces and provided proofreading, but there can't have been made ch ...more

A really great book if you're a fan of Tamora Pierce's work. It contains quite a few essays that are good on personal and academic levels, and speaks to the influence Pierce's work can have on individuals and on society at large.
It's a very professional book for something that was made by fans for fans, and the physical book itself is of good quality. There were some editing errors which are what caused me to only give it 3 stars, but still, I have seen worse errors in more professional books.
If ...more
It's a very professional book for something that was made by fans for fans, and the physical book itself is of good quality. There were some editing errors which are what caused me to only give it 3 stars, but still, I have seen worse errors in more professional books.
If ...more

While these essays certainly vary in quality (and all of them desperately needed a solid copyeditor - typos and style inconsistencies everywhere!) for the most part, they were strong. I found myself much more interested in the straightforward analysis than I was in the essays that dealt with the personal struggles of the individual authors. I was particularly drawn to those about the Protector of the Small series, but I think that's just my Kel bias showing, as she was the first Pierce heroine I
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I really enjoyed these essays. I would only recommend this book for hardcore Tamora Pierce fans though. If, like me, you have lived in the worlds of Tortall and Emelan and loved every moment of it, you will fly through this book. The feelings of instant companionship with all the writers based on the feelings of acceptance and inspiration they received from Tamora Pierce's books brings you right back into those worlds I fell in love with.
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Overall, an excellent collection of essays from readers.
It's obvious a few writers were less-experienced with writing and would have benefited from a bit more editing to crystallize their points more effectively, but it didn't lessen the enjoyment any.
It'd be lovely to see more such efforts from other fandoms too! ...more
It's obvious a few writers were less-experienced with writing and would have benefited from a bit more editing to crystallize their points more effectively, but it didn't lessen the enjoyment any.
It'd be lovely to see more such efforts from other fandoms too! ...more
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