Elder Twins:Book 1: The Hands of Fate

Books by Eric Gibson

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Stubborn, cheeky, doubtful of herself. Gary, Raoul and Alex are never fully realized but that's only to be expected with such a short book. It is the rather typical girl-in-boy's clothing story but the writing is rather good and the sense of fun more than makes up for some of the predictability.

The end isn't quite the blazing glory that I'd hope for but it wasn't too bad and there's many more books to follow so I can't wait. Over all a thoroughly enjoyable read and I can't wait to devour the sequels! I just had to mention something, possibly the one thing that really annoyed me! There's this evil character in the book, The king's nephew. He's clearly evil and it's made very obvious to the reader, but despite all of the evidence, the Prince refuses to believe that this person could possibly betray him.

This isn't the first time I've read something like this in a book and I have to wonder if the author ever imagined what it would be like growing up in court - a system usually known for its lies and betrayal and petty squabbling over power. Now, I'm sorry, but if I were Queen of the world think about it - it really wouldn't be such a bad idea. I'm not asking you to vote or anything - just to ponder the possibility then I'd kind of be cautious if I'd almost died twice and the only person that could possibly have tried to kill me twice was the first person to inherit the throne upon my death.

I'd at least take a moment to think about it. And why trust anyone implicitly? Those absolutely trusted without question. Those I trust mostly but keep an eye on. Those I'm friendly with but am wary of. Those I don't trust people in this category would either be about to die or already dead. The titles of Those Absolutely Trusted Without Question will be awarded posthumously after they've completed an act to save my life - losing theirs in the process.

I just find this kind of trusting royal a ridiculous characterization. They may be smarter, better looking and more capable then you but it's still your job to ensure they never wrest power from your cold, dead fingers. To do that, you kind of have to use a little more brain power and a little less blind loyalty! Oh well, maybe the next review will be rant free! View all 27 comments. Jun 09, Natalie rated it it was amazing. In retrospect, this is not a perfect novel, or series of novels, but when I think of who I wanted to be when I was ten years old, my answer was always Alanna.

And I still have a crush on George. View all 6 comments. May 07, Wendy Darling rated it liked it Shelves: Our special guest will be the wonderful author Andrea K. I enjoyed this very much, but it felt like a first book, with rough transitions and rather unnuanced characterization. But I do like Alanna and I love George! View all 26 comments. I totally would've given this book 5 stars in middle school and been obsessed with it. I really, really wish I had found it then!! It's still a fun read now, though! I can see how it inspired of a lot of other YA books about girls dressing as boys to become knights.

The plot of this one is pretty simple, but all of the characters made it so wonderful! There's magic, medieval politics, mysteries, sword fighting, and basically everything I love. Plus, Alanna is an awesome heroine. I'm definitely r I totally would've given this book 5 stars in middle school and been obsessed with it. I'm definitely reading the rest of this series and trying to get to the rest of the Tamora Pierce books I missed out on when I was younger. I found like 10 of them on Book Outlet, so let me know if you have any favorites!! View all 9 comments.

The world and magic aren't very complex or explained in great detail, and we don't get to know the characters super well, but as a book written for kids it was pretty great! We have a super strong female lead, and I can now understand why this book is a must-read for all young girls. I definitely plan to read the rest of the series though since I've heard this is the weakest of the four!

I can look past the weak points because the story is just so darn enjoyable. Hey, at least I tried. Shorted version of the full review The full one felt like an academic paper on why I dont like this book and series so I had to cut some parts. Oh, how easy it is talking about books I dont like. For myself, and I suspect many people, books we read and love Hey, at least I tried.

For myself, and I suspect many people, books we read and love as children acquire blind spots of handwavium from sheer sentiment unless we reread them as adults with a critical, rather than nostalgic, mindset. You like this book? So please be ok with me kinda poking fun at this one as well.

And dont you dare tell me it gets better. Based on that, I expected the book to be about three things: Binding her boobs done 2. Hiding her period done. Once… and then never mentioned again. She deals with nothing. I like stories about girls disguised as boys. Where is my Hana Kimi? Or Queen Seon Duk do you know how hard it is to disguise yourself as man in a sageuk? Even You're Beautiful and Sungkyunkwan Scandal which ones even though I loved lack some believability handled the subject waaay better.

The other boys tease her…. Where is my tension and drama from that? Nothing ever really happened while she was keeping the secret and then in later books apperantly she just view spoiler [ leaves rather than the story sticking around to deal with the consequences.

All of this subterfuge seems a hundred times harder than learning to carry a shield or whatever. Which brings me to what I hate about this series the most… Reason 2: Alanna hits every single Mary Sue trope there is. You telling me she isnt Mary Sue-ish?

And my name is not Tamara. I really like books with female protagonists, but not when they're oh-so-super special that everybody loves them instantly and they succeed at everything. Plus, did I mention she even has purple eyes? I did, didnt I? The problem with such stories is there's no tension or drama, if everything goes the protagonist's way and everything happens just as expected.

Here, everything happens off screen. For days or months to get better. Do you expect me to buy that when there was no actual build up and she is just gets so awesome at everything by practicing?! I studied so hard at high school and I stil sucked at logarithm no matter what. Dont fucking try to excuse her being a master at sword fightg by studying it secretly!

Where are her blood, sweat and tears? I wanna see it. I wanns see her struggling. She doesnt struggle ok? She is bullied, we are told she is bullied but because the pacing is too fucking fast I cant even feel sorry for her. The book -specially in the beginning- feels like a part of a spin-off series or a second book in a series instead of the first one. We are immediately thrown into the plot and the characters and cant take a second to get used to the whole thing.

You know what happens when an author works under a strict maximum page limit? The pacing gets a bit wonky at times, with months or even years passed over with barely a mention. Can that be an excuse for pacing?

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Maybe it deals with heavy stuff in later boks but if you excuse me I wont count having sex, having more than one love interest or learning how to dress as a woman as dealing with gender issues. Maybe it gets better I doubt it. But you know what? How dare you give up, you chicken!!! BSG had a pretty awesome first season so it can be done. First season can be cool. First book can be cool. Therefore, I dont have to stick around when the plot and character development and woldbuilding takes too damn long.

This series it seems is famous for being Feminist Fantasy. I am a girl. And I consider myself a feminist. But it seems as I realized recently I dont like feminist fantasy cause I had the same problems I had with Graceling in this one.

This shit is so unrealistic. For me, for this one book what the the main character does all the time is whine and bitch about how unfair it is to be born as a girl. People look at feminism in different ways. So yeah there is a part of feminism I dont like. I dont like when some people act like we dont need man or they dont need anybody or who the hell needs marriage and people who marry and have a kid and choose being a stay home mom for their kids are stupid.

I dont like judgy people. You dont know how they were raised. I dont like Allana. Because she seems like one of those judgy people. She doesnt like her gender. Why the fuck I have to have my period and be in pain both physically and mentally when the guys has it so easy? I can see someone of you nodding. But guys dont have it easy, ok? They have their own problems as well. We all have those moments. We all move on. Nobody hates their gender this much. Not even in their early years. I dont fucking care how unfair the world is. You cant just make your character this kind of a special snowflake and then expect me to buy she has mentality of a 5 years old child!!

They are ok with her lying? Where the hell all these great mentality is coming from? Dont start with me by saying: I know that Alanna revealing her gender doesn't have enough immediate consequence even in sequels. So I dont like that the story takes the easy way out instead of tackling the drama head on.

Would have been a lot more compelling for her to learn who she was in the same area and around the same people she was trained. Avoiding that fallout totally kills the momentum of the series. I sure luv when that happens. Can you smell my sarcasm from there? Tropes present in this book include: Luv the whole black and white mentality this book has.

Alana has such powerful supporters as you can see. How the hell these ordinary female characters do get supported by all these powerful beings is beyond me. Shhh, dont ask those questions. By the Goddess herself. Havent heard that one before. Look how amazed I am. Birth control is a necklace? Dont you just love fantasy? Alanna panics when her first period begins, gets a magical amulet and then her peridod never gets mentioned again. Dont do it if you arent going to handle the whole issue properly.

When I had my first period I remember freaking out soooo much. I was at the right age but stil I freaked out like crazy cause I was alone a home and the first periods are always tricky. You have it, then you dont for like 2 months and then you have it again. Plus, it took time getting used to whole period drama. But Allana is like totally fine. Even her period is perfect. Why cant my period ever be drama free?

Lastly, huge spoiler for the end of the series but she ends up with; view spoiler [George? Are you fucking kidding me? That dude who is too old for her and apperantly stalks her so much even the writer admitted she wished she never wrote that relationship? I past my Edward the stalker stage. I dont like stalkers anymore.

There's also his forcing a kiss on her immediately after promising to give her space? Come on, somebody try to explain that scene to me. It felt like a wasted idea that didnt fully capitalize on its potential. There's something there that COULD have been good, but the author didn't quite know what to do with it, or how to bring it out. That's why I dont like this book. Now if you excuse me I'm going to go out and get's myself an ice-cream 'cause nothing can cure a disappointing book like ice-cream: View all 29 comments. This is the first book in a series written for the younger end of the young adult readership, but which is still of interest to readers of any age.

The First Adventure is a fantasy set in a place where magic is common and knights are trained in the ways of chivalry. Alanna is fighting against the constraints of being female in such a society and having dressed herself as a boy she sets off to be trained as a page with the hope of a knighthood in the future. I enjoyed the story and the cha This is the first book in a series written for the younger end of the young adult readership, but which is still of interest to readers of any age.

I enjoyed the story and the characters. As a young person's book it is fairly short in length and simple in its structure and interactions. It was a very pleasant, light, easy read and I would recommend it to younger readers starting out in the world of fantasy and also to young at heart readers who feel like a breath of fresh air in their reading matter.

I'm so mad I didn't start this series earlier!!! View all 7 comments. Not really a review, more a memory: I can pinpoint the origin of these books with the most clarity. I remember being handed the first one by a librarian, and begging my parents to buy it for me when I had to turn it back in. I remember then begging the librarian to tell me the date the next one was expected to release that was the only way to find out, in those days. I remember the look and location of each new book, in the bookstore, when I went to pick it up. I still have all my first edition Not really a review, more a memory: I still have all my first editions.

Tamora Pierce is the only author I have ever expressly tried to meet, and she is the only author who's book I stood in line to have signed. This series actually did change my life. I probably would have liked this better if I'd read it for the first time when I was younger. The heroine is a fairly typical spunky fantasy female, she's a little too perfect and good at everything. The story is okay but not especially memorable.

It takes place over several years, though the passage of time seems a little muddy and the only real sense of it is that sometimes Alanna will mention her age. It's written in third person, and for the most part we're only in Alanna's head. But there a I probably would have liked this better if I'd read it for the first time when I was younger.

But there are occasionally parts where we're reading about what another character is thinking, those moments are jarring and don't always seem to serve much purpose. View all 19 comments. This is one of those books that will stick with me, literally and metaphorically. I have it with me at college The whole series and all the ones I have of the spin off series are dear to me. They are wonderful for girls who are growing up.

It is one story after another of strong young girls turning into strong young women. Jun 01, Angie rated it it was amazing Shelves: Okay, deep breaths all around. Are you ready for another one of those retro reviews in which I regale you with nostalgic views of my childhood reading and rhapsodize on another heroine who contributed to making me who I am today?

If you're not and I totally would not blame you in the slightest --I know how I can go on about these things , you should probably just swish on by, cause Alanna is sort of the mother of them all when it comes to characters who own a little piece of my soul. She's right Okay, deep breaths all around. She's right smack dab there in the company of Harry, Aerin, Meg, and Dicey. As I think about those girls and the effect they initially had and continue to have on me, I'm back in that familiar circle of awe.

What would I do without them? Alanna got me through being 13, and years later I think about her on a regular basis. I realize so much of your connection to characters and their stories has to do with the age at which you as reader make their acquaintance. And, truthfully, I'm not at all offended if you come to the Song of the Lioness quartet later in life and don't find yourself as fully bowled over as I was though I will likely nudge you in the direction of finishing the series just to see because they're short, what can it hurt, plus the characters grow up, the books get better and better, and really no one should miss that ending.

But all fangirling aside, I will say that it is impossible to overstate how hard I fell for this series and that imagining my life without them is not only distasteful but unfathomable. Faced with being unwillingly separated and sent away to the palace and the convent respectively, twins Thom and Alanna of Trebond take matters into their own hands.

Born out of Alanna's determination, the twins decide to switch places. Thom will go to the convent to train as a sorcerer. Alanna will masquerade as Thom's twin "Alan" and train to be a knight. When she's won her shield and proved her worth to king and court, she will reveal her true self and make her way as a knight-errant in search of adventure. It all seems so easy initially. But, of course, the unusual course she chooses reaches into every aspect of Alanna's life and alters it. Because, her obvious deception aside, she has also been gifted with certain abilities that she fears, abilities that could ruin her chances at the life she wants if they come to light at an inopportune moment.

It is therefore with a certain reluctance that Alanna makes friends among her fellow pages at the palace and the denizens of the capital city of Corus. Going it alone feels like the safest course. But Alanna soon learns that she will need what friendships she can cobble together if she is to embrace all of who she is and survive the swirling danger lurking in the bowels of the castle. We need not discuss it," said the man at the desk. He was already looking at a book.

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His two children left the room, closing the door behind them. I want to be a great sorcerer! I want to slay demons and walk with the gods--" "D'you think I want to be a lady? And basically those of you who love girls in disguise tales can sign up here. Alanna was one of my very first experiences with such a story line, and the danger and audacity and excitement got to me something fierce.

She captured my loyalty and affection in one fell swoop. Because she knew what she wanted, and she was going to get it if it killed her. But along with that dedication and, yes, ruthlessness, came incredible loyalty, the voracious desire to learn, and a great capacity for love and friendship. Far from perfect, however, Alanna screws up.

If hot of kind be the woman And great liking hath to man, One chamber or two or three Of thilike that in matrice be Of great will open there again When that a man hath by her lain. Adopting the language of Galen, Hugh understands women to be naturally colder than their male counterparts. The fusion of ancient natural philosophy and medieval moralism is especially evident in the writings of the thirteenth-century theologian, Albert the Great Albertus Magnus, c.

Hence, for Albert, twins exist on a cline of the monstrous that links multiple births to physical deformation and sexual ambiguity: Via Avicenna, Albert stresses the emotional content of human reproduction and the way that the pleasure and heat that women may feel during sexual intercourse makes a significant contribution to the generation of twins. This pleasure is said to occur in three stages, at the moment of female ejaculation eiectiones spermatis , the movements of the vulva when it draws in semen Mootus orificii matricis in sugendo , and the movements of the womb throughout pregnancy.

Above all other animals, Albert claims, female humans and mares are most likely to superfecundate; to conceive in separate but sequential copulations and generate twins in a single gestation. It is the toughness of their flesh which creates or rather gives indication of this appetite. All animals which have tough flesh have full flesh because blood does not flow out from them and the last food is poured into the members.

They thus desire a great deal of copulation, especially woman and the mare. Twins, as the gendered by-product of an immanent bodily and moral predisposition, were taken as evidence of how material and ethical taxonomies could coalesce in the natural world. For women, the bearing of children during this era was seen as both a punishment for the original sin of Eve and a means to attain salvation.

On this I can only speculate. He acknowledges that salvation-through-reproduction, if pursued, harboured the threat of over production. We see then, in this illuminated manuscript of de Animalibus , a continuum; from single pregnancy at the top, to twin pregnancy directly below, to the woman at the bottom corner with quintuplets, to the figure in the right margin, whose gargantuan reproductive capacities render her pregnant with 28 foetuses.

Though his text stresses that such outcomes are unlikely, the causal mechanism and the depth of female desire described within makes this threat possible. This is why twins were absorbed into categories of monstrosity that, following Aristotle, placed them alongside those born with extra digits, limbs, and so on.

But, as Robert Olsen and Karen Olsen observe, medieval commentators looked to account between physical and moral monstrosities: Albert is a surprising advocate of abortion as a means of controlling population levels: Despite the great problems associated with calculating mortality rates for periods when methods of record keeping and standards of categorisation were both inconsistent and incomplete,Woods goes to great lengths to substantiate his claim that singleborn infant and maternal death rates were at least three times higher prior to Twin pregnancies, with their added risk of a great range of developmental, nutritional and obstetric risks, as well as low birth weight and increased rates of premature delivery, were considered to be even more hazardous; having and being twins in this period was fraught with both moral and mortal risk, permitting those that sought to categorise and measure those risks to use the birth of twins as emblematic bodies of evidence.

Adultery and exposure Suppose that you found yourself in a rare minority who, having run the gauntlet of twin delivery, its associations with sickness and monstrosity, manage to survive and see your children live. How did society view you as a mother of twins? What status was given to or adopted by twins? Here the historical record is scant and the information available compromised by the genre or intention of the work.

What we do have are an enormous number of twins in folk tales and ballads, court poetry and prose. To what extent we should take this imaginative literature as a form of historical documentation is fraught with problems that are familiar to literary and cultural historians. These literatures are complex objects serving multiple purposes, the least of which may be to hold up a simple, mimetic, documentary relationship with the social affairs they express. For the principle treatment of twins in this literature is of exposure; the public manifestation of hidden or forbidden acts.

Hence, it is rare for the birth of twins in these stories to provide a simple occasion for celebration. Instead, twin birth is again the trigger for moral scrutiny and a means by which narratives can afford opportunities to expose the proper conduct of individuals. The birth of twins in the literary art of the Middle Ages frequently marks an opportunity for one woman to accuse another of adultery and thus the twins as illegitimate.

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Erik Kooper has analysed twenty European stories, many of which were translated, redacted and adapted, and he divided these according to the way in which twinship is represented. In stories that are free of these kinds of accusation, like the late twelfth-century French story Aiol whose royal twins are born in a prison and later exposed, twins are by no means free of other kinds of peril.

Similarly, in the early fifteenth-century romance, Sir Torrent of Portyngale , the eponymous hero is separated from his twin sons without negative judgement being attached to the phenomenon of twinning, but that does not mean that its twin protagonists are straightforwardly celebrated either. The stories benefit from the narrative pathos and closure forged through the eventual reunion of parents children: These twin stories, however, form a minority.

A jealous neighbour claims that the twins are not the sons of her husband but that the noble woman has, in fact, had sex with two men:. Ich have wonder, thou messanger, Who was thi lordes conseiler, To teche him about to send And telle schame in ich an ende, That his wiif hath to childer ybore. Wele may ich man wite therfore That tuay men hir han hadde in bour; That is hir bothe deshonour. The poem matches contemporary theses advanced by natural philosophers and theologians, such as Albert, who argued that superfecundation, female sexual proclivity, and the generation of twins were all entwined.

Shortly after making this accusation the nameless woman who accuses her neighbour then conceives twin daughters of her own; she is therefore incriminated by her earlier accusation. Not only does this disrupt the moral polarity between accused and accuser, it also contravenes the major conventions of romantic literatures, epitomised by figures such as Guenevere and Iseut, which tended to amplify acts of adultery with threats of infertility. Multiple birth — a taboo that inspires accusation, punishment, and abandonment — also seems to displace the incest taboo that frequently motivates infant exposure in stories about male foundlings.

But the knight is persuaded to marry someone rich and have legitimate children. To the turbulent plot of Frein we can add Octavian , a popular family romance throughout the fourteenth century, initially composed in Old French and then abbreviated into two Middle English versions.

Their prayers are answered in the shape of twin sons. In this respect, their children have divine connotations; a sign of divine intervention and a resolution to anxieties surrounding royal succession: The family undergo further separation when each twin is abducted, the first by an ape and the second by a lioness. After further abductions, adoptions, giant killings, battles and romantic conquests, displays of taste and indications of their innate nobility, the adult children are restored to their parents.

The deceitful mother-in-law, now threatened by her husband to death by fire, takes her own life. According to literary convention, order and peace are restored. This optical and instrumental quality of twinning is not specific to this period of human history. Though what is viewed, calibrated, or measured may change, the inclusion of twins as evidence for the orders and aberrations of nature is a persistent aspect of human self-assessment. Owsei Temkin Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, , p.

Oxford University Press, London, , p. Medicine, Science, and Culture Cambridge: CUP, , p. Cornell University Press, , II. Here I have also been guided by the summary offered by J. Lucas, Women in the Middle Ages: Religion, Marriage and Letters Brighton: Harvester, , p. Finucane, The Rescue of the Innocents: Endangered Children in Medieval Miracles London: Macmillan, , p. Peeters, , p. Population in Medieval Thought Oxford: OUP, , p. Book 7 , translated by Mary Beagon Oxford:

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