Post by Lisa on Jan 3, 2010 15:57:50 GMT 10
Waiting for Mastiff
by Minuit Mystique
Warning - This article contains some spoilers for Mastiff
Fans of Tamora Pierce first fell in love with Beka Cooper, a tenacious and clever heroine, in Terrier. Then came Bloodhound, where our love for Beka grew to an obsession. Waiting for Mastiff is like being a child waiting for Christmas; it simply cannot come soon enough. We eagerly await any news of Mastiff out of Tammy’s Facebook, LiveJournal, and various other sites – trying to stave off the Beka cravings until we can get our grubby little hands on the actual book. One very important question is on all our lips: “What new treasures await us in Mastiff?” Until we can get our hands on the actual book, we must content ourselves with the following tidbits and speculation.
Before we get any further in our speculation about Mastiff, I must warn all those who (shock and horror) haven’t yet read Terrier or Bloodhound. This article may contain mild spoilers for those two books.
First, we’ll take a broad overview. This book is called Mastiff because Beka is on the hunt for "truly dangerous, big prey". The general plot involves Beka helping to find the kidnapped Crown Prince, King Roger and Queen Jessamine's young son. It is likely to involve Beka doing a fair amount of traveling – presumably with Tunstall, her new partner. Sources also say that King Roger will make an appearance, and the book may mention that Queen Jessamine is from Barzun.
Tammy posted on Facebook that Lady Sabine and a mage called "Farmer" will be going with Beka and Tunstall on a Hunt to the northern mountain country at some point. Also, ‘everyone’ apparently manages to get safely out of a marsh. Your guess is as good as ours as to what that involves. According to her LiveJournal, “The bad guys have burned the bridge over the swamp and now Beka & Co. have to go around!” Something tells me they’ll be spending significant time in this swamp/marsh. Now, where in Tortall (or surrounding Tortall) do we know that has a swamp or marsh? We do know that they are well protected from being eaten by bugs; perhaps this new mage is more useful than their last one?
There is one teensy little problem that I see with this particular plot device. If Beka is traipsing all over some marsh, how is she going to be able to spend more quality time with the handsome Rogue, Rosto? I for one simply must see more of Rosto in Mastiff! This unresolved sexual tension between them must be resolved; one way or another! It simply must! Or else I (and many fans I know) will go stir crazy with the endless questions.
Speaking of Rosto, a common opinion among fellow Tammy fans is that they would like Rosto to be George’s ancestor. The primary reason appears to be because the story would then come full circle. Rosto, as the founder of the Dancing Dove would be the most fitting ancestor for George. Another thing that most fans believe simply must be in Mastiff is Pounce! That magnificent little cat must return to Beka, he simply must! Although how the dignified little creature will deal with that filthy, muddy marsh is going to be amusing to say the least.
Another general consensus among fans, at least in Goldenlake, is that Beka needs some more romance in Mastiff. Whether you’re a die-hard Beka/Rosto shipper, or would prefer some variety, everyone wants Beka to find some love. And really, who doesn’t love a little romance all around? We would also love to see the romance between Mattes Tunstall and Lady Sabine develop further. And what about Clary Goodwin now that she’s not out on the dangerous streets all night, perhaps there might be a tiny addition to her family in the near future?
On a more peculiar note, have you noticed a distinct lack of certain punctuation in the Beka books? Punctuation such as colons, semi-colons, em-dash, en-dash, ellipses, parentheses, and hyphens should be scarce in Mastiff, as well as the earlier two books. According to Tammy, these are all punctuation that Beka wouldn’t know, and so shouldn’t be in her journals. So how many of you are now going to re-read Terrier and Bloodhound and see how many of these punctuations you can spot?
And so, with baited breath, we impatiently wait for the release of Mastiff, the conclusion to the Provost’s Dog trilogy. In the meantime we shall simply have to satisfy ourselves with what crumbs of information we can glean from Tammy, and much idle speculation.
