Post by Katty on May 26, 2009 22:43:17 GMT 10
Bloodhound Review
by Anaroriel
Please note, this review contains minimal spoilers.
In Bloodhound, book two of Tamora Pierce’s A Tortallan Legend series, the main character, Beka Cooper, has become a full-fledged Dog, a law enforcer of Pierce’s magical realm of Tortall. After training as a Puppy with two of the best in the field, Clary Goodwin and Matthias Tunstall, Beka is finding it hard to keep a partner with her level of devotion to her work. Luckily, Beka doesn’t need to worry about finding the right partner just yet, because due to many fake silver coins cropping up in the markets and gambling dens of Tortall’s capital city, Corus, Beka and Goodwin head off to where the root of the problem began, in Port Caynn.
In this installment, while there still remains all the magic and charm of old Tortall, Beka is placed in a new city. The change in setting is a great decision for Beka’s development because Beka has to deal with her shyness with new characters while also learning to use her wits to her best advantage in an unfamiliar setting. She still has the help of her “birdies”, dust spinners and pigeons, one of which, Slapper the pigeon, follows her to Port Caynn. Pierce also reintroduces an old character in which readers do not know much about, a dog named Achoo Curlypaws, who replaces Pounce as Beka’s companion for this adventure.
As expected, Tamora Pierce has great, developed characters and exciting fight and action scenes. Her world building from her previous books have only given this early Tortall a detailed foundation and a fully fleshed out and layered credibility, giving her more time to spend on other aspects of the story. However, often in its stead she uses instances that can be applied to the real world, such as torture methods and gender identity. Unfortunately these became a little preachy at times, and would have been better left out.
While she has great personalities for her good characters, Pierce’s villains were slightly lacking this time. The main villain was a bit predictable and stereotypical, if not a little clichéd for this book. It would have been nicer for Beka to go against a villain that had more depth or intelligence and motivation beyond pure greed. There was no incredible plot twist at the end or surprises, but the gradual revealing of information was well played.
Beka also has a small romance while in Port Caynn. I don’t want to give too much away, but I do predict that this will have a great impact on her view of relationships in the final book.
Overall, I rate this book 4.5 out of 5 stars, and I can’t wait to see the finale of the Beka Cooper Trilogy.
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!