Terrier by Tamora Pierce

 A Spoiler Free Reread Review

I’m not a giant fan of Terrier. It’s an alright enough story, just not one I’m super invested in. Probably accounts for how long it took me to get through. I’d definitely been reading Tamora Pierce’s work for a long while before Terrier originally came out, so I was probably more invested in the world of Tortall at that point than I am now. I’m largely revisiting due to the completionist in me and I feel like the Beka Cooper trilogy isn’t going to be high on my favorites of the Tortall books.

That said, the story really takes its time getting where it’s going. I feel like this is realistic in terms of how the Tortallan Dogs investigate crimes, but boy does it plod along. Beka spends most of her time patrolling and apparently watching Goodwin and Tunstall get into fights pretty much every night. Add to that Beka’s semi-unpredictable power with the pigeons and dust spinners… just a lot of plodding plot.

This was a small blip in the book overall, but I very much dislike Lady Teodorie. Lady Teodorie is not who I’d want as a mother substitute or ultimate caregiver for my children. She clearly has no respect for Beka’s chosen profession or for Beka herself. That she allows her personal opinions to color those of Beka’s sisters is also a giant red flag. I understand that this bit is largely to introduce us to Beka’s family for a moment and contrast her with her sisters but… bleh.

Pierce does a lot of describing the people in a place, rather than the place itself. Leaves that largely to the reader’s imagination. I personally find that I can’t really picture the place Beka and her Dogs end up, due to this. I can’t even really picture the people, the descriptions are rather bare bones. I want to chalk that up to Beka’s wanting to write the journal rather like a report, so the language would be more simple.

Even the ultimate ending of the book seemed to take forever. I think that’s possibly because there were two cases, but also because we essentially had to “sit through” the court case as well.

I think overall, Terrier is an alright book. Beka and her friends are alright characters. It’s just rather middling, in my opinion.

Character Spotlight

Whew, haven't done one of these in a while. I thought I'd talk a little bit about Pounce.

I first encountered Pounce roughly 200 years after the events of Terrier in The Song of the Lioness quartet. He was following Alanna around and was known as Faithful.

I want to say he had fairly close to the same personality, though I'm not entirely sure as it's definitely been over 10 years since I read The Song of the Lioness. Pounce is definitely a highlight of Terrier. Everyone love a cat sidekick, even if Pounce isn't nearly as snarky as some I could name... Pounce definitely acts less cat-like than one would expect; after all, what cat would follow someone around through most, if not all, their shifts at their job?

Anyway, I like Pounce and look forward to reading more of him in the future.