Terrier is about a girl, Beka Cooper, (whom old fans like me will know to be the ancestress of the Lioness books’ lovable Rogue George Cooper) who is in training to be a Dog, the Tortallan equivalent of police. She has a couple of magic tricks up her sleeve, like being able to listen to the spirits of the dead. But, as her mother was the victim of opportunistic and cruel crime, nothing serves her more than her hunger for justice. Okay, so, pretty standard fare so far. But holy crap, I have never got so much flak from my friends as when I was reading this book. Even my fantasy-reading friends were giving me crap for reading this. Most of their derision was aimed at the cover for being creepy and over-golden, which I have to agree it kind of is. They were also a bit scathing about the subject matter, which sounded cliched to them.

I’m a bit blind to the flaws of authors who have somehow managed to win my loyalty. I’m the same with some musicians. Even so, I have to say that while Terrier was engrossing reading, it had some minor problems. It was written in journal form. That’s a writerly conceit with merit, but the trick is balancing the getting-to-know-you value with the right amount of drama. Mostly the book reads fine, despite an extremely ambitious plot. But there are some saggy bits. And the character points can be overwrought, as in, ‘I get it! She’s shy! He’s a charismatic lady-killer! Okay, enough already!’

I’ll be damned a million times, though, if I can’t defend Tamora Pierce from lounge-room critics, because she was my first library-love. I received plenty of fines for her Song of the Lioness quartet books about Alanna, a magically gifted girl who pretended to be a boy for years because she wanted to be a knight. Come on! That is awesome-town stuff. I borrowed her books chronically until I could afford to buy them. And I read all her books that were set in Tortall (there are 15!). And that is because Pierce writes a fantastic female hero, and she just loves her readers as much as her characters, teaching them that it’s okay to be different or strong as long as you’re principled and compassionate. And she’s moral in the best possible way. I learned about the virtues of hard work and honour by reading Pierce’s books, but I also learned about evil, equality and the class system.

So even though Terrier isn’t my favourite example of Pierce’s strong-female issue-conscious fantasy, that’s still a genre I love, and the book features a range of fun, sympathetic characters, a good dose of danger, a purple-eyed cat and nobility everywhere you least expect it.

A by-the-bye — I’ve been reading a lot of YA and fantasy lately. But the last non-YA book I read was for my next book club meeting, and once I write up a book, it floats out of my head a little bit. So I’m hanging on to that one. Plus Terrier has to go back to the library. Wow, I cringe a little bit every time I write Terrier. I get so embarrassed about reading fantasy. Even more than I do about liking Selma Blair.