The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

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To be honest, since Titus Alone –which is by far the most boring book of Mervyn Peake’s otherwise fabulous trilogy- I have been dubious about novels in a series that have a blurb beginning with “so-and-so alone”. I guess that distaste comes from not liking when characters who we’ve come to love in a certain story and certain environment suddenly leave that world to do their own thing: like band members releasing solo albums. This did become the case with the third installment in the Song of the Lioness quartet, however I have discovered that the level of investment and lovability of the character determines whether their adventures alone will be interesting or not.

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man chronicles Alanna of Trebond’s journey south after earning her knighthood, defeating the evil Duke Roger, and causing a great scandal at court when her true identity was revealed. Now free she roams the desert, coming upon a Bazhir tribe which she quickly becomes the first female shaman of. While trying to inspire the tribe to change their laws and beliefs regarding women, true conflict finds Alanna when Prince Jonathan visits her tribe and she begins having strange –potentially prophetic- nightmares about Tortall.

Today the gender gap is in a constant state of elasticity with tensions snapping and springing every which way. Reading this book at such a time where we’re all painfully aware of such inequality does put a damper on the heroine (who we must remember was written in the ‘80s). Despite becoming a knight and proving she’s just as good as a man Alanna has a somewhat annoying gender identity crisis in this book, which is made more annoying by the fact that she terns her attention to learning “women’s work” like weaving as means to combat it. But the gender problem does not stop there. Despite having other females to talk to, all her conversations with secondary characters turn back to men in some way or other, and the book’s real conflict comes in the form of a fight between her and Jonathan and the appearance of a love triangle. I definitely found this book of the series so far to be the one that changed Alanna’s character –which it was aiming to I’ll concede- and I understand the aim, I can’t say I’m on board with it.

Aside from the glaring issues of the gender divide this book reads just as easily as its predecessors and helps to create a fuller and richer image of the type of world it all takes place in. We get to see what the world is like outside of Tortall, in the surrounding deserts of the South and it just makes the world of the novels seem that much bigger and more concrete.

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As the book is only a few pages longer than its predecessors it still suffers from having too much drama crammed into it and not having very much breathing space, although there are parts that do allow for the reader to find their bearings, which I definitely appreciated. Any good drama is not lead up to with the appropriate amount of suspense and –as can often be a problem with fantasy- Pierce is sidestepping this by regaling us with ‘dramatic plot twists’ that we’ve read a million times before (and thus don’t need that suspense).

I guess I’m finding more and more flaws in these books because I only have nostalgia for the first one. Regardless, I will say that The Woman Who Rides Like a Man is still a fun escape into a fantasy world and a perfect way to while away a Sunday afternoon.

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man was written by Tamora Pierce and published by Random House in 1986.