I couldn't comprehend the opening chapter of the book "Excerpt from The Luarin Conquest" so I got a copy of the book from the library and discovered there are maps and a list of characters and a glossary in the physical book. I quit listening to audiobook because I ordered the 2 books to own. (omnibus)

I love the main character, Alianne. But if I read her in a fanfiction piece, I'd be expecting screams of 'Mary Sue'. Alianne is a bright, attractive young woman who ends up in a situation that she has effectively been groomed from birth to be perfect for. Add to that magical 'sight', a cohort of 'helpful' crows, a god who keeps sticking his oar in, and the perfect spies that are only known to her, and she is the only one who can succeed. I did occasionally have problems with suspension of disbelief, but I didn't spend that time going "but the author just wants to *be* her". ( )

Both of these books are excellent. Trickster's Choice - I don't think much of her at the beginning, but it's not her fault - she's a teenager and one with a worse-than-usual balance between what she can do and what she's allowed to do (and with her family wanting her to figure out what she'll do, to top it off). The casual way Pierce writes about her being captured - skimming over the whole thing - actually makes the impact of the change for her stronger. One minute she's sailing along, avoiding arguments...next (chapter), she's a slave and thinking ahead about how to handle the problems that's going to raise. That's what I like about Aly - she's always thinking ahead, thinking not so much about 'what can I do now' but 'if I do this, what effect will it have'. The god, and the crows, and how she figures out what's going on with the other slaves - it's all neat. Alanna had things happen to her - Aly makes things happen.

Queen is both more and less interesting. There's a lot more political concerns - and at the same time, those political concerns are more reflected in people. The spymaster and her critique of him, for instance - it's politics that has him busy, but it's his own viewpoint that makes him handle things so badly. The little King's guardian is in not quite the same position with a completely different viewpoint. And like that. I was really pleased with Dove's flowering, too. And the end of the story is great - she's not forced to give up either of her selves/worlds, though neither one is exactly the same as it was. This is really one book in two volumes (though Pierce comments that it's only J.K. Rowling's example that saved it from being a quartet like the others). Queen is not, I don't think, comprehensible without reading Choice first. So this omnibus is perfect. ( )