This was my introduction to Pierce, as an adult--but I still found it a compelling read despite being well over the age of the targeted market. It doesn't quite make it up there as a favorite book--she has lots of competition in heroic fantasy, including her own. I do think Pierce is one of those authors that grows from book to book, and my favorites are her later series: the books centered on Alanna's daughter Aly, on Beka Cooper, an ancestress of a character in this quartet of books, and her other "lady knight," Keladry. The style isn't what I'd consider graceful either in this novel, but there are quotable and striking lines even in the early books and it's a simple enough style for younger readers. But I do love Pierce's characters, and the feisty page Alanna, so determined to become a knight she passes herself off as a boy, is the anti-Bella of heroines.
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