Tortall: A Spy's Guide

I was actually very disappointed by this one. I had high hopes - I love Tamora Pierce. I've read almost all of her books, and reviewed several of them on my blog, most recently Tempests and Slaughter. I was hoping the Timeline would place the actual books in the timeline, but it's written completely in character, so only notable figures are named. (Beka Cooper, from the Mastiff trilogy, was not notable enough to get a mention, which I am quite sad about.) I knew this was going to be written in a guidebook style, not a novel, so I was prepared for that, but it still just didn't mesh well.

There were certainly amusing parts - the Spymaster taking an inordinate interest in someone stealing the royal Chef's recipes, because he loves the man's soups, for one. Also infuriating points, like the letters between the King and the man he asks to become the new Knight trainer - a man who really dislikes Alanna and female knights in general. I found the “threat-level profiles” on characters to be mostly rehashing of things we already knew.

The few mentions of Emperor Ozorne do make me want to go reread The Immortals War set of books, which I'd already somewhat wanted to do after reading Tempests and Slaughter. Now that I know they also deal with Ozorne, I want to read them again even more!

So I don't know. I could see it being a useful reference guide, but it's not really a good read. I'm pretty ambivalent about it. I would read any other Tamora Pierce book rather than this one.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

I'm super behind the times, I completely forgot this one was coming out until I saw it on someone else's post! But I managed to get it at the library without a wait. I remember enough for the entire story to make sense, and it was sweet to get the little behind the scenes bits. Not necessarily my favorite thing, but a good fluffy read.

A behind-the-scenes look at personal and official documents of the Cooper family and the related Shadow Service. Obviously, full of spoilers from the rest of the Tortall series, and clearly for diehard fans.