raincitygirl

If you're going to do a thing, do it right, so... start at the beginning. Alanna: the First Adventure, the first of her Song of the Lioness quartet. I do warn that her early books don't have the polish or complexity that her later works do, it's been actually really fascinating to see her grow as a writer. Song of the Lioness was actually originally one longer book, and her publisher had her split it into four for a younger audience, and you can really kind of tell. It also has a purple-eye protagonist who becomes The Best At What She Does and is favored by the Goddess. HOWEVER, even with those caveats they're still damn good books, and her works only get better from there. Kel, in her third quartet, is probably my favorite heroine because she's tall and broad-shouldered and sort of patient and wry, and physically she's one of the few book heroines who ever looks like me. (I am a giantess.) But they're all good. If a dozens-long series is a little daunting to start, you can also ease in with her Magic Circle books, which are a little more young-young adult, but really good. I think you can also start pretty easily with the Beka Cooper trilogy, since it's a prequel to the Tortall series by a couple hundred years, so it doesn't require any knowledge of the universe. It's also her newest and thus her best series- like I said, you can really see her writing grow over the years as she hones her craft. The diary format is a little odd, but really immersive once you get used to it. So basically: either Song of the Lioness quartet or the Beka Cooper trilogy would be excellent places to dive into her main world. And it is, hands-down, my favorite fantasy world.