Journey stories were what first drew me to fantasy as a reader. I grew up doing a lot of amateur camping and hiking with my family, and liked to pretendâwhilst tramping along rocky, Oklahoma paths through the woodsâthat I was lost in an enchanted forest, or trekking bravely across perilous lands with the hopes of many on my shoulders. In college I even taught a summer camp class called Mountain Man, which took students through the woods, teaching them about various plants and roots. Tolkien was my first fantasy love, and I never feel more at home than when Iâm on a fictional journey to save the world.
The Naming, which is the first in The Books of Pellinor quartet, was the first true YA quest novel I ever read. As a Tolkien nerd who was greatly inspired in high school by the Lord of the Ringsâalmost certainly the series which made me a fantasy writer myselfâI had never encountered anything in YA that came close to the depth of landscape worldbuilding that Tolkien so masterfully executes in his books. And in The Naming I felt like I had finally entered a world as intricate and well-developed as Middle-earthâor as close as the faster pace of YA narrative would allow. What was more, our reluctant quester turned out to be a young woman, and I was both thrilled and relieved to see myself in Maerad as I joined her on her journey.
"An epic fantasy in the Tolkien tradition, with a strong girl hero. . . . I couldnât put it down!" â Tamora Pierce
Maerad is a slave in a desperate and unforgiving settlement, taken there as a child when her family is destroyed in war. She doesnât yet know she has inherited a powerful gift, one that marks her as a member of the noble School of Pellinor and enables her to see the world as no other can. It is only when she is discovered by Cadvan, one of the great Bards of Lirigon, that her true identity andâŚ
