4 Stars 
 There is something incredibly nerve racking about re-reading a favorite childhood book. Will it be the same experience? Will I still be able to connect to the story? Am I about to ruin fond childhood memories? 
 The Song of the Lioness Quartet is one of my favorite childhood books. It's right up there with Harry Potter. I think possibly even more special to me than Harry Potter simply because I felt like Alanna was the character, magical world, re-incarnation of myself and I idolized her. I think it was also my first foray into a world of high-fantasy, which is now my favorite genre of book. 
 Needless to say, I was nervous about this re-read. I have thought about the books often in the some 11 - 12 years since I've read them but I've never done a re-read before. Would they be as I remembered? Would I still love Alanna? 
 I wasn't disappointed by the books, though the experience was different for me. 
 The plot, for those of you who don't know, is about Alanna. She pretends to be a boy so that she can become a knight and her twin brother Thom can learn to be a sorcerer. What follows is the story of Alanna's first 3 years at the palace where she trains as a page and then a squire. She has trials and triumphs as she learns to master fighting as well as using her gifts in sorcery. 
 The one thing that really shocked me while reading this book as an adult is that it is very much a book for younger readers. It's quite short in length and the writing is very straightforward. I haven't read any of Pierce's other books recently so I don't know if it is this book in particular or just her style of writing but there isn't much in the way of description besides the very basic, essential descriptions. This doesn't just apply to the physical looks of the world and people but also to feelings and thoughts. There's no flowery, hyperbole here. This style is very different to what I have been recently reading, so although not a bad thing, it really stood out to me. I'm interested to read the coming books to see if that writing style evolves as Alanna gets older, because I do remember the series dealing with quite adult things later along the line, like love, sex and death. 
 The book also covers a long amount of time (3 years) in a short number of pages, so in some instances it seems brief. Despite the briefness you still manage to get a good feel of the characters and Pierce does a good amount of foreshadowing for things that will obviously play out in the series. I like that because Alanna is young in the books she doesn't become instantly embroiled in deep political plots or battles to save the universe. The whole book is well plotted to the main characters age and abilities, and even though Alanna notices and becomes suspicious of things, she also misses the meaning of things that someone her age would not have the maturity to pick up on. 
 It is only in the last 10% of the book that any real action develops, although the plot is continually propelled forward by the constant threat of Alanna being exposed as a girl. 
 The characters are all well written, Alanna was still the hero I imagined her to be, and although the "bad guys" are quite 2 dimensional, I think that still suits because pre-teens and young people have the tendency to see people are purely "good" or purely "bad". 
 Overall, this book did not crush my childhood dreams! It has made me curious to finish the rest of the series and I'm looking forward to seeing how Pierce manages to develop Alanna through the stages in her life.