Line #31 Literature/TortallAndOtherLands


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tortall_and_other_lands_cover.jpg]]
2	''Tortall and Other Lands'' is a collection of eleven short stories by Creator/TamoraPierce, six of which take place in the ''Literature/TortallUniverse''. It was published 2011.
3
4	!!!The ''Tortall Universe'' stories:
5	# "Student of Ostriches" (first published in ''Young Warriors''): The OriginStory of Kylaia al Jmaa, eventually to become the Shang Unicorn.
6	# "Elder Brother" (first published in ''Half-Human''): In ''[[Literature/TheImmortals Wolf-Speaker]]'', Numair turned a mage into a tree. But that had the effect of turning a tree into a man...
7	# "The Hidden Girl" (first published in ''Dreams and Visions: Fourteen Flights of Fantasy''): Overlapping with "Elder Brother", this is the story of a girl who sets out alone to challenge the patriarchal religion of her country after her father's death.
8	# "Nawat" (first published in ''Tortall and Other Lands''): Following up from the end of ''[[Literature/TrickstersDuet Trickster's Queen]]'', Nawat has to deal with tough choices after his and Aly's children are born.
9	# "The Dragon's Tale" (first published in ''The Dragon Book: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy''): On a trip to Carthak, a bored Kitten the dragon finds something worthwhile to do.
10	# "Lost" (first published in ''Tortall and Other Lands''): A self-doubting young math genius meets a darking and finds out her true potential.
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12	!!!The other stories
13	[numlist:7]
14	# "Time of Proving" (first published in ''Cricket'' magazine): Arimu, a girl of the Wind People on her coming-of-age trial, meets a poet from the legendary Veiled City.
15	# "Plain Magic" (first published in ''Planetfall''): When Tonya's village becomes frightened of an approaching dragon, things don't look good for her...
16	# "Mimic" (first published in ''Tortall and Other Lands''): Ri loves to help wounded creatures, but she's tested when she finds a particularly strange one.
17	# "Huntress" (first published in ''Firebirds Rising''): Corey wants to fit in with the cool kids at her school and ignore her family's oddball religious practices. But there's a terrible price she's about to discover...
18	# "Testing" (first published in ''Lost & Found: Award-Winning Authors Sharing Real-Life Experiences Through Fiction''): The only non-fantasy story in the collection. The residents of a group home deal with getting a new housemother.
19	[/numlist]
20
21	----
22	!!Tropes:
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24	* AbusiveParents: "Lost" has Adria's father, Master Fairingrove. A big moment for her in the story is realizing that she's never going to gain his approval no matter how hard she tries.
25	* AngelUnaware: When the Goddess appears in ''Huntress'' She's dressed as a jogger, and Corey and the Pack assume She's a random woman who's stumbled upon the situation and objects to it. [[spoiler: Corey tries to tell Her to run and save Herself, and the Goddess is charmed by her "gallantry", saying She will remember it. She's mildly irritated by the Pack not figuring it out, sighing that these are corrupt times.]]
26	* AnimalTalk: Animals in ''Mimic'' can speak to each other. Through her association with Mimic, Ri comes to be able to understand them herself.
27	* AssholeVictim: in ''Huntress'', the first murdered people Corey hears about are a rapist and a drug dealer. This is the doing of [[spoiler: the Pack, a group of sociopathic SpoiledBrat track stars who like to meet up on nights when the moon is full in order to [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunt and kill humans]]. They claim that all their victims deserve it, and some of them clearly were terrible people, but they also reminisce about murdering a flasher. When Corey, a good runner with a competitive streak, falls in with the Pack they seem welcoming and invite her on a full moon run in Central Park, only to turn on her completely the moment she refuses to participate. She didn't "know her place" when she started outrunning some of them and especially now, when she invokes morality.]] They become the {{Asshole Victim}}s themselves when Corey's patron Goddess appears and TheHunterBecomesTheHunted.
28	* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: A newly transformed Qiom was beaten by humans and driven away, since he didn't understand such niceties as "wearing clothes" and "not defecating in the open". He thought he disliked them as a whole. Still when Fadal, who befriended him and tried to teach him how to get on as a human, is in trouble he finds that he does care very much about ''her'' well-being.
29	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Qiom has a very particular view of things thanks to having been a tree, and has NoSympathy for humans except when it comes to Fadal, who befriended him. Fadal is sad when she sees the bodies of bandits nailed to posts. Qiom agrees with the sentiment but has different reasons.
30	--> "Twice a waste. A waste of living trees for the wood, and a waste of fertilizer."
31	* BornAsAnAdult: In "Elder Brother", Qiom turns from a tree into an adult human, probably because as an apple tree, he was old enough to produce apples.
32	* CharacterTitle: "Nawat", "Lost" and "Mimic". Incidentally, all three stories made their debut in this anthology.
33	* TheChosenOne: In "The Hidden Girl", [[spoiler:Teky is chosen by the God in the Flame as its next Oracle, to teach the people of her country the contents of both of its holy books.]]
34	* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: In "Elder Brother", Fadal has to help Qiom adjust to being a human, since he doesn't know anything about it.
35	* CoolOldLady: Tonya thinks Lindri is one of these in ''Plain Magic'', but when Lindri laughs at the end she realizes she's actually maybe a handful of years older than Tonya (fourteen) herself. It might just be that Tonya couldn't imagine a young woman having Lindri's peddler lifestyle.
36	* DeadGuyJunior: In "Nawat", Aly and Nawat name their triplets Ochobai, Junim and Ulasu, in honour of the three members of the Dodeka family who died in ''Trickster's Queen''. They're not named ''exactly'' after them due to raka beliefs that it's unlucky to give a child the same name as someone living or recently dead.
37	* DisposableVagrant: In "Huntress", [[spoiler:Felix and his "pride" prefer to run down people who are criminals, drug dealers or the homeless, because no one with power will miss them or try to find out what happens.]]
38	* FairPlayVillain: The Pack in ''Huntress'' claim they give their victims a sporting chance, but Corey sees through this and understands that they offer a SadisticChoice, at best, especially since one Pack member does carry a gun for anyone who's not willing to be chased and stabbed at. [[spoiler: The Goddess who comes to Corey's aid mockingly gives them the exact same chance, which none of them manage to take.]]
39	* FantasyCounterpartReligion: The unnamed country in "Elder Brother" and "The Hidden Girl" clearly practices the Tortall Universe's version of UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}.
40	* FriendToAllLivingThings: Ri's valley in ''Mimic'' benefits from a Compact between birds and humans that sees each helping the other. As well as loving the birds and playing music to them, Ri cares for any other animals she finds with an injury, including rats. Mimic, who she rescues and nurses back to health, takes it another step further, being beloved by other animals.
41	* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: In ''The Hidden Girl'', [[spoiler: the God in the Flame has gone a long time without its female voice being recognized. This bothers it, and it chooses Teky to spread word of that aspect of itself.]]
42	* GoodWithNumbers: Adria Fairingrove is a mathematical genius who, at the end of her story, [[spoiler:is off to study at the Royal University of Tortall]].
43	* HumanSacrifice: "Plain Magic" is about a teenage girl whose village stakes her out as a sacrifice to a dragon that's been terrorizing the area, on the advice of the local wizard. She's saved by a peddler woman who knows that this is unnecessary; apparently dragons in this world are ordinary if dangerous wild animals and the idea that they care about having virgins to eat is just a superstition.
44	* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: The Pack in ''Huntress'' take Corey on one of their 'hunts' and don't appreciate her refusal to participate [[spoiler: in recreational murder, so they hunt her instead. However, the Goddess her family has served doesn't appreciate one of Hers being put in this position, and decides to hunt ''them'', proclaiming afterwards that they made better prey than hunters.]]
45	* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: In "Huntress", [[spoiler:Felix and his friends run down people, usually low-level criminals or the homeless, in Central Park. When Corey refuses to participate, they try to use her as their prey, only for Corey's family's Goddess to turn it around on them.]]
46	* NeverLearnedToRead: Tonya has magic and is apprenticed to the local wizard, but he refuses to teach her much, including how to read, for fear of competition.
47	* OddballInTheSeries: ''Huntress'' and ''Testing'' are Pierce's only published works set in the modern day. "Testing" is the only story without any fantastic elements that Pierce has ever published, period.
48	* OneWordTitle: "Huntress" and "Testing".
49	* OurDragonsAreDifferent:
50	** "The Dragon's Tale": Young dragonet Kitten encounters [[spoiler:a long dormant eastern-style elemental dragon, who gives her the ability to speak mind-to-mind long before she would have ordinarily developed it]].
51	** "Plain Magic": Dragons here are long, lithe, animalistic creatures. One has been headed towards Tonya's village, burning down some of the villages along the way and skipping others. The Wizard Halen, going through his books, claims there are only three ways to stop it: it can be killed by a virtuous man with a silver spear, burned in a pit of fire, or buried in a river of ice. None of those options are available but he says [[VirginSacrifice staking out a young virgin will appease it]]. Lindri scoffs and says dragons aren't bright and virginity doesn't matter, but dragons only flame when ill and human flesh is bad for them. The villagers go with Halen's plan anyway. [[spoiler: Lindri is correct and frees Tonya before capturing the dragon with her thread magic, at which point it becomes docile and friendly. She then leaves to take it back from whence it came, saying that it's lost and would never have done nearly as much damage if people hadn't been feeding it their children.]]
52	** "Mimic": Ri, looking at the ugly lizard with winglike forearms she's rescued from an eagle, wonders if it's a dragon, but Mimic's got ugly pink and brown skin and a face and spine covered in weird lumps, rather than any horns or feelers or protruding scales. Plus he's ''very'' small and dragons are huge. [[spoiler:It's revealed that Mimic ''is'' in fact a baby dragon, and that dragons in this world have to pass a trial to become one.]]
53	* OurMinotaursAreDifferent: In "Time of Proving", the people of the Veiled City are civilized minotaurs.
54	* PredationIsNatural: Ri uses a sling on an eagle in ''Mimic'', but doesn't actually want to hurt or kill it, just prevent it from carrying off one of the lambs or any of the birds her valley has a Compact with, as she knows it's just trying to live.
55	* ProportionalAging: Back in ''Wolf-Speaker'' Daine said Kitten would be an infant for thirty years. The baby dragon is larger and more capable than she was by ''The Dragon's Tale'', but is still only sixteen, and is frustrated by being young and the knowledge that she'll be young for a very long time. And especially by being unable to speak to anyone who doesn't understand the vocal language of dragons, which presumably humans can't learn or else Daine and Numair would be able to understand her by now.
56	* TheSociopath:
57	** Master Fairingrove from "Lost". A big moment for his daughter Adria is realizing that he would always abuse her and her family no matter how hard she tried to gain approval.
58	** The entire Pack in ''Huntress'', who go from supporting Corey to turning on her utterly when she protests.
59	* SuddenlySpeaking: In ''The Dragon's Tale'' Kitten the baby dragon ends up able to speak centuries before she'd normally have that ability.
60	* SuperStrength: Qiom, thanks to having been a tree, is absurdly strong.
61	* SweetPollyOliver: In "Elder Brother", [[spoiler:Fadal turns out to be Fadala]].
62	* UrbanFantasy: "Huntress" takes place in contemporary New York City and involves a teenage girl who discovers her family's weird pagan religion is more real than she'd thought. It could actually fit in neatly with any number of Creator/MercedesLackey short stories in tone and content.
63	* VirginSacrifice: In "Plain Magic", the people of Tonya's village try to deal with a dragon this way. Unfortunately, Tonya is one of the girls who draws the short end of the stick. [[spoiler:Fortunately, travelling magician Lindri stops the dragon without any deaths.]]
64	* TheWildHunt: In ''Huntress'' [[spoiler: the Goddess whistles and stray dogs converge on Her location, willing and eager. One of the Pack calls Her a bitch and she sighs. Once he would have known to whom he spoke and that his death was before him, but times are corrupt. She fears that this hunt won't be satisfying, but ends up having a good time regardless.]]
65	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: ''Elder Brother'' came from one of these - Tamora Pierce got a lot of people asking what happened to the tree that became a man when Numair transformed an enemy mage into a tree. It causes one in turn since Numair, contacting Qiom in his dreams and being told about his and Fadal's difficulties, advises them to go east and take a ship to Tortall, where Numair will make sure they're comfortable. At the end of the story, the two are heading east. Quite a few years have passed in-series since then, but no mention of either character.
66	* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: In ''Huntress'', at least one member of the Pack shows up to hunts carrying a handgun and uses it to threaten any prey who don't want to play along. As little chance as they have running, it's a better one than being shot.
67	* TheXOfY: "Student of Ostriches" and "Time of Proving".

Context Literature / TortallAndOtherLands