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A girl that used swards and magic… Title? Author?

neonwaters@emai

New Member
Back in the early 90’s I read a book while in school (just a book picked by random from the school library, not an assignment). I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it or the author. Please help.

The story is that the parents of these two kids die or something and the kids have to leave their home. The brother goes off to study magic and the girl, who the book is about, goes to a school to become a knight. The thing is that only boys can go to that school so she cuts her hair and does not swim with them for fun. I remember a part in the first book that she becomes a woman. She then has to start wrapping her chest and she goes to a special woman, outside of the school, to get stuff for her period. At the knight school she has to learn to fight but also magic stuff. I know that in later books she gets a sward that is evil and always is struggling with it to use it for its power against other evil but not to be over come with its evil.

I do know that the story stretched out through several books and it seems that the last book was not very conclusive. I think it was a female wrote it and I was only like 12 when I read it so it must have been an easy read.
 
This sounds very familiar to me. Could it possibly be the Paksennarion books by Elizabeth Moon? Not completely sure if that's right though...
 
Oh, I know and love this series.....

You're talking about the Alanna series by Tamora Pierce. She has written several quartets now, but the first quartet is the one you're interested in. It's made up of:

Alanna:the First Adventure
In the Hand of the Goddess
The Woman who Rides like a Man
Lioness Rampart.

Enjoy!

Mage
 
Well done, mage. I didn't think my idea was quite right. :)

Neonwaters, it might be worth looking into the Elizabeth Moon books if you're still interested in the general story line of a woman going into the army and dealing with life in what was considered a traditionally "man's world."
 
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