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Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9780375838163
ISBN number: 0375838163
Label: Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer: Random House Books for Young Readers
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 608
Printing Date: October 23, 2007
Publishing house: Random House Books for Young Readers
Age index: Young Adult
Release Date: October 23, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 37743
Studio: Random House Books for Young Readers
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Product Description:
Tamora Pierce begins a new Tortall trilogy introducing Beka Cooper, an amazing young woman who lived 200 years before Pierce's popular Alanna character. For the very first time, Pierce employs first-person narration in a novel, bringing readers even closer to a character that they will love for her unusual talents and tough personality.
Beka Cooper is a rookie with the law-enforcing Provost's Guard, and she's been assigned to the Lower City. It's a tough beat that's about to get tougher, as Beka's limited ability to communicate with the dead clues her in to an underworld conspiracy. Someone close to Beka is using dark magic to profit from the Lower City's criminal enterprises--and the result is a crime wave the likes of which the Provost's Guard has never seen before.
From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon.com Review:
Tamora Pierce has been creating strong, appealing heroines for teen fantasy fans for years, creating 2 main universes to house her multiple series. With Terrier, Pierce returns to the Tortall universe (home to her Song of the Lioness, Immortals, Protector of the Small, and Daughter of the Lioness series). Want to learn more? Read an exclusive essay from Tamora Pierce below. --Daphne Durham
An Essay from Tamora Pierce
Sixteen-year-old Beka Cooper lives far removed from knights, palaces, and the nobility. Her world revolves around thieves, beggars, taverns, and the lowest of the low. She's a trainee for the Provost's Guard—a rookie cop, in a world where a cop makes her own name based on her personality, her attitude toward money, and her love of the law. Beka means to prove that she is out to make her mark in this hard and physical world.
She does face a large obstacle. She's shy. Painfully shy. Left to her own devices, she would have no friends. It's hard for her to talk to people she doesn't know. It's a problem for the Guards who train her, a real problem for Beka—unless she can figure out that a uniform is a kind of costume, one she can hide behind. One that will make her a more outspoken person. It will help a lot if people come to realize that under her shyness is a clever, determined young woman. It will help even more if she can make friends who can give her good advice. Luckily, she has one such friend living with her in her slum apartment: a purple-eyed grey cat named Pounce. He can make himself understood in human speech if he wishes to. He's capable of doing weirdly intelligent things to help his young companion Beka. With Pounce to assist her, Beka cannot have an ordinary career.
Beka tells her own story in a journal that she keeps from her very very first day as a Puppy. The Guards are dubbed 'Dogs' in her time and their trainees are called 'Puppies.' In its pages she writes of her days with her training Dogs, the pair who are to teach her what they know of survival on the streets in the city's toughest slum. Both are veterans. Tunstall is an easygoing, funny man who can be a little crazy in a fight. Goodwin is a small, tough woman who is opposed to Beka's presence at the beginning, a hard Dog and a smart one. They take charge when Beka brings them word of two vicious sets of crimes. Like everyone else in Beka's life, her partners find out that once Beka gets a case in her teeth, she hangs onto it like a terrier until it's been solved.
I have all kinds of reasons why I went to the past of the Alanna books. In part I wanted to show how present-day Tortall came to be. I also knew George's fans would welcome any kind of return to the Lower City, even if it wasn't the Lower City of his time. I wanted to get away from the courts and nobility, the setting for so many of the Tortall books thus far. Since I didn't want to show any of the characters I've come to love as being old or even dead, I couldn't write books in the future of the current Tortall. I turned to the past, and I'm pretty sure my readers will be glad I did! --Tamora Pierce
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Rated by buyers 
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This is the very first Tamora Pierce novel I have read and I would highly consider reading more of her work. I gave this book five stars because not every writer can do this in the very first person and do it well. Pierce not only does this point of view in an excellent manner, but it is written as if the novel was one big journal by the main character, Becka Cooper, and it was easy to read. Well written and an interesting plot. However, this is not really a book for for a 13 or 14-year old. I would not suggest this for any reader below sixteen. The content is a little violent, and the topics of slaves, child murders and other violence are not suitable for younger readers.
Rated by buyers -
I had the chance to meet Ms. Pierce earlier this year and she asked me who my favorite character was. I was in fan shock and stuttered out something but it got me thinking.
Beka is my favorite character because she starts from nothing and builds herself up. She's not like other Pierce characters in that she doesn't have life-saving magic nor is she the favorite of a god. Okay, so she hears the voices of the dead when they are carried on pigeons but that's not the same as Alanna's magic. Her strength is her mind and that's something that everyone should respect. Her shyness and her friendships make her very human.
I think Beka's story is one that can be shared with male and female readers. There is enough action and adventure with a touch of gossip (it is written in journal format after all) to keep everyone interested.
Rated by buyers 
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I read this book in anticipation of giving it to my (just turned 14) Grand daughter....Let me say that I am in my 60's and have never read a Tamora Pierce book and will probably never read one again. I am surprised at how many 5 star reviews this book obtained. In light of the book being recommended for 7th grade and up, I cannot give it a good review. It seemed odd to me that the author on one hand tried to keep the story at a 7th grade and up level, but at the same time had content about baby killing, slave trading and parents selling their kids for money. I was able to get through all of that until I reached page no.442. The evil Crookshank tells our 16 yr. old heroine, Beka: " his eyes buldged. I'll see you raped and your body left in a midden, your throat cut in two."
At that point I should have thrown the book in the trash, because that is all it is.....
Rated by buyers -
I've read 13 of Pierce's books over the last ten years. Some I've even read about a dozen times. I started in grade school and loved them all they way till now. Like most, I couldn't wait for the new book to come out. A time before the Lioness's time...it sounded awesome.
It sounded awesome. I managed to get a 1/3 of the way through before giving it up. The style had me lost and it was all around interesting. Nothing close to her pervious work. I've been told "Oh, your just attached to her other characters," not true. I've read other books where I adore the characters but also loved reading about the time that came before them once prequels were made. Others say "Perhaps your just too old and have grown out of them." You never are two old to pick up a book intended for somebody younger. The very first place I go to in a book store is the picture books.
No, this book was just an all-around disappointment.
Rated by buyers 
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Someone else has already said exactly what I felt so I will copy it here.
"I have been a fan of Pierce's books, the Tortall series in particular, for over a decade, but I was disappointed by Terrier. The setting was interesting, as were parts of the story and some of characters, but it was not taken advantage of like it could have been."
I didn't mind the journal type of the book but I did feel let down by this book. I couldn't connect with Beka and I just didn't care about the world she was living in. I never laughed or cried and my heart never stopped or did a pitapat as it did with the Song of the Lioness books or any of her others. :(
The concept of a strong female character in Georges background excited me and could of been great. But was only difficult to get through and boring.
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