As an untested puppy, Beka is paired with Tunstall and Goodwin, two highly respected and experienced dogs, and before long she proves herself in a variety of street fights and arrests. Beka is smart and strong, from the poorest neighborhood of the capital city of Corus, raised in poverty until she and her siblings became wards of the Lord Provost himself, Lord Gershom. In book #1, Terrier, Beka is a young woman just starting out as a “puppy” (trainee) in the Provost’s Guard - the kingdom’s law enforcement department, whose members are referred to as “dogs”. That’s about all you need to know, but it does tie together quite nicely.

In terms of how these books relate to the (chronologically) later books in the Tortall universe, Beka is George Cooper’s ancestor. I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure about going back into the kingdom’s past and the pre-Alanna days… but I can tell you now that these books are very much worth it!īeka Cooper herself is a wonderful lead character, everything we could hope for in a young female protagonist.

The Beka books were published after the Alanna, Daine, Kel, and Aly books, yet they are chronologically the first books in terms of the kingdom of Tortall. The Beka Cooper books take place about 150 years before the beginning of the Song of the Lioness quartet, Tamora Pierce’s first Tortall books, which introduce the young squire who would grow up to become Lady Knight Alanna. This year, I continued the adventure by listening to the audiobooks of the Beka Cooper trilogy - and now that I’ve finished, I thought I’d share some thoughts. Last year, I began a journey through the lands of Tortall, the incredibly rich and exciting fantasy world created by Tamora Pierce.

Terrier by tamora pierce