SPFBO 10: The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conway & Bill Adams

Welcome to the Final stage of SPFBO 10! As you know, the 10 blogs all picked their champion who advanced into the finals, including ourselves. Check out our SPFBO 10 page for more info! SPFBO 10 ends on April 30th, and so we’ll post our finalist reviews every two weeks or so until then.

Our 9th and last SPFBO 10 finalist review is for The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conway & Bill Adams. The order of the reviews within a post will be in alphabetical order.

A quick reminder about how we are proceeding in the Finals: our judges had the freedom to opt out of reading any of the books due to personal interest, time restrictions, unforeseen life events, etc. Our aim is to have at least 4 reviews/scores for each finalist.

Both in the Semi-Final and Final stages we have a DNF rule in place: if a judge reads a book (either semi-finalist or finalist if they didn’t opt out beforehand), they have to read at least 25% of it. If they decide to DNF between 25%-50% they’ll have to give a score but can opt out of writing a review, and if they DNF after 50% (or not) then also have to score AND write a review.

For The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword we have 4 reviews and 4 scores for your reading pleasures.

So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at our ninth and last finalist!

Table of Contents

• About the Book
• Book Blurb
• Reviews:
  • Drew
  • Jen
  • Timy
  • Tru
• Our Judgement

Galdifort Quillpen has grand dreams of writing epic tales of heroic deeds, just like his famous aunt. Unfortunately, he’s been assigned to Tanna the Tendersword, an excruciatingly carefree would-be-champion who can’t seem to find a qualifying entry-level quest.

When things are at their most miserable, the young Questers meet an enigmatic old woman who offers Tanna a quest: follow a peg-legged, sword-wielding rooster to help save a crying mushroom lost within a haunted forest. Tanna heroically accepts, regardless of how incredibly unsafe the odd quest seems.

But Galdifort’s fears become reality when a sorceress sends her fog monster and lizard henchmen after them. Only a true Champion should confront a sorceress, and, in his eyes, Tanna is not up to the task. But if he wants to write his chronicle, Galdifort must learn to do something he certainly isn’t comfortable doing — trust in honest friendship with Tanna the Tendersword.

He’s just a chronicler, after all, not a hero!

Drew

Read: 100%

The trope of a would-be hero setting out on a quest to prove their mettle is given an entertaining twist in The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword. 

In the world of the story, the whole process of heroic quests has been structured, codified, and set out in The Questseeker’s Guidebook to Proper Questing for use by all prospective heroes and the Chroniclers assigned to record their adventures. 

One such Chronicler-in-training is Gladifort Quillpen, who is less than impressed with his assignment to the naive and relentlessly cheerful Tanna. Despite her being the titular character, the novel is told exclusively from Gladifort’s perspective. Initially insistent about sticking to the Guidebook and frequently frustrated by Tanna’s apparent ability to believe the best of everyone they encounter, Gladifort does find himself gradually warming to the hero under his watch. 

I think that if there is an issue with The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword it’s that I’m the wrong audience for it. If I’d somehow had the opportunity to read this *cough, cough* years ago, I’m pretty sure I would have loved it. But while I could appreciate a lot about it, I mostly found the two leads annoying. Gladifort is grumpy, seemingly unsuited to life in the wild, and his continuous complaining can grate. Tanna, on the other hand, is written to be one of those people who are always upbeat and convinced that everything will work out for the best. The fact that it nearly always does makes a degree of sense when directed at readers in yet to hit their teens, but for a curmudgeon like me, it just smacks of convenience. 

I don’t want to be overly negative here. It’s no fault of the book or its authors that I’m not the right audience and I think they should be congratulated for both the world they’ve built and making it into the SPFBO finals, especially since this type of younger-centric read has been almost unknown in previous years. I would have no hesitation in recommending this to someone who is in the right demographic, although why they’d be asking me is a bit of a mystery. 

While I am tempted to award bonus points for the alliteration, and there’s a lot of it, I’m afraid I can’t rank it any higher than I have.

Jen

Read: 100%

I fully expected to love this one and was looking forward to reading it because I thought it would be a light and fun read to break up the heavier stuff, but The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword was hit and mostly miss with me.

The hits:

So, first off, yes, the story is light and fun! The writing is strong, and the graphics are so darned cute! And they add a lot to the story.

I enjoyed the quirky moments of the book. I’m going to show my age here and say it reminded me a bit of how much fun Pippi Longstocking was when I first read it eons ago. The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword has some of those same elements as Pippi, with kids out doing activities that they’re capable of but maybe not allowed to do because they aren’t adults yet, and it’s full of comedy and quirky, memorable characters. Tanna may not have lifted a horse over her head or lived in a hollowed-out tree, but she definitely has that unerring optimism that Pippi has – which is probably why my mind went directly to those books.

Tanna isn’t our main viewpoint though, it’s her scribe Galdifort that we see the story through, and he’s just a bit uptight. Galdifort’s slightly grumpy persona goes a long way in countering Tanna’s constant enthusiasm…which I am sure could be exhausting after awhile.
I had some thoughts that if a person was reading the story aloud, the distinctly different characters of these two would make voicing them pretty easy. Also, Tanna’s attempts at High Handover would add some fun in those instances as well.

The rooster Peggs, was adorable. I’m not just saying that because I have chickens either. The moment where he was being used like a little exploding-berries rocket launcher, made me chuckle quite a bit.


The misses:

Well, the misses were small things, but need to be said.

A lot of the names don’t exactly roll off the tongue. I’m not needing them to be the equivalent of Dick and Jane running up the hill, but Throgs, sickleficks (why not just fiddlesticks it’s just as cute a word?) and even Thistle Willow, were feeling a little tongue-twisty in my head – I couldn’t imagine reading the whole book aloud. Thistle Whistle, especially would wreck my immersion every time. I can’t even say it without whistling (maybe that’s the point, a little speech therapy on the sly?).

The bolded words – crack, boom, pop, etc. were so distracting, and make the book feel younger than some of the vocabulary implies. Mind you, I would complain about this in anything outside of a primary reader, comic, or manga because it pulls me out of a story quicker than almost anything else can.

The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword had an oddly rough first chapter for a MG. I just found it a little chaotic, and hard to follow, like it was trying to grab us with eccentricity and be all things at once.  Maybe it’s just me, but knowing it was middle grade, I expected an easier-to-fall-into intro chapter. After the first chapter or two, though, it settles in nicely and feels more fun than chaotic.

The TLDR:

I had a few complaints that pulled me out of the story but all in all, The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword is certainly a cute book, and the illustrations are lovely.

Timy

Read: 30%

I can’t say I’m an avid MG reader as I only read a handful of them in recent years – partly because I don’t have kids (and not planning to have any) and partly because I prefer books intended for adults. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to read something light and uncomplicated every once in a while. That said, I went into The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword with the confidence that it shouldn’t be a problem to read a 270-page-long book in a weekend. And then reality happened.

As it’s the end of yet another SPFBO season, it’s hard not to feel a little bit burned out by fantasy and reading in general, so I’m going to be upfront about the fact that it might have been part of the reason I absolutely didn’t click with this book. The funny thing is, I can see what Conway and Adams were going for, and I appreciate it. The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword is a fun twist on the classic tale of a hero going on a quest, as we see everything through the eyes of Galdifort, a chronicler-in-training, who was assigned to accompany Tanna as she starts on her journey to become a hero. There were ideas I liked in this book, such as the partnership between hero and chronicler, the way Galdifort had an ink staff and a beltbook to make notes, or the fun sidekick of a rooster, and the giant bird that can easily carry a cart packed to the brim. Of course, there is a villain too who has to be defeated, and big boots to fill as well as rivalries between the hero-to-be kids.

The problem is, as much as I appreciate the original idea(s), I still struggled to connect with the book. Partly because I generally don’t like kids much, and I honestly disliked both Tanna and Galdifort. Tanna because she is quite obnoxious and seemingly does a lot of things without thinking, or even considering the consequences. And then there is the way too serious Galdifort, who tries to rein her in, and he is destined to be the grumpy, worrying type. They both seemed a bit too one-dimensional for my liking. I also had some issues with the prose; some sentences were way too long, the word choice sometimes felt a bit odd, and there were quite a few more repetitions than I’d like. And don’t even let me get started on the fake swearing. I know this book is intended for kids, so it has to be clean (I like swearing way too much to ever feel comfortable reading a ‘clean’ book anyway), but those took me out of the story way too much.

But again, I was looking at this book from an adult’s perspective, so I’m not sure how it would do with its intended audience. I probably would have had a hard time if I had to read it to a kid (the humor was mostly a miss for me too, but that’s another thing that makes reading books quite subjective). Plus, as the competition showed over the years, I’m not really into classic fantasy tales all that much anyway, so take my review with a grain of salt.

Tru

Read: 100%

While SPFBO is a fantasy contest that has traditionally been associated with grimdark and classic fantasy, every now and then a brave new subgenre rises through to the finals to prove that fantasy really does have room for everyone. We’ve had romantasy and cozy fantasy find success, and now, for the first time, a middle grade fantasy has melted hearts and made it to the finals, and The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword surely deserves its place amongst its fantasy brethren.

This is a classic fantasy tale of Galdifort Quillpen, a chronicler-in-training, who’s job is to record the adventures of the young hero-in-training as they begin building their legendary career. The young hero they’ve been assigned is none other than Tanna the Tendersword, an overly-enthusiastic girl knight in desperate need of her first quest. Hard to record valiant deeds without a quest, right? This quest for a quest leads Tanna into accepting a dangerous mission into the local woods, haunted by an evil witch. There’s danger, there’s hijinks, and many companions they meet throughout their journey, including a warrior rooster.

The story is told from Galdifort’s POV, who is a stickler for the rules, overly cautious, and perhaps a little cowardly – the complete opposite to our gung-ho Tanna. But as the story progresses, the two must learn how to communicate with each other and learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Their growing friendship is the real heart of this story.

Now, I’ll admit I haven’t read that many Middle Grade books in my lifetime. I’m also not a parent (my cat doesn’t appreciate when I read to him) and therefore I have no idea whether this book works for its target audience. To me, the book uses a lot of complicated language and long sentences which sound like they might be difficult for reading aloud to your kid or cat in bed, but again, I don’t have that experience to judge it on those merits. Tanna is a fun adventure that captures the joy of youth with a lot of feel-good charm. This story would definitely appeal to younger readers. However, I am one of those grumpy adults that doesn’t want kids sword fighting on my lawn, and so I wasn’t the obvious target audience for The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword. The writing felt a bit too immature for my tastes, especially the constant onomatopoeia that made the book read younger than other MG books I’ve read before.

That said, if you’re a parent or happen to know some young goblins in your life, give Tanna a chance! It may well surprise you.

Our score for The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conway & Bill Adams:

For more SPFBO content, please visit our SPFBO 10 page!