The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Ah, Harry, how wonderful you are! Before Potter there was you and you are fantastic! I read this in awe and wonder at how I could possibly have missed reading this book before now. Though I disagree with the reviewers that say you are a heroine who is unconcerned with romance because, well, turns out that's not quite true, I do believe that you are a heroine appropriately concerned with romance because let's face it, it would be unrealistic for a happy, healthy young woman to not have some sort of attachment to someone!
Similar to The Hero and the Crown, this is a fantasy/adventure story about a young woman who must find her place in the world and does so by saving the day. If you look at reviews and commentary online there is much about how the background for the story has challenges due to its colonial/empire parallels, and there are those who disparage the lack of development of characters beyond our hero. Fair assessments all, though they don't in this reader's opinion take away from the book one iota. There are also those who say the story feeds into a rape culture due to how Harry finds herself among the Damar at all. To the latter criticism I say nay-she was taken not for rape and pillage but because there was something about her that Corlath identified with as important to his people and ultimately, he was proven correct. And she did not submit and bow down, she freely chose where she wanted to be and who she wanted to be with so I say poo-that's a silly position. As to the former there are undeniably parallels to England/India and any number of other geopolitical situations and every good fantasy world has to be set somewhere-and this particular setting worked well for the story McKinley was writing so I give her a pass. Frankly, I found her world building reminded me of Game of Thrones more than anything else though I can't put my finger on why.
I loved this book so much that I went on a bit of a bender on McKinley, pounding through 4 or 5 of her books in the weeks after I finished this one. They varied from quite similar and nearly as good as this one (The Hero and the Sword) to quite good and very different from this one (Sunshine) to oh, yes, I actually read this one before and liked it fine but it didn't inspire me to read others by her (Deerskin) to well, one of my kids bought this at a book fair and it never occurred to me to read it myself and well, now I understand why (Beauty).
Rating? #3 Enjoyed It Very Much
Similar to The Hero and the Crown, this is a fantasy/adventure story about a young woman who must find her place in the world and does so by saving the day. If you look at reviews and commentary online there is much about how the background for the story has challenges due to its colonial/empire parallels, and there are those who disparage the lack of development of characters beyond our hero. Fair assessments all, though they don't in this reader's opinion take away from the book one iota. There are also those who say the story feeds into a rape culture due to how Harry finds herself among the Damar at all. To the latter criticism I say nay-she was taken not for rape and pillage but because there was something about her that Corlath identified with as important to his people and ultimately, he was proven correct. And she did not submit and bow down, she freely chose where she wanted to be and who she wanted to be with so I say poo-that's a silly position. As to the former there are undeniably parallels to England/India and any number of other geopolitical situations and every good fantasy world has to be set somewhere-and this particular setting worked well for the story McKinley was writing so I give her a pass. Frankly, I found her world building reminded me of Game of Thrones more than anything else though I can't put my finger on why.
I loved this book so much that I went on a bit of a bender on McKinley, pounding through 4 or 5 of her books in the weeks after I finished this one. They varied from quite similar and nearly as good as this one (The Hero and the Sword) to quite good and very different from this one (Sunshine) to oh, yes, I actually read this one before and liked it fine but it didn't inspire me to read others by her (Deerskin) to well, one of my kids bought this at a book fair and it never occurred to me to read it myself and well, now I understand why (Beauty).
Rating? #3 Enjoyed It Very Much
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