The Blue Sword (1982)

I read this book before getting to "The Hero and the Crown" and though I liked it very much, it wasn't until reading the later book that I really started to understand what was happening in Damar. I have a love-hate relationship with Robin McKinley's writing -- some of her books I think are very very good, and some of them I feel are jaunts off the path of what she is really really good at. This is not her strongest work, but it was good enough to catch my attention and get me to read her other books. ( )

I enjoyed this book. It's a self insert book in which you get to magically be better than everyone around you who's been doing this a lot longer than you have. I think there's a lot of fun in that and as long as you recognize it for it's Batman effect, you're good. It's definitely a fun 80's fantasy, with the fantastical war horse that bonds with you, impressive language skills, rapid onset ability to wield music and fight with a sword, etc. Fun tropes if you're ready to enjoy yourself and not hold this to some high standard. The said, it also exhibits the problematic trope of the colonizer being 1/16th of some magical/spiritual civilization and therefore being the chosen one of the nation they've never had any role in before. There's some deux de machina, and some we-are-opposite-gender-main-characters-and-are-therefore-obvious-love-interests, but that's what makes it a good encapsulation of 80's fantasy books. I've got the second book on my TBR pile and I'll get to it but I don't think this one's a reread. Still glad I finally got around to this classic. ( )

An absorbing story of a young woman who finds herself in a foreign land and among a dissimilar culture, trying to adapt to her changing circumstances. Thoroughly enjoyable. ( )

This is on my books to re-read list, and I just re-read it again. I threw out my old yellowed crumbling paperback and bought it again on Kindle. ( )

A classic of the genre, so it is said. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, so it was a slight surprise to have it start as a 19th C. British Boys' adventure novel (although starring a girl). On the whole, good read. ( )