The Blue Sword (1982)

Because I reread The Hero and the Crown, of course I had to reread this one too. Again, it is just too dear to my heart to give it any kind of objective rating.

When Harry Crewe's father dies, she leaves her Homeland to travel east, to Istan, the last outpost of the Homelander empire, where her elder brother is stationed.

Harry is drawn to the bleak landscape of the northeast frontier, so unlike the green hills of her Homeland. The desert she stares across was once a part of the great kingdom of Damar, before the Homelanders came from over the seas. Harry wishes she might cross the sands and climb the dark mountains where no Homelander has ever set foot, where the last of the old Damarians, the Free Hillfolk, still live. She hears stories that the Free Hillfolk possess strange powers — that they work magic — that it is because of this that they remain free of the Homelander sway.

When the king of the Free Hillfolk comes to Istan to ask that the Homelanders and the Hillfolk set their enmity aside to fight a common foe, the Homelanders are reluctant to trust his word, and even more reluctant to believe his tales of the Northerners: that they are demonkind, not human.

Harry's destiny lies in the far mountains that she once wished to climb, and she will ride to the battle with the North in the Hill-king's army, bearing the Blue Sword, Gonturan, the chiefest treasure of the Hill-king's house and the subject of many legends of magic and mystery.

Harry, bored with her sheltered life in the remote orange-growing colony of Daria, discovers magic in herself when she is kidnapped by a native king with mysterious powers. ( )

This has a lot of good points. It has a lot of excellent points. But the drawbacks were severe enough for me (reading this for the first time at age 26, I think I missed the window to love this the way y'all do) to downgrade it.

I am not a fan of the meandering style. It takes forever for the plot to get started, and once it does, it takes forever to develop. The white savior complex lurking just out of sight left a bad taste in my mouth. I sincerely do not understand why Harry fell in love with Corlath; she had a much stronger, and more positive, emotional connection to Jack (and he wasn't an asshat). I am super-squicked out by the whole revelation that Harry has Hill blood and that's why she is special.

Harry is a lovely heroine, and I loved watching her learn about the Hills, and the history and geography of Damar is gorgeously sketched; the worldbuilding is superb. ( )

I liked The Blue Sword rather more than The Hero and the Crown. It felt a bit more consistent, to me, and there was more world-building in it. It's still obviously one of McKinley's early novels, but it's quite a good read all the same, as long as you don't expect too much of it. The characters were intriguing enough, though not greatly fleshed out, and Harry's apprenticeship, learning everything about what she has to do, is quite interesting. I saw the romance coming a mile off, but it didn't really convince me: it could've done with more foreshadowing. But I feel I'm saying that a lot, lately, about romance in fantasy novels, which is, after all, patently not the point of that whole exercise. As a fantasy novel, it's just fine -- not incredibly special, but a nice quick easy read. ( )

I loved this book. With all my heart. It starts with a girl who doesn't quite fit, then builds from there. There are demons and heroes and enchanted swords and true love. Also legends and big loving cats and semi-supernatural archers. Did I mention evil? Oh, and kings and proto-British cavalry? And horses from the fever-dreams of Alec Ramsey! Palatial tents. The best kinds of friendship, the kinds which transcend rank and sex and age.

The plot is classic, the story arc undeniably satisfying, and the writing superb.

Where was I when this book came out? I wish I'd had it earlier, but I'm glad I have it now. Another for the permanent collection. ( )