Which to read first The Blue Sword or The Hero and the Crown?

On the advice of you wonderful folks, I picked up both The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley last year. I sat down to read one of them last night, and realized that I didn't know which one to start with. Should I go for The Blue Sword, which was written first, or The Hero and the Crown, which is the prequel to The Blue Sword? I'm leaning towards The Blue Sword since it was published first, but I'd like some more opinions before I dive into one or the other.

I read The Hero and the Crown way before The Blue Sword, and that worked fine.
But in my opinion thatc is a better novel - tbs is great, but a little less great - so based on that I would recommend reading them in publication order.
The differences between the mythology in tbs and the reality of thatc would probably work better that way too.

eeek! i have to disagree...i prefered the blue sword to the hero and the crown, but i also read tbs first. i actually really enjoyed going back in time from tbs to thatc. which one was written first? i usually like to read things like that in the order they were written all else being equal (sort of like reading the narnia books in the original order they were written). i love them both of course but for me tbs comes out on top...perhaps you'll have to wait for a tie-breaker now :)

I would recommend reading "Hero and the Crown" first, then "Blue Sword." A lot of "Blue Sword" is built on top of the mythology of "Hero and the Crown." I intially read them in that order, oh twelve long years ago, and I greatly prefer it.

I once read "the Blue Sword" without having read "Hero" in many many years and spent much of the time going "Wait, what exactly did Aeryn do again? Am I supposed to know any of this?" Which can sometimes be frustrating.

Also, to add in my two cents, I greatly prefer "Blue Sword". The tones of the two are very different, so it's easy to see how some can strongly prefer one over the other.

I read The Hero and the Crown several years before I read The Blue Sword, and I would recommend reading them for the first time in that order, even though they were published the other way around.

Though come to think of it, I found the more modern elements of TBS rather disconcerting when I read it after the more firmly fantasy aspects of HatC...so I guess I don't know. They're both wonderful books, and I need to reread them. ^_^

I read Hero and the Crown before The Blue Sword and I liked it that way.

IMO, Blue sword is a good book but I much prefer Hero. For one thing, I find the kidnapping aspect of blue sword disturbing.

hmmm...you know i've never had an issue with the kidnapping thing. couldn't say why...i'm pretty good at the whole suspension of disbelief thing, and i think i believed the king's explaination for his actions...but i'll have to pay attention to that part more. it's been a while.

I'd have to weigh in with those that recommend reading Hero and the Crown first -- it isn't strictly necessary, but it will make some bits of Blue Sword make more sense. I think I initially read them the other way around and separated by several years, and spent a bunch of Blue Sword scratching my head and thinking, "Hmmm... this seems sort of familiar for some reason...".

>7 sadiegrrrl: -- I don't recall the kidnapping thing bothering me either. For some reason,**SPOILER ALERT** I always found Corlath to be so bemused by the fact that he was actually kidnapping someone, that the situation wasn't particularly scary. I found the rape/incest aspect of Deerskin a lot more disturbing.

I agree. And I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Corlath was as befuddled by events as Hari ever was.

I read The Blue Sword before The Hero and the Crown and i liked it that way....when reading THatC after TBS, it builds up on what you already read, like opening up new ideas and saying "So that's what that meant!" But then again, I just like that feeling you get when you realize something later and are able to go back and rework the events in your mind...

>8 SunnySD: -- I totally agree about Deerskin; its quite disturbing and TBS has got nothing on it. (Kind of Off topic note: In high school (years ago!) my french class took a field trip to see a french movie based on the same fairy tale as Deerskin. The movie made very light of the whole incest aspect and I remember just being aghast at the whole thing. Also, it was made in the 70's and the clothes were hysterical.)

yeah, deerskin is disturbing, but its also a very good book. its interesting seeing her recover. however, I think I was much too young to read it at like 11 lol. very interesting book.

I say hero and the crown first then blue sword. it makes more sense to me that way, but I suppose you could go other way too.

Deerskin is very disturbing but it makes the book stand out in one's memory. I also remember the Prince not being handsome at all.

I read The Blue Sword before I read Hero and the Crown I much prefered Blue Sword and found HatC hard to get through, Robin is a bit wordy at times.

Doesn't Aeryn see Hari in a dream or something?

>8 SunnySD:
YES! that's totally it, i remember now that it always seemed like corlath felt almost as out of control as her so it wasn't as though he had control over her.

>10 jadedoll89: also YES! that's one of my favorite things to do. reread again after you know everything and see all the little signs that you missed or actions you misunderstood. like snape in harry potter, i'm looking forward to rereading the whole series again so i can pay more attention to him.

i haven't read deerskin yet, i'll have to check that one out.

I read The Blue Sword first and still like it better than The Hero and the Crown. Reading this has made me want to reread The Blue Sword.

>15 kmartin802: - I'm glad I'm not the only one who pulled it out to read again soon!

>13 selkie_girl: - I think you're right. Aeryn sees Hari after the battle with her uncle when she falls from the tower, but Hari also sees Aeryn early on in Blue Sword when Corlath & his men are drinking water from the Lake of Dreams. Doesn't she drink, as well, and see Aeryn and then start spouting Damarian? And maybe somewhere later in the book as well -- while the host is climbing up to see the mountain sage, (whose name I can't remember)?

#16 -- Hari also sees Aerin in the fire when the storytellers are talking about Aerin.

I just reread both books over the weekend. I definitely like reading Hero first. So much of the Blue Sword focuses on the legend of Aerin (heroine in Hero), but the people are very reluctant to fill Harry in on the details of those legends - I think it would annoy me to no end if I was in the dark about them too. Also I think unless I read the books back to back (which I did) I would forget a lot of the very subtle references to the things that are eventually explained in Hero - which would defeat the point of the foreshadowing.

But to each their own! One way or another these were fabulous books. So much depth, for such surprisingly short books.