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juushikaTitle: The Blue Sword
Author: Robin McKinley
Published: New York: Ace, 1987 (1982)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 248
Total Page Count: 113,803
Text Number: 329
Read Because: personal enjoyment; borrowed from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
century_eyes
Review: Relocated to the recently colonized deserts of Damar, Harry's life is dull—until she's abducted by the native Hillfolk. Drawn deep into the desert, she discovers that she has a place there, one that may be foretold by the magic which runs through her veins. The Blue Sword is perfectly competent, but it fails to be personally affecting—at least for me. Harry is a strong female protagonist within an empowered and well-realized cast, and there's no overstating that: fallible but strong, deeply human, and inspiring, most everyone here is fantastic and Harry is easily the best of all. Unfortunately there's a trend towards predestination which saps some of the strength from her otherwise hard-won character growth; perhaps it's this that prevents me growing emotionally invested in the book. The prose is compelling but not awfully evocative, despite a strong sense of place; the climax is strong but the conclusion is stilted and idealized. On the whole, an enjoyable and earnest book, and I appreciated it but never came to love it. As such, I recommend it only moderately.
As a sidenote, there's a few worrisome tropes here: white person intervenes to save native population; spoilers white person claims minority identity because it's a minor, hitherto unknown part of their genealogy. The book is far from egregiously racist, and the minority culture may be its best-realized aspect; if they weren't reminiscent of common, problematic racist tropes, these narrative devices would probably be harmless. As is, they left me uncomfortable and somewhat doubtful, but I'm not in a position to comment more upon them. Jo Walton better discusses them here on Tor.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Robin McKinley
Published: New York: Ace, 1987 (1982)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 248
Total Page Count: 113,803
Text Number: 329
Read Because: personal enjoyment; borrowed from
century_eyesReview: Relocated to the recently colonized deserts of Damar, Harry's life is dull—until she's abducted by the native Hillfolk. Drawn deep into the desert, she discovers that she has a place there, one that may be foretold by the magic which runs through her veins. The Blue Sword is perfectly competent, but it fails to be personally affecting—at least for me. Harry is a strong female protagonist within an empowered and well-realized cast, and there's no overstating that: fallible but strong, deeply human, and inspiring, most everyone here is fantastic and Harry is easily the best of all. Unfortunately there's a trend towards predestination which saps some of the strength from her otherwise hard-won character growth; perhaps it's this that prevents me growing emotionally invested in the book. The prose is compelling but not awfully evocative, despite a strong sense of place; the climax is strong but the conclusion is stilted and idealized. On the whole, an enjoyable and earnest book, and I appreciated it but never came to love it. As such, I recommend it only moderately.
As a sidenote, there's a few worrisome tropes here: white person intervenes to save native population; spoilers white person claims minority identity because it's a minor, hitherto unknown part of their genealogy. The book is far from egregiously racist, and the minority culture may be its best-realized aspect; if they weren't reminiscent of common, problematic racist tropes, these narrative devices would probably be harmless. As is, they left me uncomfortable and somewhat doubtful, but I'm not in a position to comment more upon them. Jo Walton better discusses them here on Tor.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
