I read and loved McKinley’s The Blue Sword when I was a teen, but had no idea there was a subsequently written prequel of sorts until a 2013 Pajiba thread in defense of adults reading YA. Still one of my favorite comment threads. So many good recommendations. After I spent well over a year not getting around to picking up this book I was dying to read (because I do that), the lovely Mrs. Smith included it in my CBR Gift Exchange box o’ goodies. […]
It ain’t easy being a ginger, or girls can kick ass, too.
It’s true. I’m not going to lie – I’ve read Robin McKinley’s The Hero & the Crown many, many times. I felt like I wanted (maybe needed is a better term?) to review a book I’m very familiar with for my inaugural Cannonball Read post. (If it helps, I just paid to have it added to my Kindle collection.) Aerin is the only child of Arlbeth, King of Damar. She is also the only child of that Witchwoman from the North, and as such is regarded […]
Forget the past when it’s too terrible to face
Knocking out another VF book club review with Deerskin. Instead of aliens and greek-like gods, we read a dark fairytale about a princess named Lissar whose mother was the most beautiful queen of all the kingdoms. Her beauty so captivating that all the land including the King hardly remember the princess exists. But alas the queen cannot live forever, so she captures her beauty in a striking painting before her death. It’s almost as if she curses her daughter to live behind her shadow even after death. [MILD […]
Sometimes being kidnapped might be the best thing to ever happen to a young woman
Having finally read The Hero and the Crown, it felt like it was time for a re-read of the Damar book I had actually read. The Blue Sword is set many centuries after Aerin the Dragon Slayer saved her kingdom from magical threat. Damarians now seem to be chiefly desert dwelling nomads and expert horsemen. They are now threatened both by magic wielding enemies to the north and ignorant colonists from the Homeland (read: Imperialist Britain). Corlath, the Damarian king tries to propose an alliance with […]
Are you more heroic if you sacrifice yourself for people who shun and fear you?
Disclaimer! This was granted to me by Open Road Integrated Media through NetGalley in return for a fair and unbiased review. Aerin is the lonely, ostracized daughter of the ruler of Damar. She has pale skin and fiery red hair amongst a people who are bronzed with dark hair. She cannot even remember who first told her the story, but she has known for as long as she can remember that her mother was a commoner witch-woman who came from the North, who ensorcelled the […]
Revisting a teen favorite
I read and re-read The Blue Sword (1982) a thousand times as a teen. There weren’t many books for teens with a sword wielding female protagonist. I lost track of the book at some point and forgot the title and the author. Years later the characters would pop into my head, especially once I started reading fantasy fiction again. I found the book again last year in a Pajiba post. The Blue Sword is a fantasy adventure set in a world with a thinly veiled […]