4 posts tagged “robin mckinley”
i will start this off by saying that having read "the hero and the crown" and "the blue sword" both, i felt i had a taste of what this author has to offer in her earlier style of writing. i guess the main problem in that little conclusion is that both those earlier books were strictly written for a YA readership; this starts off stating that it is based on a fairy tale (if you can call it that) written by charles perault called donkeyskin, and so i expected it to be similarly aimed at YA readers.
i was really, really wrong.
sure enough, the novel starts off with a fairly fairy-tale setting; it doesn't quite do the "Once upon a time" route, but the invisible words were apparent in the way the story was told. lissar, the main protagonist, has two perfect parents, who are very much in love with each other (or so it seems), that she is completely invisible in their eyes altogether. the people, who love how perfect their king and queen are aesthetically, don't seem to recall the existence of a princess. at this point, i was settling back for a leisurely read, and was completely thrown off by everything that occurs afterward.
i also went and read the original fairy tale, and while disturbing, it is a walk in the park in comparison. i duly appreciate the work put into writing the back cover summary, because it does little to prepare me for all the horror contained within that it hits me that much harder. i feel i shouldn't mention exactly what it is that happens in here, but i should note that i found myself cringing away from the book at times, or wincing and having to put the book down. i simply don't find myself doing that often, and having so much sympathy for the character at the same time.
so, moving on, there are VERY adult themes contained in the book, which include incest and rape. the foreshadowing was done very well for both, and the handling of the subject was very delicate also. or maybe delicate isn't the word exactly, but.. it feels real, and raw, and nothing in the way of pretense in the presentation of such a hard topic. following lissar through her journey almost feels like watching someone go through surgery without anesthesia, but you can't look away because the writing grips you, and compels you to watch, if only in respect, as she overcomes her various demons. i've read some other reviews where the main commentary is that the content is "too dark"; i feel that that is not a fair appraisal at all, because in the darkness there is also light, because you are kept reading at a sense of hope at the end of the tunnel. and there is indeed some sense of closure of the matter, or that "light," because by the time the novel closes there is a sense of justice dealt, and perhaps a not quite happy ending, but a bit of peace and quiet for our heroine, and obstacles overcome, and victory won.
either way, i know i'm likely not doing this book any justice; it has to be experienced to be understood. and i really enjoyed how despite all the dark themes, it is still told much in the way of fairy tales, like the way the story is structured and how the characters come into play with each other--or even the different types of character involved. it gives one much study of the format of fairy tales if one cares to look at it, i guess, and it sort of makes this a truer fairy tale than any that i've read in childhood, and it seems that much more impressive and fascinating because of that. i think it would've held me even more in sway if i hadn't already been spoiled by what happens by reading some of the comments on amazon, but either way it was a mesmerizing read.
i guess, to finish off, if i do have to find anything negative to say about it, i would have to say that the relationship that blossoms between ossin and lissar is just a tad bit sudden, and i didn't see much development in that area. but generally that's not much of a complaint, since i was so buried in lissar's own inner struggle, and there were plenty of other puppy antics to distract me. a mild, random thing that i didn't expect to pop up was a reference to aerin and dragon slaying, and malak, which gives me a sort of sense of things coming full circle--these are all tied in the same world, somehow. i was giddy and excited when i read that one line, and just in general glad for the brief tie-in, because it gives me room to fill out what kind of universe this might be. and all things considered, i really enjoyed this a LOT, probably mostly because i wasn't expecting much from this book with its odd title and somewhat odd cover. i guess now i'll likely not enjoy anything else much because i will have to keep comparing them to this.
this is a prequel to the book "the blue sword," but written and published after, which is the main reason i picked this up to read. i enjoyed the adventures of harry considerably, and figured that having a prequel about the legendary hero mentioned in "the blue sword" is a pretty great idea. this is both true, and not, i guess, and i'll proceed to explain.
first of all, the mood set in "the hero and the crown" is a lot more epic, and it's not apparent from the get-go.. since the majority of the beginning is used solely to develop aerin's character, and give background. the plot doesn't quite start until the second half of the book, and this, to me, jars the pacing of the book somewhat, but not enough to really matter in the long run. more on this later.
the main problem i had with this book was that sometimes the sentence structures were written oddly, and it takes a couple of passes to understand the content of the specific line. i should be used to it by now, considering this is just mckinley's style in general, but seeing as this is how her writing first used to be, it wasn't quite as pronounced as her later works.. and so i guess sometimes i just don't see it coming. the character of aerin doesn't seem quite as heroic and strong as she was made out to be in "the blue sword," as she seems much more human, and i can't help being fascinated by that. it would make sense that her legend would be blown out of proportion, but seeing as this is the realm of fiction i guess i never really thought it through, and i thoroughly appreciate it that aerin was brought back down to earth a bit. having a perfect hero for a main character would've been awfully preachy, i guess, and it was a smart move to do so.
now, more on the pacing: the intro detailing aerin's childhood and her always not having been a part of the kingdom was done very nicely, and it showcases her loneliness well; the problem i sort of had was that once i adjusted to that pacing, part one ends. when part two begins, ALL the epic legendary action begins as well. i was completely thrown off the course i was riding, and had to put it down repeatedly because i simply never got back into the groove completely after being thrown off like that. then comes luthe out of nowhere, which, i suppose, is to add a bit more depth to aerin's character, but that was pleasant, if somewhat jarring, as well. the little bit revealed about aerin's true lineage was sort of interesting in that i didn't see it coming, but aerin's devotion to her country i did not get at all. i kept wondering, why does she care? the first portion of the book ensured that she had no real reason to do this, and i didn't entirely trust her motives.
so, moving on.. the ending has her marrying, and that's a bit of a stretch too, considering the guy she marries was out of the book for almost half of the book that, by then, i simply couldn't care. there was no real closure, i felt, to the relationship between her and luthe, and i still have no notion how the story of aerin turned to legend. it was somewhat explained by saying that eventually the people of the country forgot about the old aerin thanks to dragon poison or whatever.. so all they remembered was the good new aerin. it seemed like too easy a way out to me, and i'm not sure i completely bought it.
granted, i do like this better than "the blue sword"... but i suppose in a strange sort of way, since i knew i would be reading about a heroine of epic proportions, i was expecting the book to be the same, which isn't all that realistic. my biggest problem with it is the disjointed pacing, but other than that, i have nearly no complaints. there is one instance in which a little editing may have been necessary (she claimed in one scene she couldn't taste anything, then almost right after that scene she said that milk dulls down the taste of a drink called malak--inconsistency). those i do not hold into account unless there's an endless pile of them, which just screams lack of effort.
in conclusion, i really did enjoy "the hero and the crown," and despite knowing mckinley writes better later on, i really appreciated the universe she introduced in these two books. i will be moving on to read some of her others soon, and i do believe i have a copy of "deerskin" on hand. these should tide me over until i get my hands on some new releases.
the reason why i chose to read this next was about the same reason why i read 'tamsin'--i merely wanted to explore what else that might be related and/or similar to 'sunshine,' also by robin mckinley. as it turns out, this book was as different from 'sunshine' as one could have expected.
it starts kind of oddly, within a girl's musing about orange juice--i was actually in fact drinking OJ at the time, and so it was like hey! this book and i were meant to be. but then further in, i found that it was much like reading 'gone with the wind' in the beginning. there was something kind of dull and disjointed about the setting she was describing, and she was describing it practically every line, either through dialogue or the character's observations. this is to set the background for our character herself though, so it's understandable.
the pacing is kind of slow, even though much goes by in terms of events; sometimes, even the more major events feel kind of downsized because of the style she writes them in. i found myself going back and rereading, because i completely missed what just happened for the lot of setting description she was doing. so i guess i'm going to have to say that she went a bit overboard with describing the terrain, because she could just as easily have described in terms that were easier to understand, and moved right on with it. other times, i found myself reading the answer to a particular question a character asked a whole page later, and flipping back because i've already forgotten the question--a particular disruption of flow, again due to the description she stuffs in between these dialogues. there were also times when she uses pronouns so heavily i had no idea which 'he' or 'she' was being referred to, thanks to all the name-throwing that was going on maybe just a paragraph back. it was an exhausting read, to say the least.
but there are good things too, which i also distinctly remember: the horses all had beautiful and distinctive names. i also remember wondering why female authors have a tendency to write about horses and males either about ships or dragons, but i didn't let it distract me too much off course. certain turns of phrase worked out very well, though they do work out quite awkwardly at times, so i suppose i'll call that an even draw. despite my dislike of the heavy description of setting, sometimes it did work beautifully, and the imagery she conjured would leave me somewhat awestruck. this is robin mckinley, and this was written in the '80s, and so i won't begrudge her the not-as-effective-as-in-her-later-books writing that was so present in this one; this was probably one of her earlier works. as with 'chalice,' which is her most recent, though, she seems to still be using a LOT of run-on sentences. in specific sentences she'll interrupt that thought the narrator was on--insert two or three more thoughts--and double around to her initial thought, which i'll have forgotten about by the time she even gets there. again, just simple interruption of flow.
despite its flaws, there was a lot to like though. the romance could've been too light for my taste, but it was epic enough. some parts, like i said, were supposed to be epic in nature but were drowned out in description, but there were certain parts that did not have this shortcoming, and so while reading it i did have to start and stop occasionally to find my pace again, but ultimately it was pleasant and quite worth it. when i get over the impatience of having taken two days to read this book, i might even start on the sequel/sister book. someday, i guess.
and in the meantime, i have another 13 books to finish by early june. or at least maybe i can renew them sometime in between then, since it's quite unlikely i'll be able to finish. good luck to me, i guess, but this is the most fun i'll be having this summer, and i actually even mean that.
took me about 3-4 days to finish this, though i was kind of half on and half off reading this, mostly worrying about finals and such. not to mention that the sentence structures tended to be kind of jaggedy, and so keeping my attention was a bit of an issue too. i just don't know what much to make of this book, so i guess i'm just gonna comment briefly and move on then.
i love robin mckinley's 'sunshine' offering; and by love, i mean LOVE. so i guess i went into this with similar expectations, maybe? i mean it's not the first, the second, or even the third i've read of mrs. mckinley's work. something about this book just didn't quite get through to me, though i see by reading all the other reviews on amazon that that is not the case with most readers. the characters were somewhat interesting; i didn't overly relate with the voice of the main character, but she seemed an impressive heroine anyway. problem is, i didn't feel much connection between her and her "master," and that is what stops me short, i think; he's ridiculously passive, for someone who's supposed to sort of save a domain with her. and then the whole climax that was supposed to be building up? i can see that the situation is supposed to be really dire for our heroes, and yet.. i didn't feel the tension build up, no steep incline toward the climax at all. during the final fight, i was kind of psyched.. but not as much as i thought i'd be, in hopes of having the scene make up for the lack of build-up. and then the 'hey let's all hold hands and skip!' ending just had me wondering if she was in a rush to finish off the ending and please everyone.. because that's how it felt. her villain didn't even have parting words, just hopped on his bunk and trailed away; it left me wondering what just happened. and her resolution, or what there was of it, implied that there would be more trouble to come.. kind of left things very open-minded, in a sort of 'this is a setup for future books to come,' and not in a 'hey let's keep you guessing way,' unlike sunshine.
all in all, it was kind of a letdown, i'm sorry to say. i honestly thought i would thoroughly enjoy it, but.. guess i'll dry some of her other (older) stuff instead. soon. maybe. sometime.
