Author: Robin McKinley
Novel: The Blue Sword
Release date: 1982 (I know it was written ages ago but I just found it in my library and I thought it looked cool.)
Category: Fantasy
Blurb: Harry Crewe is an orphan girl who comes to live in Damar, the desert country shared by the Homelanders and the secretive, magical Free Hillfolk. When Corlath, the Hillfolk King, sees her for the first time, he is shaken–for he can tell that she is something more than she appears to be. He will soon realize what Harry has never guessed: she is to become Harimad-sol, King’s Rider, and carry to Blue Sword, Gonturan, which no woman has wielded since the legendary Lady Aerin, generations past...
Review: Good book. I have no major complaints to make other than the fact that I think Harry’s thoughts were not expressed as fully as they should have been. This was especially so during the more important scenes (which I will not mention here for fear of spoiling the ending). I would’ve liked to have known what she was thinking and why she chose to do what she did.
Other than that everything was fine. Not as suspenseful as it could have been but still interesting and I still insisted on reading The Blue Sword instead of watching tv.
Harry is pretty cool, Corlath even more so. I liked the King as a character better because he was supposed to be a little mysterious so I didn’t feel the need to know what he was thinking all the time. My other favorite characters had to be the Harry’s horse, Sungold, and the desert hunting cat, Narknon, just because I love animals!
I also liked Robin McKinley’s descriptions of the desert. I know what it is to love the land around you for its wildness and its beauty. In this case, I understood completely Harry’s love of the desert and her need to be apart of it, although, again it was not elaborated on.
I’ll give this novel three out of fine stars.
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It's funny that you should say you wanted to hear more of Harry's thoughts, because the main reason I love this book is that I felt like I really knew "Harimad-sol" by the end of the book. I ached with her though all her choices and everything that happened to her. I haven't reread this one for a couple months now, so I can't remember how much of her thoughts are written, but I think that what Robin McKinley does a lot is to explain thoughts through description rather than explicitly saying "she thought." I guess it's diferent for each reader, but I always feel like I'm living the story, both through Harry's and Corlath's points of view, each time I read it.
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