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Review: The Blue Sword

by Robin McKinley

the blue sword pamsfive

Jack thought, I am going to follow this child, to my death perhaps, but I am going to follow her and be proud of the opportunity.
- page 211

Title: The Blue Sword
Author: Robin McKinley
Publishd By: Firebird Fantasy
Book: #2 of Damar
Genre: High Fantasy
Found: on my shelf
Rating: 5 Voodoos

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 the Blue Sword, Gonturan, which no woman has wielded since the legendary Lady Aerin bore it into battle, generations past.

-Gooodreads

I loved this story! It was a little confusing, reading it straight from The Hero and the Crown as this is roughly 500 years later and shares sort of a parallel with the colonalisation of America and it almost seemed that the people of Damar had gone backwards, but as the book progressed you find that they have simply adapted to their country which had changed around them into desert land.

This story had the same feel as some of the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey, which is not surprising as they were published the same year. Not only did I miss good music, I missed great sci-fi/fantasy books!

This world was so vivid and real that I didn’t want to leave and I was so sad that that was the end of this series, barring short stories, I’d love to go back.
For a ‘lady’ Harry is remarkably accepting, she’s in this remarkable situation and she keeps rolling with it, having read so many books where everything is met with “But WHY do I have to?” or “But I don’t WANT to!” or even “It wasn’t MY choice!” etc or possibly even unhelpful hysterics it was completely refreshing. I actually think she didn’t protest because she was rather enjoying herself and who could blame her? And the path she chooses to take unites far more than she’d ever dream, and it’s just wonderful. Hopefully it all panned out this time around.

I have to say that Corlath is my favourite character. Though we don’t see as much of him as I’d like and certainly not enough interaction, he’s noble and honourable and just like a king is fantasy novels should be.

I’ve read some other books by Robin McKinley but I’d never have connected those with this one. This one has encouraged me to maybe try a few more of her books.

pamspaein

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3 comments on “Review: The Blue Sword

  1. Zezee

    I really connected with this one as well especially since she felt torn between the two people. It really is a great story and well-written.
    I didn’t know there were short stories in the series too.

      1. Zezee

        Thanks for the link. I wonder if there’s a story of Aerin and Luthe. I’d love to read about them.

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