The Blue Sword - When Harry Crewe's parents die and she is sent to Damar to live in the care of her older brother, Robert, she never expects that a chance encounter with a Hill King will be enough to change her destiny.

Corlath, the Hill King, had dedicated his life to his people and to the kelar, a magical force that directs the destiny of those few chosen to bear it. When Corlath's kelar directs him to bring the Outlander known as Harry to her destiny, he discovers a hope he had not thought existed, a hope to turn back the evil tide threatening his land.

Robin McKinley certainly has her own descriptive and evocative style of writing. While this appeals to many people I oftentimes feel lost while reading it and find myself having to re-read passages as my attention wanders. Despite this I did like this fantasy tale of a girl who grows up to fulfill a destiny. There were certainly a lot of interesting characters in addition to Harry, Corlath and Jack (I had to mention Jack!) and I liked them all, especially the animal ones, Narknon and Sungold, who despite their non-speaking roles were very important to the book. Luthe is a character that stuck out to me because his physical and personality description reminded me a lot of Fai, a very favorite manga character of mine.

The majority of the story itself seemed to be a lot of build-up to an almost anti-climactic conclusion, but since this slow development was intriguing in itself it wasn't too much of a cheat. Overall I liked this colorful fantasy but can't say it is one I would read again.

The Hero and the Crown - In this prequel to The Blue Sword we learn the story of Harry's predecessor, Aerin the Dragon Slayer. This book is all about the action. Aerin is a king’s daughter, although not at all spoiled as she is distrusted and disliked by most of her father’s people for being a “witchwoman’s” daughter. Oddly, despite the fact that the royal family is known for their magical gifts, part of what holds Aerin apart is her lack of talent despite her heritage. So, for people to dislike her for being a witch because she has no powers seems like a bit of an oxymoron. As we follow Aerin through her trials she learns to bring life back into her father’s wounded warhorse, learns the secrets of a special potion to deflect fire and ultimately learns to slay dragons and face an evil set on destroying her home. I’ve occasionally seen notes from people looking for “young adult fantasies with strong female characters” and this story would most certainly qualify.

At first the timeline bothered me, starting at one point and then leaping back, moving forward and passing on, once I was halfway through that certainly didn’t matter anymore. In really enjoyed the non-human characters and the re-appearance (or pre-appearance, I guess) of Luthe in this story as he even more strongly reminded me of Fai here*. Although I understand the division of Aerin’s affections I was troubled by the last paragraph, especially since I don’t remember there being any indication of what happened here in The Blue Sword. Although I’ve never always agreed with the picks for Newberry Awards, they generally hit it with the fantasy they choose and in choosing this book I whole heartedly agree it deserved the honor.

*For my own personal enjoyment I have decided to do a more in depth Luthe/Fai comparison in my comments section along with some notes about Luthe and Aerin that I did not feel belonged in the review but welcome anyone not concerned with spoilers to take a look at.

Spindle’s End - In this re-structuring of the Sleeping Beauty tale we get a tale virtually un-recognizable from its predecessor, which isn’t really a bad thing. In this story the baby princess cursed to prick her finger on a spinning wheel who grows up under the protection of fairies and various forest friends becomes more full-bodied and descriptive with a strong heroine who isn’t content to simply “wait for her prince to come.”

We begin our tale with a King and Queen who, for many years, are unable to conceive children. When the queen finally does become pregnant she decides to forego what would be constant scrutiny by the Court and People and no one is told until after the birth. To make up for this citizens from every corner of the kingdom are invited, including Katriona of Foggy Bottom. At 15 Katriona has barely come in to her fairy powers herself but is still able to prove her bravery when the baby princess is threatened by the irate evil fairy, Pernicia. Katriona smuggles the poor cursed bundle home with her, vowing to keep her secret and raise her in safety. Years later we find big boned, straight talking Rosie whose gift for speaking with the animals lands her an apprenticeship with the local smithy, never knowing the destiny in store for her until it is almost too late.

I have always found McKinley’s writing to be a bit over-descriptive. This story was not much different, but maybe I’m growing used to it because it didn’t bother me quite as much. What I didn’t like is that I feel like I missed out on many key points to the story wading through volume of other, not-as-important parts. There were a multitude of animals which was nice (McKinley’s works seem to always have the most interesting animal characters), but I had trouble keeping track of them. The world building was very in depth and we learn a lot of the kingdom and Foggy Bottom. However, outside of Katriona and Rosie I didn’t feel as though we really got to know the other characters as well as we might have. On the other hand, I think that any more development, character or otherwise, might have tipped the story over in to the realm of ponderous, so maybe it is just as well done as it is. This is certainly an elaborate, well-crafted tale that I think young lovers of fantasy will enjoy.

The Box Set Overview As an introduction to this author I think this is a good sampling. I’ve decided that I really enjoyed McKinley’s completely original works over her fairy tale re-tellings and my favorite book of the set was The Hero and The Crown (probably, as mentioned before, due to the Luthe character). Although Hero and Blue Sword are clearly intertwined tales, Spindle’s End is also tied in with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mention of Harridad-Sol which places this book in the same land many years after the end of Harry’s tale.

Aesthetically the box itself is a little flimsier than many box set boxes, but it is also more reasonably priced. The cover and box art are very nice and I actually took some time to study the covers in detail.

Although I’ll probably never rank McKinley was one of my favorite authors, I can certainly admire her craftsmanship and storytelling abilities. Originally I hadn’t planned on holding on to this set, but now that I have read the stories I think I’ll hold on to it. Maybe someday I’ll have granddaughters to share it with! ( )

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (1986) ( )