Adding my voice to the chorus of reviews, all i
can say is "Me Too -- What They Said".
But i can say it a little more elaborately than that.
Robin McKinley burst on the scene with "Beauty",
a wonderful retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from Beauty's standpoint.
And then she gave us "The Blue Sword" -- even better, even stronger, even
more compelling.
In a world that is not quite our own, orphaned Harry is heading out
into the wilds of what is almost India to live with a senior officer
and his wife on an outpost fort where her brother is also assigned -- a fort
on the border with the mysterious (and some say magical) realm of Damar.
The opening chapters begin as a light-hearted tribute to the Regency romances
of Georgette Heyer, but odd and dark elements begin to make themselves felt...
Until Harry is kidnapped by the King of Damar, acting on the prompting of
the second sight that is the mark of his family line.
Travelling among her captors to the capital city of Damar, Harry finds that
she seems to fit in with them, that she has odd experiences that her stout
Homelander skepticism cannot explain.
And once home in Damar, The King sets one of his household men to train Harry
to be a horse-back warrior in the way of their people, because his second
sight and visions that she has had tell him that she must take a vital part
in a coming war against an army of half-human changelings and demons that
is poised to invade his realm.
Swashbuckling adventure in the grand manner, but often just a *bit*
tongue-in-cheek, a wonderful read, a book to come back to again and again.
I recommend buying the library edition -- it's only a little more expensive,
and it will stand up to the multiple re-readings you'll probably give it
better than the paperback will. |
