The Blue Sword (Newbery Honor Roll)

Read this book in elementary. It was always one of my favorite books. Somehow I had forgotten the name of it for a very long time until recently. As soon as I saw it I had to buy it. The copy I received was an older copy which I was completely fine with since I love old books. Love it!

The two go together rather well, yes? Incredible writing that captures the sense of legend being retold. Feels as if you a reading a really wonderful translation, capturing the "otherness" of a different culture and the surreal feeling of the forces of deep and deadly magic.

The other worldliness adds to the story, but the heroine is still all universal girl, passing her rights of passage on to womanhood. You can watch her build her strength feat by feat, overcoming her beliefs about herself and the beliefs of those who would hold her back. A classic you don't want to miss.

jp

This book was excellent. It details the story of young Harry Crewe, stolen from her home by the natives of Damar. Out in the desert, she finds she has a special destiny...
I really liked this book. The author really does well writing it.

This book has been my constant companion since I read it the first time thirty years ago. With it's prequel, Hero and the Crown, it is a wonderful story of courage, magic, love, nobility, loyalty and determination. Over the years I've used it to introduce several of my animal loving friends and their daughters to the author and all of her worlds. I read them myself every once in awhile - it's like reacquainting my self with old friend.

I like books set in the desert, featuring plucky protagonists and mystical desert magic.

To my knowledge, there's not that many of them, but The Blue Sword is so good I almost don't care that there isn't a whole subgenre of books with these kind of stories.

...almost.

(Technically, this is a sequel to The Hero and the Crown, but only in the sense that the sword is the same sword from the first book and it takes place in the same country/area.)

I agree with some other comments that I never felt the characters were challenged or really at risk. While I enjoyed the interactions of some of the characters, the story needed a bit more complications in the bigger plot and in those relationships, as well.

Also, I appreciate that the book didn't throw in a bunch of unneeded cursing, sex, or overly graphic violence.

I bought this book for my granddaughter who will be 12 in Sept. I read it, enjoyed it, but will wait a couple of years before passing it on to her. I know she will enjoy it then. In the mean time, I've given it to my daughter to read.

After losing my beloved copy of The Blue Sword, I went on the store to find a replacement copy. I wanted my new copy to be well-loved, not brand new and stiff. I had no problem finding one, ordered it and was surprised that within a few days it was on my door step. The copy I received had once been someone else's favorite book - the cover is gently bent, the pages fall open to favorite parts, it is worn with age. I was happy to be able to find the well-worn (and well loved!) favorite that I wanted. Thank you the store for helping me to replace one of my favorite childhood books.

Be a Damalar-sol - a Lady Hero! This terrific book is about a girl who doesn't fit in and finds that she is truly different. She must choose whether to "play small" or live up to her talents. Written for young adults, it also captures the challenges faced by successful women. A great book to share with young women as they start thinking about career aspirations. And it has horses!

Such an amazing book. Robin McKinley is a talented author! I had bought this book many years ago but my puppy decided it was a chew toy... I've read this book probably 20 times and it still makes me happy

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley is intended for a teenage audience. I read this as an adult and still enjoyed it. It contains what any age reader would appreciate - strong characters, an interesting plot, and a well developed world full of nuance and detail. Still, there are some issues here that all ages of reader would find of concern.

First, the great. I love heroines who stand up for themselves and take action. Harry Crewe is such a heroine. The fantasy world young Harry lives in is very much like 19th century England. She begins in "England" and then heads off to ... well let's call it "India" for the sake of making the connection. In essence she goes from a quiet, genteel, conservative landscape to one which is more exotic and wild. In this new location she is part of the "colonizing force" which is on the borderland between them and the "uneducated" locals. They use the locals for servants. They think of the locals as needing help and civilizing.

Harry is entranced by the local culture. As tends to happen in these stories, she sees more than the adults around her, she connects with the locals, and in short order she is off joining the locals. It is due to her influence that the connections between the incoming "British" and the native "Indians" eventually becomes stronger, with both appreciating the other.

Now we have to get into spoilers to look into where this goes well and where it becomes fairly iffy.

I love that Harry is good with a sword. She invests effort in training at it, and is helped by a magical background. She sees what has to be done, she sets her mind to do it, and she does well. I think this is a good mindset for all ages.

I enjoy the visuals of the cultures - the beauty of a forest glen, the details in a mosaic.

While with many books I end up with pages and pages of notes about issues, here the book was edited quite well. Yes there were the occasional over-use of a word, the unnecessary back-and-forth time hopping, and the quick-change switch of point of view which sometimes made tracking the story less than fun. But this happens in many books and is hardly unique to McKinley.

Where the more serious issues occur is with the overall tenor of what is going on. We have a young woman who awakens and finds her true calling. This is about as cliche as it gets, so a book is then judged on how well (or poorly) it carries this task off. Here we have a young Civilized White girl who gets taken into a "backwards" culture (again all from the point of the book) and she fairly instantly becomes their leader. They all look to her to save them. They couldn't possibly handle it on their own. They are fighting against a northern culture which is Pure Evil and has zero redeeming qualities at all. She doesn't even question it - she simply sets out to squash them completely. She, of course, does, and everybody cheers. And then she leads her new culture a fresh peace.

Plus, she decides she has a few drops of native blood in her, so therefore this makes her valid to speak for them and empathize with them.

If we had a modern movie about a blonde, blue-eyed rich girl who grew up in a mansion, who goes into the streets of Harlem, decides to lead them all and speak for them, and then says "back in the 1800s I had a black ancestor, so I can now speak for you" I think we'd find that quite questionable. To present the same storyline to young readers and teach them "this is quite a healthy way to think about other cultures" concerns me.

Sure, one could say it's fun escapist fantasy - but with the literally millions of books out there to read, I think it's fair to say that we should select a subset of those which convey messages we agree with.

Also, Harry seems to waltz through life with blessings showered on her at every moment. She grows up rich and spoiled. Yes, her parents die, so she has to go out to the exotic frontier - but this is hardly a bad thing in terms of overall story. Then nearly instantly she's blessed with near-instant knowledge of the entire foreign culture, amazing sword skill, a wealth of other skills, and now she simply has to tune those a bit before becoming Queen and controller of the entire new culture. Plus the King falls in love with her with barely any action on her part.

There didn't seem to be any character growth involved there. She was forced to go to the frontier. She was kidnapped into the foreign culture. She was told to train. She just drifts along with fate and gets handed gift after gift along the way. I would rather see a heroine who is making choices and wrestling with them, vs someone who says "Oh? I'm kidnapped? Hmmmm, I wonder what will happen next."

Still, I did read the book through without putting it aside, as I sometimes do with truly egregious stories. And I appreciate her sword skills and her willingness to work with the other culture. I appreciate the writing style in general.

So I'll give this 3.5 stars. Again, I know some will say "it was fantasy and the issues shouldn't matter". But fantasy is supposed to be a reflection of our values in the real world. I found some of the values being promoted to be less than great for our readers of today.

The book remains timeless. In the creation of a new world of magic that seems to extend from a colonial british backdrop, unknown and known blend together in a way to encompass the most avid fantasy or the most casual weekend reader. I read this book annually and always find fulfilling.

Robin McKinley was one of those authors I discovered whilst perusing the library one day. Once I gave her a try, I found that I loved the wonderful world's she created in all of her books and this one is no exception. The book also came in good condition which means I can read to my heart's content and not have to worry about it falling apart any time soon.

This book was quite used when it arrived. However, the spine was clean and the story was excellent. I am very pleased to receive it, as I already had received a prior book by the same author and wanted to get this one as well. Thank you.

Throughout this book, McKinley gives the impression that the unfolding events are somehow inevitable. The main character does not have any real choices to make because she is led by some mystical force. This impression never leaves the reader -- even when we see the main character make a "surprising" choice. In the back of our minds we know that she was supposed to do this. We don't worry about the result because she'll be alright. No real danger ... no real peril ... ZZZZ.
It's not that McKinley is writing in the spirit of Tolkien or Herbert -- she's rehashing their stuff. Did you wonder, around the middle of the book, if you had heard some of this before? You had. The bad guys resemble orcs (at least the minimal descriptions you get at the end) and the good guys resemble Fremen. This reader prefers a fresh story.

Story: I purchased Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown in the 7th grade when I first decided to read all of the Newbery Winning novels. It was only after buying that award winner, though, that I realized it was the sequel to another book, a Newbery Honor book itself, The Blue Sword. Even though I’d been totally excited to purchase The Hero and the Crown (and buying a book with my limited funds was a big deal back then), I immediately had a sinking feeling about it. I don’t like reading sequels if I’ve never read the books that went before. This was before the internet, and The Blue Sword wasn’t easily available to me to buy, and so I ended up carrying The Hero and the Crown around in my bag for several months, not reading it, which means that it’s in terrible condition now even though it’s never been read.

So, a few weeks ago, I finally decided that I wanted to read The Hero and the Crown because (1) I’m still trying to finish those Newberies and (2) I feel kind of bad for the condition I’ve left it in. Finishing The Hero and the Crown, though, meant that I had to get going on The Blue Sword which I pretty recently acquired. My expectations for The Blue Sword were not particularly high, though, because I was only reading it to get to the second. All in all, The Blue Sword was set up to exceed my expectations for it, and it certainly delivered.

The Blue Sword is a fantastic fantasy novel. It features Harry, an orphan who has been sent to the a rugged desert fort that borders the country of Damar. The soldiers of this outpost are more than a little weary of the Hill People of Damar because there are rumors that they--or at least their leader Corlath--possess a mysterious magical power. As it happens, Harry senses an odd connection to the Damarian people, and when fortune (I’m trying to avoid giving details) brings her to live among the Hill people, she learns to adopt their culture and to take her destined place in their world.

I loved just about everything about The Blue Sword. It has a very different feel from most fantasy novels. I loved the rugged desert world of Damar that McKinley envisioned and the way that the culture she imagined seems to spring from that imagined place. The workings of magic in the book are unique, and it was refreshing that the magic the characters had access to was not something entirely within their understanding or grasp. I loved the characters of the novel. Both Harry and Corlath cut against type in so many says and are believably flawed and yet heroic. Finally, the novel was just so well written, with not a word out of place.

On the whole, The Blue Sword was just excellent, and now The Hero and the Crown will have a lot to live up to. I really am going to be reading that novel soon.

Robin McKinley's "The Blue Sword" is a sequel (of sorts) to her earlier novel The Hero and the Crown. I say "of sorts" because it's set so many years after the original story that only one character – an immortal – appears in both books. For all intents and purposes, this is less of a continuation as it is a brand new story, with only the legacy of Lady Aerin, Dragon Killer, to inform parts of the plot.

Harry Crewe (short for Angharad) is a young woman who goes to join her older brother in the foreign country of Damar, a colonial town and military outpost. Although the fantasy genre makes it easy to assume everything is set in the Middle Ages, "The Blue Sword" takes place in what feels like an alternative early 19th century, involving two sects of people who could be roughly interpreted as white colonizers and native desert nomads. Whether it reminds you more of the American Wild West or the British Raj probably depends on where you live.

Harry quickly grows to love the desert, though she's half-frightened, half-intrigued by rumours of Corlath, the Hillfolk king. It's only when the two of them come face-to-face that Harry's purpose in Damar becomes clear – at least to the Hillfolk. She will become known as Harimad to the Damarians; the woman chosen to wield the Blue Sword Gonturan, which once belonged to the great Lady Aerin.

There are a lot of standard fantasy tropes at work here: the chosen one, a destiny that's decided by a person's bloodline, love growing between our heroine and her kidnapper (the book was first published in 1982, but these days you can't help but wince a little) but McKinley does a stand-up job of fleshing out these familiar plot-points and wrapping them in some fascinating world-building. The culture, language, beliefs and customs of the Damarians are rich and interesting without going overboard into excessive detail, and the pacing is swift enough to keep the pages turning.

All that said, in the inevitable comparisons to "The Hero and the Crown", it's Aerin and her story that I prefer. Harry is nice enough, but she's remarkably incurious and unfazed about the fact she's kidnapped from her home by complete strangers to be trained as a warrior for reasons she doesn't understand, and there's a marked (though probably deliberate) contrast to Aerin when it comes to what fate has in store for Harry. She follows the path that's been set out for her, but Aerin took destiny into her own hands when it came to her ambition of slaying dragons.

I've mentioned this in plenty of my other reviews, but I have an odd relationship with McKinley's books. Though I recognize that she's a very good writer, I always have trouble finding an emotional connection to her characters and their stories. But I always seem to come back for more, searching for that elusive path into full appreciation of her work. There are plenty of things I enjoy: her careful prose, her imaginative twists on expectations, her three-dimensional female protagonists, and certainly the fact that she can write a fantasy story with a beginning, middle and end (instead of stretching it out into endless sequels).

I enjoyed "The Blue Sword": great world-building, strong female lead, interesting moral conundrum (though it ultimately doesn't lead to any serious consequences). Harry's obstacles – both physical and mental – are treated seriously and have an impact on her life, though she's never quite as proactive as I would have liked. A good read, even a great one – but I still haven't cracked the McKinley nut.

I read The Hero and the Crown, the prequel, before The Blue Sword. After I read the Hero and the Crown, I read the sequel as soon as I could.

In this book, the main character, Harry, destroyed the Northerners in a battle between the kingdom of Damar and the Northerners. The Northerners fight the kingdom of Damar many times and are feared by Damarians. Harry came from overseas to the Outlanders and is not from Damar.The Outlanders came to Damar a long time ago to rule their own territory. The Outlanders utilize slightly more modern technology than the people of Damar. Kings and queens of Damar were born with a magical ability called kelar. Years ago it was harnessed in a variety of ways, but now it is only used for war. Harry came to Damar because it turned out she had the kelar. She wins the laprun trials, a series of trials to recognize the best out of people that have recently come of age. She is given Gonturan, the sword of an ancient hero of Damar. The book gives a detailed description of how she repels the Northerners and saves not only Damar, but also the Outlanders.

I would say the book was very good overall, but slightly predictable. McKinley made a good variety of character personalities. There were many connections that I had with the characters. Not just the main character, but all of them. For example, I often feel frustrated when I don’t know something and nobody I ask knows either. Harry felt the same way when they were going to a pass in the mountains to stop the Northerners. Overall, I give the book 4.5 stars.

I have trouble understanding why, exactly, I love this book so much. There's not a lot of action. For a long time, hardly anything seems to happen. Usually that would turn me off.
There's not much magic, and for the longest time, not even a sword. It has the feel of an old story, perhaps written about British expatriates in nineteenth century Africa. In fact, it feels like reading Hemingway!
By the time I got a few chapters in, I was thoroughly hooked and couldn't stand to put it down.
I feel as though I just finished reading a masterpiece. I'll have to read it again to examine the deeper meanings I sense, and my own reactions to the story.
In short, I couldn't recommend this more highly.

Title: The Blue Sword
Series Number: The first.
Author: Robin McKinley
(Audio) Narrator: Diane Warren

One sentence summary: A young woman moves to a new land after her father dies and has to learn to work with the pull of fate.

Theme(s): Destiny/fate can drive people. A certain group is the ultimate evil.

(Audio) Narrator review: Wonderful. Different voices for each character, good inflections, proper pronunciation. I would be happy to listen to anything narrated by Diane Warren.

What I liked:
Honestly this hit all of my “Shannon is going to like this book” buttons so there is A LOT that I liked and I’m not sure that everyone else will agree.

The main character is a female who isn’t overly strong (in the strong female character way), but does like being able to do things and overall be useful. What she doesn’t like is staying in the manor all day, and therefore she schedules to go out with friends to do what interesting things she can while being socially proper. She consistently works within the confines of society for what she wants, instead of crying (giving up) or trying to escape (deciding not to work within the society). Because of this she seems particularly real, if I was in her situation I would probably be acting in a similar way. (Or I hope that I would.)

There are a number of other specific things I liked about the book, but I’m avoiding spoilers, so basically I enjoyed all of it and particularly loved much of it.

What I disliked:
Lack of diversity. There are few women other than the main character and no mention of anyone LBGT.

Rating:
10/10 – Amazing read. Lives on my bookshelf. Happily recommended to all friends. Willing to read again, and again, and again.

A fantasy, romance, adventure, coming-of-age story with very satisfying and predictable - and very satisfying and unpredictable - elements. It touched a nerve in me with the theme of a person uncovering their true strengths, personality, heritage and potential/destiny. In the Blue Sword this is stretched out from the beginning to the end in a very well-constructed way.

Two things only rang false for me. The first was after a battle in which perhaps a third of the force was killed, there was only rejoicing at victory, no mourning (or even acknowledgement, burial or memorializing) of those who must have had deep friendships and relationships with the survivors. The second was the inevitable declaration of love between the protagonists, which was delivered in lengthy explanatory speeches. But of course if Robin McKinley is drawing on personal experience regarding of these, I withdraw my objections.

Very engaging. Deservedly a Newbery Honor Book; and followed apparently by a sequel 'the Hero and the Crown' which won the full Newbery Award.

[slight spoilers]
I saw this book mentioned on a buzzfeed type article about books similar to Harry Potter. I wrote it on my list, then just kept an eye out for it everywhere I went. I hadn't even heard of Robin McKinley before hand, but I found three other books by her. Then just last week, this popped up at me at Goodwill. I even did a little dance. I have searched for it for over half a year!

And lord, was it worth that search!!

I LOVED this book! It was magical, beautiful, suspenseful, and romantic...not to mention: Badass female-arific! This book makes me want to go back to writing my fantasy. I want a character this amazing!

Probably my favorite scene was in chapter nine, where Corlath is about to give her Gonturan.

...Corlath reached down a seized her wrist. "Stand up, disi," he said. "I'm about to make you a rider." She stood, dazed. A disi was a silly child...
..."A Rider?" Harry said.
"A Rider," Corlath replied firmly.

Horses, swords and magic – what’s not to love?

I think this might be the book that made me fall in love with the fantasy genre. The writing is beautiful and the world building exceptional – within a few pages of the novel, one is completely immersed in the desert landscape and the harsh realities it brings with it. But the underlying magic is a thread that is carried through the entire story.

The Blue Sword is about Angharad (Harry) Crewe, a recently orphaned girl who moves to Damar, a harsh, desert country, which is in theory colonized, but in reality is wild and completely different to anything she’s ever known. Yet, there is something about the place that really appeals to Harry, but she nonetheless feels that there is something missing from her life.

The story really takes off when she inadvertently catches the eye of Corlath, the Hill-King, who returns later to carry her off into the desert, for reasons that even he does not fully understand.

Harry is a strong heroine, one who never complains or whines. She manages to not only find a new life and friends in the harsh desert, but she thrives. She is trained to ride as the Hillfolk do and becomes a formidable warrior. And she starts to fall in love with Corlath, but with the specter of war looming over them, she has to make a choice, one that might cost her newfound life.

This book is highly recommended for all fans of the fantasy genre.

Robin McKinley has a gift of writing books that stand the test of time. This was one of my favorite books growing up and remains as one of my favorites.

Harry (Angharad) Crewe moves over from "Home" to Daria after her father dies, to be close to her brother who is in the Military. This storyline bares similarities to England taking over India, and having soldiers, families, and children live in India with them, separate from the natives or having some of the natives as servants. With those similarities aside, The Blue Sword shows the spirit of the natives of a land trying to keep themselves and their culture alive.

Harry is stolen away in the night by the Hillfolk, at their King's command, but for reasons unknown completely to the King (Corlath) or his people at the time. Living with the King's Riders and their people in Damar, Harry becomes Harimad-sol, a warrior of high rank who provides hope to the people of the Hills against the impending Northern invasion as well as the Homelanders who have been slowly taking away the Southern parts of the land.

Saying more would spoil the novel, but expect fantasy, love, hope, and fighting... everything that can be found in a good fantasy novel. For more information on the older world of Damar, before the Homelanders came, you'll want to read "The Hero and the Crown."

I loved Robin McKinley’s SUNSHINE and BEAUTY. This is the third book of hers that I’ve read. The world was rich and interesting, and the heroine was tough and clever in a way that did nothing to hinder her sense of femininity. This is a story of destiny and becoming part of another culture and finding your place in the world, even when it seems strange and foreign. What I especially liked was the various friendships that Harry, the heroine, makes along her journey. There are many who believe in her and pledge their loyalty to her, even when she herself can’t understand why. I enjoyed Harry’s humility, even when she accomplished great things, for Harry is still perplexed as to why and how she’s doing them in the first place. This is a tale of wild desert people and their invading conquerors, the people who live in tidy houses and try not to think too much about the dusty land they’ve taken over. It’s about prophetic dreams, and a sword with a legacy, and a girl who leaves her home, kidnapped, but rises to a higher fate than she could have dreamed. This was a complex world full of beautiful landscapes, wondrous architecture, beautiful lore, and charming, vivid characters. I definitely recommend!

Terrific read, to the last word! Sometimes a McKinley ending feels rushed or insubstantial. This happily ever after is earned and explained.

Descriptions are vivid--from facial expressions to landscapes to interiors to animal personalities. The tale of an ordinary person thrust by fate into extraordinary events is more than entertaining, because the reader feels so much of Harry's bewilderment and awe.

Loved this book and look forward to reading the prequel.

Relocated to the recently colonized deserts of Damar, Harry's life is dull--until she's abducted by the native Hillfolk. Drawn deep into the desert, she discovers that she has a place there, one that may be foretold by the magic which runs through her veins. The Blue Sword is perfectly competent, but it fails to be personally affecting--at least for me. Harry is a strong female protagonist within an empowered and well-realized cast, and there's no overstating that: fallible but strong, deeply human, and inspiring, most everyone here is fantastic and Harry is easily the best of all. Unfortunately there's a trend towards predestination which saps some of the strength from her otherwise hard-won character growth; perhaps it's this that prevents me growing emotionally invested in the book. The prose is compelling but not awfully evocative, despite a strong sense of place; the climax is strong but the conclusion is stilted and idealized. On the whole, an enjoyable and earnest book, and I appreciated it but never came to love it. As such, I recommend it only moderately.

As a sidenote, there's a few worrisome tropes here: white person intervenes to save native population; SPOILERS white person claims minority identity because it's a minor, hitherto unknown part of their genealogy. The book is far from egregiously racist, and the minority culture may be its best-realized aspect; if they weren't reminiscent of common, problematic racist tropes, these narrative devices would probably be harmless. As is, they left me uncomfortable and somewhat doubtful, but I'm not in a position to comment more upon them. Jo Walton better discusses them on Tor.

Really good book but definitely for older kids; like middle school. I keep comparing it to Dune because it's in a desert land in another time and the lead character is learning the ancient ways that hold a mystical, magical quality. There's some sort of herb or spice that enhances alertness or capability, a kind of drink that shows visions of the past or future. The lead character also possesses a high degree of "kelar" which is some kind of ancient genetic bloodline that gives mystical powers and only a few but the royals still have it. The hill people are nomadic and unmechanized, living in tents and riding horses. It's really not like Dune and I don't mean to suggest that it is; there are just some dune-like elements with a lot less politics and fewer villains. The story could just as easily have been about a boy but the story is especially interesting because lead character is a young female (teenager?) who is chosen to train with the men for a male-dominated warrior role and ultimately emerges as top in the tournament. It's a great book and I would recommend it for middle-schoolers or adults.

I have noticed that some of the best fantasy stories rely on an interesting device; they start out rather mundanely, in a mundane setting with a rather mundane though interesting protagonist. Then they move the protagonist-and the reader-into the fantastic realm where most of the adventure takes place. Sometimes the move is sudden, a matter of stepping through the looking glass or into a fairy ring. But some storytellers take their time, dipping their toes, absently wading, getting us deeper till we find ourselves immersed without any sense of transition. Only at the end, when we close the book, do we realize how far from reality the clever writer has taken us. Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword is this kind of story.

I first read it back in high school, and it was years before I realized how clever McKinley had been. At its heart it's an epic fantasy-the story of a faded kingdom standing against an evil invader. There is a heroic king and a dark lord. There are prophecies, wild magics, battles, an enchanted sword. And there is a young girl name Harry Crewe. And the opening lines are about orange juice.

"She scowled at her glass of orange juice. To think that she had been delighted when she first arrived here-was it only three months ago?-with the prospect of fresh orange juice every day."

Harry was born in Homeland, a cool, forested isle very obviously England. Her mother died when she was young, so she grew up a bit of a tomboy, and when her father died she had only her brother Richard, now a junior officer in Her Majesty's Service, to depend upon. And Richard is stationed at a distant fort in Daria, at the borders of Homeland's empire. Fortunately, the fort's Resident and his wife, Sir Charles and Lady Amelia, are childless and perfectly happy to bring Harry to stay with them at the Residence. Of course hot and dusty Daria is quite different from cool and green Homeland, and Harry is homesick.

McKinley goes to great lengths, using Harry, to establish how very mundane and English Homelanders are,and how mundane the desert town of Istan and its fort are. It's not our world, she seems to say, but it's not so very different. They have trains, and guns, and orange juice. It might as well be North Africa.

Then she begins nudging us into the water. Sir Charles is expecting a visit from an emissary of the Free Hillfolk, the wild people just beyond their borders, last remnants of the Old Kingdom. When Harry meets Corlath, their king, she experiences a strange shock. Corlath brings a warning, of danger from beyond the mountain passes, preparing to sweep away Hillfolk and Homelanders alike. When a well-meaning Sir Charles can't help him, Corlath and his company departs, but, goaded by his royal magic-which he sees as something of a curse-Corlath returns in the dead of night, passing through walls and stealing away a dreaming Harry. And so the adventure begins.

Things get much more fantastical from here out, of course, but Robin McKinley preserves the spell she spent so much time weaving. Magic, even when obvious, is never understood: it's magical. With Harry, the reader is thrown into a world of miracles and terrible wonder, and McKinley deftly avoids all the cliches that might develop. And this is the payoff; through all her adventures and changes, Harry remains Harry, the young woman with whom we have already so strongly identified. She is the wardrobe door, and her wonder is our wonder, her tears our tears, her victory, our victory, and her happiness, our happiness. The story ends almost as domestically as it begins, and, closing the book I can't stop smiling.

(For full review see Marion Harmon, A Writer In Vegas.)

This book proves once more that standards for YA fiction have gone significantly down over the last 10 years. You just rarely come by this kind of writing any more.

"The Blue Sword" is an age old story of a young woman who after years feeling not belonging, invisible, and insignificant, finds her strength after being kidnapped by a mysterious Hill-king who possesses magic powers. Gradually she discovers an ancient magic inside herself, comes to terms with her abilities, acquires friends and love and a place where she truly belongs, as unexpected and unfamiliar as this place is to her.

Yes, the story is familiar, but the sign of a real writing talent is to make it special and unforgettable. McKinley certainly succeeds in it. Her writing is flawless and sophisticated, the imagery of mysterious land of Damar is vivid - the horse-riding, the nomadic life style, the castle in the Hills - I get shivers just remembering the tangibility of the descriptions!, and the characters (even non-human characters - horses, hunting cats) are oh so well drawn. I mean a SWORD in this book actually has more personality than famed Bella Swan!

I just don't understand why this book is not better known these days or known as a "hidden gem"? A vocabulary is too sophisticated, or not enough making out in it? It makes me sad that books like this are so obscure and all kinds of trash sells millions of copies!

If I have to point any flaws in the book, I'd say I wish the writing had a little more intensity to it, or I would have loved to see more passion in Harry, to see her unleash the power of her kelar onto a man she loves. But this is a crazy fantasy of mine, there is no real reason to spoil a perfectly good story.

This is certainly not my last Robin McKinley book