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Dec 17, 2009

Eliza rated it:

I've read this book so many times over the year that this time I went out and bought a new copy because my cover is in tatters. But I reread it again and loved it again, unsurprisingly. McKinley still amazes me with how fully realized Damar is as a place, how familiar the Homeland and its desire to civilise feels, and how freaking scary the Northerners are. (Seriously, y'all. Motherfuckers are SCARY.)

This is the perfect escapism book, partially because that's what Harry, our delightf More...

2 comments like (22 people liked it)

Jul 21, 2011

Anila rated it:

Added at the bottom: the perfect song for this book. Seriously, if it's ever made into a movie, this song should be in the trailer.

The description on this book's GR page is not my favorite synopsis. I think my little well-loved paperback says it better:

This is the story of Corlath, golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the Lady Aerin.
And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl who became Harimad-sol, King's Rid More...

13 comments like (16 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2011

Mariel rated it:

I must be a glutton for punishment. (Tatiana wrote a great review of The Blue Sword here. It is my favorite review on this book and she nails it. Her The Hero and the Crown is also great.)

Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword blue me away. (What can I do for swords?) I don't know how to handle the feeling in a review. I'm in it to the hilt. It's sheathed in my memory.... No, I got nothing! (Blue words!) (Stop it, Mar!)

Reading that someone likes world-bui More...

5 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

This book changed by reading-life. Before I was sixteen, I did not find a lot of books that reminded me of me. I read lots of books: classics, current, intellectual, and silly, and I didn't see myself in any of them. The female characters were boring or flat, often prostitutes or supportive but otherwise lifeless wives. None of them ever did anything. Where were the books about women who took action? Where were the stories about young women who weren't worried about going to a dance? And then I More...

0 comments like (21 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2008

Debbie rated it:

Effusion warning: the following is not a review - it's more like a wordy shrine to Robin McKinley.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. One of the many reasons is that I discovered it all by myself (well, not quite by myself; a librarian put it on the shelf where I could find it - thank you, librarian!).

I was browsing the shelves at the Lee Library, and I think it was the title that first caught my attention. If I remember correctly, I took it down and flipped thr More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 31, 2008

Melody rated it:

I loved this book. With all my heart. It starts with a girl who doesn't quite fit, then builds from there. There are demons and heroes and enchanted swords and true love. Also legends and big loving cats and semi-supernatural archers. Did I mention evil? Oh, and kings and proto-British cavalry? And horses from the fever-dreams of Alec Ramsey! Palatial tents. The best kinds of friendship, the kinds which transcend rank and sex and age.

The plot is classic, the story arc undeniably sati More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 23, 2010

Tatiana rated it:

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, acq More...

24 comments like (29 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2010

Hannah rated it:

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked The Blue Sword.

Fantasy/Sci-Fi isn't my forte. I wouldn't normally read this genre, but for the fact that it came so highly recommended by a GoodReads friend, who had read one of my own recommendations not so long ago!

The Blue Sword is a rich, detailed book that you can lose yourself in. The descriptive writing reminded me alot of one of my favorite authors, Mary Stewart - not in content, but in the way both authors can br More...

12 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2008

Lucy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2008

Cassie rated it:

An amazing ride. Beautifully descriptive with plenty of action and magic, The Blue Sword has earned a place on my "books I read over and over again" shelf.

The Blue Sword I found most fascinating and enjoyable for its setting. It takes place over three locations: Home, Damar, and The Hills. Theses places put me in mind of England, Gibraltar, and Morocco for the transitions from cool and simple green lands filled with leaves and gentle horses into unknown deserts filled with More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

anenko rated it:

Harry, having recently been orphaned, is sent to live with here older brother far away from Home. Her heart is quickly captured by the desert, and she finds herself longing for a land whose inhabitants view her and her people as outsiders--and worse, invaders.

Circumstances change drastically when the king of Damar, Corlath, arrives at the military base where Harry is living in order to warn the Homelanders of the threat the Northerners pose to both of their peoples. There is a pr More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2011

MrsJoseph rated it:

There is no way I can give a review for this book. Quite simply, this book is amazing - and I'm a total fangirl of it. I've already read it once this year, but I just got a new copy of it. I see another re-read in the very near future.

What I can say is that I have owned and replaced this book many times. I can also say that this is a book that I love to share with others.

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2011

Kermit's BFF rated it:

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…

How do I explain the feeling I get when I read those words, the beginning sentences of this book? It is like a shiver goes down my back. Like I just bit into one of those oranges...and it is sweeter and juicier then I expected. Suddenly I feel like I am everywhere and nowhere. A part of me is alr More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 22, 2008

Jean rated it:

It took me awhile to get into this book. Perhaps because for most of the year I've been reading first person urban fantasys and third person stories that keep a really close perspective. Before I realized that was the problem I was worried that the whole book would be like that. Thankfully it's not. Once the plot showed up for the party I had trouble putting the book down.

The world is rich and realistic. Even with the magic it feels like it could easily be a part of our world. The t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 15, 2011

Brittany rated it:

I read this book for the first time in junior high. I know that because I can remember finding it on the dark wooden shelves as a battered hardback, gleaming slightly in overcast light from the skylights above. I absolutely adored this book. It's one of the first fantasy books I ever read, and one that got me started on the genre. Frankly, it's all Harry Crewe's fault. She (and a handful of other heroines including Cimorene, Eilonwy, and Sophie Hatter,) was independent, funny, a bit different th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2009

Alisa rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 19, 2011

Charlotte rated it:

This book has a marvelous sense of place. As much as I enjoyed the characters, the beauty of the dessert and clash between cultures were really what stood out. The plot has a very archetypal structure, making satisfying if not particularly surprising. Harry is multifaceted and appears not only strong and controlled but worried and lost, as the situation demands it. I thought she grew in very realistic way and her self-discovery went side-by-side with our discovery of her. I wish I'd first More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2007

Flo rated it:

Just like so many other readers, this book is one that I have gone back to over and over again. It is just a beautifully crafted story that as a young girl made a huge impact on me. We follow our heroine Harry to Home, a place where she isn't home at all. The story that unfolds is magical and inspiring as she discovers herself and her destiny. For a long time I would keep a look out, hoping that Robin McKinley would write another book about this beautiful world. Guess I'll just have to read More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 28, 2011

Ms. Library rated it:

I love Mckinley for so many reasons: She manages to make her worlds feel so magical, and she has such a definitive writing style. She allows her heroines to be flawed but yet brave and wonderful, and she writes all different kinds of female characters. I absolutely love her work, because I find myself relating to so many of her characters and their insecurities.

This isn’t my favorite, and I liked Hero and the Crown better: I still loved this book, but it wasn’t as good as the pre More...

0 comments like

Mar 20, 2009

Karen rated it:

One of my favorite books from childhood, this qualifies as young adult fantasy, but is still a very good read for grown-ups.

It features a compelling heroine, who is neither whiny, nor stereotypically "spunky," but who has a sort of dignity rare in YA fiction. The setting quickly leaves an empire reminiscent of Victorian England for a mysterious and exotic desert land that calls to the heroine, where she discovers a mysterious destiny (you knew that was coming, didn't you More...

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Mar 18, 2009

Katharine rated it:

I like Robin McKinley and always meant to read her Damar series. I found this on my brother-in-law's bookshelf just when I was feeling sick with a cold and in need of something escapist. It fit the bill perfectly.

As a classic fantasy, The Blue Sword has all the traditional elements: destiny, legendary swords, great battles, and evil Dark Lords. In the hands of a lesser writer it might end up cliche and predictable. But Robin McKinley has enough ability with description and character More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 11, 2009

Delaina rated it:

This story was written in the early wave of modern feminist fantasy, as the author was one of those fantasy-loving girls who saw no stories with strong female protagonists (or, if you're talking Tolkien, any strong females, period) while growing up. Ms. McKinley remedied that by writing what she wanted to read as a girl.
To the story: it concerns a girl called Harry, who finds herself thrust into the care of her older brother, Richard, a military attache stationed abroad, when their father More...

1 comment like

Dec 09, 2011

Rmyrtle rated it:

This book has been billed as a fantasy classic by many, and despite the pub date (around 1980?), I missed it growing up. It's what I call a "self-contained" fantasy, i.e., the world is completely closed and has nothing to do with our own. It involves two kingdoms, the Homeland and Damar, both threatened by the Northerners, brutal folk rumored to be other than human. Homelanders are vanilla-plain humans who have taken over big chunks of the world, including most of Damar; Damarians are More...

0 comments like

Sep 12, 2011

Erik rated it:

This book is better than it ought to be, and I'm honestly a bit bamboozled why I received it as well as I did (or why it has such a good rating here on Goodreads). Let me break it down, then, into the Good, the Bad, and the My-Theory-On-Its-High-Rating, starting with...

The Bad

1. Many technical aspects of this book are just bizarre. There are point of view switches MID PARAGRAPH. Much of the story is told in a third-person-limited focusing on Harry Crewe, a girl sent to the More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2011

Heidi rated it:

The Blue Sword is about a girl named Harry Crewe. When her father dies she is left orphaned and her older brother is forced to take her from the green Homeland to the desert country of Damar to live with some distant wealthy relatives. At first she does not like it, is very upset and even considers running away. She soon settles into ordinary life and sees that Lady Amelia and Sir Charles are trying to be kind to her. One day she is out riding with her friends and sees the Damarian King, More...

0 comments like

Aug 12, 2011

Vicky rated it:

I think I liked this book better when I was a young adult. I enjoyed the story: a girl, going by the unusual nickname of Harry, gets kidnapped by natives (called Hillmen), learns their ways and effectively becomes a native, discovers she has magic, and becomes the key to saving her new people from the big, bad, nonhuman Northerners. It's a fun, if not totally original, adventure. And the writing is overall pretty good.

My biggest complaint was that there hardly seemed to be any con More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Kiirsi rated it:

What can I say...this book is a fantasy classic. I read it once many years ago, but this re-read has just made me even more in love. This book is AMAZING. The characters are wonderful...Harry especially is so likable, as are the King's Riders, Jack, Richard, Corlath. I'm not a fan of the desert but reading this book made me want to immediately pack up and move there. And the HORSES....wow. Just wow. Made my horse-loving side just die for longing. Sungold and Narknon made me love them from More...

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Jan 11, 2011

Clearbeat rated it:

The main character, Harry, was such a Mary Sue that I couldn't finish it. McKinley did a horrible job with Harry's character development. Getting kidnapped by people from a culture she has NO CLUE about and being perfectly content with that, becoming a master swordswoman in under 6 weeks, and just generally accepting everything that happens to her with unnatural calm. For God's sake she marries and apparently loves a man at the end of the book for no logical reason. She also has some rare, magic More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 09, 2010

Terri rated it:

This is my favorite book in the history of the WORLD. If I had to save one thing out of two, and those two things were my copy of The Blue Sword and a Kindle with all the books in the world on it EXCEPT for The Blue Sword, then I would save my book. Really.

Why?

My favorite author, Robin McKinley (cue frequent reader groans), wrote this book in 1982. I discovered it in the middle school library in 1999/2000. I checked it out frequently until buying my own copy, which I’ More...

0 comments like

Sep 30, 2010

Saundra rated it:

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley Fantasy/War/Identity
This novel takes place some five hundred years after the events in The Hero and the Crown. The kingdom of Damar has been forced back into the hills by an invading country known as the Homeland. A young Homelander woman, who goes by the preferred name Harry, moves to the Darian continent after the death of her father. She lives in the Homelander outpost town on the edge of the desert between her country and that of old Damar More...

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