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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/407813.The_Blue_Sword?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Blue Sword" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1174499198m/407813.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/407813.The_Blue_Sword?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Blue Sword</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5339.Robin_McKinley">Robin McKinley</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/19967062?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars 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 was home sick and a friend brought me a bag of books. She pulled out <a href="/search/search?q= The Blue Sword&t=title"> The Blue Sword</a> and said read this one first!
 
 I really had never read any fantasy before. I thought I wouldn't like it but <a href="/search/search?q= The Blue Sword&t=title"> The Blue Sword</a> was captivating. I read it through in a day, and then I read it again. Here was a young woman who didn't quite fit in her environment. She felt uncomfortable in society. She chafed under paternal supervision. And then she's swept up in an adventure. She discovers she's stronger than she thought and capable of taking on burdens she didn't want and finding friends and home and love in it all.
 
 What do you want? I was sixteen. I loved it. And from there, I went on to read lots of fantasy and science fiction. For a long time, it was the only place I could find women characters that I could identify with. Over time, I discovered these same characteristics in other women characters: Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennet, Margaret Hale, et al., but Harry Crewe was first. Reading <a href="/search/search?q= The Blue Sword&t=title"> The Blue Sword</a> is like hanging out with a good friend (albeit one with a strange obsession with horses and large cats). She isn't sure of herself, she gets through challenges as best she can, and throughout all of it, the writing is subtly funny and irreverent. I smile a lot when I read this book.
 
 I've read this book a dozen times since that first time and I'm well aware that critics are right when they complain about McKinley's meandering style that is sometimes very hard to follow. I usually skip the first fifty pages (after you read it once, you don't need it again). But McKinley treats the reader like a friend. As Harry learns information, we learn it, too. And she adds details that make the world real (like teaching us the language of Harry's new home as she learns it). This can be annoying sometimes -- I just don't care about the names and types of tents the Hillfolk use -- but she means well and it's generally benign.
 
 So I am grateful to my friend, for introducing me to Harry Crewe and <a href="/search/search?q= Robin McKinley&t=author"> Robin McKinley</a>, and I'm grateful to McKinley for leading me into the wonderful lands of fantasy.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/629344?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Elizabeth's review
rating:
bookshelves: earlier, fantasy, favorite-books, favorite-writers

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 was home sick and a friend brought me a bag of books. She pulled out The Blue Sword and said read this one first!

I really had never read any fantasy before. I thought I wouldn't like it but The Blue Sword was captivating. I read it through in a day, and then I read it again. Here was a young woman who didn't quite fit in her environment. She felt uncomfortable in society. She chafe...more 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 was home sick and a friend brought me a bag of books. She pulled out The Blue Sword and said read this one first!

I really had never read any fantasy before. I thought I wouldn't like it but The Blue Sword was captivating. I read it through in a day, and then I read it again. Here was a young woman who didn't quite fit in her environment. She felt uncomfortable in society. She chafed under paternal supervision. And then she's swept up in an adventure. She discovers she's stronger than she thought and capable of taking on burdens she didn't want and finding friends and home and love in it all.

What do you want? I was sixteen. I loved it. And from there, I went on to read lots of fantasy and science fiction. For a long time, it was the only place I could find women characters that I could identify with. Over time, I discovered these same characteristics in other women characters: Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennet, Margaret Hale, et al., but Harry Crewe was first. Reading The Blue Sword is like hanging out with a good friend (albeit one with a strange obsession with horses and large cats). She isn't sure of herself, she gets through challenges as best she can, and throughout all of it, the writing is subtly funny and irreverent. I smile a lot when I read this book.

I've read this book a dozen times since that first time and I'm well aware that critics are right when they complain about McKinley's meandering style that is sometimes very hard to follow. I usually skip the first fifty pages (after you read it once, you don't need it again). But McKinley treats the reader like a friend. As Harry learns information, we learn it, too. And she adds details that make the world real (like teaching us the language of Harry's new home as she learns it). This can be annoying sometimes -- I just don't care about the names and types of tents the Hillfolk use -- but she means well and it's generally benign.

So I am grateful to my friend, for introducing me to Harry Crewe and Robin McKinley, and I'm grateful to McKinley for leading me into the wonderful lands of fantasy....less

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