"The Blue Sword" by Robin McKinley (BR)

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Buddy read for 2024 Forum on Formative Spec-Fic.

Paired with The Golden Compass - discussion (October)

Please use spoiler tags and tell us which chapter, page, part or % it's about.

How to use spoiler tags:

(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]

Click on "(some html is ok)" in the top right corner of the text box (on desktop version) as you're typing your post to copy/paste the code. Or go to the html help page if you're not on the desktop version.

[Meredith]

I just started this today and I have read the first 4 chapters (about 23%). It started out more Jane Austen-like than I was expecting, so that kept me reading in the beginning, especially when the inevitable politics was also discussed that might have turned me off (and probably would have been a slog if I had read this when younger - this book was published when I was about 11).

Anyway, I am definitely hooked now and intrigued by the main characters and want to see how the story develops.

[CBRetriever]

I'll start my reread sometime soon

[Ambereyes]

I first read this book as a teenager, completely unaware of the existence of the previous Lady Aerin story.
At first I was interested in this book because of the setting. The setting of fantasy books is usually something medieval, but here the action was clearly set in a later period. It was like an interesting mix of Jane Austen, Frank Herbert and Tolkien. I call books like this a platypus read, because they combine the different things, like platypuses, and I really like them. So I read that book then (and I have started to re-read it now) and really liked it.
Also, I liked books that deal with intercultural contact between characters, and this is just such a book

[Leonie]

This is one of my favourite books ever! I re-read it every few years.

[CBRetriever]

yes, it's like slipping into your weekend lounging about clothes after a long week

[CBRetriever]

loving the (view spoiler)[cat - I'd forgotten about it (hide spoiler)]

[Leonie]

CBRetriever wrote: "yes, it's like slipping into your weekend lounging about clothes after a long week"

This is so true!

CBRetriever wrote: "loving the [spoilers removed]"

I always loved that! So delightful, and very true to kind!

[CBRetriever]

I'd forgotten the ending - it was very much (view spoiler)[something that a person of the early 80s would expect in an ending - very pat and happily ever after (hide spoiler)].