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thecasuallibrarian's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
hedyharper's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
ireliajellycomb's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I find this a comfortable nostalgic read, but the book hasn't aged as well as The Hero and the Crown—the prequel to this book. If I recall correctly, McKinley wrote this as a counter reaction to the stories of young white women being kidnapped for a harem and then falling in love with their captors. McKinley was keen to have a protagonist with more spine than those desert fantasies, and so wrote our Harry as her protagonist.
Personally, I enjoyed Harry's story and how the magic kelar is almost like a character of its own in the book. Magic remains mysterious in McKinley's writing, and feels truly mythic. But some readers may be more critical of the colonialism in this book, because Harry is a (British) outlander and her friend Colonel Jack remains a major character when maybe her Damarian companions could have used more speaking time and characterization.
Personally, I love this duology and have liked it even more as I got older. Harry is a relatable protagonist who feels like an outsider, and is struggling to do the best she can in a situation where very little is under her direct control, or ever even hers. I think both books are worth reading, but you can read the prequel The Hero & The Crown as a standalone as well.
Personally, I enjoyed Harry's story and how the magic kelar is almost like a character of its own in the book. Magic remains mysterious in McKinley's writing, and feels truly mythic. But some readers may be more critical of the colonialism in this book, because Harry is a (British) outlander and her friend Colonel Jack remains a major character when maybe her Damarian companions could have used more speaking time and characterization.
Personally, I love this duology and have liked it even more as I got older. Harry is a relatable protagonist who feels like an outsider, and is struggling to do the best she can in a situation where very little is under her direct control, or ever even hers. I think both books are worth reading, but you can read the prequel The Hero & The Crown as a standalone as well.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping and War
Minor: Colonisation
clevermird's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
This is a book that I think I like a lot more than its actual quality deserves.
The Blue Sword follows Angharad "Harry" Crewe, an orphaned young woman staying at a remote desert military outpost. When Corlath, the king of a neighboring nation, arrives for a diplomatic conference, the magic inherent in his people tells him that she has a roll to play in the fate of his country. Willing or no, Harry finds herself in a strange land filled with danger and adventure in equal portions.
This story is a very classic "fantasy adventure" setup. There's the young audience-surrogate outsider with a destiny, the wise older mentor, the magic sword and the evil demon army bearing down. The worldbuilding is fairly basic, but enjoyably written, same with the characters. As is typical of a McKinley work, horses feature prominently (something my 11-year-old self appreciated greatly and still does to a lesser extent) and the book includes gorgeous, tactile descriptions that set the scene perfectly.
As is also typical, the book struggles a bit with pacing, taking a long time to get going and then rushing the finale. Harry adjusts to her new life and picks up warrior skills a bit too fast to suspend disbelief and the ending borders on deus ex machina.
But nonetheless, I just really like this book. Maybe it's the winsome writing style. Maybe it's the lack of pretentiousness, the willingness to embrace tropes without the need to snark at them that can sometimes permeate newer fantasy novels. Or maybe it's just nostalgia. In any case, the rating reflects my feelings about the book's actual quality, but I highly urge checking it out - like me, you might find more than the sum of its parts.
The Blue Sword follows Angharad "Harry" Crewe, an orphaned young woman staying at a remote desert military outpost. When Corlath, the king of a neighboring nation, arrives for a diplomatic conference, the magic inherent in his people tells him that she has a roll to play in the fate of his country. Willing or no, Harry finds herself in a strange land filled with danger and adventure in equal portions.
This story is a very classic "fantasy adventure" setup. There's the young audience-surrogate outsider with a destiny, the wise older mentor, the magic sword and the evil demon army bearing down. The worldbuilding is fairly basic, but enjoyably written, same with the characters. As is typical of a McKinley work, horses feature prominently (something my 11-year-old self appreciated greatly and still does to a lesser extent) and the book includes gorgeous, tactile descriptions that set the scene perfectly.
As is also typical, the book struggles a bit with pacing, taking a long time to get going and then rushing the finale. Harry adjusts to her new life and picks up warrior skills a bit too fast to suspend disbelief and the ending borders on deus ex machina.
But nonetheless, I just really like this book. Maybe it's the winsome writing style. Maybe it's the lack of pretentiousness, the willingness to embrace tropes without the need to snark at them that can sometimes permeate newer fantasy novels. Or maybe it's just nostalgia. In any case, the rating reflects my feelings about the book's actual quality, but I highly urge checking it out - like me, you might find more than the sum of its parts.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Death, Drug use, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, and Alcohol
isabelmary's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This 5 star review is more about my enjoyment — I loved this book! Quality-wise it is probably closer to a 4.
This is 80s fantasy and you can absolutely tell. Huge Chosen One tropes with a smattering of white saviour for spice. The villain / evil is extraordinarily undeveloped and hand-wavey, as is the magic and the nature of the Chosen One vibe. Once you get into the Chosen One swing of things you never really doubt that Harry will succeed at most challenges, so the stakes never feel super high. All of these are (perhaps rightly) unfashionable and critiqued today.
So this book won’t be for everyone, or even every fantasy fan. For me though, the prose was lovely, the pacing though steady was on point, the romance was subtle but enjoyable, the small cast of secondary characters (shoutout Mathin shoutout Sungold) made me care, and the world building gave me enough detail to feel immersed and interested. Mystery and curiosity sustained the first half of the novel. All in all, it was a supremely comforting book, and the well-worness of its plot beats only made it more so. Not groundbreaking by any means but what it set out to do was accomplished with absolute excellence.
This is 80s fantasy and you can absolutely tell. Huge Chosen One tropes with a smattering of white saviour for spice. The villain / evil is extraordinarily undeveloped and hand-wavey, as is the magic and the nature of the Chosen One vibe. Once you get into the Chosen One swing of things you never really doubt that Harry will succeed at most challenges, so the stakes never feel super high. All of these are (perhaps rightly) unfashionable and critiqued today.
So this book won’t be for everyone, or even every fantasy fan. For me though, the prose was lovely, the pacing though steady was on point, the romance was subtle but enjoyable, the small cast of secondary characters (shoutout Mathin shoutout Sungold) made me care, and the world building gave me enough detail to feel immersed and interested. Mystery and curiosity sustained the first half of the novel. All in all, it was a supremely comforting book, and the well-worness of its plot beats only made it more so. Not groundbreaking by any means but what it set out to do was accomplished with absolute excellence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Colonisation and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent
bibliorama's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Enjoyment - 4.5
This book was a surprise. It was a random library pickup because I wanted to read nore classic YAish fantasy, and I quite enjoyed it. It's a standalone and leans heavily into the chosen one trope, which I haven't read a true chosen one story in a hot minute. It is also a trope that I find to be satisfying with lots of payoffs. I can also see the bones and influence this story had on modern YA fantasies, and I like seeing other authors' influences. This does have its dated themes that will lower some of the enjoyment, particularly in the beginning.
Start - 3.5
It has heavy colonialism tendencies and white saviorish feelings. I'm telling you this at the start because I didn't know going in and I know others would like to know that beforehand. It's dated and had my eyes rolling, but if you're looking for classic YA and still want to try this out, once the beginning was it was easier to sink into the world and characters. The beginning was my least favorite section, but that just means it got better as it went on.
Characters - 4
Harry is an interesting protagonist. She obviously follows some typical "chosen one" plot beats, but her feelings about the events happening around her jumped out as very clear to me. She has a lot to process, but she's also honest about the things she doesn't want to process in the moment. She is also interesting because she was never presented as a damsel even when she was in distress. Plus there was a very stereotypical damsely kind of scene that happens as the inciting incident, but in honesty, those scenes where just fun because I wasn't expected anything like that to happen. She also was always expected to have to take up responsibility and fight. Plus she has a cat and what more can I really ask for besides that.
Corlath, now he was a perspective I did not expect to get, but I'm glad we did. He was described as having a power that made him overly aggressive and easy to anger, but I didn't feel that when we saw him interact that he was overly angry at all. He actually had, I feel, the right amount of frustration and anger considering the situation he was in. His interactions with Harry and the others, he seemed quite friendly and quiet.
Atmosphere - 4
The setting starts in a secluded, desert town. Normally, I really do not vibe with desert settings (I'm looking directly at you Nevernight). I think it has to do with me being more interested in oceans and forests, however, in this book I felt like there was a real love towards the desert and mountainous surroundings that was easy to feel and buy into. The heat of the desert and harshness that can come with it wasn't presented as an inherent antagonist to the characters. I think this feeling was also why I enjoyed the desert setting in An Ember in the Ashes. The desert is the most stand out setting, the rest was more basic and stereotypical forests.
Plot - 3
The plot here is not a complex one, but I think that'd do well for those who aren't wanting an epic fantasy. It follows the chosen one arc, while have training scenes that were enjoyable. There was also some slight romance and tension, but not overly done. It was a simple, easy plot.
Ending - 3.5
The battle wasn't very long for how life threatening the antagonist was made out to be. But with this story, the battle wasn't the main focus in my opinion. Harry and Corlath were and they were fun. So I'll forgive a lackluster ending.
Style - 4
There were some intersting writing choices that were done. POVs will switch within the same chapter, and sometimes from paragraph to paragraph. That might seen extreme, and the first time it happens you might have to double read to understand that the perspective changed. But, for how short of a book this is, I found it to be helpful to get all the info we need in a timely manner. Sonce I'm nosey by nature, I like knowing what everyone is thinking, but I'm not patient enough to want or need a full chapter dedicated to a POV. So, this worked for me and I was surprised at how it didn't end up confusing me.
Overall - 3.8 rounded 4
This book was a surprise. It was a random library pickup because I wanted to read nore classic YAish fantasy, and I quite enjoyed it. It's a standalone and leans heavily into the chosen one trope, which I haven't read a true chosen one story in a hot minute. It is also a trope that I find to be satisfying with lots of payoffs. I can also see the bones and influence this story had on modern YA fantasies, and I like seeing other authors' influences. This does have its dated themes that will lower some of the enjoyment, particularly in the beginning.
Start - 3.5
It has heavy colonialism tendencies and white saviorish feelings. I'm telling you this at the start because I didn't know going in and I know others would like to know that beforehand. It's dated and had my eyes rolling, but if you're looking for classic YA and still want to try this out, once the beginning was it was easier to sink into the world and characters. The beginning was my least favorite section, but that just means it got better as it went on.
Characters - 4
Harry is an interesting protagonist. She obviously follows some typical "chosen one" plot beats, but her feelings about the events happening around her jumped out as very clear to me. She has a lot to process, but she's also honest about the things she doesn't want to process in the moment. She is also interesting because she was never presented as a damsel even when she was in distress. Plus there was a very stereotypical damsely kind of scene that happens as the inciting incident, but in honesty, those scenes where just fun because I wasn't expected anything like that to happen. She also was always expected to have to take up responsibility and fight. Plus she has a cat and what more can I really ask for besides that.
Corlath, now he was a perspective I did not expect to get, but I'm glad we did. He was described as having a power that made him overly aggressive and easy to anger, but I didn't feel that when we saw him interact that he was overly angry at all. He actually had, I feel, the right amount of frustration and anger considering the situation he was in. His interactions with Harry and the others, he seemed quite friendly and quiet.
Atmosphere - 4
The setting starts in a secluded, desert town. Normally, I really do not vibe with desert settings (I'm looking directly at you Nevernight). I think it has to do with me being more interested in oceans and forests, however, in this book I felt like there was a real love towards the desert and mountainous surroundings that was easy to feel and buy into. The heat of the desert and harshness that can come with it wasn't presented as an inherent antagonist to the characters. I think this feeling was also why I enjoyed the desert setting in An Ember in the Ashes. The desert is the most stand out setting, the rest was more basic and stereotypical forests.
Plot - 3
The plot here is not a complex one, but I think that'd do well for those who aren't wanting an epic fantasy. It follows the chosen one arc, while have training scenes that were enjoyable. There was also some slight romance and tension, but not overly done. It was a simple, easy plot.
Ending - 3.5
The battle wasn't very long for how life threatening the antagonist was made out to be. But with this story, the battle wasn't the main focus in my opinion. Harry and Corlath were and they were fun. So I'll forgive a lackluster ending.
Style - 4
There were some intersting writing choices that were done. POVs will switch within the same chapter, and sometimes from paragraph to paragraph. That might seen extreme, and the first time it happens you might have to double read to understand that the perspective changed. But, for how short of a book this is, I found it to be helpful to get all the info we need in a timely manner. Sonce I'm nosey by nature, I like knowing what everyone is thinking, but I'm not patient enough to want or need a full chapter dedicated to a POV. So, this worked for me and I was surprised at how it didn't end up confusing me.
Overall - 3.8 rounded 4
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Blood
aconfundityofcrows's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is one of those early young adult fantasies that can be traced as a predecessor to current day well known ya fantasies and sf. I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of other fantasy books that would have been contemporaneous with it i.e. The Lioness Quartet by Tamara Pierce or Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede. The only thing that didn't work for me has a bit slower pacing than I prefer, but that is pretty common for books of this era.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, and Colonisation
Minor: Death and Death of parent
f18's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Drug use, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury