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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
The Hero and the Crown is one of my favorite Robin McKinley books and I was soooo excited to share it with my boys. Thankfully, they really enjoyed it too. A strong female protagonist, dragons, mages, love, adventure, an army of wildcats and dogs.... what's not to love. When I was a teen, my friend lent me this copy and my kitten bit the corner off it. I bought her a new copy and kept this one. It became one of my favorite novels of all time and really deepened my love of fantasy. Reading it again as an adult all these long years later, and I found it is still just as wonderful.
I think it will annoy me for the rest of my life that we don't talk about Robin McKinley like we talk about Tolkien. This series is amazing and perfect.
Aerin is an outsider in her home, even though she is the king's only child. The traditional royal "gift" of magic doesn't seem like it will ever come to her and many say her mother was a witch that tricked the king. She knows at a young age that her future does not lie in being a traditional lady in the court, so she sets out to make her own destiny and name as a dragon hunter. Aerin's travels lead her much farther from home than she expects and to a battle that helps her understand her heritage as well as the path ahead of her.
I read [b:The Blue Sword|407813|The Blue Sword|Robin McKinley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174499198s/407813.jpg|2321296] before reading [b:The Hero and the Crown|77366|The Hero and the Crown|Robin McKinley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170900106s/77366.jpg|2321243], so it was kind of odd reading about Aerin as a young girl with all of the uncertainty after reading about her first as a legend. The characters were lovable and the story was good. I didn't want to put it down.
I read [b:The Blue Sword|407813|The Blue Sword|Robin McKinley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174499198s/407813.jpg|2321296] before reading [b:The Hero and the Crown|77366|The Hero and the Crown|Robin McKinley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170900106s/77366.jpg|2321243], so it was kind of odd reading about Aerin as a young girl with all of the uncertainty after reading about her first as a legend. The characters were lovable and the story was good. I didn't want to put it down.
medium-paced
Am ambitious, expansive novel, with a brilliant central character. An utterly compelling piece of fantasy writing.
a fantasy book that changed the way i saw fantasy forever.
A reader might well leave this Damar prequel feeling dazed and uncertain of what to make of the jumble of rises and falls and meandering sidestories and climaxes, but a vigorous shake of the head will allow the book to be seen as two distinct halves: Part 1) The fantastic set-up. Part 2) The frustratingly sloppy, nonsensical, disappointing end/end? Until the story's first climax, McKinley gives us everything: a relatable, charismatic, admirable heroine who's so scrappy and determined we can't help but root for her all the way; a mystery; adversity; a worthy love interest; looming doom; etc. And then she throws it all away and in our faces. Our heroine trades scrappy for serene, mystery and adversity find their basis in random coincidence and are explained away as "it's magic!", the love interest is forsaken in favor of some Mary Sue new guy who we're supposed accept suddenly as her soul mate, and there's a thrown-together magical solution for every evil force for which there was utterly no planning or foreshadowing. It's so disappointing! The messages I left with were 1) Gee it's nice that the heroine was so gung-ho and hard-working even though she was just a vessel for Fate and the Force of Good and 2) The nice thing about being immortal is you can wait for your mortal husband to die and then go enjoy your immortal one. I was not swept off my feet by this one.
"She had a place of her own—both taken and granted. Aerin clutched the spears to her breast, painfully banging her knee with the sword scabbard in the process. She nodded."
So What's It About?
Aerin is the king of Damar's only daughter, but because she is mixed race she remains an outsider and scapegoat in her father's court. Determined to find a place for herself in the world, she befriends her father's retired horse Talat and finds her purpose in the killing of dragons, which are nasty little pests as opposed to the giant monsters of legend. But evil is creeping its insidious way into Damar, and Aerin's mixed heritage may mean something beyond shame for the first time in her life.
What I Thought
The Hero and the Crown is at once mythic and cozy, grand and intimate. Many books aimed at young adults have trod similar ground in the decades since it was published, but there are few that have inspired the same sense of wonder in me or the same feelings of deep love for the characters involved. Simply put, it is a classic for a reason, and McKinley's magic is as strong for me now as it ever was in earlier years.
A huge part of that magic has to do with The Hero and the Crown's main protagonist, Aerin. In short, Aerin is MY GIRL. She's stubborn and restless, awkward and reckless, brave and loving and loyal. There's one line in particular that I think gets to the heart of what is wonderful about Aerin:
"..she was wry and funny even when she could barely speak, and loved best to find things to be enthusiastic about..."
Her wryness and self-effacing sense of humor make her sympathetic in a way that I often miss in more self-important protagonists, and she starts out on the path to becoming a hero because she is passionate and determined and willing to try even though she has no idea what she's doing. She gradually grows in competence and self-esteem throughout the book, and it is a delight to see her blossom in regard for her abilities and her place in the world:
“I did a good job on this,” she said, staring at her handiwork; and she blushed, but only Talat was there to see.
Speaking of whom!! It's apparent in nearly all of her books that Robin McKinley has a deep and abiding love for animals of all kinds, and she writes human-animal bonds better than almost any other author I can think of (excepting a certain other Robin.) Talat is a marvelous friend to Aerin, just as she is a marvelous friend to him. One of my favorite sections of the book is the part where Aerin, still very sick and weak from eating surka on a dare, gradually befriends Talat after he has been retired due to an injury. They are both outcasts at this point in the story, and together they prove that they are capable of great things despite having been written off at large. Robin McKinley's sense of humor often comes out when writing about Talat:
Then she heard Talat’s great ringing neigh, and he galloped up to them, coming to a sliding halt at the last minute (Luthe muttered something that sounded like “Show-off”), and slobbered green and purple down her shirt. “Horses,” said Luthe with disgust...
I'm struggling to describe this tone in my own words, but it's so quintessential of the way that Robin McKinley writes, and I think so much of the comforting nature of her books is attributable to this tone.
The sections where Aerin experiences magic are all vividly realized and surreal - magic is very much a force that exists outside of her control and understanding, even at the height of her power. This is another thing that I think is very quintessential to Robin McKinley's writing: her heroines very often have these nightmarish, trippy experiences of magical transformation that defy explanation. I think Aerin's experiences are a little more comprehensible than some of the others that I've read from McKinley, but they aren't the lesser for it. Aerin's endless climb to the top of Agsded's tower while her surka rash drives her to distraction is an incredible passage, as is the passage where she and Tor struggle to roll the evil dragon Maur's head out of the city gates while it mocks them.
The F Word
This is the story of Aerin creating a meaningful place for herself in a world that says she has none - because she is biracial, because she is a woman, because her Gift has not manifested yet. She resists the narrative that she is useless and purposeless, and insists upon her right to do something of meaning in the world.
Damar is a kingdom entirely comprised of people of color, which seems like a really important occurrence for the time it was written in.Aerin is ostracized and othered by the people of the kingdom because her mother was a magician from the North as well as being pale-skinned. Aerin's struggle with her biracial identity is well-explored - on one hand she is understandably frustrated and enraged that she is treated like she is less-than by the court, but she also longs for acknowledgment and acceptance; to know her place in the world and be sure that she has earned it through her own worth. Her biracial identity interacts with the class privilege that allows her the opportunity to train and study and travel, as well as the gendered restrictions that limit what she is permitted to do as a woman in Damar and how she is perceived by those around her. Ultimately, she comes to peace with the realization that "her destiny, like her love, like her heritage, was double." She is finally able to come to terms with all of the complex parts of her identity and hold both her Damarian and Northern roots as part of who she is.
It's also remarkable to me that Aerin has two love interests in this book, and it does not result in the dreaded YA love triangle. As demonstrated by the previous quote, Aerin comes to accept that it is possible to love both Luthe and Tor - her decision to live a mortal life with Tor does not cancel out what Luthe means to her and the part of her identity that is not quite entirely mortal anymore. In fact, the book reflects that "it was her love for Luthe that made her recognize her love for Tor."
So What's It About?
Aerin is the king of Damar's only daughter, but because she is mixed race she remains an outsider and scapegoat in her father's court. Determined to find a place for herself in the world, she befriends her father's retired horse Talat and finds her purpose in the killing of dragons, which are nasty little pests as opposed to the giant monsters of legend. But evil is creeping its insidious way into Damar, and Aerin's mixed heritage may mean something beyond shame for the first time in her life.
What I Thought
The Hero and the Crown is at once mythic and cozy, grand and intimate. Many books aimed at young adults have trod similar ground in the decades since it was published, but there are few that have inspired the same sense of wonder in me or the same feelings of deep love for the characters involved. Simply put, it is a classic for a reason, and McKinley's magic is as strong for me now as it ever was in earlier years.
A huge part of that magic has to do with The Hero and the Crown's main protagonist, Aerin. In short, Aerin is MY GIRL. She's stubborn and restless, awkward and reckless, brave and loving and loyal. There's one line in particular that I think gets to the heart of what is wonderful about Aerin:
"..she was wry and funny even when she could barely speak, and loved best to find things to be enthusiastic about..."
Her wryness and self-effacing sense of humor make her sympathetic in a way that I often miss in more self-important protagonists, and she starts out on the path to becoming a hero because she is passionate and determined and willing to try even though she has no idea what she's doing. She gradually grows in competence and self-esteem throughout the book, and it is a delight to see her blossom in regard for her abilities and her place in the world:
“I did a good job on this,” she said, staring at her handiwork; and she blushed, but only Talat was there to see.
Speaking of whom!! It's apparent in nearly all of her books that Robin McKinley has a deep and abiding love for animals of all kinds, and she writes human-animal bonds better than almost any other author I can think of (excepting a certain other Robin.) Talat is a marvelous friend to Aerin, just as she is a marvelous friend to him. One of my favorite sections of the book is the part where Aerin, still very sick and weak from eating surka on a dare, gradually befriends Talat after he has been retired due to an injury. They are both outcasts at this point in the story, and together they prove that they are capable of great things despite having been written off at large. Robin McKinley's sense of humor often comes out when writing about Talat:
Then she heard Talat’s great ringing neigh, and he galloped up to them, coming to a sliding halt at the last minute (Luthe muttered something that sounded like “Show-off”), and slobbered green and purple down her shirt. “Horses,” said Luthe with disgust...
I'm struggling to describe this tone in my own words, but it's so quintessential of the way that Robin McKinley writes, and I think so much of the comforting nature of her books is attributable to this tone.
The sections where Aerin experiences magic are all vividly realized and surreal - magic is very much a force that exists outside of her control and understanding, even at the height of her power. This is another thing that I think is very quintessential to Robin McKinley's writing: her heroines very often have these nightmarish, trippy experiences of magical transformation that defy explanation. I think Aerin's experiences are a little more comprehensible than some of the others that I've read from McKinley, but they aren't the lesser for it. Aerin's endless climb to the top of Agsded's tower while her surka rash drives her to distraction is an incredible passage, as is the passage where she and Tor struggle to roll the evil dragon Maur's head out of the city gates while it mocks them.
The F Word
This is the story of Aerin creating a meaningful place for herself in a world that says she has none - because she is biracial, because she is a woman, because her Gift has not manifested yet. She resists the narrative that she is useless and purposeless, and insists upon her right to do something of meaning in the world.
Damar is a kingdom entirely comprised of people of color, which seems like a really important occurrence for the time it was written in.Aerin is ostracized and othered by the people of the kingdom because her mother was a magician from the North as well as being pale-skinned. Aerin's struggle with her biracial identity is well-explored - on one hand she is understandably frustrated and enraged that she is treated like she is less-than by the court, but she also longs for acknowledgment and acceptance; to know her place in the world and be sure that she has earned it through her own worth. Her biracial identity interacts with the class privilege that allows her the opportunity to train and study and travel, as well as the gendered restrictions that limit what she is permitted to do as a woman in Damar and how she is perceived by those around her. Ultimately, she comes to peace with the realization that "her destiny, like her love, like her heritage, was double." She is finally able to come to terms with all of the complex parts of her identity and hold both her Damarian and Northern roots as part of who she is.
It's also remarkable to me that Aerin has two love interests in this book, and it does not result in the dreaded YA love triangle. As demonstrated by the previous quote, Aerin comes to accept that it is possible to love both Luthe and Tor - her decision to live a mortal life with Tor does not cancel out what Luthe means to her and the part of her identity that is not quite entirely mortal anymore. In fact, the book reflects that "it was her love for Luthe that made her recognize her love for Tor."
adventurous
medium-paced