A review by jackiehorne
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

4.0

Embarrassingly enough, although I've read HERO AND THE CROWN multiple times, this is the first time I've read BLUE SWORD. Interesting to read in light of the thinking I've been doing on postcolonial fantasy. It seems slightly ahead of its time, with its valorization of the "native" culture, although it's always easier for the colonizers and the almost colonized/resisters of colonization to get along with they have a common enemy to fight. McKinley is writing in epic/folklore mode, so it's not surprising that the villains are are so faceless, or so out and out evil, but it does grate a bit after reading books like THE LOST CONSPIRACY and NATION. The idea of a person with dual racial heritages acting as a "bridge" between cultures also intrigues me, although in the end Harry seems less of a bridge than a complete adopter of her secondary culture. I'll want to think more about the desires the book seeks to raise and appease in its reader, with its melding of the capitivity/Sheik narrative, adventure tale, Hindu-influenced female hero figures, and Kipling... What does it mean when a book allows its reader to leave behind her own race/culture and be adopted into/accepted by another?