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goodtruelies 's review for:
Spindle's End
by Robin McKinley
Reading this back to back with a Discworld novel (Thief of Time, if you were wondering) certainly was an experience, one that perhaps didn't do Spindle's End any favors. The serious, beating hearts of the two are very similar in that both McKinley and Pratchett are very preoccupied with the messy humanity of, well, people in all their many forms (even when those forms are, for example, horses or a manifestation of death itself). Spindle's End was at its best when it was reflecting on what it means to grow up or to love or to make choices that make you realize that you hardly recognize yourself at all. (Gorse's speech about how we are what we are cut particularly deep for me.) Plus, the climax of the story was so fast paced and griping that it made the book nearly impossible to put down.
But while the story ended with a bang, the lead up was slow and meandering in ways that often didn't feel particularly effective to me. Illustratively, while Pratchett's asides in the Discworld novels are some of my favorite stylistic flourishes just in literature generally, McKinley's parentheticals often felt long winded and hard to follow. Likewise, Pratchett's books tend to be tightly paced, compact bundles of literary energy, while Spindle's End sometimes just dragged.
At the end of the day, of course, they're very different novels, and if it weren't for the coincidence of my having read them together, I'd never think to compare them. But the simple truth is that while I've kept Discworld novels for re-reading, I'm unlikely to return to Spindle's End. But I'm also quite likely to go looking for another McKinley novel at some point in the near future because when this book was good, it was very very good.
But while the story ended with a bang, the lead up was slow and meandering in ways that often didn't feel particularly effective to me. Illustratively, while Pratchett's asides in the Discworld novels are some of my favorite stylistic flourishes just in literature generally, McKinley's parentheticals often felt long winded and hard to follow. Likewise, Pratchett's books tend to be tightly paced, compact bundles of literary energy, while Spindle's End sometimes just dragged.
At the end of the day, of course, they're very different novels, and if it weren't for the coincidence of my having read them together, I'd never think to compare them. But the simple truth is that while I've kept Discworld novels for re-reading, I'm unlikely to return to Spindle's End. But I'm also quite likely to go looking for another McKinley novel at some point in the near future because when this book was good, it was very very good.