Many a child dreams of going off to a foreign land to find they play a part in some exotic adventure. Kids want to be different. They want to be special. They want to have cool powers. They want to be accepted. This is what makes the Harry Potter series so inviting. One need not go to a special wizarding school to find adventure though. And one need not be an eleven-year-old British boy either. In the case of Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword (a Newbery Honor book), all it takes is one awkward girl, a desert, hill people hidden from the rest of civilization, and a sword of blue stone.
Angharad (aka Harry) is a tall, inquisitive girl fresh from her green, forested 
Homeland, thrust in the empty, dry deserts of Damar where her military brother (as her guardian) can keep a closer eye on her. Living with an older couple near the military base, Harry falls in love with the desert, feeling a kinship with it that she cannot place.
Though she gets along with the friendly families and soldiers who live there, she doesn’t quite fit in. One night, after a visit from the neighboring Hill king, Corlath, she finds herself abducted on the back of the king’s horse. Soon she is thrust into a new culture that, while exotic and strange, feels more like home to her than anywhere else she’s lived. She soon learns the language and way of life of the hill people, only to be once more thrust out of her comfort zone and into the world of war, becoming one of the King’s Riders. In the midst of this change, Harry learns her ancestry and her destiny, and finds her place in her new home among the hill people she loves.
While not a tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat, McKinley manages to hold the reader’s attention through Harry’s view of this new world. Her keen interest to learn about her new home, plus her amusing outlook of those she meets, creates a hard to put down book. Even though the tale includes magic, Harry is ultimately a well-grounded character, unwilling to believe what she is told about herself and the king who takes her away from her loved ones. She is wry and intelligent without being sassy or overly quirky. Stubborn and willing to challenge authority, Harry becomes a leader and authority figure, though she never sets out (nor wants) to be one. These traits make a believable, likeable, and fairly real character.
Young girls will enjoy Harry’s outlook and will look up to the character as a hero. Boys who can get past the fact that the main character is a girl, can take pleasure in the action scenes, war sequences, and the roles of the minor characters (many of whom are King’s Riders-very cool to any adventurer).
Speaking of minor characters, McKinley does a wonderful job of developing their roles past the point of many minor characters. Amazingly enough, it is Corlath, the other “main character,” whom the reader ends up knowing little about. Until the end of the novel, he is mostly an enigma who spirits Harry away for unknown, supernatural reasons. His character stays relatively within the realm of “Great King Whom Everyone Loves From a Distance.” Only in the last few chapters do we see him in a more human role.
On the other hand, several of the King’s Riders gain rather dynamic roles, along with a mysterious mountain dweller, and a sword (assuming the characteristics of its former owner). Most prominent is Mathin, the King’s Rider who becomes Harry’s teacher in all things war-related. In the beginning, he is a silent, formidable character who speaks to few. During the six weeks he trains Harry in the hills, the reader sees him develop into a more complex character who is intelligent, has a family he left behind to work with the king, raised horses, and knows much in the way of herbs and remedies. Far from being the wizard/mentor character however, he is still mostly a soldier at heart who loves his king, his country, and his sword.
While character building may be McKinley’s strongest suit, her expertise in building a scene and bringing the reader into it falls as a close second. From the beginning, the reader can see the rolling sand dunes and endless desert that Harry sees out of her train (and later bedroom) window. We can feel the heavy heat during a horseback ride. We can sense the mystery and magic in the air around the Lake.
I love description, but I won’t stand for wordy, extraneous detail. McKinley has found the happy medium-the reader can see the scene, but doesn’t feel bogged down by it, perhaps because McKinley depends on Harry for description, keeping the reader in the character’s head rather than standing bodiless in the scene.
One quarrel I have with McKinley’s classically written novel is the pace of the first third of the novel. On my first read it was not too noticeable, but on further readings, I found myself skimming Part 1 to get to the meat of the novel more quickly. Like many classic novelists, much of the first third of the book sets the tale up for the later adventure. While needed to really get a feeling for the story, I believe she could have edited out or cut down some of the scenes and internal monologues, as they may scare away some faster-paced readers.
The real weakness of McKinley’s writing, though, lies in her point-of-view, or lack thereof. While she tells most of the tale through the eyes of Harry, McKinley will randomly jump into another’s head, presumably to get a better idea of what is happening. Worse yet, McKinley does not even choose other main characters to help tell the story, but rather whomever is handy. Since Harry is a foreigner, perhaps the author felt the need to show what others thought of Harry’s arrival to their close-knit community. However, a good writer can make that happen without constantly jumping from brain to brain.
If one can make it through the first 80 pages and ignore the occasional jump to another head, she/he will be greatly rewarded with richly-drawn characters and scenes, along with a fascinating plot. One of my favorites of many years, I would recommend this to any book lover (especially lovers of fantasy or young adult fiction). Pick it up sometime soon-it’s a fairly quick and much-enjoyable read.
Age recommendation: 12+ or experienced readers
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars
Reviewed by: Meagan
Quixoticirony 