Outside of a Dog: McKinley, Robin: Blue Sword, The

Pam

Pam wrote on March 24, 2002 at 12:13 PM:

*blink* "Re-packaging " as a YA novel? It's always been sold as a YA novel, hasn't it? I ordered it from aone of those Scholastic catalogs they passed out in school, way back when.

Anyway, The Blue Sword is one of my childhood favorites. I've always been a sucker for "plucky girl shows skeptical guys she's just as good as they are" plots, and this is one of the best examples of that genre.

Kate

Kate wrote on March 24, 2002 at 8:58 PM:

Pam: The copy I have is not noticeably YA; it's an Ace Fantasy mmpb with a cover blurb from the Washington Post. I'm pretty sure I got it off the SF shelves. The most recent reprinting is one of those not-quite-trade sized formats, by Puffin, and is explicitly shelved in YA (I've seen it).

And I'd meant to say in my post and forgot: there is one place where the book clunks a bit, trying to use super-formal Tolkien-ese dialogue in a situation where I have trouble believing even Tolkien's use of the language. It's made more clunky by its contrast to the narrative style.

Dave Hemming

Dave Hemming wrote on March 26, 2002 at 6:42 PM:

I haven't thought about The Blue Sword for ages... I read it when I was a "young adult", as I was on a Robin McKinley kick at the time. Plus the cover of the copy in our library was very cool.

I seem to recall it was very good - but I can't quite recall much about it now.

Kate

Kate wrote on March 26, 2002 at 8:57 PM:

If you've gone allergic to "girl with horse" since, it might not work on a re-read for you; I read it first recently, but I'd venture to say that it would hold up pretty well for you now otherwise.