The Blue Sword - Softcover

McKinley, Robin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0441012000 ISBN 13: 9780441012008

Publisher: Ace Books, 2007

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sunshine is the Newberry Award winning classic novel that had enthralled readers for decades.

This is the story of Corlath, golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the Lady Aerin.

And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl who became Harimand-sol, King's Raider, and heir to the Blue Sword, Gonturan, that no woman had wielded since Lady Aerin herself bore it into battle.

And this is the song of the kelar of the Hillfolk, the magic of the blood, the weaver of destinies...

About this title

Review:

"A new language, a new landscape, and a new people--all unforgettable." -Horn Book

"Any book that, at one point or another, reminded me of The Sheikh, Gunga Din, Islandia, and, The Lord of the Rings, can't be anything but a true original." -Asimov's Science Fiction

"McKinley knows her geography of fantasy, the nuances of the language, the atmosphere of magic..." -The Washington Post

"This is a zesty, romantic heroic fantasy with an appealing stalwart heroine, a finely realized mythical kingdom, and a grounding in reality that enhances the tale's verve as a fantasy." -Booklist

"McKinley has reworked many familiar mythological motifs into a tale that is completely fresh; her spare and eloquent prose is sheer delight. The novel succeeds not only as fantasy/adventure, but also as a compelling portrait of the vibrant, wryly humorous Harry." -School Library Journal

"It is a fresh and interesting setting for a novel of high fantasy. Like the desert air, the tone is open and bright and brilliant." -Marilyn H. Karrenbrock

From the Back Cover:

When Harry Crewe's father dies, she leaves her Homeland to travel east, to Istan, the last outpost of the Homelander empire, where her elder brother is stationed.

Harry is drawn to the bleak landscape of the northeast frontier, so unlike the green hills of her Homeland. The desert she stares across was once a part of the great kingdom of Damar, before the Homelanders came from over the seas. Harry wishes she might cross the sands and climb the dark mountains where no Homelander has ever set foot, where the last of the old Damarians, the Free Hillfolk, still live. She hears stories that the Free Hillfolk possess strange powers -- that they work magic -- that it is because of this that they remain free of the Homelander sway.

When the king of the Free Hillfolk comes to Istan to ask that the Homelanders and the Hillfolk set their enmity aside to fight a common foe, the Homelanders are reluctant to trust his word, and even more reluctant to believe his tales of the Northerners: that they are demonkind, not human.

Harry's destiny lies in the far mountains that she once wished to climb, and she will ride to the battle with the North in the Hill-king's army, bearing the Blue Sword, Gonturan, the chiefest treasure of the Hill-king's house and the subject of many legends of magic and mystery.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ace Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0441012000
• ISBN 13: 9780441012008
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320