arthillidan

I grew up reading Robin Mckinley, and periodically like to revisit her works. While Beauty was the first book I read by her (and the first book I reread until the spine wore out), and her Damar books hold a special fascination for me, there is something about Spindle's End that keeps me coming back. Maybe that's because Mckinley is more open with the workings of magic in this world; in other books magic is a furtive, secretive thing, like a wild animal. We get more of fairies and magicians and baby-magic, all the things that make living in Spindle's unnamed kingdom so fascinating to the reader. Then there are the cozy touches, the details that take magic away from the court magicians and majestic evil fairies, and put it by the hearth, in the home, accessible and familiar. The only strange note, for me, is Mckinley's practice of pairing her young heroine with a much older man. She marries her early-twenties female protagonists off to men either naturally or supernaturally of far greater age, consistently enough for me to wonder at the underlying reason for this trope. Memo to self: look up difference in ages between Mckinley and her husband.

2022-10-21 05:19