Chalice

I love Robin McKinley's writing, but this book fell short of my expectations...its just not long enough to explore all of the possibilities!!! I kept expecting details, but felt rushed through the book. Its worth the read, but not on par with ones like Deerskin or The Blue Sword.

As in many other books, McKinley creates a harassed, likable, duty-bound heroine; and uses the well-paced action to show glimpses of her world. It's a lightly sketched world, but the glimpses we get are rich and homey. The land is filled with trees, animals and well-meaning but apprehensive neighbors, with high politics and grand magic in the far--very far--background.

Mirasol the beekeeper is sympathetic and harassed, her quest to calm the magical land serves as a background for the understated growth of her friendship with the equally unready new Master. The magic is familiar but gets fresh treatment in McKinley's hands; and the author's language is clear, streamlined and often beautiful.

This book is a fast, enjoyable read. As with other McKinley books, those who expect detailed, thorough world-building will be disappointed. The world is rich, but only glimpsed through Mirasol's eyes, who is far too busy for expositionary lumps. It's not as gripping or intense as the author's best novels, but still more than worth the time to read.

One of my chief complaints with some of Ms. McKinley's other works, like Spindles End, has been the deus ex machina endings. I found the story enjoyable, playing on a theme of "The Lord is the Land, and the Land is the Lord," and the ending in keeping with the rest of the story. I usually find Ms. McKinley's stories hard to sum up without spoiling key elements. So let me just say I borrowed Chalice from the library and enjoyed it enough to purchase my own copy, even given my limited living space.

Robin McKinley knows first lines. You read just the first sentence and immediately feel like you've entered a world entirely complete and utterly its own. And you want to sit down and stay awhile. CHALICE is no exception to the rule. The world reminded me a bit of the kingdom in Spindle's End (Firebird), both of them deeply entrenched in a sticky sort of magic with a heritage and weight to it. The characters reminded me a bit of those in Rose Daughter, purposefully a bit vague and left up to your imagination to carve out clearly. All of them living their lives as best they can with a sure but undefinable sense of doom hanging over their heads.

Mirasol occupies a position known simply as Chalice. She is the second-highest ranking individual in the Willowlands and it is her job to bind relationships and ties within her domain, between the people and the land they both live on and belong to. At the opening of the story, a new Master (the highest-ranking individual in the land) is coming home to take control of the Willowlands and try to restore some order and peace after the debaucheries and mistakes of his older brother, the previous Master. Mirasol and the new Master have their work cut out for them as she is brand new to the position with no idea how to do what she must, and he is a third-level priest of Fire who is no longer quite human and must tread with extreme care so as not to burn everything (and everyone) he touches to ash.

Sigh. CHALICE is a bit of the loveliness, to be sure. It is short and as sweet as the honey that pervades the story's every pore. In fact, just as Sunshine left me with a killer craving for cinnamon rolls, CHALICE made me wish I was five years old again and sitting in the kitchen with my Grandpa sucking fresh honey straight off the comb. There are only a few characters in this story and so it seemed that much more important that the ones I had make it through their challenges well and whole. I liked how they seemed to gain additional form and substance as they grew closer and closer to the final test. Until, at the end, they seemed like friends. Full of familiar light and color.

This was Robin McKinley Style A*, and I enjoyed it a lot. As usual, the protaganist reminded me a lot of The Tale of Custard the Dragon, who is thrust into action even while crying for "a nice safe cage". I find it interesting which details we do and don't get in McKinley's books. This is (very distantly) a Beauty & The Beast story, but we really have NO idea what the protaganist looks like. The beast is described, but our heroine? I don't even know what color her hair is -- and it is TOTALLY IN CHARACTER. The character probably doesn't own a mirror, and doesn't look in mirrors she comes across, because it really doesn't matter to her. What matters to her are duty and resolution, and not the macro world, and not really her own internal life, execpt as it pertains to abovementioned duty.

I thought the magical system was a nice blend of novel and familiar -- landsense is an old trope, but having a woman as a binding agent for all the spells is kinda nice. The bees and honey and mundane details are well done. One of the parts I had trouble with was the distances/worldbuilding. Our heroine sets of on a circumnavigation of the demense. She estimates it will be about 50 leagues (about 173 miles). That makes the area something like 260 miles. Which is pretty good-sized. But later, it is implied that horse travel means that a villian can make a round trip across several parcels this size in a week. I realize it's a nitpicky detail, but I was left wondering where I was at.

Read this if: You liked Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast and Spindle's End (Firebird), you crave 3 hours of a sweet and straightforward world, or you like your myths of redemption crispy.
Avoid if: You actually wanted a romance, you require Deep Thought in your books, action from duty gives you hives.

*Like any other author with enough catalog, McKinley's books fall into style buckets. I do not consider this a drawback. But it's nice to get a briefing on which bucket you are going to end up with.
Style A: Beatifully realized, faintly allegorical fairy-tale retellings.
Style B: Sword & Sorcery
Style C: Experiments that do not conform to expected outcomes. Sunshine is hands-down the best of this category. I haven't read Dragonhaven yet, but it sounds like it belongs in here, too.