Contrarius
You talkin' to me??
- Joined
- May 16, 2011
- Messages
- 3,932
I just finished The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. I can't say that I loved it. It wasn't bad -- it was sweet and gentle in its voice, and I enjoyed parts of the plot and characterization -- but it was too simple and YA in convenient happenstance and easy solutions and Lessons To Be Learned.
The story was in three main acts -- before Aerin (our heroine) leaves Damar, while she's gone from Damar, and after she returns. In the opening act I liked first that the MC was female and outcast, and second that she was entirely unaffected by the prince's pining after her -- no pining for Aerin! -- and third that she was both determined and patient and full of agency -- good characterization, I thought. And though she seemed to act impetuously, she was actually only doing so after several years of study and preparation. And then we had long descriptions of her suffering the consequences of action and nearly dying, with no shying away from bad stuff happening to women -- yes, girls too can be injured and ugly and worn out and despairing without being helpless victims.
But then after she left home, I thought the second act fell apart. All sorts of things came too easily and too conveniently, and out of the blue we got told about a Bad Guy Who Must Be Dealt With Right Away, and Only Aerin Can Do It, and then of course she did do it, with great dispatch and just happening to have exactly the right tools and allies at hand so she could Save The World if she just had Faith In Herself. Blech.
And then after some We're Having A Battle Now and some interpersonal complications that indicated Aerin
, all the loose ends were nicely tied up in a pretty pink bow. The End.
So, yes, IMHO it fell into simplistic territory instead of just simple, which was a pity. I thought it started out much better than it proceeded and wrapped up. (eta -- It felt as though McKinley knew what she wanted for point A and point C, but she had no idea how to get between them -- so in the middle she just started throwing things at the wall to see what would stick.)
As for the audio version -- the narrator, Roslyn Alexander, was okay but not exceptional. I thought she read a bit too carefully and pedantically, but nothing terribly objectionable. A bit like she was reading to kids. She's only got 8 books available on Audible, and, indeed, they seem to be YA or at least "young person's" books, so I guess that's not surprising.
The story was in three main acts -- before Aerin (our heroine) leaves Damar, while she's gone from Damar, and after she returns. In the opening act I liked first that the MC was female and outcast, and second that she was entirely unaffected by the prince's pining after her -- no pining for Aerin! -- and third that she was both determined and patient and full of agency -- good characterization, I thought. And though she seemed to act impetuously, she was actually only doing so after several years of study and preparation. And then we had long descriptions of her suffering the consequences of action and nearly dying, with no shying away from bad stuff happening to women -- yes, girls too can be injured and ugly and worn out and despairing without being helpless victims.
But then after she left home, I thought the second act fell apart. All sorts of things came too easily and too conveniently, and out of the blue we got told about a Bad Guy Who Must Be Dealt With Right Away, and Only Aerin Can Do It, and then of course she did do it, with great dispatch and just happening to have exactly the right tools and allies at hand so she could Save The World if she just had Faith In Herself. Blech.
And then after some We're Having A Battle Now and some interpersonal complications that indicated Aerin
could have her love triangle and enjoy both men in it, rather like having her cake and eating it too as long as she can wait a few decades for her first love to die so she could then ride off and have her second man
So, yes, IMHO it fell into simplistic territory instead of just simple, which was a pity. I thought it started out much better than it proceeded and wrapped up. (eta -- It felt as though McKinley knew what she wanted for point A and point C, but she had no idea how to get between them -- so in the middle she just started throwing things at the wall to see what would stick.)
As for the audio version -- the narrator, Roslyn Alexander, was okay but not exceptional. I thought she read a bit too carefully and pedantically, but nothing terribly objectionable. A bit like she was reading to kids. She's only got 8 books available on Audible, and, indeed, they seem to be YA or at least "young person's" books, so I guess that's not surprising.
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