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As I've said before, Robin McKinley has written some of my very favorite books[1], so I've been very much looking forward to reading Pegasus, her most recent novel. Now that I have... I'm honestly not sure how to judge it. I like the world and the characters, but this is very clearly not a complete story: it's the first part of one book, in much the same way that The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers are. So I could grumble that "Not much happened" or that "The pace was slow", but I don't think that I felt frustrated in those ways until I hit that last page and knew that I had to wait to find out what happened next.
The plot is fairly quick to summarize: Sylvi is the king's daughter in a human nation allied for hundreds of years with a nation of intelligent pegasi. The language barrier between them is extreme: only a few specially trained magicians on each side can even begin to comprehend the others. So when Sylvi discovers at her "bonding" ceremony that she and her new pegasus partner Ebon can speak clearly to each other, it triggers a political uproar. Most notably, the leading magicians fear the loss of their communications monopoly. The remainder of the book follows Sylvi and Ebon as their friendship grows and Sylvi learns more and more about pegasus culture, while enemies of the realm mass on the borders and the magicians campaign to separate the pair from within. And then, after a fairly climactic chapter with some unpleasant developments, the book suddenly ends and you're waiting for the second half to be published (in 2012, maybe?).
As I said at the start, I do enjoy the fantasy world that McKinley has constructed here, and much of the point of this first book was to introduce us as readers (and Sylvi as a character) to it in some depth. This sort of "world exploration" is something I enjoy in fantasy, which meant that I was nicely engaged with the book all the way through. But as I sit here now, waiting for that next book to come out, I can't shake the thought that perhaps 400 pages is a bit long for a story to go before the main plot or conflict really gets rolling.
Even now, I'm not certain what the driving narrative in the remainder of the story will be. Will it center on the nations' fight for survival against external threats (with the magicians' machinations as a roadblock to overcome along the way)? Will it focus on Sylvi and Ebon's struggle to have their relationship accepted (with the external threat as a backdrop to increase the stakes if they fail)? Or will the external and internal challenges somehow turn out to have been linked all along (perhaps with the magicians having conspired with outside enemies in order to maintain their power and the status quo)? From comments on McKinley's blog, I'm not sure that she knows yet, either. And I can't shake the feeling that after 400 pages, at least that ought to be clear by now.
So I'm not sure where that leaves me as far as a recommendation to others. Sadly, I suspect that I may leave it at "Hold off on reading this until the rest of the story is published." Pegasus has all the makings of a worthy tale, but it simply isn't finished, and I think it will be more enjoyable once it is.
[1] McKinley's Damar books (The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown) were in my constant rereading rotation from around 5th-9th grade, and Sunshine is still one of my favorite books from the past five or ten years. All three are worth reading, and the first two especially are fantastic for kids as soon as they're able to read them.
The plot is fairly quick to summarize: Sylvi is the king's daughter in a human nation allied for hundreds of years with a nation of intelligent pegasi. The language barrier between them is extreme: only a few specially trained magicians on each side can even begin to comprehend the others. So when Sylvi discovers at her "bonding" ceremony that she and her new pegasus partner Ebon can speak clearly to each other, it triggers a political uproar. Most notably, the leading magicians fear the loss of their communications monopoly. The remainder of the book follows Sylvi and Ebon as their friendship grows and Sylvi learns more and more about pegasus culture, while enemies of the realm mass on the borders and the magicians campaign to separate the pair from within. And then, after a fairly climactic chapter with some unpleasant developments, the book suddenly ends and you're waiting for the second half to be published (in 2012, maybe?).
As I said at the start, I do enjoy the fantasy world that McKinley has constructed here, and much of the point of this first book was to introduce us as readers (and Sylvi as a character) to it in some depth. This sort of "world exploration" is something I enjoy in fantasy, which meant that I was nicely engaged with the book all the way through. But as I sit here now, waiting for that next book to come out, I can't shake the thought that perhaps 400 pages is a bit long for a story to go before the main plot or conflict really gets rolling.
Even now, I'm not certain what the driving narrative in the remainder of the story will be. Will it center on the nations' fight for survival against external threats (with the magicians' machinations as a roadblock to overcome along the way)? Will it focus on Sylvi and Ebon's struggle to have their relationship accepted (with the external threat as a backdrop to increase the stakes if they fail)? Or will the external and internal challenges somehow turn out to have been linked all along (perhaps with the magicians having conspired with outside enemies in order to maintain their power and the status quo)? From comments on McKinley's blog, I'm not sure that she knows yet, either. And I can't shake the feeling that after 400 pages, at least that ought to be clear by now.
So I'm not sure where that leaves me as far as a recommendation to others. Sadly, I suspect that I may leave it at "Hold off on reading this until the rest of the story is published." Pegasus has all the makings of a worthy tale, but it simply isn't finished, and I think it will be more enjoyable once it is.
[1] McKinley's Damar books (The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown) were in my constant rereading rotation from around 5th-9th grade, and Sunshine is still one of my favorite books from the past five or ten years. All three are worth reading, and the first two especially are fantastic for kids as soon as they're able to read them.
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