Though perhaps sorely in need of a new cover, McKinley’s book is still one of my favourite fantasy novels.
The book was originally published in paperback in 1983, but I stumbled upon it in my local school library sometime in the early 1990s during that gray area between ‘child’ and ‘young adult’ reading and once I picked it up, I could not put it down.
I took out the library’s copy so often it became threadbare, and when I finally found a copy in my local bookstore I bought it and proceeded to read it through high school and even took it to University with me.
Set in a land called Damar which is not dissimilar from Arabia after WWI, The Blue Sword is the story of Harry – a young British woman with an unusual nickname – who goes from feeling like a fish out of water in this land, to feeling like she belongs.
There is a lot of sword fighting and horse riding – all necessary and desired elements of most good fantasy – as well as a little magic.
A lot of McKinley’s commentary about colonialism and the British influence in this Arabia-type land went over my head as a younger reader, but did not stop me from enjoying the story which is, at its heart, about a young woman coming of age, finding herself and her talents.
I loved this book especially because it was one of the few fantasy novels that I found in which the female character was the central protagonist and hero. McKinley wrote a second book set in this universe, The Hero and the Crown, which acted as prequel to The Blue Sword, but sadly she never wrote a sequel….
