McKinley, Robin - Chalice

[oyceter]

(I'm sorry for spamming! I have a bazillion book posts to catch up on, and I should probably write up Wiscon some time as well...)

Mirasol has recently been appointed Chalice of the Willowlands after the previous Master and Chalice died unexpectedly. As Chalice, her job to connect the new Master to the land is made more difficult given that the new Master was to be a Priest of Fire, and is now not entirely human. Although it sounds like epic fantasy, McKinley adds her usual every day touches, focusing just as much on Mirasol's bees and honey as well as the "who will rule the land" plot.

I've missed reading Robin McKinley. I didn't read Sunshine or Dragonhaven when they came out, due to poor or conflicting reviews, so it's been almost a decade since I've read new McKinley. I am also desperately compartmentalizing her white guy with a tan comment about Obama because I am so tired of having writers I like flash their ignorance online.

Chalice is very standard McKinley, which is to say it is comforting, homey, and focused on small acts of niceness amidst larger epic going-ons. I have no idea how this would read to people new to McKinley; she's been a favorite author of mine since I was in middle school, so I have absolutely no distance. That said, I find her focus on ordinariness and niceness a little less comforting than I did as a kid; I keep remembering some of deepad's comments at Wiscon about how niceness is small, how it is used to limit people, how you can be nice to people and hope for change, but you cannot use niceness as a way to battle systems of oppression. None of this directly has to do with the book, save that I wonder how much of McKinley's focus on niceness and humility and being ordinary I swallowed unthinkingly as a teen and continue to retain today. It is a narrative I am extremely familiar with and used to, and ... I am not sure how comfortable I am with that anymore.

I also have issues with the notion of citizenship and rulership in the book; the focus on bloodlines and blood relationships to the land works in this fantasy but begins to fall apart when you poke at it. And one element in the ending really didn't work for me.

All this said, I loved the book and the characters, even though sometimes they were too accomodating and polite and humble for me. I love the tentativeness of their interactions, I love the story of someone rediscovering his humanity, I love the plotline of trying to figure out what you're doing while you're doing it. I especially love the bees and the honey. I am very glad I had a bottle of farmers' market honey with me as I was reading, otherwise I would have had horrible cravings.

Comments

[chomiji]

>> the focus on bloodlines and blood relationships to the land<<

Hmm ... that bit sounds rather like McKillip's The Riddle Master of Hed. Did it strike you that way?

[keilexandra]

I have no idea how this would read to people new to McKinley

Coincidentally, CHALICE was my first and still only McKinley book. I have others on the TBR list, but haven't gotten to any--I found this one on the library shelf and picked it up on a whim. Homey is a very good description; it was refreshing after all the epicness going on in fantasy. The pace was a bit TOO quiet and humble for me, though. Looking back at my review, I think I had some of the same worldbuilding issues.

Also, ick bees. Especially that ending scene with the swarm.

[telophase]

I really liked most of the book, but the element of the ending that didn't work for me was (spoiler protected) how the Master lost all his fire and came back perfect desperately ignoring the 'from black to white' element there. One of my narrative kinks is the not-quite-human fighting to maintain part of their humanity, and I prefer it when it's something they will have to keep fighting for the rest of their lives, if that makes sense. Having him come completely back is too pat.

[crossedwires]

I am also desperately compartmentalizing her white guy with a tan comment about Obama because I am so tired of having writers I like flash their ignorance online.

Me too. I grew up on McKinley; I read Beauty when I was 10 or so, and just fell in love. I also haven't come across a McKinley book I didn't like, including Sunshine and Dragonhaven (though I'm maybe more in the minority with the latter book).

[(Anonymous)]

Ack! She is historically one of my favorite authors - The Hero and the Crown was, seriously, REVELATORY for me as a little girl - but in recent years her streak of really irritating books and her increasingly overt racism (and the skills I've gained in critically examining her older work) make me a bit nervy around her books.

I picked this up at a used bookstore thinking that at least I wasn't buying it new, and I'm glad I didn't.

!!!!!SPOILER!!!!!

I thought the master's transition from inhuman/black-skinned to human/white-skinned was pretty racist, and I really disliked the heroine - her constant self-abnegation made her seem like a caricature of the classic McKinley heroine. I also really didn't buy the love story. And why did those poor bees have to sacrifice themselves? She does this, often - her books are full of animals *just knowing* when someone is noble and pure-hearted (and high-ranking, ahem) and becoming subject to them. It is starting to irritate me greatly.

- seitzk

many books

[susanreads]

a bazillion book posts to catch up on
Oh, you've been saving them up? Phew! I thought "I couldn't read that many books if I did nothing else".