Spindle's End

Rating:
Summary: Have we met...?
Review: I intended to like this book from the moment I heard it was coming out. I suppose I'm somewhat dense, since my sister had to realize that the title "Spindle's End" probably had to do with one of our favorite fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty. Now that I've read it, I can't say I'm disappointed, exactly....But for being a new story, it seemed vaguely familiar.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it immensely. The reading was enjoyable, the plot suspenseful. There were funny and sad moments, and the new, somewhat conversational tone of "voice" McKinley uses is quite wonderful. (If you notice, since she's been in England, her expressions and spelling have become decidedly more British.) As always, her plotting and pacing are superb, and her nods to other novels and stories brought a smile to my face. It took me a while to realize why such a satisfying story left me feeling...vaguely DISsatsified; I think it's because it was a little too familiar.

All of you reading this should know by now that this is based on Sleeping Beauty, so I won't bore you with plot details. The main character, Rosie, was lovelable and suitably un-princesslike; but then, so was Harry (of "The Blue Sword"), Beauty of "Rose Daughter," and especially Aerin (of "The Hero and the Crown"). I don't object in the least to having a strong female protagonist -- indeed, that's partly why I love McKinley's books. But in this case, I felt always a little distant from Rosie, possibly because we don't get her viewpoint until halfway through the book (but not even at a chapter break, which was one of the occasionally awkward viewpoint shifts). (Incidentally, I also felt that for as long as we had Katriona's viewpoint, we never really got to know her.) I kept being reminded of other heroines; although, to be fair, I've read so much in this genre that it's not McKinley's fault if I make associations with other authors' books (namely Tamora Pierce's "Wild Magic" quartet). The writing was sufficiently different from and like "Rose Daughter" to keep me interested, but the search for answers magical was almost the same, as if these two books were less about the characters than about the magic. Again, it's not McKinley's fault if she wrote about magic and I wanted to read about characters. Fortunately, McKinley never resorted to withholding information from the reader which the viewpoint character knew; and yet, in this case, it felt a little distancing, because when we were thinking with Rosie, we as readers knew that Katriona knew something that Rosie didn't, and we who had just been in Kat's mind wanted to know, too. I agree with the other reviewer who said that her human characters were not as quickly distinguishable as her animal ones, and some characters never got to be a real person. How much can you tell me, for all that we met them, about Aunt, Narl, Peony? At least the romance in the second half of the book was suspenseful and subtle. As for further familiarities, Rosie's first confrontation with Pernicia, in the purple-skied plain, seemed at first to be lifted directly from "Hero" and Aerin's search for Agsdad (? -- my memory fails me), an (unintentional?) allusion which made visualizing this scene more difficult.

Yet, overall, McKinley's take on the story was as unique as it could be and still be Sleeping Beauty. What this book really deserves is another, more thorough, reading, and I am sure that the characters will stand out more in my mind. Take this review with a grain of salt, since no writer can please every reader all the time, and before now, I had never been disappointed with McKinley's writing at all. After my second or third read, I will be able to distinguish this country and Rosie's scenes from the others, and I will eventually read books that will remind me of this one. (But that doesn't stop me from wanting another Damar book....) :-)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent--a must-read for fairy tale fans of all ages
Review: Robin McKinley's greatest strength is her ability to frame a familiar story with enough unique twists to make it fresh and interesting. Her second greatest strength is her wonderful descriptive prose that draws the reader into her fantasy world. In "Spindle's End" she displays both gifts to advantage.

We've all heard the Sleeping Beauty story, but Ms. McKinley puts her own spin on it. What if Rosie grows up as a tomboy in a small village? What if her fairy godmothers gave her skin like silk, lips like rubies, and teeth like pearls--but forgot to to specify that she should be pretty? And what if she has the ability to talk to animals? One of the best things about this book is Rosie's beast-speech, in which cats play riddle games, horses are romantics and foxes "talk about butterflies and grass and weather for a long time while they sized you up".

If you already a Robin McKinley, then you already know that you must read this book. If you're not a fan, then you soon will be.

Rating:
Summary: A Sleeping Beauty Retelling.
Review: Once again, I'm proud of Mckinley for compleating another success story of Sleeping Beauty known as (Spindle's End).

On the princess's birthday, Katriona, kidnaps the newborn baby girl in order to save her life from Pernicia the evil fairy. Briar-Rose grows up with her Aunt and Katriona, her cousin...yet she has a new name which is similar to the true one. I've already read this book last summer.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasant read but....
Review: I have long been a fan of Robin McKinley's books, and was prepared to love it. But it just did not grab me the way Hero/Blue Sword/Deerskin did.

The character development of humans was lighter in detail than in any of her previous books. I felt how everyone feared Pernicia, but never understood why. And I had no idea how she, a mere fairy, made up a searching spell that lasted over 20 years (which shouldn't be possible), a fact the book alludes to but never explains. The story also has a tremendous number of characters both human and animal. Somehow with a few succinct lines, each animal's personality shines through. This makes the contrast with the humans even more apparent. I didn't feel I knew Narl, Aunt, Ikor, Rowland or Peony.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book as it is true to McKinley's style. It is a great new spin on a familiar tale. For that I can say that definitely rates 4 stars! But I know that McKinley is capable of more....and I hope she gives us another book on Damar.

Rating:
Summary: Another McKinley!
Review: First off, I love Robin McKinley's books, and I enjoyed Spindle's End very much. However, I was also disappointed, probably because many of her other books are so much better. I like the spins she does on fairy tales, and I love the images and fantasy worlds she creates with nicely solid characters. The problem with this one, that I first noticed, was that she had SO much explaining to do, about the country, magic, nature of fairies, blacksmiths and their beards, etc., that it got bogged down with extra detail instead of having that space devoted to character and plot development. I enjoyed seeing the story from Katriona's viewpoint, and the switch to Rosie disrupted the flow of the book. A picky detail, but I didn't like the choice of names - try saying "Peony" and "Narl" out loud a couple times. I liked the animal characters but felt there were too many to keep track of, along with all the more human characters that kept popping up. All that being said, I loved the style in general, the friendship between the girls, the development of the romance, and the descriptions of houses and family life, and I'd recommend the book.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I just had to get Spindle's End...I love retellings of fairy-tales and I love Robin McKinley. I loved her descriptions of the magic, baby magic and so on. My favorite parts are Katriona's travel to the princess's naming ceremony and when Rosie meets Peony...I also love the end! As in most of McKinley's books, there is always a confusing part - at least to me. The part where Rosie and her animal friends go up to defeat the evil fairy was really odd...and I had to reread parts of it before I (sort of) understood it. I loved how she had the animals talk and have personalities...and I really liked McKinley's take on the fairy tale.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't even finish it...really
Review: I was looking forward to reading this novel (it being my first Robin Mckinley book), because I love Sleeping Beauty, and this book recieved so much praise, and was an NY Times bestseller. I started reading, and I was sick of it right away. I was determined to stick to it though, thinking it would get better, but by the time I reached page 93, I decided to just skim the pages and see what happens. It seems that Ms. Mckinley just filled half the book with strings of annoying sentences, trying to be clever and witty, but it didn't strike me that way. She would start on 1 point but then would drive away from it for a few pages discussing magic and what not and then get back to the original point, but by that time I had already forgotten what it was I had read in the first place!
It was like talking to someone who never reaches the point of their story, dragging out useless, time filling details that don't affect their story at all. Don't get me wrong, I love it when stories are well detailed and when the authour or narrator it talkative, but this was too much, and wasn't enjoyable.
I skimmed this books pages and still found out what happened to all the characters, but I wasn't able to even enjoy this book at all! Maybe you might read it and love it, and I hope you do, but for me, I'm back to digging through the digital book shelves of amazon trying to find a good rewrite of the classic fairytale. If you agree with me, or even if you don't, I think you should try reading 'Beauty Sleep' by Cameron Dokey. It may be for a YA audience but it's thoroughly enjoyable, unlike this lengthy, needlessly spectacular novel.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I loved this book. Before I start saying why, I'll reel off the (few) bad points. Firstly, the whole description thing is taken way too far in this book, and if you don't skim through some of it, it will take you forever to get into the actual storyline. Secondly is the fact that some of the characters - *cough* Peony - had an unreal perfectness about them, that made it hard to take some parts of the story without a pinch of salt. These are basically the only flaws of the book, at least the only major ones I could pick out, and now that I finished describing them, I will talk about the good points of the book.
Where to start! OK, firstly, the heroine in this story, Rosie, is not one of thos typical princesses that get themselves into mortal peril and wait for a handsome prince to rescue them, Rosie is a total tomboy, who hates her blonde ringlets and long eyelashes so much that she cuts them off!! Another reason is that the story is so wholly different from the original version, that the (brilliant) ending comes as a total surprise, and quite a bit of relief. Also, the characters were all -save Peony- are totally believable and indentifiable- Katriona,Aunt, Barder, Narl- I loved them all. Finally, the extraordinaryness of this book is the fact that the writer manages to describe magic- pure and simple- and make it sound believable. A good example of this is Rosie's own ability to talk to animals- a feature of the story that I found particularly appealing.
OK, I'm going to finish this review now. Just one more thing. Buy this book. And read it.

Rating:
Summary: lovely, what more can i say?
Review: spindle's end is a retelling of sleeping beauty so i wont bore you with the story line.

i think this story is beautifully written, though i do think it's slightly too flowery for my taste. i love the magic in the book and the idea it's so commen it "settled over the land like chalk dust" i think an amazing country has been invented here.

i do feel a little separated from the characters though. i dont feel like i know rosie (the princess) at all until part 3. but once you do meet her she is a wonderful character and i love the fact that all the fairy god mothers' gifts couldnt make her be pretty, or sing in tune, or wear her golden hair long. and that her pearly white teeth glowed slightly in the dark. but i dont like her best friend peony who irritates me like all perfect people do.

it's a wonderful touch that rosie can speak to animals and i do imagin that cats talk in riddles, foxes size you up, and mice chatter even when there's nothing to chatter about.

im reading the book for the second time at the moment and i'm enjoying it more this time. i havent read anymore of Robin McKinley's books but this one has really made me want to.

oh and what a surprise the ending was!

Rating:
Summary: Okay
Review: I think that the story was good, but a bit boring. The ending is an ending that you will never expect.