Remember how I said I was going to do a post after Sunshine Book Club was over, where those of us who have read it could scream about Chalice and also bees? This is that post.
I don't have super coherent thoughts about this book, but I love that it's a fantasy universe with automatic and unavoidable magical roles, and it's still really a book about how that doesn't excuse not giving people adequate explanations. Instinct isn't a substitute for knowledge and in the end everyone agrees that that was true and they should have tried harder with the explaining! It makes me happy every time!
Chalice was a delight and a frustration for me, because poor Mirasol is the POV character and is SO OVERWHELMED the whole time, and I may/may not have spent the book feeling stressed out for her. I love the ending! It's great! And when everyone realizes that yes, they really should have spent more time with the explaining, I feel super vindicated for Mirasol. There is SO MUCH HONEY in that book - every time I read it I spend the next few days liberally dosing my tea with honey.
Yes! The bits where the heir is hitting on her unpleasantly and she doesn't know what the protocol is for turning him down make me so anxious for her, but it is super great that everyone recognises that it was their fault for putting her in that situation and not giving her the tools to turn him down.
I feel like I'm missing so much in this book because I am essentially indifferent to honey! I have it with lemon when I'm sick and I've eaten lovely things that contain it, but I never seek it out and I can't at all tell the difference between different kinds.
That was exactly what I was thinking about - that whole section made me super uncomfortable for her, and the poor thing spends the entire book being so exhausted from trying to figure out what she's supposed to be doing and when she finally starts getting useful information I was so relieved. The new heir made me so angry (but the bits of politics that were explained were fascinating, I mean, how does McKinley come up with this stuff?) that I was almost glad at the end. But Mirasol's bees. . . *sobs*
I'm not what anyone would call a honey connoisseur, either - I like it? But I'm with you, I can't tell the difference between different kinds (although that probably has something to do with the fact that I just buy it from the grocery store and haven't actually devoted myself to figuring it out, because there are more interesting things in life, I feel).
One of the things that I really appreciated about Chalice was the gradual realization that the characters weren't Typical Fantasy Nobility. Mirasol is pretty much a peasant (not a bad thing!) and while the whatshisface the Fire dude (I'm bad at names, whoops) is landed gentry, I guess, they're both far, far removed from the court of the High King. That's probably a weird thing to focus on, but I thought it was cool.
You know, reading Sunshine and thinking back to Chalice and Pegasus and even parts of The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley really likes writing overwhelmed heroines. It's a theme. Deerskin is maybe the most egregious instance - I did not enjoy that book and have forgotten most of it as a result, but I remember the heroine literally being catatonic at one point - but yeah. Overwhelmed heroines who persevere anyway.
OMG DEERSKIN - I got about 20 pages into that book before I recognized the fairy tale she was working with and shut the book with extreme prejudice. I really dislike that particular fairy tale. But I have to agree that McKinley really likes taking her heroines and tossing them into the deep end and showing us their struggle to stay afloat.
I hadn't thought about the fact that fantasy will often revolve around the ruling class (I think at least some of that has to do with the fact that these fantasy novels are typically set in vaguely medieval times, and the assumption is that only the nobility/royalty had time to get up to adventures) but Chalice decidedly does not, and it's great.
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I don't have super coherent thoughts about this book, but I love that it's a fantasy universe with automatic and unavoidable magical roles, and it's still really a book about how that doesn't excuse not giving people adequate explanations. Instinct isn't a substitute for knowledge and in the end everyone agrees that that was true and they should have tried harder with the explaining! It makes me happy every time!
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I feel like I'm missing so much in this book because I am essentially indifferent to honey! I have it with lemon when I'm sick and I've eaten lovely things that contain it, but I never seek it out and I can't at all tell the difference between different kinds.
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I'm not what anyone would call a honey connoisseur, either - I like it? But I'm with you, I can't tell the difference between different kinds (although that probably has something to do with the fact that I just buy it from the grocery store and haven't actually devoted myself to figuring it out, because there are more interesting things in life, I feel).
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One of the things that I really appreciated about Chalice was the gradual realization that the characters weren't Typical Fantasy Nobility. Mirasol is pretty much a peasant (not a bad thing!) and while the whatshisface the Fire dude (I'm bad at names, whoops) is landed gentry, I guess, they're both far, far removed from the court of the High King. That's probably a weird thing to focus on, but I thought it was cool.
You know, reading Sunshine and thinking back to Chalice and Pegasus and even parts of The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley really likes writing overwhelmed heroines. It's a theme. Deerskin is maybe the most egregious instance - I did not enjoy that book and have forgotten most of it as a result, but I remember the heroine literally being catatonic at one point - but yeah. Overwhelmed heroines who persevere anyway.
Reply
I hadn't thought about the fact that fantasy will often revolve around the ruling class (I think at least some of that has to do with the fact that these fantasy novels are typically set in vaguely medieval times, and the assumption is that only the nobility/royalty had time to get up to adventures) but Chalice decidedly does not, and it's great.
BEES INDEED.
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