The Blue Sword

by Robin McKinley

Harry Crewe is an orphan girl who comes to live in Damar, the desert country shared by the Homelanders and the secretive, magical Hillfolk. Her life is quiet and ordinary-until the night she is kidnapped by Corlath, the Hillfolk King, who takes her deep into the desert. She does not know the Hillfolk language; she does not know why she has been chosen. But Corlath does. Harry is to be trained in the arts of war until she is a match for any of his men. Does she have the courage to accept her true fate?

• ISBN10: 0688009387
• ISBN13: 9780688009380
• Publish Date: 1 October 1982
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 14 July 2011
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins Design International
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[smartflutist661]

What romance there is here is done subtly, which, in some ways, makes it work better than many of your traditional over-the-top fantasy romances. The world is beautifully crafted and beautifully written. A lot was fit into 250 measly pages - there’s enough here that it could have easily been extended into a trilogy, but doing so would have taken away from a striking simplicity. In the end, I wanted but did not need any more.

[ladygrey]

This is a spectacular book. It covers so much story in less than 300 pages and still provides such depth to the world and characters. I adore the sense of magic and [a:Robin McKinley|5339|Robin McKinley|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png] is so eloquent, describing Harry's experiences through the story with such ravishing poignancy.

The whole thing is utterly brilliant.