The Hero and the Crown

As a lover of fantasy novels in general, I thought that this would be a great read for me. Sadly, the takeaway feeling from the book that I was left with was the headache that the last half inspired.

First, let's talk about the structure of the story itself. The first two chapters are a kind of ‘in the future' hook that I'm sure was supposed to reach out and grab you. It left me feeling confused because I had no idea that's what it was doing until I reached that point in the chronology of the story. The next eighty pages or so, are then a flashback to catch you up on the story. The story is divided into two clearly marked parts and this is the first one. The second starts on page one hundred nine and is so incredibly less interesting - and of a very different sort - that it feels as though Ms. McKinley wanted to write two distinct stories and just didn't have enough ideas for either of them.

The main character of the story is Aerin who was somewhat interesting in the first part. She is a first sol (equal to a princess) that cannot inherit the throne because her mother was a witch that the people believe bewitched the king. To further seal her fate, she is devoid of the magic gift that all of the royal blood possess. This first half deals with her struggles to be comfortable in court while most people view her with open hatred or fear.

The only ones that do not is her father the king, her personal...handmaiden(?) and Tor, her young childhood friend. There are few other characters of note and this part of the story is mostly a coming of age yarn about a girl that starts slaying dragons. Not the dragons of old, those behemoth creatures, but dragons that sound to be roughly the size of a breadbox with useless wings.

The second part of the story begins with Aerin's battle against an ancient dragon. This is also the point where the members of the court pretty much disappear in favor of Luthe.

I liked Tor. I thought he was nice and was so glad to see someone like him playing the love interest - even if Aerin never showed any romantic interest in him.

Luthe is the third part of the love triangle - something that almost every book marketed to a young adult audience seems to need. He was very off putting to me and I hated the near love-at-first-sight thing he and Aerin had going on.

Speaking of Aerin, her personality really changed in the second half. She went from a fairly independent, rather foolishly courageous young lady to a needy, whiny, lackadaisical girl. So many of the events in the second half were just thrust on her and she didn't/couldn't make any decision on her own.

The writing was choppy and we had paragraphs filled with run-on sentences. The style of writing was a bit too wordy for me, with more descriptions and less conversations that I would have liked. This is due, at least in part, to Aerin traveling alone so often - which I felt was a poor decision on Ms. McKinley's part.

Finally, as one other review that I found mentioned, the semi-colon was used so incorrectly in this book. Nearly every paragraph had to have one of these miss-abused little signs in it, making me wonder if that key tended to stick on Ms. McKinley's typewriter. Of course, that doesn't explain how any proofreaders/editors missed it.

Oh, I almost forgot. This story is told in the third person omnipresent view. Which means that, even while we are ‘inside' the main character's head, we get a little information trickling in about what the other people are thinking and muttering. Except for one very noticeable instance where Aerin's companion only muttered and she couldn't hear it (obviously done to add mystery). This was a writing choice that bothered me a bit. Not as much as a first person POV would have - I, likely, would have never picked up the book then - but I feel a slightly different POV would have served better. (I also think this is the reason behind my headache...)

As I was reading this book, I found myself wondering: ‘who is this book directed towards?' It is somewhat marketed as a children's novel (so the ‘John Newbery Medal' stamp on my copy proudly proclaims) but a couple of referenced instances of marital relations between two people - and one that would continue on to marry someone else, no less - scrapped that idea for me. Young adult novel, perhaps? While I could see that slightly more, I personally would have reviled this book when I was a teen - specifically because of the romance. I could be convinced that it is directed towards teens if not for one glaring issue. The characters are flat. Much more flat than in any other YA novel I have ever read.

With that thought in mind, I checked the publication date and, upon discovering the book was first published in nineteen eighty-four, promptly backed off. I have read a few books from the nineteen eighties and prior and the one thing they all seem to have in common is a complete lack of true ‘Characters'. (My own opinion, from my own experience.)