Re: McKinley: SPOILERS: random responses to S. END posts

SPOILERS
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Hi everyone,

Urg. I don't have internet connection in my new summer apt. yet, so I
can't email unless I am home (which doesn't happen as often as I'd like).
So I feel cut off from the world.... :(

Anyway, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in Spindle's End. I
loved the slow parts of it -- the descriptions of the country, the magic,
the talking to animals. But--and I never thought I'd say this about a
McKinley book--I thought the description of the place was stronger than the
development of the characters. For instance, I thought Rosie was too
stereotypically tomboyish. I love tomboys, but I feel each tomboy should
be different from any other tomboy, and I got the feeling with Rosie that
what she was was a steretypical "anti-princess" rather than a person in her
own right. Her character was kind of reactive rather than active -- it's
whatever a princess's shouldn't be rather than what Rosie's actually was.

I think maybe there was too much of the author's "telling" us what the
characters are like rather than her "showing" us what they are like as
well: Peony and Rowland in particular but even Rosie and Narl too. I feel
that so much of what I know/think about Rosie comes from Katriona's and her
aunt's description of Rosie rather than things Rosie herself did. There
also wasn't enough interaction between Rosie and Narl. I understand Narl
wasn't the talkative type, but neither was Corlath or Tor or Luthe or the
Beast. But with those characters and the heroines I felt there was a
current beneath the surface that didn't require words, whereas this feeling
was lacking for me when I was reading about Rosie and Narl. Narl himself
was a wonderful character though.

Anyway, I just read this over and realized that it was more critical than I
meant it to be. I really did like the book, particularly the first half,
but it just isn't one of my favorites.

Tawen

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Received on Sat Jun 17 17:40:22 2000