Re: McKinley: what is a spindle?

 ---- you wrote:
> I've gotten zero replies for my post about the Spindle's End, which leads me
> to believe that none of you have read it yet.

I've read it, but I was kind of waiting until more people had so that we didn't have to worry about spoilers so much...but I can say some general things:

I think it was much more directly humorous than any of Robin's past books...this wouldn't have worked in, say, _Hero_ (and definitely not Deerskin), but I think she attained a good balance in this one. It's hard, in my opinion, to find authors who can write humorously but well (the only other fantasy one I know of is Connie Willis, and she only does it in short stories), and I'm glad Robin can do it.

As for the many long sentences and parenthetical asides: I do this when I write, too. Possibly it is due to a difference in editors, but I doubt it...there was something about the style of her earlier books that was sophisticated, yes easy to catch the rhythm of (I don't know if that makes any sense). It had something to do with all the commas. I do admit that these phrases are not quite as easy to slip into (yes, I sometimes had to go back and pick up the beginning of the sentence or paragraph I was in the middle of), but they are interesting. And I admire her for being able to pack that much into a sentence :)

Also, I liked how she was able to smoothly switch protagonists in the middle of the book (that doesn't really give anything away to those who haven't read it).

And a related aside: Gail Carson Levine, who wrote last year's Newbery-nominated _Ella Enchanted_ (do I sound like a book jacket?), apparently is now doing a whole series of fairy tale rewritings, and the first one is based on Sleeping Beauty. It's called _Princess Sonora and..._ (I forgot the rest of the title). The second one is based on the Cinderlad stories (yes, a male Cinderella). I haven't read them (I haven't read _Ella_, for that matter), but I thought some of us might be interested.

 
Maren Williams
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Received on Tue Jun 6 22:51:17 2000