Review - Chalice
Nov. 24th, 2009 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanI was quite doubtful about Robin McKinley's Chalice, initially. It took a while to really get going, and while it did, there was a lot of skipping around between time periods, which I found a little confusing. I read it on my ereader, which made it a little more difficult to just turn back a few pages and reread stuff to connect up the dots and sort out my confusion, which might have helped -- but at the same time, I should've been able to read the story linearly.
I did enjoy it quite a lot, though, especially when it got to the last half of the book or so. I found the whole concept of the world, as it slowly unfolded -- the demesnes and the Circle and the different roles within the Circle -- intensely interesting, and kind of wish we'd seen more of the other roles, and actually seen the Circle in action. I wish we knew more about the Master, both his role in the Circle and the actual Master that the story follows, what he was like when he was a Fire priest, etc. At the same time, I liked the way we see glimpses of the world while not really knowing the rules, like Mirasol herself. I liked the symbolism of the Chalice, I liked the way she found power and found the ways to make things work again. I liked both Mirasol and the Master, and I also liked the even vaguer figure of the Seneschal.
I don't feel as if the characters were all that fleshed out, other than Mirasol. I almost could've wished the book was twice or three times as long, to show me more of all the things I was interested in. I liked the ending, and I'd been hoping for it all along, but I didn't really want it to end. This book could have got five stars from me, no question, if it had done a bit more somehow. Still, I enjoyed it very much as it is.
I did enjoy it quite a lot, though, especially when it got to the last half of the book or so. I found the whole concept of the world, as it slowly unfolded -- the demesnes and the Circle and the different roles within the Circle -- intensely interesting, and kind of wish we'd seen more of the other roles, and actually seen the Circle in action. I wish we knew more about the Master, both his role in the Circle and the actual Master that the story follows, what he was like when he was a Fire priest, etc. At the same time, I liked the way we see glimpses of the world while not really knowing the rules, like Mirasol herself. I liked the symbolism of the Chalice, I liked the way she found power and found the ways to make things work again. I liked both Mirasol and the Master, and I also liked the even vaguer figure of the Seneschal.
I don't feel as if the characters were all that fleshed out, other than Mirasol. I almost could've wished the book was twice or three times as long, to show me more of all the things I was interested in. I liked the ending, and I'd been hoping for it all along, but I didn't really want it to end. This book could have got five stars from me, no question, if it had done a bit more somehow. Still, I enjoyed it very much as it is.
