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Who recommends: Lori, Isabel, Rebekah, Edith, Linda, JW, Margaret
Who discommends:
I finished it, but now I'm too tired to say very much, except that I liked it a lot. Definitely worth waiting for. The skeleton of the tale of Sleeping Beauty is recognizable within, but it's completely new, too.--Lori (04 Jun 00)
I forgot to mention that I finished SPINDLE'S END over the long weekend. I really *hate* not being able to read a book in one sitting and reading this in bits and pieces seriously detracted from my enjoyment. It's much harder to be swept away when one can only read a couple of chapters at a go. And every time my daughter caught me with it, we had to play find the animals. Did you know the cover has horses, a spider, an owl, a dog, a cat, a mouse, a hedgehog, a robin and a fox???
Overall, I enjoyed the story and rather liked McKinley's take on this fairy tale. But the romance was rather peripheral and the age gap bothered me (but that's one of my pet peeves). So I would recommend the book, just not as an SFR book.--Isabel (06 Jul 00)
I am going back into SPINDLE'S END. I am enjoying it, but find (for me) that it has a slow moving, dreamy quality. I like the characters and am enjoying the action but am not losing myself in the book. In her BEAUTY or THE BLUE SWORD I was completely caught up in the trials of the main character. I really empathised with Beauty and Harry and was there every step of the way. SPINDLE'S END almost feels like a story told second hand - good, but I am not going to loose my self in it. If it was a tv show it would be enjoyable, but you would appreciate the commercials so you could get a snack or grab some handwork. I am almost thinking I might like this one better as an audio tape.--Shelley (11 Jul 00)
This was a beautiful, well-woven story with unusual pacing for an SF novel. The pacing almost felt more like a General Fiction - the pace is unhurried, thick with everyday details and relationships, and only a low level of underlying tension/danger for the first half. The romance creeps up on you. Around 1/2 way or 2/3rds the pace picks up and goes from there. I enjoyed the book since I knew that it started slow. The book makes the story of Sleeping Beauty have a lot more coherance and sense. I'm not really sure what happened at the culmination of the battle at the end of the book, but neither were they and everyone seemed happy about it. I don't want to say more because it will spoil things.--Rebekah (06 Aug 00)
I managed to read McKinley's SPINDLE'S END this weekend and enjoyed it. Interestingly enough I enjoyed the first half more than I did the second. I don't remember who said they thought it started slow, but I *liked* the way the story unfolded -- the details of their lives, the secondary characters, animal and human. I didn't care as much for the second half because it was rather gloomy and it had the "magic" battle. I don't care much for magic battles.
I also have to admit that I liked the secondary characters more than the main one. I didn't feel any emotional connection with Rosie, but I did with Aunt and Kat. The romances in this book were so peripheral that I'm not sure it really qualifies as SFR. Good book, though!--Edith (14 Aug 00)
My favorite McKinley books are THE BLUE SWORD and BEAUTY. This one was also enjoyable, but didn't reach the all-time-favorite list.--JW (24 Jan 01)
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