|
| Chalice | 
 enlarge | Author: Robin Mckinley
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Category: Book
List Price: $18.99
Buy New: $11.11
You Save: $7.88 (41%)
New (37) Used (9) from $11.11
Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 2540
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 0399246762
EAN: 9780399246760
ASIN: 0399246762
Publication Date: September 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
As the newly appointed Chalice, Mirasol is the most important member of the Masters Circle. It is her duty to bind the Circle, the land and its people together with their new Master. But the new Master of Willowlands is a Priest of Fire, only drawn back into the human world by the sudden death of his brother. No one knows if it is even possible for him to live amongst his people. Mirasol wants the Master to have his chance, but her only training is as a beekeeper. How can she help settle their demesne during these troubled times and bind it to a Priest of Fire, the touch of whose hand can burn human flesh to the bone? Robin McKinley weaves a captivating tale that reveals the healing power of duty and honor, love and honey.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 Honey sweet September 29, 2008
27 out of 33 found this review helpful
Robin McKinley debuted with a fleshed-out retelling of "Beauty and the Beast," and later followed it up with ANOTHER retelling.
And after a few books about dragons and vampires, McKinley returns to her old territory -- she spins up a vaguely medieval tale of a woodland beauty and a charred "beast" entirely out of her own imagination. McKinley's sumptuous prose and her depiction of a "living" land add an extra dimension to a straightforward little love story that drips with sweetness.
Some months ago, the decadent Master of Willowlands and his Chalice were killed in a fire. The new Chalice is Mirasol, whose duty is to fill ceremonial cups and help bind the land.
But then the late Master's little brother arrives from the priests of Fire -- charred black and no longer entirely human. Mirasol is determined to do the best job she can for the new Master, when she isn't tending a woodland cottage covered in bees. Unfortunately the land is still unsettled despite her joint efforts with the Master, especially since his strange behavior frightens his people.
In the course of her duty, Mirasol soon gets to know her new Master -- he's quiet, kind, worried about burning people, and confused by the world he had almost forgotten. But as he struggles to keep his land balanced, the Overlord begins to scheme to put a new Master in Willowlands -- one that will do whatever he wishes. With her role as Chalice and her power over bees, Mirasol must find a way to save her beloved Master...
You wouldn't think that such a slender novel could have such a richly imagined world, where metaphysical bonds link the Master and Chalice to the very land itself. Not only does Robin McKinley conjure such a world in "Chalice," but she also wrought an intricate web of politics and tradition around the ritual roles. Poor Mirasol, trying to navigate her new role.
And McKinley's prose is as sweet and thick as Mirasol's honey ("the great windows were still twilight grey..."), but filled with a slightly bittersweet feeling. And she crams the novel with rural splendour -- trees, little cottages, old dusty books -- as well as anything having to do with bees and beekeeping. When Mirasol is with her books in the woodright, McKinley's writing takes on an exquisitely mystical edge (albeit a quieter one than her Chalice duties).
But once the Overlord's little plan comes into play, McKinley also interweaves a sense of dread and foreboding, which gets worse as the story creeps toward the inevitable clash. If there's a flaw in the story, it's that the bees serve a slightly deus-ex-machinesque function for the Master.
However, the heart of this story is the growing love story between two young people who are unsure how to do their jobs, and fear that they are failing. Mirasol and the Master (whose name is only revealed late in the book) are wonderfully realistic characters, and Mirasol's stumbles and struggles make her seem like a totally realistic country girl suddenly given a great task.
"Chalice" is the sort of story that Robin McKinley has penned before, but the land-mysticism and lush prose make it entirely unique. Definitely a must-read..
 Pulp Fantasy October 5, 2008
18 out of 27 found this review helpful
In preparation for Chalice I re-read The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, brilliant novels in which every sentence is lyrical. Possibly this exacerbated my disappointment. What do we have in Chalice?
First, The Really Complex Magical World that is Never Fully Explained. Second, the Really Awful Event that Everyone Knows About but the Reader, which is not revealed for 100 pages. Third, the Obsession with a Substance.
You learn more about Aerin in 2 paragraphs than about Mirasol in 2 chapters. Even though there are almost no other active characters in the book, Mirasol still does not develop a complete personality. The Grand Seneschal is predictably a Grumpy Good Guy. The nameless male lead doesn't do much except work on acting human; even his moment of self-sacrifice is artificial because you already know it just won't end that way, a marriage is in the offing.
The Great Magical Fix at the Desperate End is also unbelievable. It literally buzzes in out of nowhere and there is no preshadowing that, in fact, it was even possible.
I did not read the previous McKinley book with the dragons because the reviews suggested that it was really "juvie fiction" rather than juvenile or young adult (ie adults wouldn't like it much). I'm sorry I bought Chalice in hardback and I'm not going to keep it.
A beauty of a story September 20, 2008
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
As a lifelong McKinley fan, I have been eagerly awaiting Chalice - and I was not disappointed. The world McKinley creates is rich, lush, detailed. It lives and breathes; you can almost hear the bees humming and taste Mirasol's honey.
This is a beautifully written fairy tale, although it's not a retelling of a specific tale. But it belongs on the same shelf as Beauty, Rose Daughter, and Spindle's End. If you enjoyed those books you most certainly will love Chalice. It is the kind of story you can read over and over again. An instant favorite. Highly recommended for any lover of fantasy.
Enjoyable read September 19, 2008
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
I love pretty much everything Robin McKinley writes and Chalice is no exception. It is clearly her story with all the original world building, interesting characters, and unique situations. But it also has her flaw - which is the long, long, long passages on things that don't really move the story forward (in Sunshine this was cinnamon rolls, with Chalice it is beekeeping).
Chalice is the story of a beekeeper that becomes second in command of a `demesne' (I'd liken it to a barony maybe?) and the person responsible for using the magic in the land to hold the land/people together. The Master of the land is only somewhat human - haven been given to the fire priests years before. It is Marisol's duty to save the land from the Overlord, help the Master return to being human, and keep the land from going berserk.
If I am going to be critical of the book, my complaint is thatt too much of the story dealt with other less interesting things, and did so in a repetitive, almost cyclical way. One example of this would be Marisol saying that she'd just spoken to someone and the outcome of the conversation. Then we get several pages of `living' through the experience. But because I already know what happened, I'm not all the interested in reviewing it.
McKinley does this same kind of thing with Marisol and the Master's history. She tells us the same thing over and over again. (That the Master was only part human, that Marisol had been a simple beekeeper, that she'd been overwhelmed with milk and honey.) I felt like McKinley didn't trust me to remember these basic things about the characters the first time that I learned them.
Even with the flaws, I'd recommend Chalice. I'm glad I read it and the story is worth the money I paid for hardcover. Lovers of McKinely won't be disappointed.
Intoxicating September 20, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
After seven years of misrule, the land of Willowlands is falling apart; the people and the land are suffering daily from the destabilizing of the magic that is supposed to hold their land together. When the Master and the Chalice, the two highest members of Willowlands ruling circle, die suddenly, it is left to a new Master and a new Chalice to fix the damage that has been done and to protect their land.
The new Chalice is Mirasol, and she has no experience with the magic or politics of the position. She struggles to perform her job and save the land she loves. With the help of her bees and the honey that serves as the vessel of her magic, she begins to make tiny steps forward in saving Willowlands, but time is running out, and she fears the little skill she has acquired won't be enough to shelter her land from the dangers ahead.
Mckinley creates a lush, intoxicating world that captivates from the very first pages of the book. I could hear the steady hum of the bees in the background, taste the sweetness of the honey, and see the characters who move through the land teeming with both life and magic. Mirasol is a wonderful protagonist, and the supporting characters are diverse and realistic. My only complaint with this novel is that the denouement seems more emotional than physical. I generally prefer a fast-paced, edge of your seat, action sequence at the climax of a fantasy novel, but while Mckinley could easily have written her final scene that way, she instead made it more introspective. It still works well, and there are other scenes in the book that will satisfy people looking for fantasy adventure/action sequences.
I definitely recommend this book. It's a beautiful story and highly enjoyable to read.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
