Pegasus by Robin McKinley was one of my most highly anticipated books of 2010. I've mentioned before that I love Robin McKinley. She is the author I credit with teaching me that fantasy can be a great genre to read. I was so excited when I noticed a new McKinley book that I'm pretty sure I made those embarrassing 'sqeeish' noises.
When the book came in the mail, I was beyond excited. And then, I started reading... End of excitement. The entire book was a struggle for me to get through. The beginning of the book is really vague, with the readers jumping into the middle of our 12 year old princess' history lesson and the narration doesn't really clear up much after that. I felt like I was reading the story told many years later by someone who kept forgetting the order things happened. It was full of flashbacks and flashforwards that would go on for pages, before the narration would pick up again in the present. I'm normally okay with this in books, but I like a little warning first. These flashes would just happen, and I'd find myself wondering where we were, and when we left the present tense.
I also regularly found myself bored with all the description. McKinley is a fantastic world builder and has a great imagination. I am amazed that she is able to come up with such beautiful and vivid descriptions for this magical world, but I got tired of hearing about them over and over again. It felt too much like a really boring teacher's desperate attempt to make a history lesson interesting to a group of students who couldn't care less. (ie: fail).
The story does definitely pick up once Ebon enters the picture and the story is no longer solely about Sylvi. Ebon was a fun character and I found myself truly enjoying his blunt and honest interior commentary. But this too was over used.
I must also admit that I was seriously upset, disappointed and annoyed when I realized that this book was actually going to have a sequel. I thought that McKinley could easily have cut the book down by 100 or so pages, removing the repetitious and redundant descriptions, and smoothing out the timeline, and then I find out she's going to follow it up with a second book?! Sigh. That was a bit of a bummer. And, of course I need to read the sequel because this book has one of the worst endings I've ever read. It ends, quite literally, in the middle of a scene. Nothing is resolved, everyone seems doomed, and all we have to go on are questions, assumptions and vague references to history.
I know that this review is predominantly negative, which makes me sad, and is not entirely what I was going for. The writing is, as always, beautiful and very well done. Sylvi and Ebon were a great character team, and their friendship is almost palpable. Their connection has enriched their lives, and I'm very interested to see what they will be able to accomplish in the future.
And although I was quite annoyed that this story ends in the middle of the scene, I must admit that I am incredibly interested in watching what Sylvi's father does with this new information, and how it will change their lives.
Overall, this is a beautiful story that just happens to be a little difficult to get through. But, I'd still recommend it for McKinley fans. Just, don't get your hopes too high.
* Disclaimer: I received this book through Star Book Tours.