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Read Spindle's End (Folktales, #3) (2001)

Spindle's End (Folktales, #3) (2001)

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Rating
3.77 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
0441008658 (ISBN13: 9780441008650)
Language
English
Publisher
ace

Spindle's End (Folktales, #3) (2001) - Plot & Excerpts

This is one of McKinley's strongest works to date, and it makes me laugh to think that she essentially wrote it on a dare. From what she's said on her website, she had no love for the sleeping beauty myth -- after all, the princess spends it completely useless and out of the action, exactly opposite McKinley's usual heroines. The story she crafted in response to the fairy tale beautifully recasts the outside of the tale (the curse, the fairy godmothers, the spelled sleep, and rose hedge) with a new interior, upending the usual story into one in which the princess is a real person that the reader cares deeply for -- and a person who is instrumental in her own salvation, rather than a bystander to it.But beyond the female empowerment coming-of-age tale are the glimpses of depth all of McKinley's best stories have: explorations of what family means, and the necessity of acting with courage and compassion even when it may leave you vulnerable to dark forces. The moments I loved best about this novel are when McKinley shows us that even the best ending, the one that leaves everyone happiest, may still have unexpected sharp edges, little bits of pain that come with gaining a great victory at the cost of something you didn't necessarily value in the first place. The unexpected resolution to the story (even more unexpected because it continues to remain true to the outside form of the sleeping beauty fairy tale) is brilliant and winning and just the tiniest bit bittersweet.Even laying aside how wonderful the novel ends, it is a joy from start to finish. It has more humor than any other McKinley work, and the Gig (and Woodwold within it) is certainly one of McKinley's most delightful worlds. For those who have read her obsessively (as I have) there are even hints that this is Damar, the world of The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, many generations later, and it is implied that the princess' mother comes from the kingdom that Lissar settled in in Deerskin. On rereading, I am even further convinced that this is one of my favorite novels of all time.

Spindle's End (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty) is odd in a lot of respects, and therefore a lot of people aren't going to like it. To outline these:1. Most of the book is narration. There is very little in the way of dialogue, even when it comes to things that most other authors would have left for characters to say.2. It is hard to say who the main character really is. The person who you would assume to be the central character at the beginning is very peripheral by the end.3. While based on a fairy tale, the resolution of the novel seems to be anything but formulaic. Even by regular fantasy novel standards, a lot of this comes out of left field. 4. It takes a very long time for things to happen (in the sense of action), and when it does you may miss it if you aren't paying attention.5. Random facts about places, people, and customs of the fictional kingdom are dropped in sporadically. This adds a great deal of richness to the book, as well as causing a bit of confusion (some tidbits about customs, for instance, are dropped chapters before they are explained).All of that said, I really liked this book. The narration that makes it so odd is engaging enough to make up for the fact that you can go for pages without a character saying something. The descriptions were some of the best I've read in ages from any genre, and I was so happy that the novel ended in a way you would not guess from the start (one aspect of the ending was a given, but otherwise...completely offside). Overall, I would recommend this to a lot of people...with a big caveat regarding the narration. If you need a lot of things to happen very quickly, and a ton of witty banter from your characters, you may want to skip this one.

What do You think about Spindle's End (Folktales, #3) (2001)?

Hypnotic, tangled and often impenetrable narrative. The briar roses that grow up around the sleepers in this oddly compelling retelling of the Sleeping Beauty legend are a good metaphor for how McKinley's words coil around each other in paths untraceable by me. There are lovely, memorable passages which exist almost independent of the story, one of which I think I'll keep forever. "What you describe is how it happens to everyone: magic does slide through you, and disappear, and come back later looking like something else. And I'm sorry to tell you this, but where your magic lives will always be a great dark space with scraps you fumble for. You must learn to sniff them out in the dark."At the end I'm left with the feeling of having read a lovely fairy tale, most of which was far beyond my ken.
—Melody

Spindle's End is a re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale. I love many of McKinley's other "re-telling" stories, like Beauty and The Outlaws of Sherwood. The first three-quarters of this book are no exception.The characters are engaging. The description of life in the little community where Rose (Sleeping Beauty) grows up is so idyllic that you want the book to keep going just so you can read about the town.Unfortunately, the last quarter almost does the book in. The magic in this book shows no particular rhyme or reason, which makes it harder to suspend disbelief. The magic in the last quarter of the book, surrounding the climax, is thick and plentiful. Since the magic seems to follow no rules, the result is rather like I imagine a bad trip on acid would be. It reminds me rather unfavorably of Alice in Wonderland, a book that I have never managed to get through even half of.Thankfully, the climax of this book is short enough that I could get to the happy ending.
—Jared

this was really disappointing. especially after such a fine beginning, with the imaginative world-building, the detail on just everything gloriously written, and some promising characters. and she's clearly engaged in taking apart the fairy tale to take a close look, something that always gets my vote.unfortunately, it doesn't last. too bad. that whole headlong flight of Katriona's with the baby, and how the animals buy in, it's just lovely; i settled in. but Katriona's issues fade into Rosie's issues, and okay Rosie is a headstrong character that damn well ought to work (in this day and age), so i found that promising too. for a while.but it fell apart. the whole idea of the sentient castle was super-neat. and the merrel was cool, though underdeveloped. ultimately, though, Peony had more gumption, more nuance, and more potential than Rosie: but that's not where the story goes. and i liked the silent fairy smith but really, now, shouldn't Rosie have been rescuing him? what with one thing and another, though, the second half of the book is so draggy it was like plowing through a dmanably thick hedge of rose briars to get to the ending. which i had long since figured out anyhow, if suspense was supposed to be a thing. and in the long denouement i realized that way too many of the most potentially interesting characters had just been abandoned along the way.sometimes one has to wonder about the backstory to these things: did the writer lose interest in her characters and story? could she not figure out where to go with it? did her agent/editors make her finish this against her own instincts? the second half really badly undercuts the glories of the first half, in a way that's clearly not intentional. tsk. the whole thing's really too bad.and now i feel like reading another McKillop fairy tale, small and perfect and strange (The Changeling Sea was wonderful). though i also have a whole lot more modern fairy tales piled up, by writers i haven't read yet on the subject. so the little survey continues...
—Macha

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