Pegasus

I love Robin McKinley, she's become one of my favorite authors. This book is as well-written and compelling as her others. However, fair warning, it ends on essentially a cliffhanger and she never went back and wrote a sequel.

Robin McKinley is one of my favorite authors, and Pegasus is quite possibly my all-time favorite of her books (even though it's now confirmed to be only 1/3 of the story). I don't give 5-star ratings lightly, and this is in my opinion one of the most well-deserved. I considered dropping a star for ending so abruptly, but the quality of the storytelling is just so great that it doesn't feel right to me to give Pegasus anything less than five stars. I've re-read this book multiple times over the past few years, and every time I get a tingly feeling that I'm taking part in something awesome.Not just a thing that's really cool, but a thing that fills you with awe.All this being said, Pegasus isn't a tale for everyone. It begins with almost two chapters of world-building history and exposition that I think many will feel is too prosy or slow. I became engrossed in the world it revealed, however, and pushed through because (like many before me) I've always loved well-written stories about humans who are friends with magical creatures. Whatever others might say against Pegasus, it IS incredibly well-written. McKinley is an adept at her craft, choosing words that convey beauty, joy, hate, and confusion all with equal skill. Even when the characters themselves can't explain their feelings, I know exactly what they're talking about. And above anything else, Pegasus is a tale of Friendship. With a capital F.It's a calmer, quieter story than many fantasies these days... no epic, world-traversing journeys. No mighty war heroes saving the day in gigantic battles against evil dictators. But Pegasus is in my opinion no less of a great story for its quietness. There is conflict, pain, and turmoil. Good and Evil collide repeatedly, and although I assume Good will win eventually, Robin McKinley has proven in many of her other tales that she will probably let Evil get some devastatingly hard blows in along the way.I hope that someday we'll be able to return the lands of Balsinland and Rhiandomeer to finish the tale. Pegasus ends on such an entirely hateful, petty, bureaucratic note which belongs in the middle of a story rather than the end... but McKinley herself has said countless times that it was never intended to BE the end. In her own words:*"I honestly do not see PEG II as a sequel. It’s all the same story. P-Z of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary isn’t the sequel to A-O; it’s the second volume of the dictionary. It’s like THE LORD OF THE RINGS. It’s all the same story. THE TWO TOWERS isn’t the sequel to FELLOWSHIP; it’s books three and four of six."However, even if we never get to see the second or third volumes of the tale**, I feel it would be a great injustice not to recommend Pegasus to anyone who enjoys tales of fantasy, Friendship, and flight. If cost or fear of that cliffhanger ending are the things stopping you, look for it at your local library (then buy a copy if you're able, to support the author). Likely not everyone will enjoy it, but I believe everyone should give it a chance.-------------------------------------*From a Q&A entry on her blog: http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2010/06/07/ask-robin/**And rushing the rest of the story would be worse than not having it at all. Writing novels takes as long as it takes. Period. I'm content to wait patiently with the promise of "someday," trusting that Ms. McKinley will publish it when it's good and ready, and not one word sooner.If you're reading this, Robin, PLEASE don't let us fans pester you into doing anything. While seeing the rest of the story would be nice, YOU THE PERSON are more important than anything you may or may not write. It's out of respect that I ask you: see to your own sanity (or insanity if you prefer) and well-being first. We can wait. Impatient fans will pass, but the regret of not doing what you believe is right can last a lifetime.

I too have been a fan of Robin McKinley for a couple of decades. She is truly a master storyteller and is amazingly proficient at weaving readers into spellbinding worlds with such vibrancy and intensity that it often leaves her readers with the belief that they KNOW her characters and worlds as if they lived there and interacted with them personally. Which is why I found Pegasus to be so shockingly disappointing. It is hard to see a beloved author produce a work that is almost mediocre when we have been given such masterful works previously. About half-way through the book, I realized that this was Dragonhaven rewritten, only with a female teenager instead of a boy and a pegasus instead of a dragon. I was ok with that because again, I have such high expectations of truly magical, captivating stories from McKinley. Sadly, this story falls a bit short in bringing the reader into Sylvi's world as fully as other stories did so effortlessly and seamlessly. The worst part of all, for me, is the ending. I feel like it is the end of a chapter, not the end of a book and it felt as if McKinley literally put down her pen and said "enough, take it as it is." I have never felt such an utter lack of closer from any of her stories before. Is this a deliberate move, to make a sequel perhaps? Whatever the reason for such an incredibly lackluster ending, I can't help but feel cheated, as if the favorite aunt who normally brings us such amazing gifts - brought one this year that was beautifully wrapped but then woefully ordinary instead of the incredible wonders she usually unveils. I have of course bought Pegasus and will keep it because it is something by Robin McKinley and usually that is treasure beyond imagining. But I will never forget that my first reaction upon finishing it was a truly unexpected let-down. I hope with all my heart that there is a sequel, so that all of us who love her stories as if they were a part of our own family, can feel that we were not brought into this particular story with so much anticipation and hope, only to feel as if we were then ripped away untimely, never to know the grand works Sylvi and Ebon are so apparently going to bring about or to see how they overcome challenges and trials that would make less dedicated creatures flee. My final thoughts though, that I want to express, is an overall gratitude to Robin McKinley because even though I am not raving about Pegasus, I still feel that many of her previous works (The Blue Sword, Spindle's End, Dragonhaven and Sunshine, to name a few) are powerful, captivating and again mastefully crafted stories that will keep me a grateful fan for life.

If you need closure or if you can't stand an unfinished story, if an abrupt cliffhanger will drive you bonkers, DON'T BUY THISLove McKinley! I have almost every book she's written. This was beautiful world building, typical for the fantastic McKinley! And stopped so abruptly I actually thought it was a bad electronic copy. Such buildup and no warning; It. Just. Stops.It's like a glitch, like the last chapter (or even a last paragraph) was erased after it was sent to the printer. I've never seen such a clumsy ending. This is just as much on the editor and publisher as it is on her; they actually accepted this crap for publication.She tells us "There WILL be a sequel, maybe even a trilogy". OK! And then ELEVEN YEARS pass and nothing! Last I know was from 2018, and yet another promise, a promise to START it, by the way. And here we are.McKinley has so much new stuff to write, so many terrible things going on personally, and she's getting older, and now she has to go back and climb back into a story from over a decade ago... Who among us thinks this is going to happen?I wish her well, but I also wish she would just rewrite the last two or three chapters to give us all some closure and get herself off the hook to write another entire novel; win-win.Until this is resolved one way or another, give this book a hard pass.

I have been reading Robin McKinley for decades and loved her earlier books in particular. I love her writing and the way her descriptions are almost lyrical. This one single star is for the publisher. How the book gets published is not up to the author and I sincerely hope Ms McKinley put up a h... of a fight not to have her story mutilated like this without any regard to the reader or the story itself.The story is interesting although it takes ages to get going, there are literally hundreds of pages of not very interesting everyday stuff and lengthy description. All well if there is a tension building and the reader gets rewarded with a wonderfully tense climax and resolution. Here it just builds VERY slowly and then nothing. This isn't even a good cliffhanger, just a book that stops. I actually thought that mine was missing the chapters that would make this a complete book.This is not the first in a series. This is a greedy publisher who thinks that we don't notice when we are being cheated. I for one will not buy the next instalment because this kind of trickery puts me completely off a story - and unfortunately off an author. I will be very cautious which books by this author I will read in future.

I read a couple of Robin McKinley's books years ago (Blue Sword, Hero and the Crown) and loved them, so I had high expectations.... Should have read the other reviews first. There is some lovely, descriptive prose and a beautifully imagined world - sort of a cross between Pern and Middle-Earth, with a few original quirks. By a quarter of the way through, the scene is set, the characters are all clear and something must happen, right? It doesn't. Halfway through and a bit more scene is set, the characters have developed and surely there must be some action now? There isn't. At this point I was skimming rather than reading because I couldn't stay awake. There is no real plot and the ending is possibly the worst I've ever read. The book just stops in a clumsy, pointless fashion. It appears to set the scene for a sequel, but this book was so tediously boring that I can only recommend it for anyone suffering from insomnia. If there ever is a sequel, I won't be bothering to read it.

I feel absolutely terrible about only giving this book 3 stars. I really really do. Robin McKinley, the author, was wonderful to me as a child, responding to my letters kindly and being someone I in general looked up to for many years. Heck, I still do read her blog now and again and consider her one of my most beloved authors.This is a good story. It's written well. It's interesting and colorful and rich with strong women and character development. It's nothing less than what I'd expect from McKinley. So why only 3 stars? I...honestly...don't really know!I think one thing that put me off was that just when I got into a section of the book, the book 'jumped the time line' for lack of a better phrase. You'd be in the thick of something really juicy and interesting, and suddenly it's 3 years down the line and the main character has gone through so much without us having gone with her. It made me feel distant from her, and from the story at hand. Then, just when I'd finally pick up the thread and start to CARE again, it would happen again! I found it very frusterating and difficult to get past!I was also highly irritated to discover that this was one of a series, much like the others who have rated it. I understand, I think, why the publisher did this. It sells books NOW, which is important to making money which is important to having enough books sold to pay for the NEXT one. And if the story was going on, it needed to be cut up. Yet...couldn't you just have told me? I may still have read it. And instead, I kept going on and on and once I realized there was no way it could all come together, I really resented having felt tricked by it.The ending also...I just didn't get it. I reread it several times, and I got the impression from the writing that I should be gasping, with my hand to my mouth, horrified by the revelation, and yet...none of it seemed like a bit deal to me. None of it seemed relevant or shocking or like anything should have changed because of it. I just didn't get it. This was especially irritating when I had already started to get a bit bored with the whole story because of all the jumping around.So...3 stars. And maybe, just maybe this will go up once I have a chance to read the next one (which I DO still want to read, despite me bashing the story a bit) and see where everything is going. I've always been like this with McKinley's books...the first reading has me underwhelmed, but the second has me loving her style. I think perhaps that I just need to give this one a chance, and so I will.

I was looking forward to reading this book, I thought it both looked and sounded beautiful. Due to a lack of space on my book shelves I am trying to read more books on Kindle so I had to wait until this was released and it was worth the wait.The book centres around Princess Sylvi, the fourth child and only daughter of King Corone, Sylvi lives in a land where due to an age old alliance and treaty, the children of royalty and other aristocracy are bound to a pegasus on their twelfth birthday. Humans and pegasi live in different realms and speak in different languages and the bound pairs struggle to communicate with one another. On Sylvi's twelfth birthday she goes to her binding ceremony and meets her pegasus Ebon, Sylvi and Ebon can communicate directly which causes shock and unease to both their communities. Sylvi and Ebon must explore their relationship and discover exactly what it means for both them and the alliance.The beginning of the book was slow, there was lots of detail into the signing of the treaty and the alliance between the humans and pegasi, although this is important to the story it felt as though it hindered the start. The main story starts when Sylvi and Ebon meet but even then I found that the story did not trly grip me until they visit the home of the pegasi. Once in Rhiandomeer, the story fully captured me and I really didn't want to go to work. The ending is a cliffhanger and I can't wait for part 2.I liked the characters of the story, there are lots of minor characters who are not explored in depth, we really only truly see and understand the characters of Sylvi and Ebon although both their fathers and some family members have some nice if brief descriptions. Sylvi is not the usual heroine, although in some ways she is brave and a little feisty in others she is more interesting. Sylvi questions everything including herself and isn't entirely comfortable in her own skin. Ebon is beautiful, headstrong and bold but he also desires to be a sculptor which is a difficult role held in high esteem by the pegasi. Together Sylvi and Ebon make a good combination and I empathised with them as they tried t bridge the gap between their people.The descriptions of the pegasi and the land they live in are stunning and it is clear why Sylvi feels ungainly and awkward in comparison. I thoroughly enjoyed this book even after the slow start and look forward to finding out what will happen in the next book as the ending is truly awful in that no questions are answered, only raised and I almost wish I'd waited a bit longer so that I could read both books together.

This book introduces us to Princess Sylvi who, as a member of the royal family, will be linked with a pegasus on her twelfth birthday. This is part of an old alliance between the pegasi and humans. The humans defended the pegasi against various threats, such as Rocs, thereby gaining the country the pegasi used to rule and the pegasi live more remotely. The country has not been threatend by these creatures for years, but they seem to be returning. The link between humans and pegasi is hampered by their inability to understand one another and all communication is routed through mages who seem to have a malign kind of power and a strong political say.Sylvi is able to communicate with her pegasus and seeks to understand what is dividing the two races. She alienates one of the mages. Her father then engages this mage to find out more about Sylvi's unusual ability to communicate with her pegasus and this leads to the not unexpected "cliffhanger" at the end of the book.Unfortunately I did not find the characters terribly engaging. The mages, though looming threateningly in the background, did not seem to do a lot or be rounded charracters. Sylvi's family also do not make much of an impression. The pegasi are a bit more interesting but perhaps the cast of characters is too large do more than an outline sketch.Also as the book is an introduction and not an full story there is not actually a lot happening.It's ok but I had higher hopes.