Book #6 of 2018: Pegasus

[thistlechaser]

Pegasus by Robin Mckinley
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



Before I speak about the plot, the writing, or anything else, I have to give this warning: This book, the first one of a supposed trilogy, does not end on a cliffhanger. It ends in the middle of a scene. Nearly in the middle of a paragraph. It's as if the author just got tired of the story and stopped writing it.

This was published in 2010, and her last book was published in 2013. Though her personal website is gone, other reviews of this book mention she's retired. If you start this book, you will not get a complete story. More than that: This book didn't read like a story at all, it was more like the prologue to one.

While the worldbuilding was quite nice, nothing much happened in this book. The world was interesting: Set on some fantasy world, a second sentient species (pegasi, sort of) shared the planet with the humans. The main character, a young girl, had the ability to communicate with the pegasus people, something no one else could do.

The book had some interesting sections, and I did enjoy the world, most of the story was just her thinking and talking to the pegasus she was bound to. That was interesting, sure, but man did the book drag since nothing much happened.

It was only the last couple pages that a plot started to appear... only to have the book end nearly mid-paragraph.

Currently reading: Benjamin Forrest and the School at the End of the World, which is like Harry Potter x1000, but not in a good way. Not sure if I'm going to stick with it or not.

Comments

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Yyyyyeah.

I enjoy her as a writer, but McKinley's generally not been good about actually writing sequels and/or books she was planning on eventually getting around to, so her having written a book where it was *required* filled me with foreboding. And lo and behold, the results.

(She did have her husband die in the middle of her trying to write it, and various health problems of her own, and last I knew anything she *said* she was still trying/intending to write it, but that was like. 2016. So. Sigh.)

[mayanas.livejournal.com]

I tend to really enjoy Robin McKinley's stories and worldbuilding and characters. Just her writing is really awkward to me. It's passive and unengaging and I always feel so removed from events. I think I read one where I felt like the main character was telling me the whole story herself and confusingly out of order and I don't even think it was a first person narrator. Just felt like the whole thing was telling more than showing. (It was not Sunshine, that definitely is first person narrator. Maybe Chalice? Something like that. It didn't stick with me). I know of so many people who love Deerskin as their favourite book and I still dread to read it so I haven't yet...

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

McKinley has retired? Nooooo. Although from what juliansinger commented- which I didnt know before- it is totally understandable if she never writes the sequel. But I am still very disappointed if there will never be an end to this story. I liked much of it.... it just dragged a lot and I really wanted to get to what seemed always just about to happen- in the next scene we never made it to.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't read any other series/trilogy books by her, going forward. It's completely understandable to be derailed by a spouse dying, but she should be honest with her readers. Going by the Goodreads comments, she put out three different years for getting the next book out, 2016 the latest. Now it's 2018, and nothing...

Oh well. Even if she put the next one out, I wouldn't pick it up, not with as low of a chance of the last one being released.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

"passive and unengaging" really sums this book up for me. Some things happened in it (a few), but it just seemed so... distant. She went to new lands and saw things no human had seen before, but it still felt so passive. We were just in her head too much, as odd as that sounds.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Worst part is, this is actually a trilogy, so you'd need to wait for *two* more books...

Agreed that losing her husband is an understandable reason to not write, but in this case, she put out a series of expected date to publish the next book. The latest was 2016...

And agreed. I did like a lot of it. Loved the world. The pegasus people were believable aliens, it's just... nothing much happened at all.