Pegasus by Robin McKinley

And this is why I like to wait until all books are out in a series before I read them. Because authors like cliffhangers and no resolution. Which is exactly what happens in this book, you're plugging along reading it and then "BAM", it ends.

Sylvi is the fourth child to the King and Queen and the last heir. Which makes her pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things. But she's still important enough to be bonded to a Pegasus on her twelfth birthday. Of course most nobility are bound, but none have the connection that Sylvi and Ebon share. But it's a connection that threatens the alliance between humans and Pegasi and upsets quite a few people who want things to remain the same.

You'll get to know these characters really well. Because most of the book is about describing them. For instance, Ebon is black. With a shiny black mane and tail. And Sylvi is short and can talk to Pegasi like no other person can. Don't worry if you forget that, it's all there over and over. There's a large cast of characters in this book too so a new face is always lurking in another chapter. It's actually hard to keep track of sometimes, especially since a lot of the names are long and nonsensical. And the way they are written you are supposed to like the Pegasi better, which I did. So I actually have to applaud that. They were interesting creatures and much more noble than their human counterparts. Ebon especially has a wonderful sense of humor.

There's a lot of things I don't understand about this book. Which is surprising because of the amount of time and effort the author put forth into describing and world-building. I actually found the book to drag at times because there was so much description going on. And some of it was sort of disturbing as I just can't picture the hand-things she gives the Pegasi without being creeped out. But as the book moved along the pace got better until you got to the abrupt ending. Meaning that you have to read the next book if you want to know what happens. But there were still a lot of unanswered questions in this one. Like the deal with the magicians, some of the things Sylvi saw, and what exactly happened at the magical Caves Sylvi visited as that part was so fast paced the whole sense of what happened eluded me. I even tried to go back and read it again and was still a bit confused. I know it was supposed to seem alien, so maybe that was the effect it was supposed to have though. The writing, in addition to being descriptive, is easy to read. I would actually rate the level of it as a middle-school age rather than young adult. It was simplistic without being dull.

I'll read the next book of course. I want to know what happens. But I hope it's just a tad more polished than this one was. And that the numerous questions this book leaves hanging are answered.

Pegasus
Copyright 2010
404 pages