Match Book
The Blue Sword
Robin McKinley
1982 · Young adult
How it reads
The Blue Sword is young adult (ya heroic fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in an invented world, in no single period, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are identity, coming of age and power and politics. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.
It opens a series. The ending resolves happily. It's a short book. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something adventurous
- you like disappearing into an invented world
- you want to be sure it ends well
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or melancholy
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- young adult
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- early career
- Setting: place
- fictional world
- Setting: time
- timeless or multiple
- Mood / feeling
- adventurous
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- balanced
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- third person, one viewpoint
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- first in a series
- Themes
- identity, coming of age, power and politics
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
The Girl of Fire and ThornsRae CarsonShares: young adult, adventurous mood, balanced tone, resolved and happy ending- The ThiefMegan Whalen TurnerShares: young adult, adventurous mood, balanced tone, resolved and happy ending
The DarkangelMeredith Ann PierceShares: young adult, balanced tone, moderate pace, set in an invented world- The Magic of RecluceL.E. Modesitt Jr.Shares: adventurous mood, balanced tone, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending
Goddess of YesterdayCaroline B. CooneyShares: young adult, adventurous mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's StoneJ.K. RowlingShares: adventurous mood, balanced tone, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending
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