The Blue Sword
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Narrated by:
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Diane Warren
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By:
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Robin McKinley
About this listen
From the New York Times bestselling author of Sunshine is the Newberry Award-winning classic novel that has enthralled listeners for decades.
This is the story of Corlath, golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the Lady Aerin.
And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl who became Harimand-sol, King’s Raider, and heir to the Blue Sword, Gonturan, that no woman had wielded since Lady Aerin herself bore it into battle.
And this is the song of the kelar of the Hillfolk, the magic of the blood, the weaver of destinies …
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Critic reviews
“This is a zesty, romantic heroic fantasy with an appealing stalwart heroine, a finely realized mythical kingdom, and a grounding in reality that enhances the tale’s verve as a fantasy.”—Booklist
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When compiling our list of the best fantasy listening out there, we immediately came up against the age-old question: Is this fantasy or science fiction? The distinction is not as clear as you may think. Dragons, elves, and wizards are definitely fantasy, but what about wizards that also fly space ships? (Looking at you, Star Wars.) For the sake of fantasy purity, the top 100 fantasy listens include the best audio works in all manner of fantasy subgenres.
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Performance
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Young Robin Longbow, subapprentice forester in the King's Forest of Nottingham, must contend with the dislike of the Chief Forester, who bullies Robin in memory of his popular father. But Robin does not want to leave Nottingham or lose the title to his father's small tenancy, because he is in love with a young lady named Marian - and keeps remembering that his mother too was gentry and married a common forester. Robin has been granted a rare holiday to go to the Nottingham Fair, where he will spend the day with his friends Much and Marian.
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A great story paired with the wrong narrator
- By Gail N. on 11-01-19
By: Robin McKinley
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Chalice
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The earthlines speak to Mirasol, but her family has lived in the demesne for centuries, and many of the old families can hear the land. She knows that the violent deaths of the last Master and Chalice have thrown Willowlands into turmoil; but she is only a beekeeper, and the problems of the Circle that govern Willowlands have nothing to do with her - although she wonders what will become of her demesne, because the Master and Chalice left no heirs to carry on their crucial duties.
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A favorite McKinley
- By Shannon GC on 03-29-20
By: Robin McKinley
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Pegasus
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Kristen Atherton
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Princess Sylviianel has always known that on her 12th birthday she too would be bound to her own Pegasus. All members of the royal family have been thus bound since the Alliance was made almost a thousand years ago; the binding system was created to strengthen the Alliance, because humans and pegasi can only communicate formally, through specially trained Speaker magicians. Sylvi is accustomed to seeing pegasi every day at the palace, but she still finds the idea of her binding very daunting.
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Cliff Hanger
- By Lana Arthur on 08-31-21
By: Robin McKinley
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Sunshine
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires.
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An absolutely riveting, addictive tale
- By Amazon Customer on 12-30-08
By: Robin McKinley
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Dragonhaven
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Noah Galvin
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Dragons are extinct in the wild, but the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park is home to about two hundred of the world's remaining creatures. Until Jake discovers a dying dragon that has given birth - and one of the babies is still alive.
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A master author at the top of her powers.
- By ShySusan on 08-11-13
By: Robin McKinley
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The Hero and the Crown
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Roslyn Alexander
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Uncertain of the past, Aerin-sol, daughter of King Arlbeth, decides to forge her own future by challenging the lashing tongues of the dragon’s fire. Aerin’s proficiency as "the Dragon-slayer" sets her on a quest for the stolen Crown of Damar, believed to be in the hands of rebellious northerners who threaten to destroy the Damarian people and their home forever.
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Second only to Blue Sword
- By mkc on 01-18-13
By: Robin McKinley
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The Outlaws of Sherwood
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Robin Longbow, subapprentice forester in the King's Forest of Nottingham, must contend with the dislike of the Chief Forester, who bullies Robin in memory of his popular father. But Robin does not want to leave Nottingham or lose the title to his father's small tenancy, because he is in love with a young lady named Marian - and keeps remembering that his mother too was gentry and married a common forester. Robin has been granted a rare holiday to go to the Nottingham Fair, where he will spend the day with his friends Much and Marian.
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A great story paired with the wrong narrator
- By Gail N. on 11-01-19
By: Robin McKinley
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Chalice
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The earthlines speak to Mirasol, but her family has lived in the demesne for centuries, and many of the old families can hear the land. She knows that the violent deaths of the last Master and Chalice have thrown Willowlands into turmoil; but she is only a beekeeper, and the problems of the Circle that govern Willowlands have nothing to do with her - although she wonders what will become of her demesne, because the Master and Chalice left no heirs to carry on their crucial duties.
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A favorite McKinley
- By Shannon GC on 03-29-20
By: Robin McKinley
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Pegasus
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Kristen Atherton
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Princess Sylviianel has always known that on her 12th birthday she too would be bound to her own Pegasus. All members of the royal family have been thus bound since the Alliance was made almost a thousand years ago; the binding system was created to strengthen the Alliance, because humans and pegasi can only communicate formally, through specially trained Speaker magicians. Sylvi is accustomed to seeing pegasi every day at the palace, but she still finds the idea of her binding very daunting.
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Cliff Hanger
- By Lana Arthur on 08-31-21
By: Robin McKinley
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Sunshine
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires.
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An absolutely riveting, addictive tale
- By Amazon Customer on 12-30-08
By: Robin McKinley
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Dragonhaven
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Noah Galvin
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dragons are extinct in the wild, but the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park is home to about two hundred of the world's remaining creatures. Until Jake discovers a dying dragon that has given birth - and one of the babies is still alive.
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A master author at the top of her powers.
- By ShySusan on 08-11-13
By: Robin McKinley
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Rose Daughter
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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"It is the heart of this place, and it is dying," says the Beast. And it is true; the center of the Beast's palace, the glittering glasshouse that brings Beauty both comfort and delight in her strange new environment, is filled with leafless brown rosebushes. But deep within this enchanted world, new life, at once subtle and strong, is about to awaken. Twenty years ago Robin McKinley enthralled listeners with the power of Beauty. Now this extraordinarily gifted novelist retells the story of Beauty and the Beast again - but in a totally new way, with fresh perspective, ingenuity, and mature insight.
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Good, but not as good as Beauty
- By ShySusan on 08-19-13
By: Robin McKinley
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Deerskin
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The only daughter of a beloved king and queen, Princess Lissar has grown up in the shadow of her parents' infinite adoration for each other - an infatuation so great that it could only be broken by the queen's unexpected passing. As Lissar reaches womanhood, it becomes clear to everyone in the kingdom that she has inherited her late mother's breathtaking beauty. But on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Lissar's exquisite looks become a curse. Betrayed and abused, Lissar is forced to flee her home to escape her father's madness.
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Poor Narrator choice :/
- By Elizabeth on 05-29-18
By: Robin McKinley
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The Door in the Hedge
- And Other Stories
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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From ensorcelled princesses to a frog that speaks, an enchanting collection of fairy tales from the Newbery Medal-winning author.
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Upbeat and rosy
- By Bruce on 07-17-21
By: Robin McKinley
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Shadows
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Maggie knows something's off about Val, her mom's new husband. Val is from Oldworld, where they still use magic, and he won't have any tech in his office-shed behind the house. But—more importantly—what are the huge, horrible, jagged, jumpy shadows following him around? Magic is illegal in Newworld, which is all about science. The magic-carrying gene was disabled two generations ago, back when Maggie's great-grandmother was a notable magician. But that was a long time ago.
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Amazing!
- By Amy on 04-25-23
By: Robin McKinley
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Spindle's End
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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All the creatures of the forest and field and riverbank knew the infant was special. She was the princess, spirited away from the evil fairy, Pernicia, on her name-day. But the curse was cast: Rosie was fated to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a poisoned sleep - a slumber from which no one would be able to rouse her....
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New title: Detailed lies.
- By Katie-Rose on 03-11-21
By: Robin McKinley
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Beauty
- A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Charlotte Parry
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Robin McKinley has won numerous awards for her writing, including the prestigious Newbery Medal. Though her two sisters are beautiful, Beauty, despite her name, is thin and awkward - but she's also courageous. So when her father makes a terrible promise to a Beast living in an enchanted castle, Beauty knows she must volunteer to be the Beast's prisoner.
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Best version of B&tB I've ever read, seen, heard.
- By ShySusan on 08-11-13
By: Robin McKinley
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Water
- Tales of Elemental Spirits
- By: Robin McKinley, Peter Dickinson
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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What magical beings inhabit Earth’s waters? Some are as almost-familiar as the mer-people; some as strange as the thing glimpsed only as a golden eye in a pool at the edge of the Great Desert Kalarsham, where the mad god Geljdreth rules; or the unknowable, immense Kraken, dark beyond the darkness of the deepest ocean, who will one day rise and rule the world. Here are seven tales from the remarkable storytellers Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Vividly imagined and written, they transform the simple element of water into something very powerful indeed.
By: Robin McKinley, and others
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Over Sea, Under Stone
- Book 1 of The Dark Is Rising Sequence
- By: Susan Cooper
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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On holiday in Cornwall, the three children discover an ancient map in the attic of the house that they are staying in. They know immediately that it is special. It is even more than that - the key to finding a grail, a source of power to fight the forces of evil known as the Dark. And in searching for it themselves, the Drews put their lives in peril.
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A short but excellent tale.
- By Bryan J. Peterson on 06-02-12
By: Susan Cooper
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The Iron Ring
- By: Lloyd Alexander
- Narrated by: Ron Keith
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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“Look into the tiger’s eyes. I wish to show you lives different from your own,” Soma-Nandi tells the boy-king Tamar. When you join Tamar on his enchanted journey, you too can look into the tiger’s eyes. But beware, for along the way, nothing is as it appears to be: Forest creatures speak and populate hidden kingdoms, hacked-down vines regenerate before your very eyes, and holy men spring up from ant hills.
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Fantastic story.
- By DR M. on 11-19-17
By: Lloyd Alexander
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Arrows of the Queen
- Heralds of Valdemar Series, Book 1
- By: Mercedes Lackey
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Chosen by the Companion Rolan, a mystical horse-like being with powers beyond imagining, Talia, once a runaway, has now become a trainee Herald, destined to become one of the Queen's own elite guard. For Talia has certain awakening talents of the mind that only a Companion like Rolan can truly sense. But as Talia struggles to master her unique abilities, time is running out. For conspiracy is brewing in Valdemar, a deadly treason that could destroy Queen and kingdom. Opposed by unknown enemies capable of both diabolical magic and treacherous assassination, the Queen must turn to Talia.
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An Amazing Narrator on a Fun Fluff Story
- By Michele on 06-19-18
By: Mercedes Lackey
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The Cecelia and Kate Novels
- Sorcery & Cecelia, The Grand Tour, and The Mislaid Magician
- By: Patricia C. Wrede, Caroline Stevermer
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Enter Regency-era England—and a world in which magical mayhem and high society go hand in hand—with three novels featuring cousins Cecelia and Kate. In Sorcery & Cecelia, the two cousins have been inseparable since girlhood. But in 1817, Kate goes to London to make her debut into English society, leaving Cecelia behind. While visiting the Royal College of Wizards, Kate stumbles on a plot to destroy a beloved sorcerer—and only Cecelia can help her save him.
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Cute structure, plot gets increasingly diffuse and silly
- By M M on 07-01-22
By: Patricia C. Wrede, and others
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Crown Duel
- By: Sherwood Smith
- Narrated by: Samantha Norbury, Connor Brannigan
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Sherwood Smith's most popular young adult fantasy begins with Meliara and her brother vowing to free Remalna from an evil king. War is tougher than it seemed. When Meliara is caught by the enemy commander, the elegant Marquis of Shevraeth, it's escape or die. Afterward, Meliara faces a tougher challenge: the battlefield is no longer mud and steel, but palaces, the weapons manners and fans. Toughest of all is courtship, when the one who catches her heart is her personal enemy—the new king. This beloved romantic fantasy has been in continuous print for over twenty years.
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Fantastic Romantic Fantasy with Outstanding Narration!
- By jbebout1295 on 07-22-24
By: Sherwood Smith
What listeners say about The Blue Sword
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jocelyn
- 01-07-15
Good book, not so amazing narrator
This story has been a favorite and an annual read since high school. McKinley has a skill for world-building and creating complex, compelling characters. My main problem with this recording is Ms. Warren. She has a good voice, but her phrasing is only mildly tolerable, and sometimes long pauses in the middle of phrases cause comprehension issues. There's also no excuse for pronouncing "misshapen" as "miss-happen." Listen because of the story, and in spite of the vox.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Cleocutie
- 06-25-18
Great book
This has been one of my favorite books for years and it is wonderful that is is now available to listen to as well. The narration is great and fits well with the story.
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- Cybele Bell
- 10-29-18
Narrator a bit stuffy, formal
Narrator a bit dated sounding for informal style of writing imo. My fave book and writer.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-01-20
I could barely stop listening!
I have two hardcopies of this book. One of them is falling apart at the seams from having been read so many times and needed replacing for future rereading. I’d been dying to read it again but was in the middle of a craft project so I thought why not try the audiobook. I’m pretty picky about narrators but Diane Warren’s voice is just beautiful in tone. I finished the book in two sittings, it would’ve been one but I figured 2am was a good time to stop and sleep before finishing the last six hours. I’ll listen to this many more times just as I’ve read the pages right off the spine of book. Every time I interact with this story something new jumps out at me, I can easily say it’s one of my all time favorites.
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-19-20
Girl Power + Love Story
I have read this book twice before listening. Enjoyed it just as much this time. thank you
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- SAV
- 02-23-23
Epic fantasy
A well-written story with Diane Warren’s voice bringing it to life.
Robin McKinley so skillfully creates a world filled with customs that the reader soon forgets it is fantasy.
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- Stephen Melville
- 02-28-24
Horses and swords, and a little magic
Great book, I first read in my youth, is as enjoyable today as ever it was. Fun new cultures and heroic personalitys.
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- Kate Gritz
- 07-27-24
Wonderful story!
I first found this book when I was 11 and even now as a 28 year old woman I still absolutely adore it! I re-listen to this book at least once a month if not more and can genuinely say I never tire of the story or characters. Definitely give it a listen!!
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- Heather Wells
- 02-26-16
Enjoyable.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, but I'd have to tell them to be prepared for it to be slow. This is a sequel to The Hero and the Crown, and I was expecting it to be as interesting. It's a good sequel, just not as good as the first.
What other book might you compare The Blue Sword to and why?
The Hero and the Crown. Robin McKinley writes excellent books and she has a very unique, very distinctive style. There is no one else like her.
Which scene was your favorite?
The descriptiveness of the desert lands.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The whole book is supposed to be moving. It's a young woman's strength against the rigid social norms of two different worlds.
Any additional comments?
Robin McKinley is one of the great authors of our time. Right up there with Terry Brooks and JRR Tolkien.
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- Kirsten Fox
- 07-31-17
Favorite Book
The narrator did a fantastic job, especially for this particular book. It's one of my favorite books, but I know it's difficult to read aloud and she reads it like I read it in my head.
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