[Book review] Pegasus by Robin McKinley

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Robin McKinley seems to be a very hit-or-miss author.  I have greatly enjoyed some of her novels, and haven’t been able to get into others.  Unfortunately, Pegasus falls into the latter category.  What begins as a wonderful concept is mangled in the execution.

Humans and pegasi have been allies for hundreds of years.  Every member of the royal family is bonded magically to one of the other race in a partnership that is lifelong and a living reminder of the Alliance.  But humans and pegasi can only communicate through the intervention of Speakers, mages who facilitate conversations and help with translation.

But when Princess Sylvi and the pegasus Ebon bond, they can talk telepathically with no difficulty whatsoever.  They keep their ability a secret for years, but when it becomes public knowledge, Sylvi and Ebon come under intense scrutiny… and suspicion.  There are those who believe that their communion is unnatural and dangerous.  And when Sylvi makes an unprecedented visit to the pegasi lands, she learns more about their shared history than she ever dreamed possible.

I will say this: the worldbuilding in this novel is complex and interesting.  It’s obvious that McKinley has put a lot of thought into the history of the humans and pegasi, into the magic, even into the geography.  I would have loved to see more of these aspects—I think it would have lent an even greater richness to the story.

The author has put a lot of thought into the pegasi themselves too.  I loved that they have hands, small ones at the major joint of their wings that can do limited tasks and fine detail craftwork.  The descriptions of the pegasi will give readers a wonderful mental picture of these incredible creatures.  Given that dragons are the staple fantasy critter, it’s nice to have a story with something different.

However, no amount of worldbuilding or pretty winged horses can rescue this novel from its terrible narrative structure.  Much of the novel’s middle is a jumble of “present” timeline and extended flashbacks.  At several points, it was very confusing to figure out what was a past event and what was a present one.  The segues between them weren’t well defined, and that just added to the confusion. 

Because of this, the book’s pace drags.  The constant bouncing back and forth doesn’t allow for the narrative or the action to progress, and readers end up stuck in the space of a few years’ events before things finally move forward again. 

I also had a problem with the fact that there really isn’t an antagonist.  There is a magician that is very against the bond between Sylvi and Ebon, but there’s very little to let reader’s know why this should be.  He talks a lot about it, but it mostly boils down to “It’s unnatural for two beings to talk with one of us magicians to help”.  I think this character is supposed to be the main “bad guy” here, but he’s simply not in the story enough.  And his name, Fthoom, struck me as so ridiculous that I found myself mentally gritting my teeth every time it was mentioned.

And finally, there’s nothing to let readers know that this book is actually the first of a duology.  I went into it thinking it was a one-shot story, and when I got to the end, I was really confused.  It took some poking around on the author’s website and on Amazon.com to figure out that this is only the first half of a longer story.  This might account for some of the pacing problems mentioned above, but it does make for an extremely abrupt ending. 

What could have been a rich and engrossing novel is too hampered with problems to succeed.  This book might have some appeal for the setting and background details, but as a comprehensive whole, it falls far short of satisfying.  Ultimately, this book just annoyed me.