Imperial Purple

Robin McKinley
Chalice
Putnam 2008

I have been a great fan of Robin McKinley since discovering the Damar books (The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown) more than twenty years ago. A new book by her is always a reason for celebration.

McKinley has two levels of writing - slightly fey fantasy (such as the Damar books) and frankly coruscating works such as Deerskin. The latter is a wonderful book but it left me feeling scoured and wrung out. So I was (perhaps because of some character flaw) hoping for Chalice to be one of the fey fantasies and was happy to find it so.

Chalice goes straight for the classic fantasy trope of "the health of the king is the health of the land". It is good to see the theme addressed directly rather than floating nebulously in the background. The ‘King’ in this case is called ‘Master’ and he has a circle or court of whom the Chalice is the most important. The Chalice is the person responsible for maintaining harmony both of the court and of the land itself.

The book is told from the point of view of Mirasol, the newly appointed but completely untrained Chalice. Her actual training is as a beekeeper and bees and honey are interwoven throughout the story.

The previous Master (a ‘bad King’ - unresponsive to the needs of the land) and his Chalice have both perished in a fire. The old Master’s brother is appointed in his place but this brother has been training as a Fire priest. Fire priests work directly with elemental fire and, as their training progresses, slowly lose their humanity. The new Master has not completed his training but is nevertheless only borderline human.

The new Master and Chalice must work together and find, despite their ignorance of their proper roles, a way to heal the land, Fire, honey and love must all work their magic before this healing can happen and the way is not easy.

I loved this book. It captures for me the wonderful feeling of otherness that first drew me into Damar. The central character, Mirasol, is uncertain of what she needs to do but has the courage to try anyway. She is a warm and very human character and the interplay between her, the new Master and the old Seneschal make for a great story. Four and a half stars.