Robin McKinley, Chalice (G.P Putnam, 2008)
Willowlands stands on the brink of destruction. Their Master and his Chalice are dead and his only heir was sent away years before to become one of the inhuman, once-human, Priests of Fire. A Master-less demesne is a bad place to live as the unharnessed landlines can tear the very ground apart, but a demesne with an out-land Master is worse. Resentful and out-of-tune it can take the disrupted land -- the earth, the waters and the people -- generations before the fit is an easy one. So the Grand Sensechal sends to the Priests of Fire and begs for the return of their lost heir. Only the man who returns is not the boy who left; he belongs to fire now and struggles with the demands of humanity, never mind Masterhood.
It is the new Chalice's job to bind him to Willowlands, to the rest of his Circle, but she too seems ill-fitted to the role the land has chosen for her. Mirasol is more used to keeping woods and bees and she struggles with the rituals and demands of being Chalice. Strangest of all, where the Chalice usually channels power through water or wine, or on ill-fated occasions milk, Mirasol holds her power in honey. She doubts her ability to reconcile the strange, new Master to his humanity, his people and the land itself. But with Willowlands already cracking around them, she has no choice but to try.
Chalice is a deceptively gentle book. Willowlands is a seemingly idyllic setting, Mirasol is an appealing, but domestic, heroine and the narrative meanders like a country path. It seems a nice enough fantasy tale, but nothing more. One chapter in and I was hooked, ignoring the fact I had to get up at six to catch a flight the next morning to read just a few more pages and find out what happens next. McKinley's world is captivating and her characters, and their plight, compelling. She captures the intense, claustrophobic nature of local politics, with its whispering campaigns passed from cook to gardener to farmer, and reminds the reader that to the people of Willowlands this is their world at stake. The darkness in the story isn't right there on the surface; it is discovered in the hidden copses and corners that the meandering narrative leads you past: a hint here and there about the true nature of the previous Master, the true, disastrous, state Willowlands had fallen into under his guardianship and the very real threat outside interference presents to the fragile balance they have created.
The scale of the task facing Mirasol is daunting and her reaction to the responsibility -- her successes and her mistakes -- is completely believable. The world created -- the politics, the culture, the magic -- is exquisitely realised and peppered with snippets of its fictional history that make me hope McKinley plans to return here soon. It's a tribute to McKinley's writing skill that, when I got to the climax of Chalice, I really felt that the outcome was in doubt.
I loved this book. So it's hard to pick out any flaws. It is a subtle book and quite gently told, the battles that the characters face are non-traditional ones, so it's probably not one to pick up if you like military campaigns, assassins and immortal threats. On the other hand, I like those things too and I would really recommend this book.
