I confess.

Spindle's End
- Robin McKinley

I confess! It was I, I did it. I planned it, acted on it and enjoyed it. I'm glad, glad, glad I did it and if I had my time again I would still do it.
I listen to Audio Books.

When I was very small I relied on my sisters to read books to me but once I could read alone I did it with gusto. In my prime I would read six to seven books a week. Along came uni and the number dropped to one or two and then the final destroyer of free time- work- arrived and the number of books I read dropped again. I come home from work tired and busy and visits to the library are far and few between but how can I desert books? Thus began my discovery of audio books.

I spend at least an hour in travel time every day and then have menial tasks at home and I can listen to books during this time using the brilliant skill of multitasking. I still read books with my eyes looking at printed words but many of the recent books I have come across have been audio books. I am sure there are many highbrow people out there who would feel that I can no longer claim to read these books. They might say because I only listen to them I only experience them in a lesser way. It means I don't have to struggle with reading hard to pronounce names or face the peril of crushing in my face when reading a heavy book lying down. However, I say to my critics, I still learn the entire story and come to grasp with concepts and characters. I will take a stand and wave my placard high!  Listening to books is far better than not going near a book and is a valid and worthwhile use of time. To me all fellow time-poor book enthusiasts!

I have come around in a full circle and once again I have people reading to me.


Spindle's End

Guess what fairy tale this is a retelling of? Sleeping Beauty. Robin McKinley added a lot to this simple story. When she was finished with it, it was no longer a pretty little tale but a lengthy, background information stuffed, complex novel.

The story begins at the birth of Sleeping Beauty. Her parents neglect to ask the evil fairy to the name day event but this fairy of evilness is not put off by the lack of an invitation. The wicked fairy Pernicia arrives bent on a hideous revenge. Pernicia cackles appropriately and curses the Princess to a deathly sleep brought on by the prick of spindle's end on the day of her 21st birthday. All living creatures, humans, animals, and living houses (yes, living houses) are horrified. The Princess must be saved!

To protect the life of the princess a plan is concocted and she is spirited away by a young, ordinary, country fairy called Katriona. On this difficult journey Katriona is helped by many different animals and this is the beginning of a deep life-long friendship the princess has with all animals. The location of the princess is kept a secret even from her parents and her elaborate name 'Casta Albinia Allegra Dove Minerva Fidelia Aletta Blythe Domina Delicia Aurelia Grace Isabel Griselda Gwyneth Pearl Ruby Coral Lily Iris Briar-Rose' is changed to Rosie (what one name would you pick from this list?). The plan is that the longer Rosie is hidden the less chance there will be that Pernicia can harm her. However the closer it gets to her 21st birthday the harder it will be to hide her from Pernicia's spell. Time passes and Rosie grows up about as un-princess like as possible. She is far too tall, she wears her hair short and she works as a  horse leach, caring for animals in the muck and mess of a blacksmith's shop.

Rosie does not know her true identity and she never dreams she could have a secret life outside of the small village where she lives. Her aspirations are that the introverted and grumpy blacksmith will finally notice her as a woman and they will live happily ever after. Rosie see herself as a clumsy, useful type of girl not at all interested in dresses or ceremony. All of this is thrown into confusion for Rosie when a stranger turns up on the doorstep only a few months before her 21st birthday. The stranger is a high ranking fairy and he has just discovered where Rosie lives (a male fairy, what?). He knows that if he has discovered the location of Rosie then Pernicia could easily do the same.

Pernicia filled with rage and revenge bares down on Rosie and Rosie is forced to take on her roll of princess-protector for the first time in her life. She has the help of her human and animal friends as well as a jolly old living castle but Rosie is unsure that she even wants the life that success over Pernicia will bring her. 

It is clear to see that Robin McKinley is very imaginative, She breaks up the original story of sleeping beauty and then stitches it up differently giving much scope for new perspectives and building extra characters. However there is such a vast amount of exposition and history that this book drags out to be a lengthy story. Mckinley at times seems to get so lost in threshing out side details that it comes as a shock when the actual story begins again and there is some action. Spindle's End entertained me enough as I drove and did cooking but I will not be shouting it's praise from the rooftops. 

"People forgot; it was in the nature of people to forget, to blur boundaries, to retell stories to come out the way they wanted them to come out, to remember things as how they ought to be instead of how they were." - Robin McKinley