Influential Books: The Hero and the Crown

I am the youngest of four, and by nearly at decade at that. My two older brothers and sister had things mostly figured out by the time I came along. I ended up wanting to tag along with them, and couldn’t when I was very small. I often sneaked and read their books, which were not age appropriate, but tantalizing.

I think my second brother must have seen that I needed my own collection, and he lived far away when I was young, so occasionally he would mail me a book. He curated these well, seeking out advice or just knowing what I’d like. On one occasion, when I was a young teen, he gifted me THE HERO AND THE CROWN by Robin McKinley.

On its cover, the book bore the Newbery Award Medal stamp, so I figured, well, it couldn’t be that bad. And my brother knew that I loved fantasy and science fiction and fairy tales. He’d asked the bookseller for a strong girl character book, and did that seller ever deliver!

I soon figured out that this book was a prequel, to THE BLUE SWORD, McKinley’s first adventure in the fantasy realm of Damar. In that book, Damar is a desert region that exists on the periphery of somewhat modern civilization, and its inhabitants are not well understood. Once the main character, Harry (short for the unusual name Angharad) Crewe, becomes unexpectedly entrenched in Damarian society, we learn there is an ancestral almost-goddess, named Aerin, a warrior queen who saved Damar from an evil wizard and an evil dragon centuries prior. Aerin looms large in the book, but we don’t quite know her.

THE HERO AND THE CROWN changes that, telling Aerin’s tale from when she was a teenager, a princess daughter of a widower king and a witch queen mother with her same name. Her mother died at birth, leaving Aerin an outcast, one who does not appear have inherited the fascinating gifts of most Damarians. And also, Aerin is, well, a nerd. She’s an awkward teen who looks differently and acts differently from everyone else, has few real friends, and her father’s kingdom at best tolerates her, if not outright disrespects her.

I really identified with Aerin because I was an awkward teen nobody seemed to understand. I preferred being out in the woods with animals, much like Aerin, although I wasn’t slaying any dragons (I did pretend though! But often I preferred friendlier types of imaginary dragons). It was important for me to find a hero like Aerin, the right character at the right time to inspire me and make me feel recognized.

McKinley’s modern, effervescent style also strongly influenced me as a budding writer. Fantasy didn’t have to be stiff and creaking under the weight of an outdated interpretation! To me, McKinley’s work was groundbreaking. Her characters seemed fresh and real yet they fit seamlessly into her worlds.

She also gave Aerin an unusually mature relationship with a wizard named Luthe, outside the expected narrative of marrying her cousin Tor. It’s that part of the book that particularly affected me. It’s a star-crossed relationship from the start, an aberration for both Aerin and Luthe, but it’s a mark of her coming into her own as a person, and it lays the foundations for her to better appreciate herself and the kingdom she must protect.

In my second book in THE QUESTRISON SAGA, EPHEMERIS, there’s a bit of Aerin to Galla-Deia and a bit of Luthe to Aeriod in terms of a May-December situation; but there the similarities end. (Aerin is much more down to earth than fiery-tempered and passionate alien Galla, and Luthe is much nicer than the mercurial space mage Aeriod!)

The book has its fair share of dragon battles, cunningly fought with Aerin’s rather scientific approach to making fire-repellant materials. And there is magic everywhere, but not heavy-handed. Aerin’s achievements feel truly earned even if she has a potentially life-changing destiny. You feel the effects of her injuries, her wins, her losses, and war itself.

It’s always been my hope that McKinley might return to “finish the tale” of Aerin and Luthe, as there were foreshadowings that she might have that in mind. But then again, we know what we need to know. If we don’t get another outright Damar book, wow: we were sure lucky with this one.

And as a full circle moment, when I gave my talk at the SFWA Nebula Awards Conference this year on Ecology in World-Building? Where McKinley was honored? It was held in…the Damar room. I also have my own dragon fantasy book on submission to publishers right now. So it feels like I’ve closed the loop.

Thank you, Robin McKinley. Thank you for Aerin, Harry, and all the nerdy girls who wrote who helped us nerdy girl writers grow.

Write on!
Jendia