Pegasus by Robin McKinley

Title: Pegasus

Author: Robin McKinley

Pages: 404

Published: Available now from Putnam Juvinelle

ISBN: 9780399246777

Source: ARC from Star Book Tours

Description: Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pagasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially-trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication. But its different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close-so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo-and possibly to the future safety of their two nations. 

I Give This ... 

I haven't read Robin McKinley before.  This one sounded interesting and the cover really drew me in.  But sadly, I didn't enjoy this book nearly half as much as I had hoped.  And I was sadly disappointed in the ending.

I wasn't sure what to think of the human characters.  I liked Sylvi for the most part.  I think it's because she's a princess that she acts way older than her age.  I really enjoyed her relationship with Ebon.  I wish we got more of it.  I also like Ebon because he was different in so many ways from the other Pegasi.  But, I also liked all the other Pegasi that we get to know in this story.  Their history and differences were really fascinating.  I really liked Sylvi's father.  He's regal and displays all the attributes necessary to running a kingdom, but I also liked the love he shows to his family. 

So were did the story fall for me?  It was in all the details.  I was bored beyond belief for the first 100 pages or so.  There was too much information on the alliance and the history between the Pegasi and humans.  There wasn't enough interaction between the two.  I wanted a story about the relationship between humans and Pegasi, and not the reasons behind it.  The last half of the book was better, but I still felt like the story was too complex. 

My last problem was the ending.  I was just getting into the story around 300 pages or so and realized, I don't think this problem is going get resolved.  And spoiler or not, I wish I had known before had that it doesn't.  The book ends in such dramatic fashion that I flipped through the pages again just to make sure I wasn't missing something.  I was not happy.  Less happier still when I go online and realize that the author doesn't always write sequels to her story.  I am happy to say though that a Pegasus II is slated for 2012 (according to the author's website).  I'll read the damn thing because the author left me hanging so badly.