Robin McKinley

Robin McKinley is an American fantasy author, whose works often have active female heroes.

She has written two novels and a number of short stories in the world of Damar. The Blue Sword was a Newbery Honor book and The Hero and The Crown won a Newbery Medal.

She has written several novels retelling folk tales, including Robin Hood (The Outlaws of Sherwood), Sleeping Beauty (Spindle's End), Donkeyskin (Deerskin), and two different retellings of Beauty and The Beast written 20 years apart (Beauty and Rose Daughter).


 * Beauty
 * The Blue Sword (including prequels The Hero and the Crown and A Pool in the Desert)
 * Deerskin
 * The Outlaws of Sherwood
 * Rose Daughter
 * Sunshine


 * All Girls Like Ponies (and/or dogs or dragons) - almost all of her protagonists (even the one boy) have a horse, dog, or exotic animal as a best friend.
 * Author Appeal: May-December Romance.
 * Bee-Bee Gun: Chalice.
 * Bond Creatures: Pegasus - For the human Royal family and the pegasus Royal family, each pegasus and each human have each other as a bond creature.
 * Contrived Clumsiness: In Chalice, one of the primary antagonists uses a very malicious form of fake clumsiness to set the demesne's Master up for a Morton's Fork: he "trips" within the Master's reach, forcing the Master - a former priest of elemental fire - to choose between catching and involuntarily burning him (an insult) or letting him fall (also an insult).
 * Cool Horse - ALL of them, but pegasi especially.
 * Death by Childbirth: Several instances, including Beauty and "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" in The Door in the Hedge.
 * Discreet Drink Disposal: "The Twelve Dancing Princesses".
 * Easing Into the Adventure: Common in her works. The Blue Sword, for example, begins with Harry's efforts at adjusting to life on the desert frontier of the Homelander Empire.
 * Elemental Powers: In Chalice, the new Master is a priest of Elemental Fire and can not only control that element, he's partly composed of it.
 * Evil-Detecting Dog: In short story, "Hellhound".
 * Fisher King: Chalice, in which each demesne has not only a Fisher King Master, but an entire Fisher Court.
 * Goo-Goo Godlike: "Baby Magic" in Spindle's End.
 * Hormone-Addled Teenager: Tends to avert this. Many of her female characters are teenagers/young adults, but the idea of romance is usually an afterthought.
 * May-December Romance: A common element; see Author Appeal.
 * Mayfly-December Romance: Sunshine, sort of. See also The Hero and The Crown.
 * Morton's Fork: Chalice.
 * Never Was This Universe: Sunshine and Dragonhaven.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Dragonhaven.
 * Pegasus: Pegasus
 * Playing with Fire: Chalice.
 * Slipping a Mickey: "The Twelve Dancing Princesses".
 * Something About a Rose: Beauty and Rose Daughter, inevitably.
 * Speaks Fluent Animal: Spindle's End.
 * Sweet Polly Oliver: Beauty's sister Lionheart in Rose Daughter; someone ends up Sweet on Polly Oliver.
 * Tell Me About My Mother: Beauty in Rose Daughter, Aerin in The Hero and The Crown.
 * Twice-Told Tale: Beauty (and Rose Daughter), Deerskin, The Outlaws of Sherwood, Spindle's End. The Door in the Hedge is likewise a collection of retold fairy tales, including "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," "The Golden Hind," and "The Frog Prince".
 * What a Piece of Junk!: The ponies in Chalice are pretty alleged by Damarian standards (the Master's older brother certainly seemed to think so), until you realize that while they may be slow and fat, Ponty is very calm around dangerous things (read: bees and fire), and Gallant and Ironfoot have impressive amounts of endurance, and that this is exactly what the protagonists need them to be.
 * When She Smiles: Appears in one of the short stories in Water: Tales of the Elemental Spirits.
 * Wife Husbandry: "Touk's House" in A Knot in the Grain. A couple of the other May December Romances scattered around her works may also count.
 * Wizards Live Longer: Various works, including Sunshine and Luthe in The Hero and The Crown et al.
 * Wound That Will Not Heal: Sunshine, Chalice.