Chalice is a fantasy novel by American writer Robin McKinley. It was published in 2008 by G. P. Putnam's Sons.
A gently paced mostly-slice-of-life story about (essentially) an anxious court witch who has to figure out the job as she goes, with lots of pleasantly dense worldbuilding by implication and some good bee magic. I fell into it easily, as is often the case with McKinley. Let down a bit by its somewhat perfunctory ending.
Robin McKinley is not one for global catastrophes; in this book a village demesne is threatened with collapse because those whose role it was to nurture it had other things on their mind. These things brought them to a sticky end, and the story opens with a new team taking over. The odds seem to be stacked against them; the young woman who tells the story has been promoted from being a humble forester and bee-keeper to the role of Chalice, second in command to the Master, who is himself a new appointment. Neither of them really know what it is they are supposed to do: the young woman has served no apprenticeship and has to con her duties from the dusty volumes that litter the neglected library, while the young man, although a scion of the house, was sent away to become a fire priest when his older brother …
Robin McKinley is not one for global catastrophes; in this book a village demesne is threatened with collapse because those whose role it was to nurture it had other things on their mind. These things brought them to a sticky end, and the story opens with a new team taking over. The odds seem to be stacked against them; the young woman who tells the story has been promoted from being a humble forester and bee-keeper to the role of Chalice, second in command to the Master, who is himself a new appointment. Neither of them really know what it is they are supposed to do: the young woman has served no apprenticeship and has to con her duties from the dusty volumes that litter the neglected library, while the young man, although a scion of the house, was sent away to become a fire priest when his older brother took over the Mastership, and has partly surrendered his humanity. In their very first meeting, he accidentally touches Chalice by the hand and burns her severely.
McKinley draws us into her story through a series of light touches, a literary pointillism that suits her bucolic setting. The characters move slowly through trees, hedges, meadows, and clouds of bees. It's her bees that bring Chalice into full alignment with the demesne, leading her to the ley lines, gifting her with an abundance of honeys, which she transforms into potions that cure the sick, and bring the human denizens of the demesne, initially skeptical, to regard her with reverence. And it is the bees who are the final arbiters of both Chalice's and the Master's fates, along with that of the demesne itself.
All this is well done, as is the gradual awakening of the young woman to who she is, and what her place in the world is. Handicapped by her timidity, a result of her secluded childhood and her difficult adolescence, she has trouble distinguishing enemy from friend, although her instincts draw her to certain of the other characters, and repel her from others.
On the other hand, I found the dark side of the book's equation less convincing. The main villain is little more than a cardboard cut-out, and lacks any motivation for his evil doings that this reader can perceive. His minion is little better - a small and hopeful ambition that hardly merits the ghastly punishment that Chalice inflicts upon him.
If there is a moral to the tale, it is that one should at all costs avoid annoying a bee-keeper.
I'm glad I read this, and will read others by the same author.
4.5 stars
This is such a McKinley novel--the mixture of fairytale magic and earthy domesticity, the animals (in this case, bees) as devoted friends and familiars of the protagonist, the magical climactic scene, the Beauty and the Beast romance. I kiiiind of wish it had been fleshed out a bit more, but it's still a lovely read.
