Spindle's End by Robin McKinley

[samvara]

Cats were often familiars to workers of magic because to anyone used to wrestling with self-willed, wayward, devious magic - which was what all magic was - it was rather soothing to have all the same qualities wrapped up in a small, furry, generally attractive bundle that looked more or less the same from day to day and might, if it was in a good mood, sit on your knee and purr. Magic never sat on anybody's knee and purred.

I fell in love with McKinley's writing years ago, she's on the list where you just buy it because it's her. This was a look at the Sleeping Beauty story and has a lovely, rich world of fairies and magic. Did you know magic precipitates and forms a dust? That you have to descale the kettles or after about a week you might pour yourself a nice cup of thimbles?

Bibliography
Novels
Beauty: A Re-telling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978)
The Blue Sword (1982)
The Door in the Hedge (1982)
The Hero and the Crown (1984)
The Outlaws of Sherwood (1988)
Light Princess (1988)
Rowan (1992)
Deerskin (1993)
Rose Daughter (1997)
The Stone Fey (1998)
Spindle's End (2000)
Sunshine (2003)

Collections
A Knot in the Grain: And Other Stories (1994)
Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits (2002) (with Peter Dickinson)

Anthologies edited
Imaginary Lands (1985)

Comments

[evilmattikinz.livejournal.com]

I certainly do have a most fabulous magic lettuce. Do you have a wheelbarrow full of borovian (chocolate) crowns that you'd like to swap?

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Lettuce for chocolate.. it just seems so wrong.

[ascetic-hedony.livejournal.com]

The painful exchange of chocolate for green watery goods. This assumes that the wheelbarrow's contents remain intact - a dubious prospect in the house of chocolate lovers.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Hey the Pods are still in the fridge. Intact.