I never would have picked up this book if I had known it was a horse story. I am not a horse girl. I don't understand horse girls (no offense, horse-loving friends; you just keep doing your thing). So why someone would enlist in Kublai Khan's army on account of a horse blows my mind. (My dear brother, a bottomless pit of miscellaneous knowledge, lectured me on the incredible importance of horses in Mongolian culture. Thanks, A, for that. Even so, this seems a little extreme.) Also, why does homegirl bring a kitten with her? I'm just sayin'.
Anyway, as Super Grover would say, on to our story...
Our heroine, Oyuna, is all bad luck. When she was two, she was injured by a horse and has been crippled ever since. Her mother later dies in a tragic accident. No one wants to marry her. She gets to choose a horse of her own, and even she doesn't fully understand why she chooses an old, injured mare. Shaman grandma comes to visit and Oyuna admits that she hears the horse talking to her. Grandma tells Oyuna to prepare for a journey, and then disappears. When the Khan's army comes for the family's horses, Oyuna decides to go with them. Quest ensues. Oyuna makes chit-chat with the Khan (which just seems weird to me) and ultimately gets the swift horses of her dreams. Maybe, thinks Oyuna, it's possible to make your own luck. (In this book, that last point is about as subtle as a whack with a baseball bat.)
This book is all plot. The characters are flattish, and the cultural context seems contrived. That said, it's very fast-paced and readable for age 10-12.
I've never understood horse girls either, though I did learn about Mongolian horse culture in Chinese history courses. :) But yeah... horses are not my thing at all.
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