Pigs Don't Fly [Paperback]

Mary Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1994

Left an orphan with a small dowry and a magic ring, all Summer wanted was to find a husband. But first, a raggle-tail assortment of creatures needed her help--particularly the flying pig and the handsome amnesiac blind knight....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I was a huge lump of grease, wobbling from foot to foot like ill-set aspic," confesses Summerdai, the heroine of this improbable charmer with the equally improbable title. Because of her girth, the 17-year-old Summer was passed over to replace her mother as the town prostitute. Equipped with a few supplies, a small dowry and a rather ugly ring left by her mysterious father, she sets out. But the ring is actually a bit of unicorn horn that warns her of danger and, most importantly, allows her to communicate with animals. In quick succession she picks up a ratty dog; a badly used horse; a starved turtle; a wounded pigeon; a man who lost both sight and memory after a bump on the head; and a rather curious little pig with tiny bat wings. The seven of them head south to look for the homes of horse, pigeon and man, during which Summer gains much self-confidence and loses much weight while the small pig/bat gets larger, wiser, more mysterious and more lovable. Funny, moving and always unpredictable, Brown's ( The Unlikely Ones ) incredible journey may disappoint readers looking for established genre formulas but for those more adventurous and independent sorts, it is a find.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

When her mother, a medieval village whore, dies, Summer is put out of her home so as not to become a "burden on the parish." With only a few coins for her dowry and a ring as relic of the father she never knew, the girl sets out to make her way in the world. The ring enables her to converse with animals, and as she travels she collects various strays, including a mongrel dog, a lost horse, a broken-winged messenger pigeon, a tortoise, and a strange, winged pig. She also rescues a blind and amnesiac knight. While searching for her charges' homes, Summer names and nurtures them and with them encounters good and bad people and a dangerous ghost. Although their homecomings are not as perfect as she would have liked, most of Summer's friends eventually have them. After the pig's dramatic transformation, Summer is left to face life alone. Yet she has grown from a self-described "fit and ugly" child into a slim, beautiful, and capable woman. Although it drags a bit, Summer's quest for self-reliance is satisfying enough. Dennis Winters

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Baen; First Edition edition (April 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671876015
• ISBN-13: 978-0671876012
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Historical

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best of its kind I've read, October 28, 1997

By 

Robin Knight (Newtown, Victoria ,Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pigs Don't Fly (Paperback)

When I was 8 or so, my mother would go to the city every few months, (hmm..never ASKED her why, come to think of it), and she would always ask, "What do you want me to bring you back?"
And in those days before books became a disposable item purchasable by the metre at the supermarket, before bookshops became Old Curiosity Shops, my answer was always the same, "A BOOK!!"
And one post-war novel, Elizabeth Goudge's Little White Horse', conveyed back from Melbourne in this way was so entirely memorable that I can recall, vividly, to this day the feeling of cold legs and needing the toilet as I sat on the little front porch of our wintry house, but needing, more, to go further, to find out, to keep reading,to keep loving these beautiful, wonderful words!
And all the time I kept calling out to my mother, "OH MUM..It's a beaut book..Oh Mum....it's beaut!!", the 8 year old's vocabulary leaving much room for expansion and embellishment.

Well, my Mum isn't around to buy books for me now...in fact I only took a volume or two from her collection, my brother having more room in HIS house, my sister having even fewer empty shelves than I in her apartment.
And I don't buy books for myself any more..Oh..okay, books for our shop and computer books for me..but not novels, not REAL books..not for myself! For the grandkids, yes, and my bookstarved son in Malaysia, but that's not for ME is it? In Australia,the public libraries are still functioning, albeit feebly, a literary shadow of their former well-endowed glory days, but they are all online, of course, even the smallest, with multimedia and BIG PRINT sections.
Our own local suburban branch library is small, not opened as often as it was, and always dusty enough to bring on my asthma, and the books seem not to be re-covered as regularly as they once were, and the paperbacks, in revolving stands rather than shelves, become shabby very quickly.
I took, `Pigs Don't Fly,But Dragons Do..' from such a stand having noticed that it carried high praise from Marion Zimmer Bradley and Anne McCaffrey...high accolades for any work of fantasy.

And then I saw that the book dealt with Celtic customs, mentioned Samhain and runes and Stones of Power and Druidic rites, herbal lore and potions, a ring made from a unicorn's horn..even a dragon- and since so many of my geocities friends seem to be into this sort of thing..and with All Hallow's Eve close to hand, I thought I might find this book interesting.
Interesting? An understatement indeed. This book holds between its covers the same magic that chilled my bare legs on that long-ago front porch.
And it has a handsome knight in it, too, which is always a help!

It is the story of a journey that takes a full year,from one place to another and back, and then off, again...or from girlhood to womanhood, from innocence to wisdom,..or from ugliness to beauty, the trip proving truly an odyssey well worth the travelling. And you journey in comfort, the language having a glorious melodic lilt to it, the humour wickedly mediaeval in its vulgarity, the characters and background countryside so vividly recreated that you can almost sense the seasons changing. There are smells here,not always savoury, and deeds not always noble, and the feel of rough stones underfoot..the sensation of cold, of fear, of near-despair. And always, the pushing ahead,the foraging, the slow, on-foot slog we can only imagine from our rubber-tyred distance-is-no-problem decade.
And what an assortment of characters parade, Canterbury-Tales style, through the stops and stages, through the daily life and dramas of this journey..most of them, indeed, no better than they should be, but full of life and personality aplenty.
I mean, when did you read a better opening line than:
"... My mother was the village whore and I loved her very much....

And the travelling party the heroine acquires? Five animals she can talk to, courtesy of the magic ring, and a blind Knight who'd rather not listen...this has to be the whackiest party of pilgrims ever, making Chaucer's lot seem rather dull and uninteresting!
And the flying pig. Is he a pig? If you kiss a pig does it turn into a prince?
You have to read right to the second last chapter to find out!

I finished `Pigs Don't Fly' in the bright sunshine of a perfect Australian Spring day, in a garden, still beautiful despite my recent neglect. My legs stayed warm, too warm, really, and I had one ear tuned for my ICQ pager, the other alert for the beeping an an automatic washer. Times have changed greatly since I sat on that cold step to be transported to the chalk-cliffs and pebbly beaches of half-moon-shaped bays in Goudgean England. But all through THIS book, too, I've been thinking.."Hey Mum, this is a great book. Hey, Mum, this is a BEAUT book!!"
And it's nice to know that, in the end, some things never alter at all!

Robin Knight.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from Mary Brown!, April 22, 2002

By 

Dawn Smoker (Mechanicsburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pigs Don't Fly (Paperback)

While not quite as good as her previous Book, The Unlikely Ones, this book is still a fun and entertaining book about the adventures of a group of misfits and ugly ducklings.
It features an overweight heroine, Summer, who inherits a magic ring from her unknown father when her mother, the village "kept woman", dies. She is given the choice of taking over her mother's job, or leaving, so she leaves to find her own way in the world.
The mysterious ring allows her to communicate with animals and she acquires an oddball entourage of a smart mouthed, know it all dog, a broken-down horse, a crippled pigeon, a battered tortoise, and a flying pig. She rescues a blind, amnesiac knight, whom she falls for. Everyone changes greatly over the course of the story--especially that flying pig, and the end is not quite what you expect it to be. I really enjoyed reading a book that features an overweight heroine--you don't see those too often!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a fun read, April 11, 2008

By 

amlove (Colorado) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pigs Don't Fly (Paperback)

This is the first of Mary Brown's books I've read. It was recommended to me by a friend who, knowing my taste in books, said I would like her. She was right. This was just a fun read. I love books that are silly and don't take themselves too seriously, and this is one of those. Although I was a bit disappointed in the ending (I won't give it away to you here) I would still recommend this book.