As one might expect from McKinley's method of writing, The Hero and the Crown reads well aloud. The adventure scenes are compelling. McKinley says that as she wrote the dragon-killing scenes, she wrote as rapidly as possible because she herself could hardly wait to find out how they would end. The gentler parts of the story—Arlbeth's anxious love for his daughter and Aerin's second parting from Luthe, for example—are emotional and moving.