The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

[james_davis_nicoll]

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

Comments

[lampwick]

What reference shows that this is the same world as Riddle-Master of Hed? (Try as I might, I can't make this question sound less hostile, which is not at all what I intended. I never thought this was the same world, is what I mean to say.)

Like you, I loved the lyricism of this book. It was so far above what was published as fantasy in those years.

[sethsellis]

I'm curious about this also. I loved the Riddle-Master books as a teenager and liked this one a lot, but they feel quite different to me. They'd have to take place in different ages of the world, at the least.

[graydon]

I would go so far as to say that the lack of land-law means it cannot be the same world as The Riddle-Master of Hed.

This book is why I read Riddle of Stars, which was a formative influence. I'd say the prose holds up regardless of era.

[james_davis_nicoll]

Perhaps I read too much into “The Riddle Master himself lost the key to his own riddles one day”.

[graydon]

I think that's a thematic commonality rather than a specific reference.

[heron61]

Wow, I've read all the nominee for that year's Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and they all deserved to win, although I think the Anderson might be the weakest (of an admittedly very impressive lot).

[(Anonymous)]

I found the dreamlike tone of McKillip's later books almost put me to sleep! I couldn't get past it.

-AwesomeAud

[eub]

I try to take this one as a key to some of the later ones. It's dreamlike in effect, but that acts as a gloss over what a hell of spite and frozen anger Sybel holds, without half realizing it herself.

Later books sometimes seem to dissolve into a swirl of effect without drive, but it may turn out this mirrors a character detached from their own motivations. With the gloss laid on thick, you might never get through it if you didn't have a hint there was something on the other side.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for the insight. Maybe I should give this one another try.

--AwesomeAud

[pameladean]

This book basically made me a devoted reader of McKillip forever.

That said, my actual favorite part of this review is the description of Donaldson's mounting "a long-winded, two-fisted assault on the English language". I am still laughing.

P.

[ba_munronoe]

This one moves closer to the top of my to-read pile.

(Well, it's more of a ziggurat nowadays...)

[ethelmay]

I've always bounced off McKillip because of the names. They all look like misprints to me. I realize this is petty of me, but I can't seem to help it. Maybe I could handle them in audio?

[ejmam]

I remember reading this when it first came out and wisely observing how quaint it was that the older woman had a love story. Then I reread it as an actual adult and realized that the "old woman" was barely thirty (was she even thirty?) and perhaps my wisdom was not as profound as it seemed at the time.

A good book on both reads, though.

[viktor_haag]

Interesting how the figure on the cover looks remarkably like much of Emilia Clarke's look in that show everyone loves.

[mindstalk]

I read this today thanks to your review, and enjoyed it. I'd seen McKillip on the shelf since college, but never gotten around to reading her.