From /tmp/sf.3694 Sun Nov 8 23:08:31 1992 Path: isy!liuida!sunic!psinntp!psinntp!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!pbhyc!djdaneh From: sksircar@phoenix.princeton.edu!sksircar (Subrata Sircar) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: The Sorceress and the Cygnet - Review by SKS Summary: I liked it Message-ID: <1991Dec23.200521.6390@pbhyc.PacBell.COM> Date: 23 Dec 91 20:05:21 GMT Sender: djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes) Reply-To: sksircar@phoenix.princeton.edu!sksircar (Subrata Sircar) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: Pacific * Bell Lines: 55 Approved: djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com THE SORCERESS AND THE CYGNET by Patricia McKillip Review by Subrata K. Sircar Patricia A. McKillip has written some real gems in the past; some of my favorites are The Riddle-Master of Hed series and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. Both stood out from the fantasy field due to some different ideas, such as the great beasts out of legends and tales, proud and mighty, being called to a zoo in TFBOE. This latest offering draws heavily on "primitive" oral legends such as the Plains Indians of America passed on, and is very intriguing. In tone, it reads much like TFBoE. The pace is quick, and the sorcerous mysteries involved are somehow unfolded at just the right pace, revealing just enough to keep the reader interested, yet not enough to spoil the next twist. The overall craftsmanship on the book is up to Ms. McKillip's usual standards. Descriptions are terse enough to prevent boredom, but lush enough to give me a good picture of what I was being told. The overall plot concerns a young nomad who is foolish/unluckey/fated enough to wander into a living legend, concerning the Gold King and his house of stars and why he lies imprisoned theirin. The Gold King bribes him to find a certain object with the life of his tribe and his lady-love, and off he is pushed into a quest for the heart of the Cygnet, the mystical being who holds the Gold King imprisoned - or so it appears. As usual, it's not quite that simple. The characterization is reasonable, although the hero is somewhat one-dimensional (dominated as he is by his curiosity, that may have been unavoidable). Other characters are quite well fleshed out, including the mystical sisters who become the focus of the later part of the book. They have personalities which stand up to inspection, and actually have opinions on things not central to the plot. Overall, this book continues my inclination to pay close attention to books written by McKillip; everything I've read has delivered an entertaining and exciting story. Rating: 6.5 out of 10. %A Patricia A. McKillip %T The Sorceress and the Cygnet %D January 1992 %G ISBN 0-441-77567-5 %I Ace Books, Berkeley Publishing Group %K Fantasy %O Paperback $4.50 %P 248 pages -- Subrata Sircar |sksircar@phoenix.princeton.edu|Prophet & SPAMIT Charter Member I don't speak for Princeton, and they don't speak for me. "I wish people wouldn't instantly assume that I am an idiot." (Valentine) "A restaurant is a whorehouse that does food instead of sex." (Roger Lustig) From /tmp/sf.4258 Tue Feb 1 03:55:48 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:390 rec.arts.sf.written:36394 Path: liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: merritt@u.washington.edu (Ethan A Merritt) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.written Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: review of _The Cygnet and the Firebird_ by Patricia McKillip Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Organization: University of Washington, Seattle Message-ID: <29dial$dr@news.u.washington.edu> Date: 12 Oct 93 11:55:56 GMT Lines: 94 Book Review: The Cygnet and the Firebird (Patricia McKillip) Here is a sequel, of sorts, to the _The Sorceress and the Cygnet_. "Of sorts" because, although the action takes up almost immediately after the close of the earlier tale, readers will search in vain for any sign of the loose ends which they may feel _Sorceress_ left hanging. Better to think of it as a companion book, rather than a sequel; a second portrait of the same characters. Although I love these books dearly, I have some sympathy with those who put down McKillip's earlier Cygnet volume scratching their heads and wondering if the publisher hadn't forgotten to print a chapter ... most likely the one which was supposed to let the reader know what on earth was going on. Or maybe there weren't many such readers; those who approached the book expecting "epic fantasy" of some ilk probably gave up on it before ever reaching that point. The Cygnet books are marvelous fantasy, but they are a fantasy of mood and illusion rather than one of action. Each is a marvelous tapestry of fantastic creatures, and as with a true tapestry the beauty lies not in a linear reading from start to finish, but in an array of set pieces which the eye can wander over at will. Actually, the feeling of "loose ends" in _Sorceress_ is itself an illusion. All the ends were neatly tucked back into the tapestry. But we were left to wonder as to the meaning of the images they wove. At the close _Sorceress_ we saw Nyx, second daughter of Ro holding, returned to her family. Nyx is a largely self-taught sorceress, heir to the books and trinkets of the great mage Chrysom from an earlier era. She had apparently driven herself to learn her craft to the exclusion of everything else, including family and common sense. Worse, she had gotten mired in a swamp (metaphorically and physically) gaining crumb after crumb of dubious knowledge by the equivalent of pulling wings off swamp flies. Through the efforts of her cousin Meguet Vervaine, not to mention the machinations and intervention of a zodiac's worth of mythological entities, Nyx was been reclaimed from the mire and re-installed into the household of Ro holding. _Firebird_ traces some further adventures of Meguet and of Nyx, mostly after they separately arrive in the dragon-haunted realm of Sapir. McKillip takes an interesting approach to dealing with central characters who can tap amazing magical powers. The constraints of suspense and plot dictate that there must be some challenge to the heroines; they can't just open the magic book to page 108 and read off a spell of denouement. In Meguet we have a heroine who is [apparently] the current generation's embodiment of the magical power the Cygnet, the mythological entity at the heart of Ro holding. However she has no conscious control over all this power. Instead she serves as eyes, ears, and [apparently] judge for events in the real world which might threaten the Cygnet/Ro holding. When she [or through her the Cygnet?] judges that events warrant then she may manifest some appropriate power, but she does not know in advance what will happen. This treatment reminds me of the fantasy works of Ardath Mayhar, in which the central characters often possess magical strengths largely as puppets for shadowy higher powers. In Nyx, on the other hand, we have a sorceress who is all too confident of her own powers. But she is self-taught, and Sapir is chock full of mages (not to mention the dragons), and neither she nor they knows whose magic is likely to prove stronger. There is a complex symmetry in the two books which I have not entirely worked out. If the heart of _Sorceress_ is the redemption of Nyx through the actions of Meguet and Corleu, then in some sense the heart of _Firebird_ is the redemption of the Dragon Lord of Sapir through the actions of Nyx and Meguet. But in both books we only recognize this theme after the action draws to a sudden halt at the end, and the characters themselves scarcely realize it any earlier. Rating (can't have reviews without ratings I guess): I can only rate these books to other fantasy tapestries-in-print, and that doesn't leave much besides other works by McKillip herself. They have more ambience and texture than the Riddle Master of Hed, but substantially less plot. Perhaps the closest comparison is to her much earlier _The Forgotten Beasts of Eld_, but her writing is now much smoother and the sense of depth much greater. To me it was certainly worth the purchase of the pair in hardcover. Readers of this forum who persist in equating "fantasy" to "Tolkein clones" would certainly broaden their horizons by trying McKillip's very different approach to fantasy. %T The Sorceress and the Cygnet %A Patricia A. McKillip %G ISBN 0-441-77564-0 %I Ace %D 1991 %T The Cygnet and the Firebird %A Patricia A. McKillip %G ISBN 0-441-12628-6 %I Ace %D 1993 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ethan A Merritt merritt@u.washington.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Sep 11 16:00:57 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!not-for-mail From: hklaus6073@aol.com (HKlaus6073) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Song For The Basilisk by McKillip Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 09 Sep 1998 20:54:45 -0400 Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 32 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2103 SONG FOR THE BASILISK by Patricia A. McKillip When the Basilisks destroyed all the residents of Tormalyne Palace, the boy survived by hiding in a fireplace and willing himself to be part of its ashes. When he is found alive, his rescuers know that there is no safe place for him. They send him to the end of the world, the remote island of Luly where the Bards sing. The Bards rename the lad Rook. Over the subsequent years, they raise Rook as one of their own. He becomes an accomplished piccolo player and falls in love. However, even though more than three decades have passed, Rook still suffers nightmares from that fatal day when a young lad hid from his family's enemy, the house of the Basilisks. Now, Arioso Pellior, head of the Basilisks, wants to eliminate any remaining Tormaylnes, including an individual who was raised by the Bards. Fantasy award winner Patricia McKillip is at the top of her game with her newest novel, SONG FOR THE BASILISK. The writing is lyrical and the suspense inspiring as the story line beautifully unfolds. The characters seem real as their various motivations are well defined and enable the subplots to propel forward to a climatic night at the opera. Fans of fantasy will enjoy the latest work by one of the genre's masters. Harriet Klausner %T SONG FOR THE BASILISK %A Patricia A. McKillip %I Ace %D Sep 1998 %O $22.95 %P 320 pp. %G ISBN 0-441-00447-4