Sunspots 159

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Humor:
(or something) K has tried a new kind of fruit, with photos.

Science:
Wired on a giant squid, with the largest eye ever studied.

Literature:
An interview with Patricia A. McKillip, wherein she answers questions about her writing habits. Spoiler: she listens to Telemann while writing.

Christianity:
Bonnie on how to keep up with what's going on in the world (or not).

Russell on how men look at women, and how they should (or shouldn't).

Slate has a disturbing article (disturbing because of what it says about some Christians) about alternative Christian culture. For example, I had no idea that there was a "Christian pro wrestling." What makes it Christian? Do they hit each other's heads with softer chairs?

Image source (public domain)

Invisible in plain sight: a recurring theme in the works of Patricia A. McKillip

Patricia A. McKillip is a solid craftswoman of fantastic literature, and has been for over three decades. There's no sense of the occult in her works, and, seldom, great works of wizardry, causing disaster, or the reverse. Her characters usually face situations they don't fully understand, and the reader often feels that way, too. If that's the case, what makes her a great craftswoman? She uses words well, she knows how to create an atmosphere, and she knows how to describe life-changing experiences in her characters.

I have previously argued that rejection of vengeance is an important theme in many of McKillip's works. Another theme that occurs in some of her work is the importance of musical artistry. One of her books is named Harpist in the Wind, another Song for the Basilisk. These titles aren't accidents. Nor is that of "A Matter of Music," the longest story in her collection, Harrowing the Dragon. (New York: Ace, 2005). Another theme that occurs more than once is strange ancestry. In "A Matter of Music," even though the Jazi despise the Daghian people, some of the Jazi are part Daghian. In the Riddle-Master trilogy, Raederle is part Earth-Master. There are other examples of this in McKillip's writing.

It was while I was reading this collection that another of McKillip's themes occurred to me, that of the title. Her characters are often in plain sight, yet invisible to those around them. In "Ash, Wood, Fire," (in Harrowing) a kitchen helper in a castle is so invisible that the other workers in the kitchen have no name for her. Finally she leaves the kitchen. "Cooks, Sauces, Bakers milled bewilderedly, betrayed, calling, "Fire! Fire!" and never seeing her, while beside the door a young woman stood watching . . ." (185) This story is similar to the description of Saro in McKillip's The Book of Atrix Wolfe. In "Transmutations," a wizard's apprentice hasn't seen his female co-apprentice in her other life as a servant at a tavern, even though he goes there all the time.

But it isn't always fellow workers who don't see McKillip's characters. In her "The Snow Queen," also in Harrowing, a man doesn't see his wife, who loves him deeply. He sees another woman: "To his eye she was alone; the importunate young lapdog beside her did not exist." (154) He leaves her, and she blossoms during the separation: "For a moment he did not recognize her; he had never seen her laugh like that." (172)

In another story in the same book, a destructive villain is destroyed and dissuaded because someone sees aspects of him that no one else has ever seen. ("The Stranger")

On reflection, some of McKillip's other works have this same theme. In her Riddle-Master trilogy, some wizards hide in plain sight for centuries. Nun is a pig-herder, Suth a wild animal, Aloil a tree. And the most important character, the High One, masquerades for centuries as harpist for a false High One.

This theme is important, because we have the same problems. Probably all of us have been invisible to someone else, even though we are in plain sight. And, worse, probably all of us have overlooked a co-worker, a spouse, a store clerk, a neighbor, when we should have seen them for what they are. I'm afraid I have.

Thanks for reading.

On realness by Patricia A. McKilllip

The witch shrugged. "I have you now. You conjure firebirds out of your head. I'll have your magic out of you and then I'll change all my hens into firebirds."

"It won't be enough," Gyre told her softly. "It will never be enough. Not once you have heard its true voice and seen the face it hides. All the power I possess could not make out of all the white hens in the world a single feather of the firebird." (Patricia A. McKillip, In the Forests of Serre. New York: Ace Books, 2003, p. 178)

Ah yes. There is real, and there is unreal. The link with the book's title is to a more comprehensive post on the same book. Here's the Wikipedia article on McKillip.

Thanks for reading.

In the Forests of Serre by Patricia McKillip, re-done

Patricia A. McKillip is one of my favorite fantasy authors. I have written elsewhere about one reason that I like her work, namely that much of it involves a main character deciding not to seek revenge. (I suppose that makes her novels, with this aspect important, Christian, in a sense.)

Here's what another blogger wrote about her use of words:

Words seem ironically inadequate to describe the skill with which McKillip spins the English language into magic. Lyrical is one word that is often used in reviews, but it's so much more. Most of McKillip's work deals with magic, and if there is any true magic in the world, I would suspect it would be found in her use of language. I could luxuriate in work written by McKillip regardless of the story, simply to enjoyher use of words.

I agree. It is also true that McKillip can be obscure, and leave quite a bit unexplained.

In the Forests of Serre (New York: Ace, 2003) is a book that I have read four times since I got it from one of our daughters for Christmas. I believe that I have finally gotten a handle on it, and it's not McKillip's fault that it took me so long. The central theme is the heart. The word, referring to the seat of the emotions, is used over and over again, and two of the main characters give up their hearts for something else, and regret this. (They get them back.) Here are two items of evidence:

The queen's voice cut sharply at him, cold and edged with astonishment. "What is the matter with you? You came out of that forest as heartless as your father." (p. 203). Queen Calandra is Prince Ronan's mother, and married to King Ferus of Serre, who has no love, or empathy, for anyone else, certainly including his wife and only son.

He had thought the wizard's last battle would be a tale of terror and courage, feats of unimaginable magic performed with heart-stopping skill and passion, good and evil as clearly defined as midnight and noon, a heroic battle for life and hope against the howling monster that left death in every footprint and ate life to fill the unfillable void where its heart had been. Instead he was trapped in the middle of something grisly, ugly, dreary, that ate into his own heart word by word until he could scarcely stand to look at himself. (212)

"This monster, when it could not kill me, reached into me and broke my heart. . . ." (213. The Wizard Unciel has described his battle with a monster to Euan Ash, the scribe who is working for Unciel. The wizard needs all sorts of help, because he has been weakened physically and emotionally, almost to the point of death.)

I don't see how I can summarize the plot, or even describe the characters (there are nine that I would consider main characters) in anything like a post length that's reasonable, even for me. So I'll just summarize the book this way:

McKillip has again written a book with excellent use of language, describing a marvelous forest, wizardry, and a cold castle. The Princess Sidonie decides that she doesn't want to marry Prince Ronan unless he re-claims his heart. He gave it away because his first wife and child died. After numerous trips, by several characters, into and through the forest, all is well. Everyone who should have a heart does, and the two really can fall in love and be married.

Three themes that I have found in some of McKillip's other work, namely rejection of vengeance, being visible in plain sight, and having someone strange in a character's pedigree, are not prominent in this book.

I hope that my heart is present, and doing what it's supposed to do.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life. (ESV)

Thanks for reading. Much of this post comes from a previous one.

Christian themes in Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle-Master Trilogy

I should begin with two acknowledgments:
1) I am grateful to Patricia A. McKillip, who has written a body of work that I have enjoyed. Sometimes I've had trouble understanding what was going on, which was probably my fault, but I've never had trouble understanding that I'm in a world of fantastic fiction, where things don't work quite as they do here in the real world.
2) I'm grateful to Elliot, of the Claw of the Conciliator blog, for posting an annotated list of important authors of fantastic literature that show evidence of a Christian world-view in their work. I commented on this, and suggested, based especially on her use of the theme of turning away from vengeance, that McKillip might belong on his list. Then, I decided to go further, examining McKillip's longest work, the Riddle-Master trilogy, for Christian themes. I'm not sure that I would have ever done this if I hadn't read Elliot's post.

I now add a disclaimer. I have never read anything suggesting that McKillip is a Christian, other than her novels. A list of "Famous Science Fiction/Fantasy Authors," written in 1999, and updated in 2006, which gives the religious affiliation of all of these authors, does not mention her. This implies that the person who prepared this list did not consider that McKillip belonged on it, in spite of the awards she has won, and the value of her body of work, and really says nothing about her religious affiliation.

Now, to Christian themes in the Riddle-Master trilogy. (See previous post for my plot summary, and bibliographic information.) Here are some of the ones I have found.

Rejection of vengeance. Deth led Morgon to Ghisteslwchlohm, without warning him that he would be subjected to months of mental torture, or that Ghisteslwchlohm was not the High One, when he understood both of these full well. So Morgon had motivation to kill Deth. In fact, he followed him through An, wanting to take vengeance on him. However, when he finally caught up with Deth, he did not kill him. Here's an exchange between Morgon's sister, Tristan, and his companion, Raederle:
"He's changed. Once he was the land-ruler of Hed, and he would rather have killed himself than someone else Now --"
"Tristan, he has been hurt, probably more deeply than any of us could know . . ."
She nodded a little jerkily. "I can understand that with my head. People have killed other people in Hed, out of anger or jealousy, but not -- not like that. Not tracking someone like a hunter, driving him to one certain place to be killed. It's -- what someone else would do. But not Morgon. And if -- if it happens, and afterwards he goes back to Hed, how will we recognize each other any more?" p. 301. Ellipsis in original.

Morgon finally realizes that Deth is the High One, and marvels that he did not destroy Ghisteslwchlohm. He had reason to, and could have.

See Romans 12:19: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (ESV)

Redemption through death. The core story of the trilogy is that the High One, the supernatural ruler of the realm, needs to die, so that evil, in the person of the shape-changers, can be conquered. Deth, the High One, willingly dies, allowing himself to be killed, so that this may be accomplished. (His heir, Morgon, will be able to conquer the shape-changers, but couldn't, of course, be his heir as long as the former High One was still alive.)

See Colossians 1:19-22, and other passages: 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, (ESV)

Unselfish love. This, of course, is epitomized in 1 Corinthians 13. I wouldn't say that such agape love is a main theme of this trilogy, but it is at least an underlying one. Deth says that he didn't expect to love Morgon, and Morgon certainly didn't expect to come to love Deth, even though Deth betrayed him to Ghisteslwchlohm. There seems, also, to be affection amounting to unselfish love, for Morgon, from two of the land-rulers, Har of Osterland and Danan of Isig Mountain.

Forgiveness. (See Matthew 6:7-15) At least one example, of course, is that Morgon forgave Deth for betraying him. This took some time -- he pursued Deth in order to kill him, first -- and wasn't easy.

Maintenance of the material world. Colossians 1:16-17 says this: 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (ESV) While McKillip's land-law does not seem to include creation of rocks, soil, water and organisms, it does have aspects of control, knowledge, and maintenance:
The High One, from the beginning, had let men free to find their own destinies. His sole law was land-law, the law that passed like a breath of life from land-heir to land-heir; if the High One died, or withdrew his immense and intricate power, he could turn his realm into a wasteland. (p. 109)
"Eliard was out in the fields when it happened. He just said he felt that suddenly everything -- the leaves and animals, the rivers, the seedlings -- everything suddenly made sense. He knew what they were and why they did what they did. He tried to explain it to me. I said everything must have made sense before, most things do anyway, but he said it was different. He could see everything very clearly, and what he couldn't see he felt. He couldn't explain it very well." p. 262. Tristan of Hed, Morgon's sister, explaining the passing of land-law from Morgon to her brother Eliard.
The High One knows the land of the entire realm. The six land-rulers (see previous post) are responsible for the land-rule of their own kingdoms. Different land-rulers seem to have somewhat different powers. For example, there is no mention that the land-ruler of Hed controls anything (although the books don't say that he or she doesn't).

See the first three principles in this page for more on this topic.

Control of natural forces. This could be considered as part of the land-law, but I prefer to mention it separately. Jesus is called the master of wind and wave in Matthew 8:23-27, and parallel passages. In the Trilogy, Morgon becomes the master of the winds, so as to use them to control the shape-changers.

God appearing among humans. Christ was incarnated as a human being, and lived as one until He died, and there are a few instances in the Old Testament which may also be examples of this. In the Trilogy, the High One masquerades as Deth, the High One's harpist, a human servant, for centuries, and shows no evidence of supernatural powers to those who know him.

Powerful supernatural beings making a choice. The Bible doesn't say much about it, but many believe that the angels had a choice, long ago, perhaps even before the material universe was created. Some of them rebelled to follow Satan, but a majority didn't. In McKillip's trilogy, the Earth-masters and the Shape-changers were apparently one and the same kind of being, until the High One decided to take care of the earth and its creatures, while the Shape-changers decided to use it for their own ends. Not much is said about this division. (See Wikipedia article on Evil Angels, or this web page on Angels.)

This story, of course, is not a perfect parallel to the gospels. For example, Deth, the old High One, doesn't resurrect himself. There are other differences, but that is the main one. Nonetheless, I submit that there are important Christian themes in this trilogy. Does that make it Christian fiction? That depends, of course, on your definition of Christian fiction.

Thanks for reading.

Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle-Master Trilogy

Patricia A. McKillip is one of the masters of fantasy literature (see here for Wikipedia article) and has been for over three decades. She was fifth in a list of "Great" female fantasy writers. Here's my page on McKillip, mostly on one aspect of her fiction, namely the rejection of revenge by important characters in her works.

Most of my posts on fantastic literature attempt to steer away from giving away the plot. However, I will attempt to outline the plot of her longest work in this post.

The Riddle-Master trilogy consists of The Riddle-Master of Hed (New York: Ballantine, 1976), Heir of Sea and Fire (New York: Ballantine, 1977), and Harpist in the Wind (New York: Ballantine, 1979). The trilogy has been re-published as Riddle-Master (New York: Ace, 1999), with a new introduction by McKillip.

The best reviews/summaries of these books that I have seen are by Geoffrey Prewett. These may be found here, here, and here.

So how to summarize this trilogy? Here's a fairly short version:
Morgon is the heir of Hed, a small island close to other more important parts of the realm of the High One. He was born with three stars on his forehead. He has been to the School for Riddle-Masters, the only scholar ever to go there from Hed. Ohm is one of the masters of this school. Morgon meets the High One's harpist, Deth, and gradually develops a deep friendship with him, and also learns more and more about him, as the trilogy progresses.

A central feature of the trilogy is land-law. Each of the six main parts of the realm, Hed, An, Ymris, Osterland, Herun, and Isig Mountain, is ruled by a person who is deeply concerned about the care of their land, and the people and organisms that live there, and has intimate knowledge of all of these. A land-ruler is somehow aware of each leaf, each insect, each stone. Each of them has a land-heir, who will suddenly acquire this same intimate knowledge upon the death of a land-ruler. The system was developed, and presumably made possible, by the High One, who supposedly lives in the realm, but outside of the six areas named above (I'll call them kingdoms, although that's too simple) in Erlenstar Mountain.

"Eliard was out in the fields when it happened. He just said he felt that suddenly everything -- the leaves and animals, the rivers, the seedlings -- everything suddenly made sense. He knew what they were and why they did what they did. He tried to explain it to me. I said everything must have made sense before, most things do anyway, but he said it was different. He could see everything very clearly, and what he couldn't see he felt. He couldn't explain it very well." p. 262 (from Heir of Sea and Fire) Tristan of Hed, explaining the passing of land-law from Morgon to Eliard, to Raederle, Who is supposed to marry Morgon.

Morgon eventually learns that the High One was one of a race of Earth-Masters, beings with great power, who were capable of changing and destroying the land, and the organisms and people on it, almost without limits. The High One had allies from among the Earth-Masters, but also had a group of powerful opponents from among them, the shape-changers. The Earth-Masters are a very long-lived race, and the system of land-rule has been in place for at least several centuries. He also learns that another set of powerful entities, the wizards, humans with great powers, appeared some time after the kingdoms were established. A great wizard, Ghisteslwchlohm, founded a School for Wizards at Lungold, in the realm, but outside of the six kingdoms. There he taught the other Wizards, but, Morgon learns, he also limited their powers, and learned how to control them.

Morgon goes to see the High One, at the urging of Deth, the High One's harpist, who supposedly has no special powers of his own, but acts as the emissary of the High One throughout the realm. When he gets there, he discovers that Ghisteslwchlohm has taken the place of the High One, and that he is also Ohm, from the school for Riddle-Masters. Ghisteslwchlohm holds Morgon captive for months, probing his mind for a secret. Morgon learns later that the secret he is trying to find is the identity and location of the High One. During this time, Deth plays his harp, and Morgon comes to hate this harping, and the harpist who has betrayed him.

The second book develops the character and role of Raederle, daughter of the ruler of An, who is promised as bride to Morgon. She, it turns out, is part shape-changer, and has their abilities.

Deth allowed Morgon to be captured by Ghisteslwchlohm because it would strengthen Morgon. The mind-link that the wizard forged was two-way. It eventually gave Morgon enough knowledge of the wizard that Morgon broke his control and escaped, and, in doing so, set the other wizards free.

The High One, it develops, is Deth himself, and, at the end of the trilogy, he tells Morgon, who has forgiven him, and loves him (although he doesn't understand why) that Morgon is land-heir to the High One, and will take over the land-rule of the entire realm when he, Deth, is dead. Deth has hidden because he was not able to stand against his old enemies, the shape-changers, but Morgon, with Raederle, will be able to do so. At the end, Deth allows himself to be killed by Ghisteslwchlohm and the shape-changers, but this sacrifice destroys Ghisteslwchlohm, and gives Morgon the power of the High One, which allows him to isolate the shape-changers in Erlenstar Mountain, where they cannot affect the rest of the realm.

There is more. Morgon's family, the various land-rulers and their land-heirs, and the wizards, are all characters with personalities, well-drawn by McKillip. There are fine descriptions of various kinds of crafts, of commerce, and of the land and the living things upon it. There are many turns of plot that I have not included in the summary above. McKillip has some gift for naming, and there are many well-chosen names for her places and characters (A couple of them are quite long. Besides Ghisteslwchlohm, there is El Elrhiarhodan*, the Morgol, female land-ruler of Herun. Most of McKillip's names are shorter.) She says that she was influenced by Tolkien, and some of that shows through, but the trilogy is certainly much more than a shadow of The Lord of the Rings. It holds up well on its own.

My next post considers biblical themes in this trilogy.

Thanks for reading.

*This name reminds me of that of El-ahrairah, the Prince with a Thousand Enemies, from Richard Adams' great Watership Down.

Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip

Patricia A. McKillip has been one of my favorite writers for roughly a quarter century. I recently was privileged to read her Od Magic (New York: Ace, 2005).

Od Magic begins with a young man, whose parents have recently died. He is an expert at healing, using plants. Od, a giantess who heals injured animals of all kinds, and a sorceress, comes to him, and tells him he needs to go to the school for wizards at the capital city, to be the gardener. (Od has been alive for several centuries, and founded the school herself.) When Brenden Vetch gets to the city, he enters the school through a door under a shoe, hung out as a shop sign. It turns out that no one else has seen this sign for 19 years, since Yar, the principal teacher of the school, entered as a student.

Going in doors that no one else can see is a symbol, and it has been used at other times, in other ways, by other authors. Jesus told his followers (John 10:1-7) that he was the only true door, and no one could enter except through him. Ged entered a school for wizards through a door that required him to give his secret name to the Master Doorkeeper in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books. Harry Potter and the other students bound for Hogwarts can see, and enter, a door to a train that ordinary people cannot see. Clearly, Brenden Vetch is special. But the book mostly leaves him alone, until the end. Other characters take the plot over, and there is a plot.

There is a theme, too. The theme is freedom. The school for wizards has been made subordinate to the wishes of the king. Although the king is not malevolent, the wizards are stifled, and ordinary. They don't pursue the edges of their craft. They ignore types of wizardry that haven't been approved. Yar remembers that there is more, but the pupils don't want anything taught except what is safe.

There is some murkiness in this book. As in the Hed trilogy, McKillip introduces beings and powers that aren't really described, except that they are powerful. What they are, what they want, how they operate is not explained -- it's just assumed. It turns out that Od has seen that Brenden Vetch is, potentially, one of these powers, and, incidentally, that it's time that the school for wizards becomes a less stifling place. She has sent him there to do that. It is accomplished.

What is McKillip saying? I'm not sure. Perhaps she is arguing for artistic freedom. Perhaps for freedom to explore scientifically. Perhaps she is arguing for spiritual freedom. Perhaps she has something else in mind. Perhaps she just thinks that people ought to be totally free. I'm not sure.

Od Magic is a good book. There are interesting, believable characters, quite a few of them. She writes well. The plot was such that I wanted to know what was going to happen. I recommend it to lovers of fantasy. Thanks for reading.

Alphabet of Thorn and Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip

Patricia A. McKillip is one of the finest writers of fantasy currently writing. I have enjoyed all of her books, some more than others.

Reading a book by McKillip is to enter a dream. There are things going on that your can feel, but not understand, and when you wake up, you aren't certain where you have been, or for how long. My response, recently, upon reading one of her books, is to start over, looking to find out. Here's a sentence from a recent review of another of McKillip book:
As always, McKillip writes sparely, with elegance and precision, and this time disguises her usual insufficiency of plot behind an annoying and disconcerting succession of first-person narrators.

This is a pretty good one-sentence summary of McKillip. Some of her books have a more discernable plot than others, however, and this one has a plot. I do not wish to give away the plot of Alphabet of Thorn, except to say that there is an alphabet, and at least one book written in it, and the letters of that alphabet are thorns.

One thing I will give away is a sample of McKillip's writing:
. . . She went into it.
It was not the school that the students saw. That school was an eccentric, drafty puzzle-box of stone that changed shape according to their needs. Sometimes the stone walls would shift to let in the wood, sometimes the sky; any kind of weather was apt to appear. Stairs and corridors were rarely predictable, except for finding meals and beds. Monsters might roam the halls; doors might open to reveal riches, or strange beasts, or nothing at all as far as the eye could see. Through the centuries different mages had worked their spells into the rooms as tests and teaching devices; not even Felan knew anymore what waited behind every door, or how many magically charmed rooms lay unopened, forgotten until chanced upon by some hapless student. The school itself became a student's first test: the inflexible mind that balked at its erratic behavior never stayed long.
The school that opened itself to Vevay was a comfortable, cluttered place, with thick carpets and musty tapestries and many fat candles. Owls queried her passing; in the windows, ravens and kingfishers muttered sleepily. A milk-white snake in a dark corner uncoiled its head and opened a sapphire eye at her. Books lined the walls, lay open on stands; some of them whispered constantly, reading themselves aloud. The hallway she walked opened into a room with an elaborately patterned floor of wood and ivory, and walls of oak and stained glass. In it, she found Felan, who would have been expecting her the moment she set foot in the wood.
- Alphabet of Thorn (New York: Berkley, 2004) pp.109-110.

Vevay is the chief mage of the kingdom. Felan runs the school for mages for her. The school is, more or less, in a magical wood. It often floats above the wood, and there is a reflection of it in the sky near it.

I won't post separately on Ombria in Shadow (New York: Ace, 2002) but will append a reaction here.

This is a dark work. There isn't much vengeance in it, although the evil Domina Pearl is finally defeated in the end. There's a lot of murky stuff, unresolved. Even a second reading left me unsure what had gone on, although sure that McKillip had created a world that somehow drew me in. Ombria is a large old city. Is there really a shadow city? If so, can you only get to it by some sort of magic, or is it just old and forgotten? Are Domina Pearl's guards alive, and, if so, are they human? What is Domina Pearl? What is on her black ships? These are some of the questions I can't answer.

It is often true, in McKillip's books, that parentage is obscure, or that parents have died untimely deaths. That's especially so in Ombria. Mag is told that she is a creature of wax, but she isn't. Whose child is she? Kyel Greve, the child prince, has lost both mother and father. Ducon Greve's mother is dead, and his father is unknown. Lydea's mother has died. These four are more or less normal, and they are the characters who, with help from Faey, the sorceress Mag works for, finally destroy Domina Pearl.

One theme throughout the book is art. Ducon Greve and Kyel communicate through sketches. Ducon sketches a lot of things, in fact, this is his main occupation, seemingly.

Something that's usually found in McKillip's writing, but not in this book, is trees and forests. Not only in In the Forests of Serre, but in most of her other works, there are trees and forests. Not so in Ombria. There are weeds growing on the dock, and a patch of sunflowers near the palace gate, but that's about it. I missed the trees and forests.

In the Forests of Serre by Patricia McKillip

Patricia A. McKillip is one of my favorite fantasy authors. I have written elsewhere about one reason that I like her work, namely that much of it involves a main character deciding not to seek revenge. (I suppose that makes her novels, with this aspect important, Christian, in a sense.)

Here's what another blogger wrote about her use of words:

Words seem ironically inadequate to describe the skill with which McKillip spins the English language into magic. Lyrical is one word that is often used in reviews, but it's so much more. Most of McKillip's work deals with magic, and if there is any true magic in the world, I would suspect it would be found in her use of language. I could luxuriate in work written by McKillip regardless of the story, simply to enjoyher use of words.

I agree. It is also true that McKillip can be obscure, and leave quite a bit unexplained.

In the Forests of Serre (New York: Ace, 2003) is a book that I have read three times since I got it from one of our daughters for Christmas. I was trying to get a handle on the book. I believe that I finally did, and it's not McKillip's fault that it took me so long. It's about the heart. The word, referring to the seat of the emotions, is used over and over again, and two of the main characters give up their hearts for something else, and regret this.

I don't see how I can summarize the plot, or even describe the characters (there are nine that I would consider main characters) in anything like a post length that's reasonable, even for me. So I'll just summarize the book this way:

McKillip has again written a book with excellent use of language, describing a marvelous forest, wizardry, and a cold castle. The Princess Sidonie decides that she doesn't want to marry Prince Ronan unless he re-claims his heart. He gave it away because his first wife and child died. After numerous trips, by several characters, into and through the forest, all is well. Everyone who should have a heart does, and the two really can fall in love and be married.

* * * * *

This post has been somewhat re-done, here.

Thanks for reading!

Patricia A. McKillip: the Hed trilogy

Someone called Nessa, The Smite Faerie, writes brief, but critical, book reviews. Recently, he/she/they have posted reviews of Patricia A. McKillip's Hed trilogy. The reviews are here, here, and here.

I have stated that "McKillip certainly can't be accused of lacking imagination, or of making the rules of her fantastic worlds explicit. They just are, and the reader will grasp most of the rules by reading."

The Smite Faerie is less generous. The criticisms are, basically, first, that The Riddle-Master of Hed, and the trilogy as a whole, is confusing. Agreed. Second, that Heir of Sea and Fire presents a strong female character, but Harpist in the Wind portrays the same character, Raederle, as weak and dependent. The latter criticism is, in my mind, only partly true.

There is indeed, confusion. McKillip makes up rules, and invents entities, without always making them clear. Reading Nessa's criticisms, I asked myself, "why, then, have you read these books over and over?" Well, I'm not certain, but one reason is because of the plot. Let me just summarize it as rejection of vengeance. Wronged characters decide not to retaliate. (This is a motif of more than one of McKillip's books--see my web page on the matter.) Lest there be any doubt, the plot is more complex than that.

There's another theme: hiding. Several characters conceal themselves for long periods of time, in various ways, generally as a character of seemingly lesser importance, but one as a tree, and another as a vesta.

Another reason that the books appeal is that they have features that are attractive. In the Hed trilogy, McKillip created a new species of mammal, the vesta, roaming in great herds in the northern wastes. Some of her characters have the ability to turn themselves into animals, and even trees. She can describe the relationships between individuals in interesting, yet realistic ways. She can describe aspects of nature in interesting, yet realistic ways. Her prose is well-crafted.

I have decided that I can put up with ambiguity, in order to savor descriptions and plot that are of interest.

McKillip has written other books. She is number five on a recent list of "Great Ladies of Fantasy."

Patricia McKillip quotations

Here are two I like, from the first book by McKillip that I read, and the last one:

"The giant Grof was hit in one eye by a stone, and that eye turned inward so that it looked into his mind, and he died of what he saw there." Patricia A. McKillip, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. New York: Avon, 1974. p. 70

". . . You were just roaming around Serre wearing that monster's face, terrifying every living thing -- Now you're going to warm up some old cabbage soup? Is that how life normally is for a wizard?"
"Some days you battle yourself and other monsters. Some days you just make soup. . . ." Euan, scribe, and Gyre, wizard, conversing. Patricia A. McKillip, In the Forests of Serre. New York: Ace Books, 2003. p. 295.

The inner life is important, and so is ordinary life, even for wizards.

-Martin LaBar