The Essential Patricia A. McKillip
Gathering glittering selections from the fantasy great’s cherished oeuvre, The Essential Patricia A. McKillip is a radiant collection of fairy tales and modern fables.
In a dragon’s tower, too many treasure-seeking men talk past the truest treasure before them. Elsewhere, generations of women who can crochet time and defy storms band together to defeat an ancient evil. In another story, a time traveler wishes that she could change a malicious minister’s deadly visions, but is bound by the rules. And in “The Lion and the Lark,” a loyal daughter falls in love with an enchanted nobleman, following the fall of his feathers as they wait out a curse.
The prose throughout is atmospheric, otherworldly, and enchanting. McKillip conjures whole worlds with light trails of evocative terms: a fortune-teller’s tent is “a colorful cave of embroidery, lace, ribbons, flowing cloth” wherein the candle flames weave “a mystery of light and glittering dark”; a “tiny living world within a glass globe” plagues the wizard who stole it from the faerie queen, containing an oak wood, gold light, and trees that “fade to lavender and smoke.” Medieval and fantasy settings are well represented, but there are dashes of the contemporary as well.
A sensory pleasure from beginning to end, The Essential Patricia A. McKillip is a must for fantasy readers.
Reviewed by
Michelle Anne Schingler
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
