Alone and Unobserved

Patricia A. McKillip is the author of seventeen fantasy novels. Her style is unique–a lyrical, ethereal combination of fairy-tale prose, brilliant, crystal imagery, and life-like, multidimensional characters. This half of the review examines the “new” books, released since 1995 by Ace with covers by Kinuko Y. Craft.

The Book of Atrix Wolfe (1995)
Atrix Wolfe, once the greatest wizard of the age, has hidden himself in the mountains out of shame; it was he who, in his anger and hubris, created the Hunter of Hunter’s Field, a silent, implacable monster that destroyed the armies of two kingdoms in a single night. Years later, as events once again move towards the cursed Hunter’s Field, he begins to realize that more things were wrought and ruined that night than mere armies, and he is the only one who can begin to put them right.
Recommended

Winter Rose (1996)
Rois Melior runs wild through the woods in summer, and chafes and paces through the house during the winter. She is the first to see the mysterious Corbet Lynn when he seems to step out of a fall of light in the wood like a spirit or sprite. Intrigued by the dark past of the Lynns and Lynn Hall, and half in love with Corbet, she begins searcing for the truth of what happened so many years ago between Corbet’s father and grandfather on a cold, frigid winter’s night. It is not long before she realizes that Corbet’s life and her happiness are threatened by the Queen of Winter herself, and that she must fight for herself, her family, and her love.
Recommended

A Song for Basilisk (1998)
The Basilisk descended on the Tourmalyne estate in a fiery coup that destroyed every living member of the family–except one, a young son who hid from the terror in the ashes of a fireplace. Thirty-odd years later, he is a bard called Raven in the island school of Luly, and thinks he has left his past behind him forever. The Basilisk has not forgotten, however, and events soon drag Raven back to his birth city of Berylon to face his family’s killer one last time.
Recommended

The Tower at Stony Wood (2000)
Magic once flowed strongly through the land of the North Islands, but those days were long gone when the armies of non-magical, down-to-earth Yves conquered them. Yves has also absorbed Skye, a shifting fairy-tale land of uncertain dimensions where magic is very much alive and where legends may suddenly come true. It is from Skye that the imposter has come, a scaled, six-fingered shapeshifter who has taken the place of Lady Gwynne, the King of Yves’ bride-to-be, and who threatens to overthrow Yves and its dominion forever. Cyan Dag, sworn oathman to the King, is warned by the Bard of Skye of the shapeshifter’s true nature, and agrees to travel deep into Skye to the lonely tower where the true Lady Gwynne languishes. On his journey, he will meet Thayne Ysse, heir to the North Islands and perhaps heir to their magic, and Melanthos, whose mother is heir to something even stranger. In the course of events it will become clear that the Bard of Skye is very much playing her own game, things may not be as they seem.
Highly Recommended

Ombria in Shadow (2002)
“This is Ombria . . . the oldest city in the world. The most beautiful city in the world. The most powerful city in the world. The richest city in the world. This is the world of Ombria. . . . And this is Ombria’s shadow.”
In the sunlit city of Ombria, life is hard and getting harder. The former ruler, Royce Greve, is dead, and Domina Pearl, deathless, black-hearted and wizened, has taken power–as regent for Greve’s son, Kyel, of course. Greve’s former mistress, Lydea, has been sent running for her life from the palace to live or die in the unfriendly streets of Ombria, and Ducon, Royce Greve’s bastard nephew, is the only one left in the palace who cares about the new young Prince. In the shadow city of Ombria, below, beside, or behind the sunlit Ombria, the sorceress Faey and her waxling Mag sell deadly magic spells to both sides of the struggle–but Mag is beginning to feel very unwaxlike twinges of remorse for the consequences of her actions. A change is coming to both Ombrias, and only those with their wits about them will survive it intact.
Highly Recommended

In the Forests of Serre (2003)
In a desolate part of the forests of Serre, Prince Ronan passes before the house of Brume, the legendary witch, and accidentally kills one of her hens. When he refuses her offer of hospitality (“never, never go into the witch’s house . . .”) she tells him, “Then you will have a very bad day. And when you leave your father’s palace at the end of it, you will not find your way back to it until you find me.” Already in despair over the death of his wife and young child, Ronan does not believe the day can get any worse than it is, but he is wrong: his father informs him that he is betrothed to Princess Sidonie of Dacia, a small neighboring country whose royal family is rumored to have sorcerous powers. When Sidonie arrives, however, Brume’s curse has come true, and Ronan is nowhere to be found. In order to save herself from the monstrous King of Serre, she must hide the fact that neither she nor her father have any sorcerous powers, and rescue the Prince from the forests before it is too late. Unfortunately, the wizard Gyre, sent from Dacia to protect the princess on her journey into Serre, has ideas of his own, and has an unslakeable ambition for power matched only by his lack of wisdom or scruples.
Recommended

Alphabet of Thorn (2004)
Nepenthe is content in her role as a scribe and translator in the vast library of Raine, specializing in obscure alphabets, until the mages discover a book written in an ancient script of thorns that only she can read. Not even her attraction to the young mage who delivers the book can distract her from her growing obsession with the story trapped among the briars–the story of an ages-old love story between Kane, a powerful, enigmatic wizardess disguised as a man, and Axis, a charismatic emperor who, with Kane’s help, conquers every country in sight. Why is the magic of Raine rousing in response to the tale? What danger lurks within the pages of this forgotten sorcerous book?
Recommended