Basic Reason for Starting: Well, I have this interest in swans/cygnets and, after reading a short story, I wanted to read something longer by McKillip. Also, this was two books for the price of one, so I picked this omnibus to venture into McKillip's longer works.
Basic Reason for Finishing: I'm stubborn and, lik McKinley, McKillip has a way with words that is utterly fascinating even though it doesn't grab me.

Full review for 'The Sorceress and the Cygnet' here
Texture: Milky, splashes of pearlescent shading here and there, boggy to the feel… Like solid ground, but soggy enough to sink in. I suppose it fits, given Nyx’ choice of home in this.

Full review for 'The Cygnet and the Firebird' here.
Texture: If this had a single texture, I’d give it to you, but I’m afraid it doesn’t. The first book was very spirally and mazelike and gah, but this… This was shifting all the time, like the desert it’s set in shifts. Everything seems to shift.

Book Rereadability: I said, on my initial review of The Sorceress and the Cygnet that I didn't know. I still don't. I should, because these are the kind of stories that show you something new every time you reread them. But at the same time, I just don't get along with the prose enough for rereading. I think the major culprit is the emotional detachment I felt, though.
Author Rereadability: That said, you might be surprised if I tell you that I'd like to try another one of McKillip's stories. Well, I do. Eventually.
Recommendation: If you’re looking for good, challenging fantasy that’s still easy to follow along this is a good bet. (What I mean is that the main story line is easy to follow. It’s all the subtleties and the detail that’s hard to catch.) If you want your fantasy straight-forward and requiring no thought this isn’t the book for you.
Okay, having said that, The Sorceress and the Cygnet is definitely the most confusing of the two because it relies so heavily on things half-shown and half-said that you have to puzzle together. ( )

I'm trying to read this again. I'm a fan of almost everything I've read my Patricia McKillip but I'm having trouble getting into this one. I'd say it's the worst I've read of her work. ( )

This book is actually two books originally published separately in the early 90's (The Sorceress and the Cygnet, and The Cygnet and the Firebird). Wow, did I like these books, especially The Cygnet and the Firebird, probably because for some reason I wasn't really that interested in one of the main characters in the first book, who doesn't appear in the second (except as a half-glimpsed figure in one scene). The rest of the characters are wonderful, though, and McKillip's prose is just beautiful. I found myself rereading bits here and these because they were so lyrical.

I haven't read a lot of McKillip recently; I bought the Riddle-Master series a while back because I remembered enjoying it very much when I was a teenager. After finishing this book, I decided that I need to reread that series now! ( )