Nepenthe is an orphan brought up, named and taught by the librarians of Raine. She is a talented translator of unusual alphabets and languages. She meets Bourne, a trainee mage, who brings a book in an unusual and spiky script. Instead of giving it to others, she works on it in secret in her cubbyhole. Much adventure follows.

I enjoyed the story and characters, but I enjoyed the language and the concepts of magic, illusion, and the power and changeability of words much more. The words and images flowed from the page, and I drank it all in, torn between savouring words and turning the pages faster to see what happened next. Sometimes descriptive words were used in an unusual or unexpected way, yet that seemed just right.

The icing on the cake to this wonderful story was sympathetic book art. The front cover art of the edition I have seems just right for the qualities of the prose and the ideas here. There is a magical, otherworldly, wispy yet detailed quality to it, and I was strongly reminded of some illustrated fairytales I read as a child. Turning to the back cover, I was not so struck there, but it's not too bad. Sometimes book artwork (inside or out) seems discordant with the story, style and language of the book, but this did not seem to be the case here.

Highly enjoyable read - a very book-based fantasy. ( )

I love McKillip's use of language and imagery. This is a wonderfully layered fantasy with story unfolding within story. A wonderful, magical world where the stories of many characters and different lives collide and entwine. It is also a story of love tipping over into obsession. The love of books, language and knowledge within the library; the passion of first love; the love of country and what one might do to sustain love. ( )

This was one of the most gorgeous books I've ever read-- every word seemed to be singing in chorus to create a novel that's as much about its lyricism as it is about the plot-- but because of this lyricism, the plot drags a bit in what feels like a lot of extended exposition, taking up about the first 2/3's of the book, though it's worth sloughing through the parts that sing out of tune for the excellent pay-off. There was a chapter near the end where the plot and the style and everything resolved into a truly gorgeous reverie. ( )

I loved this. I've been disappointed by some of her recent books, but this-- the alphabet, the queen, the foundling transcriptors.But - the characters weren't quite -- something. Especially Kane, at the end. Her sudden turnaround. I mean, it was forshadowed, I guess. When she wondered what it would have been, to have stayed musing Axis' wife. And had such trouble giving up her daughter. And no time had passed, to her, before her beloved toddler was grown up and rejecting her.What happened with Nepenthe, and Bourne, and Laidley? Another story.

Wonderfully imagined tale. But it's too short-- just when the story really gets going, it's over.

One cannot pick up a Patricia McKillip novel and expect it to be like anything else one has read. My first, The Tower at Stony Wood, so confused and befuddled me that by the time I finished, I no longer cared about the characters or the plot. After trying and loving the Riddle-Master trilogy, I returned to her newer books with Alphabet of Thorn, a little worried that my initial experience would be repeated. Thankfully it was not. Though the characters are from very different backgrounds and initially seem unconnected, I found myself drawn to almost every one of them; indeed, if this were a movie, I would certainly nominate it for a Best Ensemble award. There is Tessera, the new queen of Ombria who everyone has labeled an idiot child; Laidley, the stoop-shouldered apprentice librarian with thinning hair who is in love with Nepenthe; Vevay and Gavin, old, faithful lovers who together guard Raine; the legendary Axis and Kane, who in conquering kingdoms and worlds nearly destroyed themselves; and even Axis' forgotten wife, to whom is given this fabulous description: "She grew to become an affectionate mother and a discreet wife. So the poets mention her rarely and without interest. Her life was not the stuff of passion or tragedy, at least as far as they could see."

Slightly less compelling are Bourne and Nepenthe, our leading couple. Theirs is one of those love-at-first-sight relationships that might better be described as lust-at-first-sight. Even when Nepenthe expresses worries that Bourne might be a restless nobleman out to take her virginity and break her heart, she leads him dazedly to her bedchamber anyway. In this relationship, premarital sex is treated in such an offhand way as to make it even more offensive than Axis and Kane's near-incest. What has happened to McKillip since she wrote of the pure love between a princess of An and a boy who once put a seashell to her ear and let her hear the sea?

Of course, the original concept of Alphabet is intriguing. Being a bibliophile as well as a lover of languages, the idea of the fate of a nation being locked down in the royal libraries with a story written in an unreadable language is fascinating to me. More importantly, and what really surprised me in the end, is the fact that the seemingly disparate plot lines suddenly come together at the end of Chapter Twenty-Five in a terribly shocking way. Unfortunately the author only allows herself two chapters after that for the true climax and wrap-up, and the second of the two feels very rushed indeed, with only some of our major characters making an appearance. These objections aside, Alphabet of Thorn is still a wonderful memento of one of today's greatest fantasy authors. ( )

I should have given this amazing book a five. I would have if the ending had been more satisfying. From the beginning to near the end, the book engulfs the reader into a mystical world. The world is unlike any other you have read about. It is fantasy, yes, but not cliche fantasy that is so typical in books these days. The magic in the book seems real, and powerful, the very book is bewitching!

I thought the book was going to be about Nepenthe, and while it is primarily about her, there are many other characters that equally share the spotlight. Kane and Axis, for example, whose story I enjoyed as much as Nepenthe's. Then there is Tessera, the Queen of Raine; Bourne, a mage, Yevena, a powerful and old mage and of course Kane and Axis. They all share the spotlight to transform the book into something unique and interesting.

However, the ending was highly unsatisfying. When it seemed all the characters had reached their climax, when finally the reader would realize how important the characters are in the story...the crisis ends and everyone goes back to being happy, before all the chaos happened. While I do hate stories that end with page after page of resolution, the ending of this book seemed like an afterthought. It was as if the writer didn't write the ending, it didn't fit in with the rest of the novel.

I don't mind happy, sweet endings...but when I closed the book I had a wretched picture in my head of all the character's standing around with big smiles on their faces and laughing...you know, like you see in those cheesy movies? ( )

The link to my review.

Alphabet of Thorn tells a complex story that boils down to a basic question of parental love.

Nepenthe is an orphan who has been brought up in the royal library and whose talent and job is deciphering mysterious alphabets. As the story begins, she is working on a book written completely in clusters of small fish, each with its own meaning. A book comes to Nepenthe which she is meant to pass on to the master librarians; instead she keeps the book and tries to figure out the complicated alphabet of brambles and thorns. The book seems to reveal a set of stories about a long ago king and his mage but strange things are happening around Nepenthe.

(shrug) I felt like I should like this book and story more than I did and I'm not sure why I didn't fall into the story. Some books are like that. ( )

http://martlet-blog.blogspot.com/2007... ( )

As usual, McKillip's sublime prose, superb tone, and excellent characterization make "Alphabet of Thorn" required reading for any serious devotee of fantasy literature. More particularly, this book will appeal strongly to the bookish and the scholarly.

That appeal derives from the setting and the cast. The heroine, Nepenthe, is a foundling raised by librarians, and much of the plot revolves around her slow progress in deciphering and translating a mysterious book written in a nettlesome language no-one else can begin to grasp. Literally nettlesome - the characters of the alphabet are thorny, coiling shapes interlocked into a dense thicket of meaning. The difficult (and painful) task of disentangling these barbed words absorbs Nepenthe's attention, and the crucial message they carry slowly takes over the screen; there is a brilliant moment, towards the end, where the reader suddenly realizes that the words on the page have somehow become the words of the Book of Thorn itself. And that moment of realization precipitates the climax of the book, a crisis as convoluted as the alphabet of thorn itself.

Sadly, the resolution of that crisis felt vaguely unsatisfying, depending as it did on a sudden change of heart by a character previously portrayed as obsessively devoted to one course of action. There was insufficient preparation for that change of heart. Though the change was necessary, it felt vaguely unrealistic. Perhaps this seems a strange criticism for a fantasy novel; yet the best fantasy breathes realism into the most implausible of things, and this implausible thing remained so: a deus ex machina at the end of all things.

Still, as flaws go, this one is fairly minor. Indeed, it may well be a product of my own taste more than anything else. And so I can, and do, recommend "Alphabet of Thorn" to any fantasy reader looking to while away a rainy afternoon. If you love books, fantasy, and puzzles, you will surely find "Alphabet of Thorn" as engrossing as Nepenthe finds her Book of Thorn. ( )

A beautifully told story, yet at times it dragged and it was wrapped up too simply in my opinion. While I enjoyed the characters and unusual nature of the plot, the relationships tended to be very flat in terms of emotion. ( )

A dreamy adult fairytale about libraries, language and war. ( )

Her newest book, and my first experience of her. I liked it. How could I not, really, it prominently features librarians! I also found the importance of names and writing very appealing. Basically it's about an orphan who is adopted by librarians (much better than being raised by wolves!) and raised as a translator. When she's 16 she "finds" a book that seems to only speak to her. It was a little predictable, but I'm going to give some of her other books a try.
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