A magically-inclined gardener comes to work a school of magic.

I find myself in an odd (ha!) position here. I have nothing bad to say about this book. It's a beautiful, detailed, well-written story with a fairy tale feel to it. And yet, it did very little for me.

I'm stymied. The writing is elegant. It's sparse and evocative and all that jazz. The world is detailed and easy to visualize, and it has a lot to offer the reader.

The plot is composed of lots of little bits and pieces that McKillip weaves together to create a complex, meaningful story with a satisfying ending. The politics of magic play a key role as they serve as a metaphor for power, responsibility and flexible leadership. What's more, McKillip delves into such themes as grief, loss and the need to communicate. It's the sort of book I normally like very much. I should've been all over it.

And then we've got the characters, who are well-limned and interesting. There are an awful lot of them, but I never felt that McKillip gave anyone short shrift. They're fully-realized people with very human concerns. Again, I should've been all over them.

And yet... none of it was enough. I couldn't connect with these people. I couldn't lose myself in their world. I wasn't exactly bored, but I was most definitely disappointed. Last year, I read one of McKinley's novellas. It was elegant and heart-felt, and it drew me in right away. I was expecting something in a similar vein, and I did get it... but without the oomph.

Sigh. It's like I always say: you love what you love, and you just rather like what you just rather like. I rather liked this. That's all.

(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

Again, McKillip is an indulgence along the lines of eating a full pound of Godiva chocolate in one sitting. This book, and the Bell at Sealy Head are by far the less flowery of her works, and I like them even more for it. Her descriptions are so vibrant and her language so rich, McKillip is one of my favorite authors even though I can't ready her as often. Like you can't eat Godiva chocolates that often. ( )

This was a good book..have to agree with other reviewers about the ending..but what I did like about the ending is she didn't tie it up in a little bow..I thought I'd guessed the ending and was wrong so to me thats a good book. ( )

Beautiful and enchanting as always, but a little on the thin side. Distinctly anticlimactic ending. ( )

Having thoroughly disliked the previous book I'd read I was in the mood for something nice, and I'd been saving this for about a year so it seemed as good a time as any. It's not the most plot-driven of McKillip's works by a long chalk – there isn't even really an antagonist; people are foolish, blinkered, misguided, but not actually bad – but it was, as one expects from this author, a lovely, enchanting read, lyrically written and peopled with characters one would not at all mind spending one's life with. (By the way, although I can figure out most of what's going on in the cover art, I am at a loss to account for the man in what appears to be a diver's helmet in the upper left-hand corner.) ( )