Patricia A. McKillip (1948–2022)

Let me just start by saying that I love Patricia McKillip. Yes, that does mean that my comments are already biased. I'm okay with that. This collection of previously published stories is also something I'm okay with. Despite the fact that I already owned three-quarters of the stories collected here in other forms, I enjoyed revisiting McKillip's short work because she is simply an excellent writer. While not all of these stories are her very best -- keep in mind that this is by no means her show more only collection -- there are a great many gems, including a story about artists that I thought I remembered, but didn't quite, and therefore was surprised and delighted by its grace all over again.

Grace is a good keyword here... McKillip is at her best with space for long lines and graceful, dreamlike descriptions. While some of the shorter stories are entertaining and not much else -- a recommendation that lesser writers would love to own -- the longer pieces create the same delicious sensation of envelopment and escape for which her novels are justly famous. "The Kelpie" (the aforementioned story of artists) and "Knight of the Well" in particular stayed with me for days after I read them. Some of the stories are creepy, some enchanting, and some bright and brilliant, but all are worth reading, as is the lecture printed at the end, a grace note in and of itself. show less

The Throme of the Erril of Sherril is a title that makes you question your sanity yet at the same time, is quite charming. It is a short fairy tale that is like a combination of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Smith of Wootton Major” and something by Dr. Seuss. It is full of words that are almost normal words, but not quite, some of which mean the same thing as the normal word and some which definitely don’t.

The T. of the E. of S. follows the quest of a knight (or as it is spelled in the book, show more “cnite”) to find the non-existent (and titular) Throme of the Erril of Sherill. What’s a “throme”, you might ask? Couldn’t tell ya! But it’s all part of the charm! The book is sprinkled with humor, but the writing is also beautiful and very sensorily immersive. It’s truly a delight to the senses!

The book also includes another bonus short fairy tale called The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath. It’s another little beaut, but it doesn’t have the humor of the Throme. However, it is still definitely worth the read! show less

Weaving magic!

Patricia McKillip has been a magical writer whom I’ve enjoyed for more years than I care to count, starting with The Forgotten Beasts of Eld in 1974 and continuing down through the decades.
This collection of short stories brings her craft forward for all to enjoy. An introduction by the fabulous Ellen Kushner adds acclamation and biographical interest.
McKillop’s word smithing is brilliant, full of beautifully turned phrases imbued with riddles like, “The Amaranth that show more never dies but only lives forever to watch men die.”
“ I have seen this tower before and I have seen in it the woman we all expected, the only woman some men ever know . . . And every time we come expecting her, the woman who lures us with what’s most precious to us and kills us with it, we build the tower around her again and again and again. . . .”
Populated with peoples such as Ryd Yarrow, a Dragon Harrower, the Scholar habiting an old cottage in the woods, and so many more.
Stories that are indeed the essential McKillop.

A Tachyon ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less

Atrix Wolfe, mage and shapechanger, in an attempt to save his homeland, made a terrible mistake-- one that destroyed a number of people, and, it seems, continues to tangle others in its strands. Saro, unspeaking kitchen pot-girl. Talis, shapechanger student and son of the dead king of Pelucir. The Hunter. The Queen of the Wood. And perhaps Atrix Wolfe himself. The answers might lie in a book of magic written by Atrix Wolfe-- but everything Talis tries out of it backfires show more dangerously.
McKillip's usual bright flashes of poetry dart in and out of this fairy tale, with flickering ghosts of destruction and fleeting glimpses of another world-- but to more purpose than in some of her books; you can follow the story. There is a large helping of 'people don't communicate when that would be helpful' in this story (another trend in McKillip), but that's achingly familiar to those who have grown up in the tangles of someone else's old trauma.
Talis isn't as vivid as most of McKillip's heroes, but Saro makes up for it. Saro, and Saro's world, the kitchen of a great house. show less