Phyllis Eisenstein (1946–2020)
Author of Sorcerer's Son
About the Author
Series
Works by Phyllis Eisenstein
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 67. Dinosaurier auf dem Broadway. (1983) — Contributor — 10 copies
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 69. Nacht in den Ruinen. Eine Auswahl der besten Erzählungen. (1984) — Contributor — 9 copies
The Island In The Lake 3 copies
In The Western Tradition 2 copies
Lost And Found 2 copies
The Man With The Eye 1 copy
Conspicuous SF 1 copy
No Refunds 1 copy
Dark Wings 1 copy
Attachment 1 copy
Von Neumann's Bug 1 copy
Sorceror's Son 1 copy
Associated Works
What Did Miss Darrington See? An Anthology of Feminist Supernatural Fiction (1989) — Contributor — 126 copies
Gateways: A Feast of Great New Science Fiction Honoring Grand Master Frederik Pohl (2010) — Contributor — 113 copies, 2 reviews
Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year Fifth Annual Collection (1976) — Contributor — 107 copies, 1 review
New Eves: Science Fiction About the Extraordinary Women of Today and Tomorrow (1994) — Contributor — 70 copies, 3 reviews
Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year Eighth Annual Collection (1979) — Contributor — 67 copies, 2 reviews
In Lands That Never Were: Tales of Swords and Sorcery from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (2004) — Contributor — 36 copies
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact: Vol. XCIV, No. 4 (December 1974) (1974) — Contributor — 22 copies
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction September 1977, Vol. 53, No. 3 (1977) — Contributor — 14 copies
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction August 1988, Vol. 75, No. 2 (1988) — Contributor — 13 copies
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction September 1988, Vol. 75, No. 3 (1988) — Author — 13 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 9, No. 3 [March 1985] (1985) — Contributor — 12 copies
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction January/February 2019, Vol. 136, Nos. 1 & 2 (1978) — Contributor — 11 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Eisenstein, Phyllis
- Birthdate
- 1946-02-26
- Date of death
- 2020-12-07
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Illinois (BA | 1981 | Anthropology)
University of Chicago - Occupations
- teacher
author
copy editor - Organizations
- Columbia College Chicago
Leo Burnett Worldwide - Awards and honors
- Balrog Award (1979)
- Relationships
- Eisenstein, Alex (spouse)
- Cause of death
- COVID-19
stroke (complications) - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Places of residence
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Place of death
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
Members
Discussions
Fantastic Mr. Fox in Good Show Sir! — bad science fiction and fantasy covers (July 2025)
Reviews
I was convinced this book would suck. It was an Arkham House offering from the dreaded seventies that stayed in print forever by an almost unknown author. I found myself unable to put it down. Great literature it is not, but interesting literate fantasy with good characters and novel plotting it is. I fell in love with minstrel Alaric. He had just the right measure of bumbling innocence, good intentions, and intuitive intellectual savvy to make him an interesting three-dimensional character. show more He is a reluctant but caring lover and far from being a womanizer, although he has at least three lovers, you just keep wishing he will get the girl (Solinde) he really longs for.
There is very little supernatural here. Alaric has only one talent that bends scientific reality, and it appears that this is the only supernatural talent anyone can have in Eisenstein's fantasy medieval world (there MIGHT be prognostication as well but it is never used or proven). So it is a single well thought out plot device that drives the story. Otherwise the world behaves pretty much as it should and Alaric himself is a committed skeptic of all other things "magical" or supernatural. He uses the fact that all superstition is nonsense to his advantage and proves when he saves an accused witch that it truly is all nonsense.
Once Eisenstein got the hook in me and I realized this wasn't going to be the same old childish swords and sorcerers fantasy nonsense, I really enjoyed it. I would love to read a sequel since we are left hanging on a cliff of sorts. show less
There is very little supernatural here. Alaric has only one talent that bends scientific reality, and it appears that this is the only supernatural talent anyone can have in Eisenstein's fantasy medieval world (there MIGHT be prognostication as well but it is never used or proven). So it is a single well thought out plot device that drives the story. Otherwise the world behaves pretty much as it should and Alaric himself is a committed skeptic of all other things "magical" or supernatural. He uses the fact that all superstition is nonsense to his advantage and proves when he saves an accused witch that it truly is all nonsense.
Once Eisenstein got the hook in me and I realized this wasn't going to be the same old childish swords and sorcerers fantasy nonsense, I really enjoyed it. I would love to read a sequel since we are left hanging on a cliff of sorts. show less
{First of 3 in Book of Elementals series; fantasy} (1990)
It's been a bit longer than usual since I last posted a book read because this book, while it's one of the first I bought for my own, single shelf with funds eked out of my pocket money and one I keep coming back to, took a while to read. Not that it is hard to read; quite the contrary - it is gentle but rich. Eisenstein didn't write much but I did borrow most of her books from the library in the '90s when she published most of her show more work. There is one published sequel to this book and one unpublished because, although it was completed, Meisha Merlin folded before it could do so (according to Wikipedia). Sadly, Eisenstein passed away last year after an illness and with covid complications.
When Delivev Ormoru rejected Smada Rezhyk's proposal of marriage, he immediately suspected her of wanting to destroy him. Both Delivev and Rezhyk are sorcerers from sorcerous families but while she deals in more gentle arts of spinning with control over animals like spiders and snakes as well as plants like ivy, climbing roses and other creepers, he has enclosed himself in Castle Ringforge where he smelts metals into rings and sculpts and fires clay into shapes to enslave demons to do his bidding. His longest serving and most trusted demon, Gildrum (whose most commonly used earthly form Rezhyk has sculpted as a young girl), suggested a spell which would combine both provinces as protection for Rezhyk against Delivev's powers. However, Rezhyk felt that he would still be vulnerable for the month or so it would take to craft the spell and then the demon pointed out that if she were to conceive, her powers would be limited for that time. And so, in the form of a handsome young knight, the demon went to Delivev and then returned to the command of its master.
But Delivev and Gildrum both fell in love. And, against Rezhyk's and Gildrum's expectations, Delivev kept the baby and raised him by herself in Castle Spinweb while Gildrum secretly watched, longing to end his servitude and return to them. Cray, though, always wanted to find out what happened to his father, that handsome young knight whom his mother loved and who rode away promising to return after his mission for his lord was completed and who never came back. And so, at the age of fourteen, he rides away from Spinweb, determined to find his father and become a knight like him although his mother urges him to stay and learn sorcery from her instead. Fortunately he is as generous and open-hearted as Rezhyk is closed-in and cold and he makes friends easily, such as Feldar Sepwin, another boy, who shares some of his adventures.
But, of course, his quest is doomed to failure and Cray has many adventures, not least when Rezhyk finally discovers his existence and throws more obstacles in his path, suspecting further mischief from Delivev.
This was a gentle but rich story, as much about a mother's love for her son (with a touch of poignancy for me now that my eldest is 17 and threatening to fly the nest) as about the adventures that Cray has once he leaves the protection of Spinweb to learn to be a knight. Eisenstein shows us demons as being alien from humans, but not necessarily menacing, with a few visits to their elemental world.
June 2021
4.5 stars show less
It's been a bit longer than usual since I last posted a book read because this book, while it's one of the first I bought for my own, single shelf with funds eked out of my pocket money and one I keep coming back to, took a while to read. Not that it is hard to read; quite the contrary - it is gentle but rich. Eisenstein didn't write much but I did borrow most of her books from the library in the '90s when she published most of her show more work. There is one published sequel to this book and one unpublished because, although it was completed, Meisha Merlin folded before it could do so (according to Wikipedia). Sadly, Eisenstein passed away last year after an illness and with covid complications.
When Delivev Ormoru rejected Smada Rezhyk's proposal of marriage, he immediately suspected her of wanting to destroy him. Both Delivev and Rezhyk are sorcerers from sorcerous families but while she deals in more gentle arts of spinning with control over animals like spiders and snakes as well as plants like ivy, climbing roses and other creepers, he has enclosed himself in Castle Ringforge where he smelts metals into rings and sculpts and fires clay into shapes to enslave demons to do his bidding. His longest serving and most trusted demon, Gildrum (whose most commonly used earthly form Rezhyk has sculpted as a young girl), suggested a spell which would combine both provinces as protection for Rezhyk against Delivev's powers. However, Rezhyk felt that he would still be vulnerable for the month or so it would take to craft the spell and then the demon pointed out that if she were to conceive, her powers would be limited for that time. And so, in the form of a handsome young knight, the demon went to Delivev and then returned to the command of its master.
The storm drove from beyond the fortress, and so there was a respite from both wind and wet in its lee. Almost at the arch of the gate, the animal stopped and bent to drink from a puddle and to crop a bit of soaked grass; its rider fell then, slid silently off its back and dropped to the mud in an awkward heap.
Inside, warm and dry and surrounded by the things she loved, was Delivev Ormoru, mistress of Castle Spinweb. She expected no visitors, neither on a stormy night nor a clear one; no one had knocked at the gates of Castle Spinweb in many years, and she was pleased with that state of affairs. But when the ivy curled in her bedroom window, when a small brown spider scurried across its tendrils to report a stranger outside, she was curious. The stranger had not requested entry, had not pounded on the heavy wooden gate or shouted or beat sword upon shield to attract attention through the noise of the storm, yet why would he be there but to enter? She looked out of her window, but the outer wall was too high for her to see anything close beneath it. She could have spun a web to view there, but walking would take no greater time, so she went.
But Delivev and Gildrum both fell in love. And, against Rezhyk's and Gildrum's expectations, Delivev kept the baby and raised him by herself in Castle Spinweb while Gildrum secretly watched, longing to end his servitude and return to them. Cray, though, always wanted to find out what happened to his father, that handsome young knight whom his mother loved and who rode away promising to return after his mission for his lord was completed and who never came back. And so, at the age of fourteen, he rides away from Spinweb, determined to find his father and become a knight like him although his mother urges him to stay and learn sorcery from her instead. Fortunately he is as generous and open-hearted as Rezhyk is closed-in and cold and he makes friends easily, such as Feldar Sepwin, another boy, who shares some of his adventures.
But, of course, his quest is doomed to failure and Cray has many adventures, not least when Rezhyk finally discovers his existence and throws more obstacles in his path, suspecting further mischief from Delivev.
This was a gentle but rich story, as much about a mother's love for her son (with a touch of poignancy for me now that my eldest is 17 and threatening to fly the nest) as about the adventures that Cray has once he leaves the protection of Spinweb to learn to be a knight. Eisenstein shows us demons as being alien from humans, but not necessarily menacing, with a few visits to their elemental world.
June 2021
4.5 stars show less
I've been looking ofr this for along time as I considerably enjoyed the first boo in the series. I had hoped for a more developed plot, but this is just more of the same. Not bad, at all, but could be better.
Alaric having escaped from his estranged family makes his way over the mountains befroe having some more adventures. Again each is very piecemeal and reads as if a standalone for a magazine. I had hoped/ expoected tis would be mroe of a defined novel, but it isn't, although at one point show more he seems almost settled and accepted inot a new community, events prove otherwise and he's ready to move on, although another book in the series was never written.
Alaric's magical power seems ot have no limits on distance, which is somewhat odd - especially as in the previous book the family memebers did seem to be distance limited. But other than that ti is all very well concieved - all of the characters acting in completely belivable manner without too many sycophants rolling over at the slightest change in direction. There is an increased mystical content, although it never bcecomes completely clear how much real power Kata held. Again there is space in the unwritten next book to develop this more - but it probably wouldn't manage in a series of short stories. It is the depth of the minor characters that make this stand out from the average 70s fantasy, and a with a well detailed world in the bargain, it is worth reading, if not exceptional.
Not quite what I'd hoped for, but still an entertaining read. show less
Alaric having escaped from his estranged family makes his way over the mountains befroe having some more adventures. Again each is very piecemeal and reads as if a standalone for a magazine. I had hoped/ expoected tis would be mroe of a defined novel, but it isn't, although at one point show more he seems almost settled and accepted inot a new community, events prove otherwise and he's ready to move on, although another book in the series was never written.
Alaric's magical power seems ot have no limits on distance, which is somewhat odd - especially as in the previous book the family memebers did seem to be distance limited. But other than that ti is all very well concieved - all of the characters acting in completely belivable manner without too many sycophants rolling over at the slightest change in direction. There is an increased mystical content, although it never bcecomes completely clear how much real power Kata held. Again there is space in the unwritten next book to develop this more - but it probably wouldn't manage in a series of short stories. It is the depth of the minor characters that make this stand out from the average 70s fantasy, and a with a well detailed world in the bargain, it is worth reading, if not exceptional.
Not quite what I'd hoped for, but still an entertaining read. show less
Young sorcerer Cray Ormoru's quest to locate and liberate an enigmatic woman he envisions in an enchanted mirror leads him to a crystalline structure in a supernatural icy realm.
After the sorceress Delivev Ormoru rejects his marriage proposal, sorcerer Smada Rezhyk becomes worried that she’s out to get him. In order to reduce her powers so that he’ll have time to weave himself a protective gold shirt, Rezhyk sends his demon slave Gildrum to impregnate Delivev with Rezhyk’s own seed. show more
Gildrum takes on the form of a handsome young knight, Mellor, and shows up injured at Delivev’s doorstep. As expected, Delivev falls in love with Mellor, but unexpectedly, Gildrum, who doesn’t even have a heart, falls in love with her, too. However, Gildrum must return to serve Rezhyk. He doesn’t tell Delivev he’s a demon. He lies and tells her that he’ll come back after he delivers a message.
Sure enough, Delivev becomes pregnant and gives birth to Cray. And, of course, Mellor never returns. When Cray becomes a teenager, he decides to find out what happened to his father, whom his mother still loves, creating more questions than answers. show less
After the sorceress Delivev Ormoru rejects his marriage proposal, sorcerer Smada Rezhyk becomes worried that she’s out to get him. In order to reduce her powers so that he’ll have time to weave himself a protective gold shirt, Rezhyk sends his demon slave Gildrum to impregnate Delivev with Rezhyk’s own seed. show more
Gildrum takes on the form of a handsome young knight, Mellor, and shows up injured at Delivev’s doorstep. As expected, Delivev falls in love with Mellor, but unexpectedly, Gildrum, who doesn’t even have a heart, falls in love with her, too. However, Gildrum must return to serve Rezhyk. He doesn’t tell Delivev he’s a demon. He lies and tells her that he’ll come back after he delivers a message.
Sure enough, Delivev becomes pregnant and gives birth to Cray. And, of course, Mellor never returns. When Cray becomes a teenager, he decides to find out what happened to his father, whom his mother still loves, creating more questions than answers. show less
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