Submitted by whitewolf@communio.org
(Sep 02, 1999)'He saw a field of fire and night, on which darkness shaped itself constantly into ravens, hounds, black moons, the hollow in the skull's eye. He felt the Hunter try to break free, block the mage from his mind, for another moment Atrix clung to him, stared into the darkness within the skull's eye, trying to see the power that insisted on such darkness, trying to find his own face within the bone.'
Patricia McKillip's writing style is the kind you almost never come across, the kind you wish you might
loose youself in more often. Her writing is poetic; she can paint a picture with words masterfully.
My favorite book of hers is 'Winter Rose'--oddly others don't like it as much as the one I will review
here, 'The Book of Atrix Wolfe.'
Like 'Winter Rose,' McKillip uses the world of Faery/the Otherworld but it takes on a more definitive
shape. McKillip did not create a world in WR, but she has created one in 'Book.' Everything is a little
more defined, but no less poetic. There is three point of views, I think (it *has* been a while since I've
read it all): one belonging to the mysteriously mute kitchen maid Saro, one belonging to the prince Talis,
and one belonging to the mage Atrix Wolfe.
Atrix must find the daughter of the Queen of Faery, to at least partly right an old wrong. The ending is
not rushed--some people have claimed that it is. It is, like all of McKillip's endings, very deep and
puzzling. So here's the catch: you have to *think* at least a little while reading this book!
You will be moved and very different. And unless you simply can't appreciate one of the finest arts
there is around, you'll become a McKillip fan for life.
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(13 ratings)