From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. World Fantasy Award–winner McKillip (The Bell at Sealey Head) offers a rich, resonant story of poetry, riddles, mystery, and magic. Phelan Cle never wanted to be a bard--that's his decidedly unmusical father's ambition for him--but now that he's about to graduate from Bardic School at Caerau, he's determined to make it easy on himself. He chooses what should be a straight-forward thesis topic: Bone Plain, where legend says all poetry originated, where Nairn the Wanderer, the Fool, the Cursed, the Unforgiven, one of the greatest bards in history, failed the mysterious Three Trials and disappeared forever. History surrounds the school and the nearby standing stones, where archaeologist Princess Beatrice digs up an unusual artifact that may hold the key to the mysteries of Bone Plain. McKillip seduces readers with lyrical prose; intriguing, complex characters; and resonant riddles-within-riddles. (Dec.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Readers already familiar with the author will enjoy a fascinating tale of music and bards, legends and reality, and, most of all—magic. For those exposed to McKillip for the first time, a treasure awaits them in the pages of this story. Set in a medieval-like period, where kings still rule and their courts are the center of the social order, the book throws in a more modern element of archaeology, with its constant reach into the past, seeking explanations. The story starts with Phelan Cle and his enigmatic father, characters who become exquisitely developed over the course of the tale. Woven in alternating chapters is the legend of Nairn, the Wandering Bard. The reader is pulled from the current trials and tribulations occurring in Phelan’s life into the legend of Nairn, until the reality and the legend slowly become mirrors of each other, and then finally fused together. Almost (Thomas) Hardy-ish in the level of description, the author never loses the reader in description for description’s sake. Each element described serves to further the story. --Rebecca Gerber

From the Inside Flap

By the vow of her father and her own desire, Raederle was pledged to Morgon, Riddle-Master of Hed. But a year had passed since Morgon disappeared on his search for the High One at Erlenstar Mountain, and rumors claimed he was dead.
Raederle set out to learn the truth for herself, though her small gift of magic seemed too slight for the perils she must face. The quest led through strange lands and dangerous adventures. Only her growing powers enabled her at last to reach Erlenstar Mountain. And there she discovered what she could not bear to accept.
Accompanied by Deth, the High One's Harper, she fled. And behind them came a pursuer whose name was Morgon, bent on executing a grim destiny upon Raederle and Deth.
Her only hope lay in summoning the Hosts of the Dead, led by the King whose skull she bore . . .

In the midst of conflict and unrest the Prince of Hed solves the puzzle of his future when he learns to harp the wind, discovers who the shape changers are, and understands his own relationship to Deth, harpist of the wizard Ohm.

From Publishers Weekly

World Fantasy Award–winner McKillip revisits the setting of her masterful novel Winter Rose (1996) in this compelling contemporary fantasy. Summoned home for her grandfather's funeral, Sylvia Lynn arrives with the intention of leaving as soon as possible. Once there, however, she feels the treacherous pull of the old house, the shadowy forest around it and the otherworldly beings who live there. Sylvia's grandmother introduces her to the Fiber Guild, women who meet once a month to sew the magical barriers that protect Lynn Hall from the fay, "a cold, loveless, dangerous people." But the hall's protective magic has weakened, leaving Sylvia—both mortal and faery herself—vulnerable as "the bridge across the boundaries" between the two worlds. Can generations of mistrust and long-hoarded secrets yield to a truce, let alone a new understanding and even trust between faery and human? Though McKillip has traded her usual lyrical style for a sparser approach, she doesn't stint on characterization, mood or mystery in this multilayered tale. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Starred Review Sylvia Lynn owns a thriving bookstore in Los Angeles, where she has spent most of her adult life avoiding her past and the grandmother who raised her. But when her beloved grandfather dies, she knows she must go to Lynn Hall, the huge, old house that has been the Lynn family's center for generations, and to the frightening, tantalizing wood behind it. Returning, she is surprised when Gram invites her to attend the Fiber Guild, a sewing circle that's been around forever, for Sylvia can't even thread a needle. True shock comes when she learns that the circle is a coven of witches working spells with their knitting and needlework that protect Lynn Hall and the town from the ancient powers of the forest and the evil Fay, and that the spells are unraveling faster than the witches can weave, and paths between worlds are reopening. The Fay kidnap Sylvia's 14-year-old cousin, Tyler, replacing him with a changeling. Sylvia finds a way into the wood's magical realm to look for him but hasn't a clue as to where he is or how to find the way back. If she manages to return, her long, closely kept secret will be out--and then will the people she loves most accept her, and Gram still love her? McKillip dazzles with this lovely tale of fairy and human worlds meeting and melding. Paula Luedtke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Publishers Weekly

In most of McKillip's novels (Winter Rose, etc.) and short stories, this veteran author, a World Fantasy Award winner (for Forgotten Beasts of Eld, 1975), uses words in precisely the same way her mages do, to shape images and create fantastic visions where none previously existed. Sometimes the images are grotesque and violent, but more frequently they are ethereal and exquisite. McKillip's new novel is no exception. In it, a royal child escapes fire and certain execution by hiding in the ashes of the castle fireplace. Flame and death fill his mind and shape his thoughts so he is invisible to his enemies. After he is discovered, his rescuers rename him "Caladrius. After the bird whose song means death," and send him to the bards living on Luly, the music school on a rock at the end of the world. There he is called Rook. He masters the picochet, a peasant instrument, loves Sirina and begets Hollis, a son. Thirty-seven years pass and his family's enemy, Arioso Pellior, patriarch of the house of Basilisk, again reaches out his hand to crush any remaining members of the house of Tourmalyne. Rook remembers that his name is Griffin Tourmalyne and he journeys home. There he becomes an impetus for revolution and an inspiration for the royal opera, which draws the novel's principals together for a performance before the Basilisk and his family. McKillip is at the top of her form in this sweeping story about the redeeming powers of kindness and the potentially deadly beauty of music.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A young man denies his past for a life as a teacher of bards until a chain of events too compelling to ignore plunges him once more into a confrontation with the Prince of Berylon, who slaughtered an entire noble family to gain his throne. The author of Winter Rose (LJ 7/96) weaves a lyrical story of passion and revenge set in a Renaissance-like world where music and magic are one and the same. McKillip's luminous prose and compelling characters combine to produce a masterwork of style and substance. Highly recommended for most fantasy collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

In what is probably her best-known work, The Riddlemasters of Hed, McKillip combined shape-shifting, riddle-solving and the desire for wild and unbridled power into a richly fantastic tale. Here, she returns to those themes, adding a strand of the fairy world to her rich web of enchantment. Prince Talis, heir to the Pelucir throne, has been away from his homeland studying magecraft. At the wizards' college, he discovers a mysterious book of spells whose words carry hidden meanings. Returning to Pelucir, Talis encounters the Queen of the Woods, who is looking for her daughter, Sorrow, lost ever since the mage Atrix Wolfe misused his magic to divert a war. Now Talis and Atrix must solve the riddle of Sorrow's existence, and rid the world of the evil that Atrix conjured. Though McKillip's latest is less strongly plotted than some of her earlier novels, her words and images remain masterfully evocative as she manages to invoke great beauty using the simplest language. Connoisseurs of fine fantasy will delight in this expertly wrought tale.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Driven by a formless fury when the prince of Kardeth refuses to halt his invasion of the kingdom of Pelucir, the great mage Atrix Wolfe creates a fearful hunter, "a warrior with no allegiance but to death." But the ensuing massacre of both armies and the king of Pelucir appalls the mage, and he flees to the mountains to live in wolf form among wolves until, 20 years later, the queen of the Woods demands that he seek out her daughter, who disappeared at the time of the great bloodbath. The ensuing story involves aspiring mage Talis Pelucir, son of the slain king, and Saro, a young, mute scullery maid in the castle of Pelucir whose background is unknown. Steeped in medieval legends of the wild huntsman, living trees, and shape changers, McKillip's tale is decidedly atmospheric, complex, compelling, and filled with rich imagery. Sally Estes

From Publishers Weekly

The sea has taken everything away from Periwinkle; it has drowned her fisherman father and left her mother barely able to cope. So Periwinkle, a chambermaid at the inn of a small fishing village, decides to hex the sea. It works surprisingly well, disrupting the sea queen's magic. A chained sea monster appears from the depths, and the king's melancholy son, Kir, nearly drowns trying to get to the country under the sea. With the help of the magician Lyo, Periwinkle uncovers and reverses the sea queen's curse. Beautifully sustained metaphors and an even tone make this fantasy, like McKillip's The Forgotten Beasts of Eld , a pleasure to read. Further, McKillip's deft characterization and smooth, tender resolution result in a memorable, often poignant novel. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up An enchanting fantasy that is tinged with realism and romance, set in an ordinary, pre-industrial fishing village, with a heroine seen by herself and everyone else as even less than ordinaryan unkempt and uncared for child turning woman in spite of herself. Peri's fifteenth year has been a difficult one. First her fisherman father was lost at sea, then her mother became so haunted by the loss that she stopped caring for and communicating with Peri, and finally even the old woman whom Peri relied on for comfort disappeared. Peri spends her days scrubbing floors at the local inn and trying to hex the sea for causing her losses. When the King and his retinue come to the island, unhappy Prince Kir comes to Peri's lonely beach and begs her help in delivering his message to the sea. Strange things begin happening in the sea, including the appearance of a huge sea dragon held captive by a golden chain, and the villagers ask a magician for help. With Peri's help, he unravels the tangle of events and results that began more than 17 years ago, when the king loved a sea-woman but married a human queen. Peri's coming of age and coming to terms with herself and her surroundings are an important part of the story. Lyo, the magician, is a human sort of magician, wise but skeptical, powerful but also vulnerable. What begins with isolated and occasionally jarring events and appearances gradually enfolds the village and the story in a fog of mystery and magic that clears only when the situation is resolved via Lyo's wisdom and Peri's love. Rewarding and engaging. Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, Pa.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

In this fantasy, the banished Gold King tries to fight a ruling family. "With strong, archetypal characters and a powerful command of symbolism, McKillip depicts the human conflict between the desire for power and the need for love," said PW. (Jan.) 3
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- Corleu was different from the typical dark-haired Wayfolk. His blond hair and his fascination with the legends and children's rhymes about the Cygnets, Gold King, Blind Lady, Dancer, and Warlock set him apart. When Corleu and a band of Wayfolk become trapped in an endless swamp, he crosses a threshold (an unthinkable act for Wayfolk) seeking a means of escape. This impetuous act puts him on a collision course with the legends of his childhood. This is not a simple novel. The intricately woven plot laced with surrealist qualities will appeal to mature fantasy lovers. --Grace Baun, Robert E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Amazon.com Review

World Fantasy Award-winning author McKillip (Song for the Basilisk) returns with another lyrical, richly detailed fantasy. Cyan Dag, knight of Gloinmere, is sworn to serve King Regis Aurum of Yves. Cyan's oath leads him headlong into dangerous magical territory, however, when Idra, Bard of Skye, reveals that the King's new bride, Lady Gwynne, is an impostor. The true Lady Gwynne is trapped in an enchanted stone tower in distant Skye, a magical mirror her only means of viewing the outside world. Bound by his oath to protect the King, Cyan rides west to free Lady Gwynne. In the meantime, Thayne Ysse, son of the king of Ysse, has never forgotten his father's defeat at the hands of King Regis Aurum. Now he seeks a tower guarded by a dragon, a tower filled with gold enough to raise a new army and defeat Yves once and for all. And in another ancient tower outside the coastal village of Stony Wood, Melanthos, the daughter of a land-bound selkie and a fisherman, obsessively embroiders pictures of a lonely woman trapped in a distant tower who may or may not be real. Although Cyan Dag took up his quest with one goal in mind, he soon realizes that the only route to saving Lady Gwynne lies tangled with the lives of Thayne and Melanthos, and in the mysterious motives of Idra and her woods-wise sister Sidera. Once again McKillip skillfully knits disparate threads into a rewardingly rich and satisfying story. --Charlene Brusso

From Publishers Weekly

Like her previous Winter Rose and Song for the Basilisk, McKillip's latest bardic fantasy, a tale full of fierce longing and bright courage, the mystery of honor and the enigmas of love, issues comes out of the Celtic twilight at the edge of the unknown. When the ravishing Lady Gwynne from the magic realm of Skye comes to wed Regis Aurum, king of prosaic Yves, only Cyan Dag, Regis's most powerful knight, can heed an eerie warning from the ancient Bard of Skye: this Gwynne is a sorcerous reptilian imposter who holds the real Gwynne captive in a faraway tower. Sworn to protect the king whose life he has already saved once in battle against the North Islanders of Ysse, Cyan leaves his own fair lady, Cria, and follows his duty to free the true queen and preserve his warlike lord from treachery. In the misty land of Skye, Cyan soon finds nothing is as it seems. Skye's bards can hear the moon sing; Cyan's former enemy Thayne Ysse buries himself in the heart of a dragon to save his own people; and by piecing her own simple life together like a selkie skin, the humble baker Sel rescues her whole world--and Cyan Dag's. Richly intoxicating with the mythic Otherworld of the old Celts, McKillip's iridescent prose cloaks a simple quest with effervescing images and tantalizing, shifting arpeggios of shapes, as a Celtic triple goddess spins and weaves Cyan Dag's fate. By showing that out of her hero's forgotten gesture of mercy in battle long ago came hope, compassion, peace, McKillip concurs with the poet Rilke that perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something that needs our love. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Amazon.com Review

Winter Rose begins as the seemingly simple story of Rois and Laurel Melior and their understandable fascination with young Corbet Lynn, returned to rebuild his abandoned ancestral home, Lynn Hall. Laurel is drawn to Corbet's beauty, Rois to the mystery of his past. But the past holds more than one mystery, and as Rois fights her way into the wood around Lynn Hall, seeking answers for herself, Laurel, and Corbet, she risks losing everything, for all of them, forever.

Traces of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market, of Tam Lin, and of a dozen other legends and tales color Rois's story. Patricia McKillip's consummate mastery of language means that every word counts in a complex, sweetly painful story of human love and timeless, indifferent power.

From Publishers Weekly

Woods-wise and free-spirited, Rois Melior is the opposite of her sensible sister, Laurel. But both Rois, who narrates, and Laurel fall under the spell of the stranger who enters their world. Decades ago, according to village gossip, Tearle Lynn murdered his father and mysteriously disappeared. Now Tearle's son, Corbet, has come home to rebuild crumbling Lynn Hall. Despite her attraction to Corbet, Rois is warned by her otherworldly senses that he is not what he seems. As Laurel falls hard for Corbet, Rois searches for the truth about the Lynns, but the answers she finds lead only to more questions. When Corbet disappears, Laurel begins to sicken and fade. To save her sister as well as Corbet, Rois will have to come to terms with the secret of her own changeling identity. The pace here is deliberate and sure, with no false steps; the writing is richly textured and evocative. McKillip (The Book of Atrix Wolf, and winner in 1975 of a World Fantasy Award for her novel The Forgotten Beasts of Eld) weaves a dense web of desire and longing, human love and inhuman need.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

El final del viaje del Portador de Estrellas y la respuesta a todos los misterios de su mundo.

Se acerca el final de la partida iniciada en Maestro de enigmas. Tras reencontrarse por fin con Raederle en Anuin, Morgon, el Portador de Estrellas, invoca al ejército de los reyes muertos de An para ponerlos al servicio de la protección de Hed, su patria. Mientras tanto, los hechiceros, liberados de su esclavitud de siglos tras el enfrentamiento de Morgon con Ohm, el antiguo maestro de enigmas y usurpador del trono del Supremo, se dirigen a la antigua ciudad de Lungold, donde planean desafiarle. Allí acudirán Morgon y Raederle para descifrar los últimos enigmas sobre la identidad del arpista Deth, la herencia de los Señores de la Tierra y la guerra con los cambiaformas. Patricia A. McKillip , ganadora de dos Premios Mundiales de Fantasía, dos premios Mythopoeic y un Locus, se encuentra entre las voces más respetadas de la fantasía internacional, y la trilogía del Juego de Enigmas es una de las cumbres de su extensa obra.

"McKillip ha creado poderosas imágenes de un silencio embrujado, un universo lleno de motivos secretos y terribles posibilidades." --- The National Observer

"Su trama, sus personajes y su estilo son memorables, con una riqueza que si acaso ha mejorado con el paso del tiempo." --- SF Site

"Una obra sólidamente narrada (...) La madurez intelectual y emocional de su pacífico héroe y de su resuelta heroina está trazada con meticulosa delicadeza." --- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

Raederle de An, la segunda mujer más bella del reino y prometida de Morgon, príncipe de Hed y maestro de enigmas, se consume de impaciencia esperando noticias de éste. ¿Qué ha sido de Morgon, desaparecido en su viaje a la montaña de Erlenstar para solicitar consejo del Supremo sobre su destino como Portador de Estrellas? ¿Y qué ha sido de Deth, arpista del Supremo, que le acompañaba? Poco dispuesta a seguir permitiendo que decidan por ella, Raederle se echa al camino junto con Lyra, la heredera de Herun, y Tristan, la hermana de Morgon. En su viaje, descubrirá poderes inéditos en ella, sabrá la verdad sobre el Supremo y el papel de Deth en su peligroso juego, y conocerá más sobre la historia de su mundo y la oscura herencia de los cambiaformas.

Patricia A. McKillip, ganadora de dos Premios Mundiales de Fantasía, dos premios Mythopoeic y un Locus, se encuentra entre las voces más respetadas de la fantasía internacional, y la trilogía del Juego de Enigmas es una de las cumbres de su extensa obra.

"McKillip ha creado poderosas imágenes de un silencio embrujado, un universo lleno de motivos secretos y terribles posibilidades." - The National Observer

"Una trama intrincada, acentuada por una escritura personal y una imaginería evocadora." - ALA Booklist

"Una obra a la altura de los clásicos: la intrincada narrativa de su historia de búsquedas resuena con una complejidad moral prácticamente desconocida en las trilogías de fantasía; el protagonista de McKillip tiene una especial habilidad para desentrañar enigmas y, a través de una serie de estrategias (incluyendo indicios subliminales tan poco obvios como hojas en un bosque) no muy distintas de las usadas por Gene Wolfe en su Libro del sol nuevo, McKillip fuerza al lector a convertirse también en un descifrador de códigos. De esta forma, el significado del libro se pone de manifiesto en la forma en que debe ser leído." - The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction