(no subject)

[skygiants]

So I have this thing with Patricia McKillip books. I really like them! It's just, once I've read them, it takes me about two weeks to forget everything that happens in them. It's like magic! Fantasyland amnesia magic! (I hate that kind of magic.)


However, I am going to make a concerted effort not to let that happen with her latest, The Bell at Sealey Head. Hopefully posting in detail about it will help with that! It also helps that as McKillip books go, it's one of her least dreamy, I think - it takes place in a small inn town which is for the most part quite grounded in reality. Our protagonists and POV characters:

JUDD: I would like to spend all my time reading! Unfortunately I have to run an inn and cannot figure out how to tactfully get rid of my terrible, terrible cook.

GWYNETH: I would like to spend all my time writing! Unfortunately I have to spend all this time taking tea with the friendly, silly local squire's son and his friendly, silly sister who are obsessed with the potential of new faces at the big house, in a section of the plot that appears to have wandered accidentally out of an Austen novel and set up shop.

EMMA: I am actually pretty cool with spending most of my time being a maid at the big house, although it is a little awkward how I keep opening doors onto an alternate version of the castle filled with creepy rituals, bad-tempered knights and scary crows. (But no dancing cat teachers, thankfully.)

YSABO: I live in the alternate version of the castle! My days are full of creepy rituals, bad-tempered knights and scary crows. And, uh, I would kind of like to spend my time doing SOMETHING ELSE, thanks.

I quite liked all the characters - Gwyneth and Judd's courtship was very sweet and pleasantly angst-less and mature, and, in the other half of the novel, the creepy rituals, bad-tempered knights and scary crows were indeed as creepy and unnerving as they ought to be! My main problem with it was that the climax was actually brought about by none of these POV characters, but by someone else while everyone else hung out and watched. Although this probably helped with keeping the more realistic characters more grounded in reality, it gave the book quite a not-put-together feel for me at the end, like the two halves of the plot did not quite mesh.

Anyway, while I am on the topic of Patricia McKillip - okay, guys, Patricia McKillip and Robin McKinley. They are shelved right next to each other in the fantasy section, they write similar dreamlike plots and prose, they were both formative parts of my childhood: what happens if we put them in a cage match? Who comes out tops? Show your work!

Comments

[varadia]

Oh God, you have that problem with McKillip, too?

*facepalms*

Because -- seriously.

Anyway, I think it means McKinley wins, because I can actually remember the plots of the books of hers I like loooong after I have finished them.

I mean. I loved the Forgotten Beasts of Eld and I could not remember what was up with that one. *sigh*

[skygiants]

Oh man, Lynne, Forgotten Beasts of Eld is the only one I can EVER remember at all, and that is only because it's the one I happened to own growing up and so read it multiple times.

And even then, I am like "there was a sorceress lady and she captured some magic beasts and then . . . I think there was a love story? Involving brothers? And she had character development okay!"

[varadia]

I remember Blammor and Rommalb and what it meant to swap the names.

But I don't remember WHY that was important.

*sigh*

[skygiants]

- oh right I vaaaguely remember that too now! It was something to do with finding the super-pretty magical beast that she needed to complete her collection, right? Except, um, deeper and more dreamlike than that.

(Wow, Blammor and Rommalb look really silly without context, don't they.)

[jothra]

Yes. Yes they do.

*was cackling as soon as she saw 'Blammor'*

[skygiants]

Oh fantasy naming conventions. Sometimes you just have to ask WHY.

[jothra]

Whoever he is, he sounds like an EXPLODING MARIO VILLAIN.

[skygiants]

MAYBE HE IS. Little did you know that Patricia McKillip once wrote a Mario tie-in novel!

[magwana.livejournal.com]

OHMYGOSH me too.

McKinley wins, because her plots usually are more memorable, and her characters often more bad-tempered. Or at least, less sweet.

I do still adore The Riddle-Master of Hed books, even though they do not make a lot of sense either. Deth is the Big King? But a harper? But also Morgan is? I don't know.

[skygiants]

Yes, the cranky tends to win me over with McKinley too - that, and the factor of "but I don't WANT to be involved in superpowerful magical workings! I'd rather just . . . BAKE!"

Hee - I actually have the first of the Riddle-Master books out of the library right now to reread soon, since those were the first of her books I ever read and, predictably, I do not remember a darn thing about them.

[magwana.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Oh, Sunshine. Such a great book.

I also seem to get Riddle-Master confused with the Dalemark books - were there gods involved in Riddle-Master, or were the kings just godlike? - but I don't know. I was very fond of Morgan, though, who did not WANT to be the Man of Destiny but to stay at home and rule his farming kingdom. He was very fond of his pigs, as I remember.

[skygiants]

Heh. I - I was not kidding when I said I literally don't remember anything about the Riddle-Master books. The only reason I remember Deth is because rymenhild was talking about writing Yuletide fic about him when I was hanging out at her house over Chanukah.

I know the Dalemark books really well, though! There were gods in those! *HELPFUL* Also, a highly reluctant Man of Destiny. But no pigs.

[magwana.livejournal.com]

Heeee. Yes.

I remember the gods of Dalemark! Those were memorable books. But Riddle-Master? No idea if the kings were gods, or just godlike, or WHAT. Oh well. Guess I'll have to re-read them for like the third time. Seriously, Patricia McKillip, why are your books so prettily written and yet so forgettable?

[skygiants]

Man, though, it is really pretty smart on her part when you think about it! Since we are all going, "I really liked that book, but I always forget everything about it . . . guess I will just have to buy it so I have it handy to read again and again!" I SEE YOUR CLEVER PLOYS, MCKILLIP.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

(Sorry for jumping in late.) No one's exactly a god in Riddle-Master, except that a good case could be made for [Spoiler], and if [Spoiler] is a god, then so is [Spoiler]'s even more spoilery [spoiler]. But there are a whole lot of characters, including a few kings, who have enormous powers and just don't seem to die.

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

...I like this Emma girl.

I keep meaning to read McKillip! A friend of mine is a huge fan of hers. But I say McKinley would win. As for why, see icon.

[skygiants]

She really is a lot of fun! The fact that I can never remember her books in the long-term does not at all detract from the enjoyment I get in them in the short term.

This is an excellent reason.

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

I have also heard that the prose is quite gorgeous!

I find that Sunshine provides many excellent reasons for things.

[skygiants]

I basically find that Patricia McKillip kind of defines "dreamlike fairytale prose" for me. She is the alpha and the omega!

It is hard to argue with, certainly. How can one deny the glory of the cinnamon rolls?

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

This is a strong recommendation for me!

No one can deny Cinnamon Rolls As Big As Your Head! Hardened cops will refuse to arrest you for the sake of such cinnamon rolls!

[ristrettoette.livejournal.com]

I cracked up when I read this, because that was always my problem with reading McKillip. I seriously read the Riddlemaster of Hed books three times and each time was like the first because I could never remember anything that happened in them. I thought I was the only one!

[skygiants]

But apparently it happens to EVERYONE! It is kind of unnerving, actually. I mean, it's probably great for the kind of person who really likes having the experience of reading things for the first time . . . but . . . . I do not like the feeling of whole books slipping out of my brain!

[genarti]

I actually did not read any McKillip till this year or so! (As you already know, because we have discussed this before, but whatever.) So far I remember the plots of her books pretty well, but I don't know that I've really had time yet to forget them, and also I haven't read enough for them to all run together in my brain yet.

My trouble is that I finish a book, and I go "Wow, that was a very pretty dreamlike climax, and I have no idea what actually happened. I think some of it was actually being hallucinated, but I'm not sure how much or by whom or what was really going on in the hallucination either. Um."

Which is why McKinley wins out, for the stolid I-don't-want-to-be-Elfstar...ness of her characters! (Aerin! Aaaaeeeerin. I love Aerin forever. And Harry and Robin et al and and lots yes.) Also for the fact that her books were a formative part of childhood for me.

[skygiants]

I will check back with you on this topic in a year or so and see how much you still remember! :D

Yeah, that is, um, also a difficulty. I am pretty sure I know what happened at the end of this most recent one, but also, I sort of did not care, because it was not really happening to any of the characters I cared about! So that may not be the best example.

(AERIN yes. And Harry and Robin and Sunshine and yes, so many practical stolid cranky heroes and heroines! Perhaps they should all form a club.)

[genarti]

In some of her short stories I understood perfectly well what was going on!

Um and then there was the one in which the main character may or may not have been a) a kitchen girl, b) an ember or bit of charcoal or something, c) a spirit of fire, d) a ghost, e) crazy, f) a kitchen implement, or g) multiple of the above. Also I wasn't sure whether the entire story was a dream or hallucination or actual, and if a dream whose it was. Possibly a different kitchen implement's. Um.

BUT IN MOST OF THEM, OKAY.

(Yesssssss. <3 <3 <3 They could all hang out in Sherwood! There's room! Although Sunshine might perhaps get cranky about the lack of plumbing. Anyway I am forever vaguely dissatisfied with Sunshine because I wanted more Mel. :( Um, and more explanations of stuff in general. But I still mostly liked it!)