The Sorceress and the Cygnet

I just finished rereading this book. This is probably the hardest Mckillip book to read, because you really are left wondering what just happened after reading a dense, colorful passage. However, I find that the author's style is refreshing and makes this book unique. No other author fires my imagination like she does. The Sorceress and the Cygnet is told from two perspectives: Corleu, a light-haired Wayfolk man, and Meguet Vervaine, the guardian of Ro Holding. Corleu is coerced by legends come to life (the Gold King, the Blind Lady, etc.) to find the heart of the Cygnet, which rules over Ro Holding. Corleu finds help from a bog-witch who happens to be the third daughter of the Holder of Ro Holding. Meguet Vervaine, on the other hand, must protect the Cygnet and Ro Holding at all cost. I'm pretty sure the Sorceress and the Cygnet is out of print. I had to pay $20 for a paperback at an obscure bookstore way back when I was in high school or middle school (I was that desperate). Luckily, Sorceress and the Cygnet is being rereleased, combined with the Cygnet and the Firebird as one book. I hope Mckillip writes a third Cygnet book. Mckillip is my favorite author, and I must say that the Cygnet books contain her most memorable characters ever.

Other people have written som e wonderful reviews, and I agree that it's a shame that it's out of print--I had to pay an atrocious price for my copy. I think that another Cygnet book would be great, for there are a lot of loose ends in The Cygnet and the Firebird that need to be tied up, and I've noticed that McKillip only seems to be doing stand-alones now, good as they are. I, too, buy everything she writes, not for the plot, necessarily, but for the beauty of the images she evokes. Try Winter Rose, that is just as bitter and strange and lovely. I agree that the ending of the Sorceress and the Cygnet was very hard to understand, and I've read it a million times, seeking to understand. Does anyone know what happened?

This is an absolutely wonderful book, the one that got me hooked on Patricia McKillip in the first place. A young man finds himself trapped in a story of magic and gods, used as a pawn to find the heart of the Cygnet. Wading through myths come to life, he finds himself drawn to his bloodkin and trapped in a story that began with them long ago.It remains to this day one of my all-time favorite novels and I recommend it to anyone.

McKillip weaves a complex web of magic and desire in this book. What a shame it's out of print! I rate McKillip right up there with my all-time favorite authors, right up there with Tolkien and Le Guin. The stars come down to manipulate the future of humanity, stories take on reality, and love and desire meet. Places shift: houses fly, rooms move from place to place as they explore their own memories, and a maze at the root of a castle hold slips through time. Delightful! I liked the Riddle-Master trilogy, but this was even richer, more literary. I want to read everything by this author.

This is my favorite of McKillip's works -- I'm sorry and surprised to see it's out of print. Patricia McKillip draws from the standard toolbox of recent American fantasy -- a re-imagined Europeanish background, simple folk and nobles, magicians and sorceresses, and magical creatures. I thought the plot pretty good -- a young man is magically kidnapped by a power that he knew as a territorial symbol, and used to trick the sorceress, daughter of the ruling family, into searching for something that may kill her and destroy the current power structure. McKillip's superiority to so much that uses the same toolbox is in three things. Her language is beautiful. Her characters are more deeply and truly imagined than most. And her magic is more psychologically resonant. She draws upon old fairy tale imagery, but also reminds me of surrealism. Perhaps the reason McKillip is not better read (not to say she's unknown!) is that she straddles genres, those genres being pop-fantasy and more literary fantasy. Genre crossers can be hard to market, I hear.