The Tower at Stony Wood

There are a very small number of writers who are extraordinary literary stylists. Patricia A. McKillip is one such and this latest novel reads like honey-coated silk. Her stories, always larger than life fairy tale romps in darkened woods, while maintaining a certain strength of characterization and intricate plots, become, at times, almost secondary to the beautiful prose in which they are written. This particular story, based loosely on Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott and more specifically on Loreena McKennitt's song of the same name, tells of a woman, cursed half-mad with love who is locked away in a tower to observe the happenings of the world from her magic mirror, not the window of her chamber. The hero is of course a knight in the grandest of Lancelotian traditions, full of angst and some self-doubt, all kept well-hidden beneath the virilest exteriors. The tale is truly great fun, but again it is the magnificently wrought prose that makes reading such a divine pleasure.

I adore Patricia McKillip. I want to sit on a carpet near a fire in a room somewhere and listen for snatches and bits of stories she tells. Her words dance, a compliment many may not truly recognize, but that is why I love her. Her lyricism is is simply beautiful. Her stories are so different from each other, yet they all seem to share a common theme of self-discovery and I find it hard to believe I FEEL for each of her characters. They live their passions and I find things to understand, if not admire in even her hardest creations. (I'm thinking of two Broadway shows this season that failed for just that reason. Characters lived great extremes within their tawdry realities but I could not like them!) Her bad guys are the ones who have shuttered off parts of themselves for any number of reasons; lust for power, passion, boredom, yet they all maintain a nobility. Even Draken Saphier, McKillip's one true villain, is someone I am curious about! In "The Tower at Stony Wood", Ms. McKillip has ascended to new heights of the enigmatic. I have no ability to guess where her tales will lead (I'm pretty dumb that way and enjoy getting lost in the journey) so it was much to my surprise to find myself at a "happily-ever-after." The way the end of "The Changeling Sea" was really Peri's beginning: how Saro's new tale starts when she asks, "Tell me all your names", that's what I pretty much expected. It never occurred to me that the real story of "The Tower at Stony Wood" was to be one of a girl who, for love, forced her father to disown her, despite the intercession of his sworn king. This is a far cry from the ages of peaceful solitude ahead for Morgan and Raederle, yet similar to Sybil's desire to be taken home, but the twistings of this book, as it twines back into itself are brilliant. Horray for Cyan Dag (the green knight who holds the holly bush?) and thanks to the friend who introduced Ms.McKillip to Lorena McKennitt. How she expanded the thought that ".. the wind is full of a thousand voices.." into a full novel and captured in writing what McKennitt does musically is mesmerizing and astonishing! I want MORE!

A strange, shape-shifting monster has imprisoned the King's bride, Gwynne of Skye, in a tower, and taken her place. Cyan Dag is sent by a mysterious old bard to rescue Gwynne. But his quest--so simple and desperate at first--keeps changing, twisting, turning in on itself. Instead of Gwynne's tower he finds a dark tower of dreams, a dragon-guarded tower full of gold, and a mouldering tower by the sea. And instead of the lady of Skye, he finds Melanthos, a village girl who obsessively embroiders what she sees in a magic mirror; Thayne Ysse, prince of Ysse, who wants to free his country from Gloinmere's rule; and Sel, a strange old woman haunted by something she has forgotten. No matter how hard he tries to keep to his one simple task, he is inexorably drawn into their many stories, which turn out, in the end, to all be different parts of the same story.Patricia McKillip has created yet another compelling novel that combines beautiful language, evocative imagery, a deceptively simple plot, and well-drawn characters. The only disappointing thing about it, to my mind, is the ending, which solves some problems a little too neatly and easily. It is still, however, a story well worth reading.

I have nothing but praise for all of Patricia A. McKillip's recent novels, and her latest only strengthens my conviction that she is one of the finest fantasy writers out there. I would go so far as to say that she has the most lyrical prose of anyone in the genre. The Tower at Stony Wood is a typically enthralling offering, loosely based on Tennyson's poem, "The Lady of Shallot." McKillip never retells, however; she expands, using the lady with her mirror in a tower motif as the bare framework for her story. In Tower, there is more than one tower to be surmounted, more than one maiden to be rescued, more than one quest to finish. The mundane and overdone-- knights on quests, evil queens, dragons, and bards are all given new life and shown at different angles. Rarest of all, there are no evil or malevolent characters. As bewildered protagonist Cyan Dag discovers, not all is as it seems. In fact, very little is as it initially appears.Each apparently disparate thread is successfully woven into the whole, creating a surreal, beautiful novel of the sort only Patricia McKillip could create. If you have never read anything by McKillip, but appreciate gorgeous writing and intricate plots, do yourself a favor and read this one. And after you've finished, go on and read Song for the Basilisk, Winter Rose, The Book of Atrix Wolfe...Ailanna

In the midst of the King's wedding, Cyan is stopped, mesmerized, not by the beauty of the new Queen, but by the eyes of an ancient bard. He goes to do the bard's bidding, because he can do no else, and because, in her eyes, he sees truth, and beauty, and pain, and destruction. The bard's tale is unbelievable, yet Cyan must believe it. The lovely Queen from Skye is no queen, but a monster. The real queen languishes in a tower in Skye, unable to look upon the world except through a mirror. Cyan undertakes his task reluctantly, and by doing so changes the course of history, and the very world in which he lives. For nothing is as it seems, and his purpose is a far, far greater one than merely rescuing a young woman. Patricia A. McKillip weaves words like the lady in the tower weaves thread, making the mundane into a varicolored magical tapestry. Beautiful words and a fantastical story make The Tower at Stony Wood an ever new and always enduring faerie tale. Like most faerie tales, the ending, for Cyan at least, is not unexpected. Lovers of romance might have wished for a little more depth to that part of the book, but at the beginning of this book, Ms. McKillip doesn't promise a romance, she promises an heroic fantasy, and she more than delivers on her promise. Rickey R. Mallory