Patricia A. McKillip is so awesome I had to make up a new category in my book reviews, just for her. "Author Edition." Sounds fancy, huh? Although, you could just as easily say the reason I made up a new category is because it was too hard to pick just one of her books to review. Because that's certainly true.
But seriously, folks, this lady is super awesome. Do you remember that post I did about Rose Daughter, in which I went on and on about the sumptuous quality of it? Well, McKillip is like that, only the word I use with her is "dream-like." That is to say, her books are full of the unexplained and fantastic, existing peacefully alongside the mundane details of real life.
McKillip strikes just the right note between vague and precise, unfocused and sharp, fantasy and reality. Her books are like an impressionist or pointillist painting. It can seem chaotic and random, yet still beautiful, but when you step back, you realize that the whole thing is a unified whole that makes perfect sense. This is not to say her books are tidy. (I can't stand tidy books.) There are plenty of loose ends once you turn the last page that you can think about the book and its world for a long time after it. And her worlds are so richly painted that, even if you couldn't point to them on a map, or even say what century they're in, you feel like you've visited a real place, and now you're back home, wondering when you can go again.
Bibliography (that I've read)
Winter Rose
Ombria in Shadow
Alphabet of Thorn
Od Magic
The Bell at Sealey Head
Fool's Run (This one is sci-fi, and different from the others. Less dream-like. But one of my favorites. In fact, if I'd gone ahead and picked just one book to review, this one might have been it. I may do so yet.)
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