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Posted By : R David Skinner - 4/28/2006 5:44 PM

How many of you are familiar with Patricia A. McKillip?

I read the Riddle-Master trilogy about forever ago. I'm not sure whether I loaned the books out to lovely Lori Dowell, or whether they were lost in my buddies basement flood along with a huge collection of vintage comics. Anyway, a few weeks ago I happened to find the complete trilogy in "A Special Collector's Edition" from Ace Fantasy. I remember it being much better than I find it now, but maybe that's the difference of reading as a teen versus as a 30-something reader. And then there's the whole problem of nostalgia. Anyway, I still recommend it as a good read.

Now I'm waiting for Barbara Hambly to come out with her compiled Darwath Trilogy. I spoke to her earlier this year and tried to get her to send it to Pitch-Black for consideration (honestly), but she seemed to have already been in the process of negotiating the deal with one of the Big Guns. I'll keep an eye out for it. Anyone have used copies for sale? I need the first and third - found the second somewhere last year.

R David Skinner

Independent Scholar, Philosopher, Reviewer

Posted By : Jeff Stehman - 4/28/2006 9:52 PM

I haven't read a great deal of McKillip, but I've enjoyed everything I have read, especially Riddle-Master. I have a soft spot for protags who are unleashed by despair, and she was the first to really do that for me. Haven't read that since I was in my twenties, though. I recall the prose not being as heavy in Riddle-Master as in her other books, which are usually not for those seeking light entertainment.

--Jeff Stehman

Posted By : R David Skinner - 4/29/2006 8:04 AM

There's a great deal of Celtic myth running through the bones of of Riddle Master. At one time that disappointed me because it made it seem less original, but now that I'm a little educated and more informed about literature it really thrills me. The originality is not so much in any story, it is in the Telling of the story. And she tells it well.

R David Skinner

Independent Scholar, Philosopher, Reviewer

Posted By : erazmus - 4/29/2006 8:45 AM

I loved this series when it came out and I, too, bought the three in one volume. I reread it and wasn't entirely displeased. It wasn't as well written as I thought the first time, but it was just as fun! I still loved Rood's great shout in the riddle school that accidentally opened all the sealed books of magic.
MIke

Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Two Ravens" in Amazing Journeys Magazine #9 Sept. 05
"An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern" in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises

Posted By : cussedness - 5/16/2006 7:08 PM

I read and read them. When my daughter was 10, I read the trilogy aloud to her. She's 23 now. I still love it. I like all of the McKillip I have read so far, starting with Forgotten BEasts of Eld.

Janrae Frank
Blood Rites http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook29989.htm

http://www.janraefrank.com

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