Od Magic

[intertext]

I enjoyed this a lot. Patricia McKillip is a writer whom I admire immensely, and always buy immediately in hardcover, but her books, though poetic and as beautiful as the covers by Kinuko Craft, are sometimes strangely inaccessible. It seems a bit odd, therefore, that I've been so loyal to her over the years as I have - other authors have been relegated to the "buy in paperback" or even the "get from library" list, but not McKillip. Her latest novels have been gettimg more and more plot driven, and more kind of "in the moment"; it's hard to explain what I mean if you haven't read her work, but her books are often so dreamlike and almost surreal that, though beautiful, they are hard to get hold of. Her characters have seemed more ciphers than real people, and it has been hard sometimes to work out what, if anything some of her books (say, Atrix Wolf) have been, exactly, "about"... But Od Magic was lovely. I suppose some might say that one of the reasons I liked it so much is that it is essentially a revisiting of the Riddle Master books in many ways, and I've always been waiting for another book like that one. But I found myself reluctant to finish this one, and that's always one of the best things I can say about a reading experience.

Comments

[umbrella-term.livejournal.com]

haha "EFP--" I'll have to tell my partner that one. He'll laugh, because he reads and writes sf/fantasy.

Another author I thought of after I posted that question was Ondaatje. I don't know if you're familiar with his stuff, but he is like that. He's a poet turned novelist, so the language is sometimes a little obscure, but pretty once you get your head around his speech. There is not much plot, but it is about character and how we function, and an exercise in language. A good one he wrote most recently was called Anil's Ghost. But most people know him best for The English Patient, because they made it into a movie. Agan, not much plot, just character development.