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Title: Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip ISBN: 0-441-01130-6 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Another good one from McKillip.
Comment: The only complaint I have with McKillip's work is that it's over too soon. I'll have to go back and re-read the book a couple more times, slowly savoring the language. Like everything else I've read of hers, there is no sense of reading, simply images unfolding and exploding in one's mind. Noone I know of, except Ray Bradbury, has her talent for imagery.
This isn't one of her best works, however, it's still a wonderful story and well worth reading.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent fantasy
Comment: The King of the Twelve Crowns of Raine is dead and his fourteen year old daughter Tessera is crowned Queen on Dreamer's Plain. She is woefully unprepared for her office since most thought she has years to train to be a good leader. Already the second crown led by Ermin of Sealton is plotting to overthrow the queen as his nephew Bourne is placed in the Floating School of Macie to learn how to be a weapon for his uncle in the coming battle.
Bourne is not interested in power or being the nephew of a high king. His interest is in Nepenthe, a scribe in the huge library in the castle. She is an orphan who was taken in by the Librarians and grew to love books and knowledge. She is currently interested in the ALPHABET OF THORNS a work about an Emperor who lived three millennia ago and the sorcerer Kane who loved him. Little does Nepenthe know that she is the bridge between past and present and the future of the world rests on her shoulders.
Patricia A. McKillip always writes about worlds of wonders and magical adult fairy tales that have a universal appeal with their happily ever after endings. ALPHABET OF THORN is an exceptional work of fantasy with vulnerable heroines, dashing heroes and a villain that is all too believable in his quest for power. The land of Raine is a wondrous place, one this reviewer would love to visit (only if Bourne is borne away).
Harriet Klausner
Rating: 5
Summary: A Literary Obsession
Comment: Alphabet of Thorn is a fantasy set in the Kingdom of Raine. The old king has died suddenly by falling off his horse during a hunt. His fourteen year old daughter has just been crowned as the Queen amid great splendor and masses of people. The people are still not sure what to make of the new queen.
In this novel, Nepenthe is an orphan raised by the Royal librarians and trained as a transcriptor. She rides out with a fellow transcriptor to pick up a tome in an unknown alphabet from the mages of the Floating School and finds herself obsessed with both the tome and the mage who delivers it to her. She lies to the other transcriptor, saying that the mages have translated it after all, and she begins to neglect her other work to translate the tome with the alphabet of thorn.
Bourne is the apprentice mage who delivered the tome to Nepenthe. He also finds himself obsessed ... with Nepenthe! Suddenly, he thinks of her constantly and sees her everywhere. He discovers that he can find her anywhere and can move to her through space with only a single step.
Tessera is the new queen, who wanders restlessly through the castle and environs at odd hours. She is found at the bottom of the steps leading down the seaside cliff to the tomb of Mermion, the first king of Raine. She is said to have been in the woods of the Floating School talking to birds, to a mounted warrior and to Bourne. She frustrates Vevay the mage, her mentor in the kingly arts, for she is so different from her father.
In this story, Nepenthe, Bourne, Tessera and a great number of other people are threatened by an unknown danger. Tessera is warned by Mermion, the Dreaming King, to beware of the thorns. Vevay finds the tome with the alphabet of thorn and scans it for dangers, but finds nothing. What could the danger be?
This story is typical of the author, a mythical tale populated by believable and interesting characters faced by a legendary danger. The young queen matures tremendously during this tale as she learns to face her fears and strike back at danger. Bourne also matures during the story. Nepenthe doesn't develop so much as gradually showing her hidden feeling and strengths.
Highly recommended for McKillip fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of myth and mystery.
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Title: In the Forests of Serre by Patricia A. McKillip ISBN: 0441010113 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Sunshine by Robin McKinley ISBN: 0425191788 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip ISBN: 0141312629 Publisher: Penguin USA (Juv) Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay ISBN: 0451459652 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 02 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Paladin of Souls: A Novel by Lois McMaster Bujold ISBN: 0380979020 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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