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Wonders of the Invisible World
Stylistically rooted in fairy tale and mythology, imperceptible landscapes are explored in these opulent stories from a beloved fantasy icon. There are princesses dancing with dead suitors, a knight in love with an official of exotic lineage, and fortune’s fool stealing into the present instead of the future. In one mesmerizing tale, a time-traveling angel is forbidden to intervene in Cotton Mather’s religious ravings, while another narrative finds a wizard seduced in his youth by the Faerie Queen and returning the treasure that is rightfully hers. Bewitching, bittersweet, and deeply intoxicating, this collection draws elements from the fables of history and re-creates them in startlingly magical ways.
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2012
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About the author
Patricia A. McKillip
94 books2,917 followersPatricia Anne McKillip was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. She wrote predominantly standalone fantasy novels and has been called "one of the most accomplished prose stylists in the fantasy genre". Her work won many awards, including the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 205 reviews
October 5, 2016
I forgot my book at work, and needed to buy something for the commute home. If I'm going to pay full price for something, it's going to have to be in support of an author I love: thus, this book.
Excellent, excellent stories - but I was disappointed, a bit, that I'd read most of them before. There's no previously-unpublished material here, except for the transcript of a speech McKillip gave at a con.
Wonders of the Invisible World - A bit of a strange choice for an opener, as it's a bit atypical of McKillip's writing. Very good story, but it reminded me quite a lot of Connie Willis or Kage Baker: a 'modern' time-traveller goes back to meet a religious fanatic (Cotton Mather) for academic purposes.
Out of the Woods - Here, McKillip uses a fantasy setting to illustrate a point, which one moght more-commonly expect to find in contemporary fiction, about how too much work and too many commitments can tear a relationship apart.
The Kelpie - (previously read in 'The Fair Folk') - Definitely one for anyone who loves the Pre-Raphaelites. The characters here are all fictional, but it takes place amidst a group of artists and models clearly modeled after Rossetti & co. A woman artist arrives on the scene, and is delighted to find another female painter who invites her participate in her salon... however, another artist pressures her into modeling for him, and his attentions soon progress to the level of blackmail. It takes an encounter with the titular kelpie to bring things to a head. Lovely, powerful story.
(edit: If you liked this one, don't miss her story, "The Gorgon in the Cupboard" in the collection 'Dreams of Distant Shores.')
Hunter's Moon - Two children, visiting their relatives' rural hunting cabin, experience a dramatic encounter that may change how they view the world.
Oak Hill - A 'Bordertown' story. A runaway girl seeks magic - and finds it in a most unexpected place - within herself.
Fortune Teller - (previously read in 'Coyote Road'). A woman living a life of thievery and mischief meets a former compatriot who's 'gone straight' - and causes her to reassess her life choices.
Jack O'Lantern - (previously read in 'Firebirds Rising'). A young girl from a rather staid and upper-class family meets the young son of the painter who's been commissioned to paint her sister's bridal portrait. A small but magical adventure illustrates social roles, and barriers created by expectations.
Knight of the Well - A novella-length, well fleshed-out tale of a city brimming over with water magic and on the brink of disaster.
Naming Day - (previously read in 'Wizards'). A young woman eagerly anticipates her 'naming day,' when her magical academy conducts a ceremony in which the students choose their magical name. But her mother has a lesson about values to teach her daughter.
Byndley - (previously read in 'Firebirds'). A wizard on a long, hard quest, bearing an item stolen from the land of Faerie, enters a seemingly ordinary town - and learns that nothing may be as it seems.
The Twelve Dancing Princesses - (previously read in 'A Wolf at the Door'). A retelling of the classic fairy tale.
Undine - (previously read in 'The Faery Reel'). Sirens usually entrap human men a drag them under the waves... but when this one encounters an environmentalist fisherman, somehow things don't go as planned... and next thing she knows, she's out of water, and somehow being dragged around to a series of rallies for clean water, unable to find the unsullied place she needs...
Xmas Cruise - A surreal contemporary tale of a couple who take a cruise and are caught up in obsession. A nice commentary on the odd and stultifying nature on enclosed environments, artificial 'experiences' and planned activities.
A Gift to be Simple - The aging members of a celibate religious cult come up with a uniquely modern way of solving their problem of attrition. Nicely ambiguous - disturbing or uplifting?
The Old Woman and the Storm - (previously read in 'Imaginary Lands'). A beautiful story with the feel of an authentic legend. On a seemingly simple walk, a man experiences a mythological/existential crisis - and reaffirms him love of life and his wife.
The Doorkeeper of Khaat - Deceptively simple tale that deals with complex realities - differences between cultures, connections between humans, obligations and ethical choices. Reminded me a bit of Ursula LeGuin.
What Inspires Me - A speech by McKillip on her writing process.
Excellent, excellent stories - but I was disappointed, a bit, that I'd read most of them before. There's no previously-unpublished material here, except for the transcript of a speech McKillip gave at a con.
Wonders of the Invisible World - A bit of a strange choice for an opener, as it's a bit atypical of McKillip's writing. Very good story, but it reminded me quite a lot of Connie Willis or Kage Baker: a 'modern' time-traveller goes back to meet a religious fanatic (Cotton Mather) for academic purposes.
Out of the Woods - Here, McKillip uses a fantasy setting to illustrate a point, which one moght more-commonly expect to find in contemporary fiction, about how too much work and too many commitments can tear a relationship apart.
The Kelpie - (previously read in 'The Fair Folk') - Definitely one for anyone who loves the Pre-Raphaelites. The characters here are all fictional, but it takes place amidst a group of artists and models clearly modeled after Rossetti & co. A woman artist arrives on the scene, and is delighted to find another female painter who invites her participate in her salon... however, another artist pressures her into modeling for him, and his attentions soon progress to the level of blackmail. It takes an encounter with the titular kelpie to bring things to a head. Lovely, powerful story.
(edit: If you liked this one, don't miss her story, "The Gorgon in the Cupboard" in the collection 'Dreams of Distant Shores.')
Hunter's Moon - Two children, visiting their relatives' rural hunting cabin, experience a dramatic encounter that may change how they view the world.
Oak Hill - A 'Bordertown' story. A runaway girl seeks magic - and finds it in a most unexpected place - within herself.
Fortune Teller - (previously read in 'Coyote Road'). A woman living a life of thievery and mischief meets a former compatriot who's 'gone straight' - and causes her to reassess her life choices.
Jack O'Lantern - (previously read in 'Firebirds Rising'). A young girl from a rather staid and upper-class family meets the young son of the painter who's been commissioned to paint her sister's bridal portrait. A small but magical adventure illustrates social roles, and barriers created by expectations.
Knight of the Well - A novella-length, well fleshed-out tale of a city brimming over with water magic and on the brink of disaster.
Naming Day - (previously read in 'Wizards'). A young woman eagerly anticipates her 'naming day,' when her magical academy conducts a ceremony in which the students choose their magical name. But her mother has a lesson about values to teach her daughter.
Byndley - (previously read in 'Firebirds'). A wizard on a long, hard quest, bearing an item stolen from the land of Faerie, enters a seemingly ordinary town - and learns that nothing may be as it seems.
The Twelve Dancing Princesses - (previously read in 'A Wolf at the Door'). A retelling of the classic fairy tale.
Undine - (previously read in 'The Faery Reel'). Sirens usually entrap human men a drag them under the waves... but when this one encounters an environmentalist fisherman, somehow things don't go as planned... and next thing she knows, she's out of water, and somehow being dragged around to a series of rallies for clean water, unable to find the unsullied place she needs...
Xmas Cruise - A surreal contemporary tale of a couple who take a cruise and are caught up in obsession. A nice commentary on the odd and stultifying nature on enclosed environments, artificial 'experiences' and planned activities.
A Gift to be Simple - The aging members of a celibate religious cult come up with a uniquely modern way of solving their problem of attrition. Nicely ambiguous - disturbing or uplifting?
The Old Woman and the Storm - (previously read in 'Imaginary Lands'). A beautiful story with the feel of an authentic legend. On a seemingly simple walk, a man experiences a mythological/existential crisis - and reaffirms him love of life and his wife.
The Doorkeeper of Khaat - Deceptively simple tale that deals with complex realities - differences between cultures, connections between humans, obligations and ethical choices. Reminded me a bit of Ursula LeGuin.
What Inspires Me - A speech by McKillip on her writing process.
January 19, 2015
The story that gives the title (and opens) this collection is a bit atypical for the author, as it includes time travel. Future scientists go back to the past in order to study and understand our ancestors. The destination is the house of a preacher from Salem, introducing one of the recurrent themes of the collection: the oppression of women through history by men who are afraid of granting them equal status:
He lay in the dim lights and fluttering shadows, in the long, long night of history, when no one could ever see clearly after sunset, and witches and angels and living dreams trembled just beyond the fire.
This type of story is something that Connie Willis excells at, but McKillip proves she is just as good. The story also presents another common theme that runs like Ariadne's thread through all the other tales collected here:
- Oh, stop. You're mixing atoms and angels. One exists, the other doesn't.
- That's what I'm trying to get at - the point where existence is totally immaterial, where the passion, the belief in something creates a situation completely ruled by the will to believe.
- That's insanity.
- Maybe, but I find the desire, the passion, coupled with the accompanying imagery, fascinating.
Me too, Mrs. McKillip. I've been a fanboy for quite some time of the beautiful style she uses for traslating this fascination into books filled with magic and wonder.
Few of the rest of the stories here share the science-fiction element. It feels like the opening gambit's role was just to point out that belief is just as important as empirical knowledge when it comes to define our existence ( Even if the tales weren't true, truth would never stand a chance against them. ). So most of the following tales are urban fantasy with a couple secondary world mythical realms thrown in. McKillip shares with Charles de Lint and a couple of other writers close to her in style (Gaiman, Beagle, Holdstock) the concept of the primeval forest as the source and the gateway to the imaginary realms. Men can built concrete edifices completely covering the land, but underneath this are all the myths and legends and the mystery that wait in shadow for the moment when reality is no longer enough to feed our imagination.
I'll quote next some of the passages that I liked or found relevant :
- Think of magic as an untamed creature. I am learning ways to impose my will upon it, while it fights me with all its cunning for its freedom.
- It sounds like your garden.
My favorite kind of magic. This is from Out of the Woods . I don't care much for the mechanical learning of spells that always have the desired effect and feel more like the game engine of an RPG game (I'm looking at you, Sanderson). I much prefer this unpredictable, dangerous and mysterious force that eludes more than reveals. The dialogue is between a scattter-brained magician that retreats from civilization to a cottage in the forest (a sort of Schmendrick) and a housewife that is only a workhorse in the eyes of her husband (see the connection to the themes I mentioned above). A touch of humor is always a welcome ingredient in any tale of mine.
---
"This is not at all what I expected the unexpected to be like."
From Oak Hill . Teenage rebellion against suburban life sends Maris running away from home and familyin search of Bordertown - the place where you can cross from the real to the imaginary. Here she will find self-confidence and breathtaking beauty, but also 'terrifying malevolence' (Truebloods on Oak Hill are a sort of Elvish bike gangs, fortunately not of the sparkling kind)
---
That's the thing about paintings. They only show you one moment of the tale; you have to guess at the rest of it.
From Jack O'Lantern : a story about a young girl trying to break free of the constraints of Victorian morals, I like this quote because it's one of the most concise and clear arguments in favour of the short story format : they are mostly starting points / catalysts for the reader, who must use his own imagination to fill in the backstory and what comes next. Having said this, my favorite tales in the collection are the two longer novellas, where the author spends more time on the characters and the setting : The Kelpie set around the artist community in Ireland and Knight at the Well set in an imaginary world where water, the sea, rivers, fountains play a central role. I guess I'm a sucker for romance, as these two stories also have in common the focus on young people in love. Unrequited love and a touch of danger spice things up along the route: Be careful of teeth, and don't fall in love with the waterborn! is sound advice for wandering into these invisible realms.
---
Nobody said the word aloud; everyone danced around it; they all knew what he meant, though none had ever been there. That, Reck thought, was the strangest thing about the realm of Faerie: no one had seen, no one had been, no one said the word. But everyone knew.
Byndley is a small village hidden in an ancient forest. Here comes Reck, the king's wizard, on a personal quest: returning stolen property to the Queen of the Faerie.
---
A couple of stories show an awareness and an engagement in fighting pollution of the seas. Undine is about a young siren setting out to kidnap her first human. Xmas Cruise is about an older couple going on an Antarctic expedition and listening to a lot of interesting debates about marine life :
The sleep of fishes. They weren't human. They weren't even mammals. They didn't need to dream. They didn't have eyelids. How do they sleep?
---
One story seems a little out of sync with the rest, but it holds a special appeal to me, as it is a retelling of one of the first fairytales I remember reading on my own instead of having it read to me : The Twelve Dancing Princesses . It's about a common soldier being kind to a stranger and being rewarded with advice of how to break the spell that haunts a neighboring kingdom and gain the hand of one of his daughters into the bargain. Loved it.
---
The last story in the selection : The Doorkeeper of Khaat is like the first not only a beautifully spun tale, but also a confession of the artistic credo of the author: words kept the world orderly, kept the past from vanishing . A poet born into a nation (Tatia) bent on world domination and a girl born in Khaati (an ancient nation tearing itself apart in civil war) debate the use of language. McKillip rarely includes her own poetry in the text, but I'm glad to come across such gems from time to time:
Soul, like butterfly, has no language
We who walk from moment to moment,
Must say where we have been
Moment to moment,
Or we disappear.
So, like rice pickers,
We harvest words out of our mouths,
To feed ourselves.
Another discussion between the poet and the girl is about civilization / progress / modernism / pragmatism:
"- You are cloud people, we reach right through you. You have no past.
- Sure we do, everyone does.
- You have no gods, no magic, no shadows.
- We had myths. We never liked shadows.
- You don't like secrets. You don't like anything you can't take apart, put back together. You explore everything, try to know everything. If you know everything, where is the shadow to rest in?
- What shadow?
- The shadow you need crossing the desert of knowing everything. The shadow behind the language.
- I know enough to get along.
This seems like the right place to insert a 'You know nothing, Jon Snow!' joke here, but Kel the poet has his own journey of discovery to make, coming to terms with a parent suffering from an incurable disease and a girlfriend who ran away from him into a war zone.
---
Turning the last page, I am left wanting more of the same. Luckily, I still have quite a number of books yet to read from the author's catalogue. As a bonus, this one concludes with a funny riff on the 'where do you get your ideas from?' question that haunts all popular authors. The warmth, the humor, the sensibility that I have come to associate with McKillip prose is alive and well in her nonfiction guise.
He lay in the dim lights and fluttering shadows, in the long, long night of history, when no one could ever see clearly after sunset, and witches and angels and living dreams trembled just beyond the fire.
This type of story is something that Connie Willis excells at, but McKillip proves she is just as good. The story also presents another common theme that runs like Ariadne's thread through all the other tales collected here:
- Oh, stop. You're mixing atoms and angels. One exists, the other doesn't.
- That's what I'm trying to get at - the point where existence is totally immaterial, where the passion, the belief in something creates a situation completely ruled by the will to believe.
- That's insanity.
- Maybe, but I find the desire, the passion, coupled with the accompanying imagery, fascinating.
Me too, Mrs. McKillip. I've been a fanboy for quite some time of the beautiful style she uses for traslating this fascination into books filled with magic and wonder.
Few of the rest of the stories here share the science-fiction element. It feels like the opening gambit's role was just to point out that belief is just as important as empirical knowledge when it comes to define our existence ( Even if the tales weren't true, truth would never stand a chance against them. ). So most of the following tales are urban fantasy with a couple secondary world mythical realms thrown in. McKillip shares with Charles de Lint and a couple of other writers close to her in style (Gaiman, Beagle, Holdstock) the concept of the primeval forest as the source and the gateway to the imaginary realms. Men can built concrete edifices completely covering the land, but underneath this are all the myths and legends and the mystery that wait in shadow for the moment when reality is no longer enough to feed our imagination.
I'll quote next some of the passages that I liked or found relevant :
- Think of magic as an untamed creature. I am learning ways to impose my will upon it, while it fights me with all its cunning for its freedom.
- It sounds like your garden.
My favorite kind of magic. This is from Out of the Woods . I don't care much for the mechanical learning of spells that always have the desired effect and feel more like the game engine of an RPG game (I'm looking at you, Sanderson). I much prefer this unpredictable, dangerous and mysterious force that eludes more than reveals. The dialogue is between a scattter-brained magician that retreats from civilization to a cottage in the forest (a sort of Schmendrick) and a housewife that is only a workhorse in the eyes of her husband (see the connection to the themes I mentioned above). A touch of humor is always a welcome ingredient in any tale of mine.
---
"This is not at all what I expected the unexpected to be like."
From Oak Hill . Teenage rebellion against suburban life sends Maris running away from home and familyin search of Bordertown - the place where you can cross from the real to the imaginary. Here she will find self-confidence and breathtaking beauty, but also 'terrifying malevolence' (Truebloods on Oak Hill are a sort of Elvish bike gangs, fortunately not of the sparkling kind)
---
That's the thing about paintings. They only show you one moment of the tale; you have to guess at the rest of it.
From Jack O'Lantern : a story about a young girl trying to break free of the constraints of Victorian morals, I like this quote because it's one of the most concise and clear arguments in favour of the short story format : they are mostly starting points / catalysts for the reader, who must use his own imagination to fill in the backstory and what comes next. Having said this, my favorite tales in the collection are the two longer novellas, where the author spends more time on the characters and the setting : The Kelpie set around the artist community in Ireland and Knight at the Well set in an imaginary world where water, the sea, rivers, fountains play a central role. I guess I'm a sucker for romance, as these two stories also have in common the focus on young people in love. Unrequited love and a touch of danger spice things up along the route: Be careful of teeth, and don't fall in love with the waterborn! is sound advice for wandering into these invisible realms.
---
Nobody said the word aloud; everyone danced around it; they all knew what he meant, though none had ever been there. That, Reck thought, was the strangest thing about the realm of Faerie: no one had seen, no one had been, no one said the word. But everyone knew.
Byndley is a small village hidden in an ancient forest. Here comes Reck, the king's wizard, on a personal quest: returning stolen property to the Queen of the Faerie.
---
A couple of stories show an awareness and an engagement in fighting pollution of the seas. Undine is about a young siren setting out to kidnap her first human. Xmas Cruise is about an older couple going on an Antarctic expedition and listening to a lot of interesting debates about marine life :
The sleep of fishes. They weren't human. They weren't even mammals. They didn't need to dream. They didn't have eyelids. How do they sleep?
---
One story seems a little out of sync with the rest, but it holds a special appeal to me, as it is a retelling of one of the first fairytales I remember reading on my own instead of having it read to me : The Twelve Dancing Princesses . It's about a common soldier being kind to a stranger and being rewarded with advice of how to break the spell that haunts a neighboring kingdom and gain the hand of one of his daughters into the bargain. Loved it.
---
The last story in the selection : The Doorkeeper of Khaat is like the first not only a beautifully spun tale, but also a confession of the artistic credo of the author: words kept the world orderly, kept the past from vanishing . A poet born into a nation (Tatia) bent on world domination and a girl born in Khaati (an ancient nation tearing itself apart in civil war) debate the use of language. McKillip rarely includes her own poetry in the text, but I'm glad to come across such gems from time to time:
Soul, like butterfly, has no language
We who walk from moment to moment,
Must say where we have been
Moment to moment,
Or we disappear.
So, like rice pickers,
We harvest words out of our mouths,
To feed ourselves.
Another discussion between the poet and the girl is about civilization / progress / modernism / pragmatism:
"- You are cloud people, we reach right through you. You have no past.
- Sure we do, everyone does.
- You have no gods, no magic, no shadows.
- We had myths. We never liked shadows.
- You don't like secrets. You don't like anything you can't take apart, put back together. You explore everything, try to know everything. If you know everything, where is the shadow to rest in?
- What shadow?
- The shadow you need crossing the desert of knowing everything. The shadow behind the language.
- I know enough to get along.
This seems like the right place to insert a 'You know nothing, Jon Snow!' joke here, but Kel the poet has his own journey of discovery to make, coming to terms with a parent suffering from an incurable disease and a girlfriend who ran away from him into a war zone.
---
Turning the last page, I am left wanting more of the same. Luckily, I still have quite a number of books yet to read from the author's catalogue. As a bonus, this one concludes with a funny riff on the 'where do you get your ideas from?' question that haunts all popular authors. The warmth, the humor, the sensibility that I have come to associate with McKillip prose is alive and well in her nonfiction guise.
December 22, 2015
I was reading the story called ‘Xmas Cruise’ while on the bus going to a party. It was about an Antarctic cruise and I thought it was quite a theme for this collection, as there already was a story about an Arctic cruise. But then I remembered Atwood mentioned she thought of many stories for this collection while on an Arctic cruise, so it made sense. And much later I realised I wasn’t reading Atwood’s ‘Stone Mattress’. In fact I had finished ‘Stone Mattress’ about a month before and then I marvelled at how I could have gotten so confused over which book I was reading. Maybe I wasn’t even going to the party. Maybe I was coming back from it.
Nonetheless (and in my defence), Margaret Atwood and Patricia A. McKillip have something in common and I would venture to say it’s a sense of wonder. That sense of wonder is what makes stories in ‘Wonders of the Invisible World’ so enchanting even if they often fail to bring things to a satisfying conclusion. McKillip shows us slivers of magical worlds and we need to just accept those slivers as enough and not expect tightly structured plots or wait for the punchline. At the end I was sometimes left slightly frustrated - there were unanswered questions and absent resolutions, but the dreams induced by this collection were always wonderful (in the most basic sense of the word – that is full of wonder).
We miss and crave a world full of magic – that’s why we read fantasy books. But authors often forget that their characters who live in those fantastical worlds should be like us, therefore still looking for more, for another form of magic. That relentless search for enchantment and the supernatural was captured by McKillip so beautifully here. Many fantasy books, paradoxically, are thin on amazement. They often feature elaborate worlds with complex magic systems and a plethora of marvellous creatures but eventually make it all so pedestrian. If you want to know what I’m talking about read “Out of the Woods”, a story about a wizard who toiled at his wizardry and had no time for magic, or the eponymous story of the collection in which someone gets just the sort of supernatural they have been praying for. In fact, every story in this collection tackles this theme in some way, so read them all.
Nonetheless (and in my defence), Margaret Atwood and Patricia A. McKillip have something in common and I would venture to say it’s a sense of wonder. That sense of wonder is what makes stories in ‘Wonders of the Invisible World’ so enchanting even if they often fail to bring things to a satisfying conclusion. McKillip shows us slivers of magical worlds and we need to just accept those slivers as enough and not expect tightly structured plots or wait for the punchline. At the end I was sometimes left slightly frustrated - there were unanswered questions and absent resolutions, but the dreams induced by this collection were always wonderful (in the most basic sense of the word – that is full of wonder).
We miss and crave a world full of magic – that’s why we read fantasy books. But authors often forget that their characters who live in those fantastical worlds should be like us, therefore still looking for more, for another form of magic. That relentless search for enchantment and the supernatural was captured by McKillip so beautifully here. Many fantasy books, paradoxically, are thin on amazement. They often feature elaborate worlds with complex magic systems and a plethora of marvellous creatures but eventually make it all so pedestrian. If you want to know what I’m talking about read “Out of the Woods”, a story about a wizard who toiled at his wizardry and had no time for magic, or the eponymous story of the collection in which someone gets just the sort of supernatural they have been praying for. In fact, every story in this collection tackles this theme in some way, so read them all.
November 8, 2014
Of all Patricia McKillip's writings, perhaps this one is the most accessible. The short stories seem to have a different tone to her longer works -- something less poetic, more matter of fact. It's a great collection: pretty much all of the stories are strong, and each one contains a whole world -- and each world is so very different from the next. There are some which are more like her novels, and oddly they seem to be ones which people who're fans of her novels like less, based on the review. Maybe it's because a novel may digress, may take time simply being lovely: poetry and short stories have to go right to the heart of it, whatever that heart is. Something that feels a bit too vague and artsy can come up totally inconclusive as a short story: that's how I felt about just a couple of these, particularly 'Xmas Cruise'. On the other hand, the twist and uncertainty in 'Hunter's Moon' works really well -- I'm just not sure that I'm meant to feel so vague about 'Xmas Cruise'. It made me feel like I was missing something.
Most of the time, though, the stories are pretty strong. I wasn't sure about some of them, and then they revealed themselves -- the Arthurian twist in 'Out of the Woods' made me smile, and the way it contrasts the two worlds by laying them side by side, never saying anything explicitly about one or the other world, how they fit together. I think my favourite story was 'Knight of the Well'; McKillip builds up a whole fantasy world, acquaints you wish it, turns it upside down and settles it down again in the space of what's still a pretty short story.
Overall, a great collection; McKillip's way with words remains a strength. The contemporary feel of a couple of these didn't sit that well with me, partly because I was expecting something more olde-worlde, something to match the mythical look of the cover. Other people might find it the best 'in' to McKillip's work they've ever had, though.
Most of the time, though, the stories are pretty strong. I wasn't sure about some of them, and then they revealed themselves -- the Arthurian twist in 'Out of the Woods' made me smile, and the way it contrasts the two worlds by laying them side by side, never saying anything explicitly about one or the other world, how they fit together. I think my favourite story was 'Knight of the Well'; McKillip builds up a whole fantasy world, acquaints you wish it, turns it upside down and settles it down again in the space of what's still a pretty short story.
Overall, a great collection; McKillip's way with words remains a strength. The contemporary feel of a couple of these didn't sit that well with me, partly because I was expecting something more olde-worlde, something to match the mythical look of the cover. Other people might find it the best 'in' to McKillip's work they've ever had, though.
August 10, 2022
An anthology of short stories by an author I have read a lot and whose books are really quite unique. And I like short stories and McKillip in short doses seemed like a great idea, so this book has been waiting to be read almost since it was published. But somehow a lot of these stories just seemed to miss me. It made me think a bit (in a truly chaotic organized way) on what makes good short fiction and how some writers write better at some lengths.
There is an interesting kind of afterword, which is a speech given by Patricia Mckillip at a con, where she is quite frank about writing for a living, or writing aiming for a deadline. And that was somewhat validating to me not really liking, or understanding a lot of this book, or even her full length novels - that weird feeling where you can see there is very good writing and imagery but you just can not relate to either plot, or the larger picture. Sometimes maybe it is not the reader, it is the story even when the author has reliably written great stuff elsewhere.
Incidentally, lot of the stories here seem to have been written for anthologies and seem almost a bit contrived in setting. They are also organized somewhat randomly regarding publication year and it was interesting to me to read a story and try to guess what it was written for and when.
Some interesting context for her later books (post 1990 by my math, from that speech: "What I set out to do about fifteen years ago was to write a series of novels that were like paintings in a gallery by the same artist. Each work is different, but they are all related to one another by two things: they are all fantasy, and they are all by the same person. That’s all I wanted to do. And now I’m reaching the end of that series".
The stories, one by one:
“Wonders of the Invisible World” (1995) - McKillip does a sf story! Amazing. With time travelling historians (or researchers at least). I would never have expected it. And weirdly it did not work for me, though I loved Nici's voice. But the point (if I understood it and did not miss any larger arch) was kind of trite. Almost Connie Willis in setting (and published a couple years after Doomsday Book).
“Out of the Woods” (2004) - seemed like peak McKillip to me, the country wife who can see magic far better than the magician she keeps house for, with Arthurian themes. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I knew the myths, themes better (Tennyson? Mallory?). But fantastic as this story seemed, the slow characterization of how invisible Leta was for those men, while she seemed to see so much more than them, it just kind of ends, stops. No real ending, even for a short story.
“The Kelpie” (2005) - novella length, pre-raphaelite (basically, but in another universe/city) artists (rich ones), a girl with two suitors, one the true love at first sight, another a smarmy condescending artist blackmailing her to pose for him. I liked it a lot and it had a concrete, clear ending for once. But somehow, and this was probably just me, it did not totally work. The horribly manipulative suitor is also weirdly defined, to be antagonistic whenever convenient with a few things left unexplained.
“Hunter’s Moon” (2002) - almost going into horror, a girl in a family cabin and hunting (in some american mountains).
“Oak Hill” ( 1998) - ah first published in The Essential Bordertown, which makes a lot of sense, because it is McKillip writing that type of oh-so-influential then story. I am not sure I understood this story though.
“The Fortune-Teller” (2007) - the main character is very un McKillip-ish, a first person amoral scammer. Seems to fit an anthology, for which it was written but still unusual. Again, weak, non conclusive ending. It is like this story is about the wrong character, one I did not care about.
“Jack O’Lantern” (2006) - more pseudo-England and painters, a girl wanting a small adventure. Quite charming.
“Knight of the Well” (2012) - the most McKillip-ish of the lot, the most recent one, one of the two novella length stories here. And it is like a mini McKillip book and a good one, magic waters trying to tell something (that they are mad) to mages, ministers in a city by a river. With a love story - which was somewhat the problem for me, the length was not enough for the story and for the character/relationship development. The romance does not work . The plot was great though!
“Naming Day” (2007) - another story which feels written on purpose to fit the theme of an anthology. Nice enough, almost DWJ/Harry Potter overtones, but ultimately, flimsy.
“Byndley” (2003) - a mage which stole from the queen of faerie tries to get rid of a burden. And truly very good, with fantastic characterization.
“The Twelve Dancing Princesses” (2000) - an almost straight fairy tale retelling, told in the fairy tale style. That sounds like something I would enjoy but I found it very underwhelming. And like with a few other stories, again I was left wondering that what came next would be more interesting than the story - this frequently happens in a lot of short stories, on purpose, and sometimes it is enjoyable, but in McKillip stories I just found it frustrating.
“Undine” (2004) - almost a rom-com, with a not-nice main character and no real romance. It is a surprisingly funny set-up but again it feels short. But it did made me smile.
“Xmas Cruise” (1993) - I am trying to note down, without publishing my thoughts on each and every story soon after I have read those. This seemed to totally disapear from my memory soon after read. Two couples, antarctica cruise, some kind of supernatural hinted. As you can guess, very flimsy story.
“A Gift To Be Simple” (1999) going by copyright first published in "Not of Woman Born" which explains the twist, like the plot was written to fit in an anthology. Weird nun-and-monk compound from some fantasy religion with cloning. Nice bits about nun life and finding purpose in small pratical matters which is a very McKillip-ish theme, but still an odd plot and like the story is just the wrong perspective, the wrong piece of the underlying story.
“The Old Woman and the Storm” - I am writing this the day after finishing this story and I have forgotten it almost. Almost mythological storytelling, beautiful myth like storytelling, and oh so vague. Early McKillip, and I just can not relate.
“The Doorkeeper of Khaat” - another sf short story, to bookend the antholog. It did not have to be sf, it is just scenery and could have been as easily been fantasy. A poet, from the dominant ethnicity goes live in a neighbourhood, study poetry from an ethnic disfavored ethnicity. It did not quite work though, neither plot nor as any kind of insight.
I was always going to want to read this, to check for myself, but in all I think McKillip is much better at longer lengths and ultimately there is no real must-read here.
There is an interesting kind of afterword, which is a speech given by Patricia Mckillip at a con, where she is quite frank about writing for a living, or writing aiming for a deadline. And that was somewhat validating to me not really liking, or understanding a lot of this book, or even her full length novels - that weird feeling where you can see there is very good writing and imagery but you just can not relate to either plot, or the larger picture. Sometimes maybe it is not the reader, it is the story even when the author has reliably written great stuff elsewhere.
Incidentally, lot of the stories here seem to have been written for anthologies and seem almost a bit contrived in setting. They are also organized somewhat randomly regarding publication year and it was interesting to me to read a story and try to guess what it was written for and when.
Some interesting context for her later books (post 1990 by my math, from that speech: "What I set out to do about fifteen years ago was to write a series of novels that were like paintings in a gallery by the same artist. Each work is different, but they are all related to one another by two things: they are all fantasy, and they are all by the same person. That’s all I wanted to do. And now I’m reaching the end of that series".
The stories, one by one:
“Wonders of the Invisible World” (1995) - McKillip does a sf story! Amazing. With time travelling historians (or researchers at least). I would never have expected it. And weirdly it did not work for me, though I loved Nici's voice. But the point (if I understood it and did not miss any larger arch) was kind of trite. Almost Connie Willis in setting (and published a couple years after Doomsday Book).
“Out of the Woods” (2004) - seemed like peak McKillip to me, the country wife who can see magic far better than the magician she keeps house for, with Arthurian themes. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I knew the myths, themes better (Tennyson? Mallory?). But fantastic as this story seemed, the slow characterization of how invisible Leta was for those men, while she seemed to see so much more than them, it just kind of ends, stops. No real ending, even for a short story.
“The Kelpie” (2005) - novella length, pre-raphaelite (basically, but in another universe/city) artists (rich ones), a girl with two suitors, one the true love at first sight, another a smarmy condescending artist blackmailing her to pose for him. I liked it a lot and it had a concrete, clear ending for once. But somehow, and this was probably just me, it did not totally work. The horribly manipulative suitor is also weirdly defined, to be antagonistic whenever convenient with a few things left unexplained.
“Hunter’s Moon” (2002) - almost going into horror, a girl in a family cabin and hunting (in some american mountains).
“Oak Hill” ( 1998) - ah first published in The Essential Bordertown, which makes a lot of sense, because it is McKillip writing that type of oh-so-influential then story. I am not sure I understood this story though.
“The Fortune-Teller” (2007) - the main character is very un McKillip-ish, a first person amoral scammer. Seems to fit an anthology, for which it was written but still unusual. Again, weak, non conclusive ending. It is like this story is about the wrong character, one I did not care about.
“Jack O’Lantern” (2006) - more pseudo-England and painters, a girl wanting a small adventure. Quite charming.
“Knight of the Well” (2012) - the most McKillip-ish of the lot, the most recent one, one of the two novella length stories here. And it is like a mini McKillip book and a good one, magic waters trying to tell something (that they are mad) to mages, ministers in a city by a river. With a love story - which was somewhat the problem for me, the length was not enough for the story and for the character/relationship development. The romance does not work . The plot was great though!
“Naming Day” (2007) - another story which feels written on purpose to fit the theme of an anthology. Nice enough, almost DWJ/Harry Potter overtones, but ultimately, flimsy.
“Byndley” (2003) - a mage which stole from the queen of faerie tries to get rid of a burden. And truly very good, with fantastic characterization.
“The Twelve Dancing Princesses” (2000) - an almost straight fairy tale retelling, told in the fairy tale style. That sounds like something I would enjoy but I found it very underwhelming. And like with a few other stories, again I was left wondering that what came next would be more interesting than the story - this frequently happens in a lot of short stories, on purpose, and sometimes it is enjoyable, but in McKillip stories I just found it frustrating.
“Undine” (2004) - almost a rom-com, with a not-nice main character and no real romance. It is a surprisingly funny set-up but again it feels short. But it did made me smile.
“Xmas Cruise” (1993) - I am trying to note down, without publishing my thoughts on each and every story soon after I have read those. This seemed to totally disapear from my memory soon after read. Two couples, antarctica cruise, some kind of supernatural hinted. As you can guess, very flimsy story.
“A Gift To Be Simple” (1999) going by copyright first published in "Not of Woman Born" which explains the twist, like the plot was written to fit in an anthology. Weird nun-and-monk compound from some fantasy religion with cloning. Nice bits about nun life and finding purpose in small pratical matters which is a very McKillip-ish theme, but still an odd plot and like the story is just the wrong perspective, the wrong piece of the underlying story.
“The Old Woman and the Storm” - I am writing this the day after finishing this story and I have forgotten it almost. Almost mythological storytelling, beautiful myth like storytelling, and oh so vague. Early McKillip, and I just can not relate.
“The Doorkeeper of Khaat” - another sf short story, to bookend the antholog. It did not have to be sf, it is just scenery and could have been as easily been fantasy. A poet, from the dominant ethnicity goes live in a neighbourhood, study poetry from an ethnic disfavored ethnicity. It did not quite work though, neither plot nor as any kind of insight.
I was always going to want to read this, to check for myself, but in all I think McKillip is much better at longer lengths and ultimately there is no real must-read here.
September 24, 2012
I have read Patricia Mckillip’s novels before, I am certain of that but for some reason, I did not remember just how fantastic her world weaving and wordsmithery really are. Wonders of the Invisible World satisfies on so many levels that had I the time, I would have reviewed each story in the anthology because each story deserves careful, individual attention. As it is, unfortunately, I do not have the time so I shall focus on a few favourites.
“Wonders of the Invisible World”
This story is a fantastic juxtaposition of the fantastical and science fiction. While the occasions referenced to in the story have a paranormal aspect, Mckillip gives it a much more benign framework when you realize that the main character is actually a time traveler and that the supernatural instances are carefully choreographed in part due to the new technology of the future. What I loved about this short story is how, even in the limited space present in a short story, Mckillip manages to infuse so much personality in all her characters. I would have happily read an entire book based on this premise and hopefully she will someday return to the world she creates in this story.
“The Kelpie”
McKillip portrays almost perfectly the languorous life of painters set in a time she does not explicitly state but one can infer that this could be during Renaissance or some similar time when art is flourishing. There is a sweetness to this story, a very real sense of danger in the mysterious and very sinister painter who is, despite all his unwelcome attention and unpleasant personality, very talented. Ned and Emma’s romance is so beautifully constructed without ever becoming too mushy, too romantic and melodramatic. And trust me, I am one of the most difficult people to convince where fictional romance is concerned. The paranormal aspects of this story neatly weaves in with the general atmosphere and the tone of the narrative as a whole. It satisfied me despite its shortness.
“Hunter’s Moon” and “Oak Hill”
These two stories are both short but pack a punch by their very pithy nature. None of the words, sentences in these two stories are wasted and it is only at the very end of them that you realize the weight of each sentence.
“Jack O’Lantern”
Perhaps my favourite in the entire collection, this story portrays the brief nature of childhood, the magic that is present even in children who straddle the fence between childhood and adulthood. The story manages to steal magic out of very ordinary circumstances and highlights the plight of women in a past England. It also very briefly, very sweetly shows us a lightning flash of romance. A lovely story that I will return to when I need some magic in my own life.
“Knight of the Well”
This one was delicious as well. It crafted a world where water is worshipped and infused it with life, vibrant characters and a story that could be narrated fully in the length of a short story. I loved this one as well.
“Naming Day”
This one was pithy, clever and an awesome juxtaposition of magic and the ordinary life.
As you can see by now, I loved all the stories in this collection and if I still have to tell you to try this out, well, you haven’t been reading my review. Honestly, if you like short stories, well, even if you don’t like them usually, give these a try. Patricia Mckillip is a master at what she does. Strongly recommended.
“Wonders of the Invisible World”
This story is a fantastic juxtaposition of the fantastical and science fiction. While the occasions referenced to in the story have a paranormal aspect, Mckillip gives it a much more benign framework when you realize that the main character is actually a time traveler and that the supernatural instances are carefully choreographed in part due to the new technology of the future. What I loved about this short story is how, even in the limited space present in a short story, Mckillip manages to infuse so much personality in all her characters. I would have happily read an entire book based on this premise and hopefully she will someday return to the world she creates in this story.
“The Kelpie”
McKillip portrays almost perfectly the languorous life of painters set in a time she does not explicitly state but one can infer that this could be during Renaissance or some similar time when art is flourishing. There is a sweetness to this story, a very real sense of danger in the mysterious and very sinister painter who is, despite all his unwelcome attention and unpleasant personality, very talented. Ned and Emma’s romance is so beautifully constructed without ever becoming too mushy, too romantic and melodramatic. And trust me, I am one of the most difficult people to convince where fictional romance is concerned. The paranormal aspects of this story neatly weaves in with the general atmosphere and the tone of the narrative as a whole. It satisfied me despite its shortness.
“Hunter’s Moon” and “Oak Hill”
These two stories are both short but pack a punch by their very pithy nature. None of the words, sentences in these two stories are wasted and it is only at the very end of them that you realize the weight of each sentence.
“Jack O’Lantern”
Perhaps my favourite in the entire collection, this story portrays the brief nature of childhood, the magic that is present even in children who straddle the fence between childhood and adulthood. The story manages to steal magic out of very ordinary circumstances and highlights the plight of women in a past England. It also very briefly, very sweetly shows us a lightning flash of romance. A lovely story that I will return to when I need some magic in my own life.
“Knight of the Well”
This one was delicious as well. It crafted a world where water is worshipped and infused it with life, vibrant characters and a story that could be narrated fully in the length of a short story. I loved this one as well.
“Naming Day”
This one was pithy, clever and an awesome juxtaposition of magic and the ordinary life.
As you can see by now, I loved all the stories in this collection and if I still have to tell you to try this out, well, you haven’t been reading my review. Honestly, if you like short stories, well, even if you don’t like them usually, give these a try. Patricia Mckillip is a master at what she does. Strongly recommended.
March 8, 2013
McKillip's earlier works remain among my steadfast favorites, and I was happy to pick up her prior collection of short stories, Harrowing the Dragon, and devour it. Unfortunately, the first story in this one started with a time-traveler posing as an angel in front of Cotton Mather. It's difficult to think of a less interesting premise (from my perspective), and I ended up neglecting this book for months.
I have to say that McKillip's shorter fiction strikes me as more literary than her novels, whereby I'm using the extremely biased definition of lit fic as "has an ambiguous or depressing ending." There's a lot more intrusion of modern or futuristic settings, which I find jarring; McKillip's signature poetical style lends itself really well for the kingdom fantasy subgenre, to the point where I feel like something's lacking when her stories reflect more contemporary societies. That said, if you want to see her stretch herself and display an impressive range, here's the place.
I did find some gems in here; in the second story, "Out of the Woods," a woman begins a new job as a wizard's housekeeper. McKillip plucks out myths with seeming carelessness and blends them into the impulse behind the start of her journey away from a life growing too rote. This one convinced me to keep going.
"Knight of the Well" feels closest to her usual full-length novel fare, with its wry human relationships contrasting with the way the otherworldly impinges upon court celebrations.
And "Naming Day" was surprisingly cute -- not an adjective I usually associate with McKillip. A student of magic finds herself with an unexpected task.
Personally, I didn't find it as appealing as other examples of McKillip's writing, but that may be because I adore those other works so much.
I have to say that McKillip's shorter fiction strikes me as more literary than her novels, whereby I'm using the extremely biased definition of lit fic as "has an ambiguous or depressing ending." There's a lot more intrusion of modern or futuristic settings, which I find jarring; McKillip's signature poetical style lends itself really well for the kingdom fantasy subgenre, to the point where I feel like something's lacking when her stories reflect more contemporary societies. That said, if you want to see her stretch herself and display an impressive range, here's the place.
I did find some gems in here; in the second story, "Out of the Woods," a woman begins a new job as a wizard's housekeeper. McKillip plucks out myths with seeming carelessness and blends them into the impulse behind the start of her journey away from a life growing too rote. This one convinced me to keep going.
"Knight of the Well" feels closest to her usual full-length novel fare, with its wry human relationships contrasting with the way the otherworldly impinges upon court celebrations.
And "Naming Day" was surprisingly cute -- not an adjective I usually associate with McKillip. A student of magic finds herself with an unexpected task.
Personally, I didn't find it as appealing as other examples of McKillip's writing, but that may be because I adore those other works so much.
December 13, 2012
I inaugurated my new tablet with a library download of this anthology before I buy my traditional hardcopy version.
Patricia McKillip is one of the few writers whose works I will buy off the shelf, no questions asked. While good old J.R.R. Tolkien might have instigated my fantasy reading at age 10, McKillip set it in stone half a decade later. 'The Forgotten Beasts of Eld' was the first paperback I ordered and paid for by myself. The 'Riddlemaster' trilogy made me begin thinking about writing. 'The Changeling Sea' is still one of the most perfect short YA novels I've ever read, though to shelve it under YA takes away from the magic a little.
Her wordplay is never less than extraordinary. Her plots are not splashy action movies, but measured dances spiked with moments of sheer terror. Through everything runs a strain of affectionate humanism I see in Terry Pratchett, as well. She understands people. She is kind, but not a pushover.
After winding down with her epilogue, I realized all over again that McKillip may actually be a better writer in short stories than in her novels. The stories here are just as dreamlike, sometimes just as disorienting, but honed to an uncompromising edge because of their brevity. A thief cannot run from destiny, nor can an angel turn away from ancient madness. True love melts like an iceberg under sunlight, or weathers an intricate semi-Victorian comedy of manners. Protagonists face themselves and reshape their worlds. Not all is happily ever after, nor should it be. McKillip, like most great fantasists, offers neither a veil nor a substitute for reality, but a well-crafted mirror.
Patricia McKillip is one of the few writers whose works I will buy off the shelf, no questions asked. While good old J.R.R. Tolkien might have instigated my fantasy reading at age 10, McKillip set it in stone half a decade later. 'The Forgotten Beasts of Eld' was the first paperback I ordered and paid for by myself. The 'Riddlemaster' trilogy made me begin thinking about writing. 'The Changeling Sea' is still one of the most perfect short YA novels I've ever read, though to shelve it under YA takes away from the magic a little.
Her wordplay is never less than extraordinary. Her plots are not splashy action movies, but measured dances spiked with moments of sheer terror. Through everything runs a strain of affectionate humanism I see in Terry Pratchett, as well. She understands people. She is kind, but not a pushover.
After winding down with her epilogue, I realized all over again that McKillip may actually be a better writer in short stories than in her novels. The stories here are just as dreamlike, sometimes just as disorienting, but honed to an uncompromising edge because of their brevity. A thief cannot run from destiny, nor can an angel turn away from ancient madness. True love melts like an iceberg under sunlight, or weathers an intricate semi-Victorian comedy of manners. Protagonists face themselves and reshape their worlds. Not all is happily ever after, nor should it be. McKillip, like most great fantasists, offers neither a veil nor a substitute for reality, but a well-crafted mirror.
December 3, 2012
An anthology of sixteen short stories about fey, magic, and fairytales with an introduction by Charles de Lindt and an essay on what inspires McKillip.
My Take
This was a mixed bag of huh-what and wonderful. Sadly, McKillip says she has come to the end of this type of fey story. If she is, then she's gone out with a whisper and not a bang.
The Stories
"Wonders of the Invisible World" is time traveling science fiction with a researcher wanting Cotton Mather's emotions. It's a quick blip into two worlds: the future and the close of the Salem witch trials. I certainly do understand why Nici feels as she does at the end, even if it is rather vague.
"Out of the Woods" is an atmospheric old-timey story that parallels our own age of materialism with a wife working outside the home while having to still do the cooking and cleaning while her husband is out working and drinking. A very unsatisfying story that never concluded.
"Kelpie" was amazing. Okay, yeah, I'm prejudiced. There was a Pre-Raphaelite feel to the artists and their lifestyles---I'm probably being influenced by the cover art! I love the world into which McKillip took us, spending time creating a world of working and playing artists. The set-up with the wicked, self-centered Bram Wilding and his attacks on Emma's thoughts. Ned Bonham's protective stance as he tries to give her room. Followed by the denouement at Ned's country house.
Definitely one of my favorites in this collection.
"Hunter's Moon" left me hanging with the innuendo at the end. And hoping that McKillip will follow up on the Hunters. It's really Dawn's adventure with her little brother along for the ride with their father and Uncle Ridley. They're out hunting deer while Dawn is with a Hunter. One who is not what he seems. Very vague.
"Oak Hill" is another odd one. I don't really see the point of this one; it's a simple blip between running away and finding strength, possibly a hint of self-esteem for a woman who believes it when told she's ugly. It's almost a metropolitan Wild Hunt crossed by entrepreneurial hippies as Maris searches for a teacher of magic.
"The Fortune-Teller" is almost karmic as the thieving Merle encounters an unwelcome revelation. Another vague tale that I enjoyed for how McKillip got into the adaptable mind of a pickpocket and her casual approach to ownership.
"Jack O'Lantern" is another pip, although vague again. Using an arranged marriage and the need for a portrait of the wedding party---be sure to read mother's explanation of how sex works with their oysters and pearls and water of life, McKillip gives a personal twist to the Will o' the wisp.
"Knight of the Well" is one of my favorites in this anthology. McKillip creates an entire world in this short with its own culture and worries while fiddling in a sweet, unrequited romance. Very nice twist.
"Naming Day" was good! The selfishness of teens who are too important for their own good. At least she learned her lesson quickly!
"Byndley" is one of the lovely ones with a mage feeling the heavy weight of remorse who is trying to make up for his past behavior. Nice twist at the end.
"Twelve Dancing Princesses" is a twist on one of Grimm's fairytales.
"Undine" was a lovely twist on the usual in which a water fey kidnaps a human and takes him home with her. Something just always seems to come up.
"Xmas Cruise" is irritatingly vague about a loving husband who gifts his wife with a cruise around Cape Horn and Tierra del Fuego with a concentration on Gaia, and they end up swapping with another couple. I think.
"A Gift to Be Simple" is an odd look at a religious sect that is dying out and the lengths to which they will go to ensure their group continues on into the future.
"The Old Woman and the Storm" is a whole lotta metaphor of a lover who no longer recognizes his love. Interesting, yet vague.
"The Doorkeeper of Khaat" is one of those huh-whats. There's a lot of vague prose about Kel and his drifting throughout the land, being a poet only to be called home when his father is dying with one last request. A wish that will open a doorway in the world of the Khaati.
The Cover
The cover is similar to others in her fey stories, but not as rich in detail. Not to say that this one isn't intricately populated with its human mermaid...the undine, perhaps?...surrounded by thorny trees, buzzing giant insects, and a barren landscape with a castle in the background. It's rather like the stories in this anthology. Some richness and some vapidity.
The title comes from the first short story in which Cotton Mather wants so desperately to see the Wonders of the Invisible World, envious of the children who have been granted such visions.
My Take
This was a mixed bag of huh-what and wonderful. Sadly, McKillip says she has come to the end of this type of fey story. If she is, then she's gone out with a whisper and not a bang.
The Stories
"Wonders of the Invisible World" is time traveling science fiction with a researcher wanting Cotton Mather's emotions. It's a quick blip into two worlds: the future and the close of the Salem witch trials. I certainly do understand why Nici feels as she does at the end, even if it is rather vague.
"Out of the Woods" is an atmospheric old-timey story that parallels our own age of materialism with a wife working outside the home while having to still do the cooking and cleaning while her husband is out working and drinking. A very unsatisfying story that never concluded.
"Kelpie" was amazing. Okay, yeah, I'm prejudiced. There was a Pre-Raphaelite feel to the artists and their lifestyles---I'm probably being influenced by the cover art! I love the world into which McKillip took us, spending time creating a world of working and playing artists. The set-up with the wicked, self-centered Bram Wilding and his attacks on Emma's thoughts. Ned Bonham's protective stance as he tries to give her room. Followed by the denouement at Ned's country house.
Definitely one of my favorites in this collection.
"Hunter's Moon" left me hanging with the innuendo at the end. And hoping that McKillip will follow up on the Hunters. It's really Dawn's adventure with her little brother along for the ride with their father and Uncle Ridley. They're out hunting deer while Dawn is with a Hunter. One who is not what he seems. Very vague.
"Oak Hill" is another odd one. I don't really see the point of this one; it's a simple blip between running away and finding strength, possibly a hint of self-esteem for a woman who believes it when told she's ugly. It's almost a metropolitan Wild Hunt crossed by entrepreneurial hippies as Maris searches for a teacher of magic.
"The Fortune-Teller" is almost karmic as the thieving Merle encounters an unwelcome revelation. Another vague tale that I enjoyed for how McKillip got into the adaptable mind of a pickpocket and her casual approach to ownership.
"Jack O'Lantern" is another pip, although vague again. Using an arranged marriage and the need for a portrait of the wedding party---be sure to read mother's explanation of how sex works with their oysters and pearls and water of life, McKillip gives a personal twist to the Will o' the wisp.
"Knight of the Well" is one of my favorites in this anthology. McKillip creates an entire world in this short with its own culture and worries while fiddling in a sweet, unrequited romance. Very nice twist.
"Naming Day" was good! The selfishness of teens who are too important for their own good. At least she learned her lesson quickly!
"Byndley" is one of the lovely ones with a mage feeling the heavy weight of remorse who is trying to make up for his past behavior. Nice twist at the end.
"Twelve Dancing Princesses" is a twist on one of Grimm's fairytales.
"Undine" was a lovely twist on the usual in which a water fey kidnaps a human and takes him home with her. Something just always seems to come up.
"Xmas Cruise" is irritatingly vague about a loving husband who gifts his wife with a cruise around Cape Horn and Tierra del Fuego with a concentration on Gaia, and they end up swapping with another couple. I think.
"A Gift to Be Simple" is an odd look at a religious sect that is dying out and the lengths to which they will go to ensure their group continues on into the future.
"The Old Woman and the Storm" is a whole lotta metaphor of a lover who no longer recognizes his love. Interesting, yet vague.
"The Doorkeeper of Khaat" is one of those huh-whats. There's a lot of vague prose about Kel and his drifting throughout the land, being a poet only to be called home when his father is dying with one last request. A wish that will open a doorway in the world of the Khaati.
The Cover
The cover is similar to others in her fey stories, but not as rich in detail. Not to say that this one isn't intricately populated with its human mermaid...the undine, perhaps?...surrounded by thorny trees, buzzing giant insects, and a barren landscape with a castle in the background. It's rather like the stories in this anthology. Some richness and some vapidity.
The title comes from the first short story in which Cotton Mather wants so desperately to see the Wonders of the Invisible World, envious of the children who have been granted such visions.
December 18, 2013
Mini-Review: "Wonders of the Invisible World" by Patricia A. McKillip
Wonders of the Invisible World is a collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors. As in her full-length novels, Patricia McKillip's language is exquisite. She uses a poetic and ethereal tone that left me more and more enchanted with every page I turned. Wonders of the Invisible World is a bit different from Patricia McKillip's usual style. Many of the tales in this collection explore darker themes than her novels, which is one of the reasons that I enjoyed it so much. McKillip branches out from fairy tale fantasy and added some science fiction to the mix. Wonders of the Invisible World was one of the best books that I read in 2012, and I still hope to reread it and write about each of the stories in depth.
This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures.
http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/20...
Wonders of the Invisible World is a collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors. As in her full-length novels, Patricia McKillip's language is exquisite. She uses a poetic and ethereal tone that left me more and more enchanted with every page I turned. Wonders of the Invisible World is a bit different from Patricia McKillip's usual style. Many of the tales in this collection explore darker themes than her novels, which is one of the reasons that I enjoyed it so much. McKillip branches out from fairy tale fantasy and added some science fiction to the mix. Wonders of the Invisible World was one of the best books that I read in 2012, and I still hope to reread it and write about each of the stories in depth.
This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures.
http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/20...
December 27, 2022
Some stories in here were good, but it all felt quite contrived. I have read some of Patricia A. Mckillip’s longer works and they are honestly very evocative and very well developed. However, I don’t enjoy short story collections to begin with. I will voraciously read Mckillip’s other works though!
October 18, 2025
"Ned knew then, waist deep in water, that a heart could break with joy as well as grief"
Every short story was good, if you don't fall in love with the content you can just sit there mesmerized by the prose.
Knight of the Well is absolute perfection, my favorite story in this collection, followed by the Kelpie.
Every short story was good, if you don't fall in love with the content you can just sit there mesmerized by the prose.
Knight of the Well is absolute perfection, my favorite story in this collection, followed by the Kelpie.
April 10, 2015
( 4 / 1-5 stars )
A collection of short stories, often with a more real-world feel than McKillip's usual.
"This is not at all what I expected the unexpected to be like." I don't like everything Patricia McKillip has ever written. I was straight out bored by The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and didn't care much for her Moon Flash or Cygnet duologies. But I've loved pretty much everything else she's written. I was taken aback recently to encounter someone who didn't care for The Riddlemaster of Hed.
Most of my McKillip reading has been of her novels, with only one or two short stories in the occasional anthology. I wasn't sure what to expect from a story collection, especially one described as straying from her usual fantasy settings to the real world. I'm happy to say that McKillip is just as effective in short form, and almost as capable in urban fantasy as in more romantic settings.
Romance is what McKillip is all about - not in the Mary Stewart sense of stories that are really about relationships, but in her unabashedly romantic style, full of soft and subtle strokes that blur hard edges and leave a warm, comforting feeling. I know nothing about McKillip as a person, but there's something disarmingly nice about her books.
As noted, the stories here do veer away from McKillip's usual stamping grounds, dealing with somewhat harder topics. Not all of the stories work, but most of them do, and if you like her novels, you'll like this collection. Some of the interesting stories:
Wonders of the Invisible World - "I am the angel sent to Cotton Mather." Not what I expected at all, but a good story.
The Kelpie - A painter and model pursued by two rivals. Charlotte Bronte in the art world, with water sprites.
Oak Hill - A runaway searching for magic. Urban fantasy that really works.
Knight of the Well - Denizens of the water world cause havoc in Luminum. This is a long story that could easily have been a book. It works McKillip's usual magic, but with a relatively weak ending.
Byndley - A wizard sheds his burden. This is an object lesson in McKillip's skill. Literally all that happens is that a wizard returns something he took, and yet it's a complete, effective, and satisfying story.
Undine - A water sprite seeks a human mate, with unexpected consequences. An unusually grim story for McKillip.
Xmas Cruise - A couple on vacation learn how humans devastate their environment. While I completely agree with McKillip's point, this is a story that is far too message-driven to be successful as fiction, though it does make a clear point about damage to the oceans.
A Gift to be Simple - The musings of a member of a shrinking cult. While interesting, this is a story that treads to close to the real world for McKillip's dreamy style to be fully effective.
What Inspires Me - What you know? McKillip lives in Oregon!
There are some commonalities in these stories. There are a surprising number of water sprites, and some of the endings lean towards the trite. That doesn't mean they can't be effective, though. An excellent addition for McKillip fans, and a good starting point for new readers.
by Metaphorosis Reviews
January 2, 2013
I was thrilled when I found out there was a new Patricia McKillip book recently released; then mildly disappointed when I found out it was a collection of previously published short stories. Not that I had read any of the stories yet, but generally, I enjoy McKillip's novels more than her short stories.
Much to my surprise, the stories in Wonders of the Invisible World were truly wonders, and rose to the heights of some of McKillip's best writing. This gifted artist paints literary landscapes across my heart and mind whether the setting be Puritan New England, a mysterious village in the woods, or an underwater realm. She snaps characters to life with the turn of a phrase, a phrase that seems familiar in the fantasy context, yet is at once strikingly original.
There is a lot of water imagery in this collection, which delighted me. I can't recall many of her novels featuring the magic of water, and she writes it beautifully. I would love to see an entire novel devoted to the characters and setting of 'Knight of the Well,' or 'The Kelpie.'
McKillip doesn't just stick with fantasy in this collection either, but dips her hand into science fiction, as with the time travelling researcher in the title story, 'Wonders of the Invisible World.'
It was nice to see some of McKillip's less seen humor creep into several of these stories. While her creation and depiction of fantasy realms is the strongest weapon in her literary arsenal, this collection shows off the prodigious talent in her juxtaposition of fantasy with the modern world. And as is now to be expected, her stellar command of language shines through in this magnificent collection.
Much to my surprise, the stories in Wonders of the Invisible World were truly wonders, and rose to the heights of some of McKillip's best writing. This gifted artist paints literary landscapes across my heart and mind whether the setting be Puritan New England, a mysterious village in the woods, or an underwater realm. She snaps characters to life with the turn of a phrase, a phrase that seems familiar in the fantasy context, yet is at once strikingly original.
There is a lot of water imagery in this collection, which delighted me. I can't recall many of her novels featuring the magic of water, and she writes it beautifully. I would love to see an entire novel devoted to the characters and setting of 'Knight of the Well,' or 'The Kelpie.'
McKillip doesn't just stick with fantasy in this collection either, but dips her hand into science fiction, as with the time travelling researcher in the title story, 'Wonders of the Invisible World.'
It was nice to see some of McKillip's less seen humor creep into several of these stories. While her creation and depiction of fantasy realms is the strongest weapon in her literary arsenal, this collection shows off the prodigious talent in her juxtaposition of fantasy with the modern world. And as is now to be expected, her stellar command of language shines through in this magnificent collection.
December 2, 2014
I've never read anything by Patricia McKillip, so when the chance came to get this on Kindle (cheaply? free? I honestly can't remember which) I pounced, because I keep hearing good things about her work and it seemed like a good place to start - or at least, everyone was praising it as being representative of her work, so surely it would be a fitting sampler.
If it is - well, I just don't think her work is for me. The thing about this collection was that the writing was lovely, the concepts interesting, and the plots... completely unfinished. Seriously, most of these stories just didn't have any real resolution; they simply ended arbitrarily, with threads un-resolved and guns un-fired on the mantlepiece. Those interesting concepts went largely unexplored. There were some exceptions - 'Naming Day' and 'Bryndley' and 'The Doorkeeper of Khaat' all wrapped up tidily, but the rest were simply unsatisfactory to me. (Even 'Knight of the Well', which was the longest and therefore had plenty of interesting worldbuilding, had a very pat and simple finish that didn't feel fitting to the rest of the story.)
It's worth noting that this probably isn't a problem for some readers; I tend to like a less ambiguous, more defined narrative than a lot of people do, and that's just a matter of taste. But in that case, McKillip just isn't to mine.
If it is - well, I just don't think her work is for me. The thing about this collection was that the writing was lovely, the concepts interesting, and the plots... completely unfinished. Seriously, most of these stories just didn't have any real resolution; they simply ended arbitrarily, with threads un-resolved and guns un-fired on the mantlepiece. Those interesting concepts went largely unexplored. There were some exceptions - 'Naming Day' and 'Bryndley' and 'The Doorkeeper of Khaat' all wrapped up tidily, but the rest were simply unsatisfactory to me. (Even 'Knight of the Well', which was the longest and therefore had plenty of interesting worldbuilding, had a very pat and simple finish that didn't feel fitting to the rest of the story.)
It's worth noting that this probably isn't a problem for some readers; I tend to like a less ambiguous, more defined narrative than a lot of people do, and that's just a matter of taste. But in that case, McKillip just isn't to mine.
August 21, 2024
gorgeous, uncontainable stories..
Read
June 20, 2023things to read late at night when you should be asleep but aren't so you turn on your kindle backlight and accidentally attract a moth
i love mckillip thumbsup do i have a clue what was going on in some of these No i Don't but that is part of that charm
i love mckillip thumbsup do i have a clue what was going on in some of these No i Don't but that is part of that charm
June 27, 2013
This book is a collection of short stories, written by the always amazing Patricia A. McKillip. It includes an introduction by Charles de Lint (one of my favorite authors), and it ends with a Guest of Honor Speech McKillip gave at WisCon 2004.
I've said this before in other reviews, I think, but it won't hurt saying again: she is my favorite author and every single time I read her, I wonder at her talent and the way she creates worlds and paintings with her words. Most of all, she has a special gift for creating deep characters with just a few words and I learn so much by reading her.
I'm giving it four stars because not every story in this collection was a hit. In fact, some were a total miss for me. Like Wonders of the Invisible World (the opening story, not the title of the book), a science fiction tale that didn't do much for me at all; or A gift to be simple, a story about a group of aging people in some sort of cult who must find a way to renew their heritage or disappear.
But then again, there's The Knight of the Well, one of the best short stories I've ever read, beautiful and spellbinding, and the longest in this collection, if I'm not mistaken. I loved it so much.
There's also Jack O' Lantern, of which I wasn't so sure about when I started reading it (it might have made me mad) but it turned out to be a magical tale about a very young lady, growing up in an extremely traditional family (where her mother is teaching her that women live only to please their husbands), who gets tangled in a very unexpected adventure in the middle of the forest. Amazing. I'm not doing it justice. Just read it.
Others I loved were The Old Woman and the Storm, which almost brought me to tears; The Fortune-Teller; The DoorKeeper of Khaat, another science fiction tale, but a lot better than the first mentioned; Naming Day, which surprised me with its wit and light approach, a story I would have related to Diana Wynne Jones and not McKillip... And I could keep going but I'll stop. Most of the stories in this collection are really good, some touch greatness, and, in spite of the two or three that were a miss for me, this book was totally worth it.
I've said this before in other reviews, I think, but it won't hurt saying again: she is my favorite author and every single time I read her, I wonder at her talent and the way she creates worlds and paintings with her words. Most of all, she has a special gift for creating deep characters with just a few words and I learn so much by reading her.
I'm giving it four stars because not every story in this collection was a hit. In fact, some were a total miss for me. Like Wonders of the Invisible World (the opening story, not the title of the book), a science fiction tale that didn't do much for me at all; or A gift to be simple, a story about a group of aging people in some sort of cult who must find a way to renew their heritage or disappear.
But then again, there's The Knight of the Well, one of the best short stories I've ever read, beautiful and spellbinding, and the longest in this collection, if I'm not mistaken. I loved it so much.
There's also Jack O' Lantern, of which I wasn't so sure about when I started reading it (it might have made me mad) but it turned out to be a magical tale about a very young lady, growing up in an extremely traditional family (where her mother is teaching her that women live only to please their husbands), who gets tangled in a very unexpected adventure in the middle of the forest. Amazing. I'm not doing it justice. Just read it.
Others I loved were The Old Woman and the Storm, which almost brought me to tears; The Fortune-Teller; The DoorKeeper of Khaat, another science fiction tale, but a lot better than the first mentioned; Naming Day, which surprised me with its wit and light approach, a story I would have related to Diana Wynne Jones and not McKillip... And I could keep going but I'll stop. Most of the stories in this collection are really good, some touch greatness, and, in spite of the two or three that were a miss for me, this book was totally worth it.
September 16, 2012
‘Wonders of the Invisible World’ by Patricia A. McKellip is a collection of 16 stories, started by an introduction by Charles de Lint and completed by a short of ‘What Inspires Me’, a Guest of Honour speech given at WisCon 2004.
With the first piece and the collection itself named for a book written by Cotton Mather in 1693, it ties the short story nicely to reality and adds a taste of science fiction, a fitting start to the collection.
From there we see a woman taken in by magic, and how painters and poets deal with the overlapping of love and primal urges. We see dangerous and beautiful faeires, and how the hunter can become the hunted.
Within this collection we see ancient myths become modern masterfully, opening a window in the reader to reveal less thought-of aspects of the world and ourselves. There’s a wide range ensuring something will be there to your liking, ranging from terror to the strange, and everything in between.
My favourite would have to be ‘Twelve Dancing Princesses’, for I loved another version, as a child, and love what McKellip has done with it now. Another favourite is 'The Fortune-Teller', as a story I haven't heard of before (possibly entirely her own).
Highly recommended, especially to those who love writing by Kate Forsyth and Juliet Marillier.
Review also posted here: http://sentientonline.net/?p=3641
With the first piece and the collection itself named for a book written by Cotton Mather in 1693, it ties the short story nicely to reality and adds a taste of science fiction, a fitting start to the collection.
From there we see a woman taken in by magic, and how painters and poets deal with the overlapping of love and primal urges. We see dangerous and beautiful faeires, and how the hunter can become the hunted.
Within this collection we see ancient myths become modern masterfully, opening a window in the reader to reveal less thought-of aspects of the world and ourselves. There’s a wide range ensuring something will be there to your liking, ranging from terror to the strange, and everything in between.
My favourite would have to be ‘Twelve Dancing Princesses’, for I loved another version, as a child, and love what McKellip has done with it now. Another favourite is 'The Fortune-Teller', as a story I haven't heard of before (possibly entirely her own).
Highly recommended, especially to those who love writing by Kate Forsyth and Juliet Marillier.
Review also posted here: http://sentientonline.net/?p=3641
February 15, 2018
Reread it recently, it felt liks coming back to an old friend; stories in a style and a prose that I really liked and have missed.
From my first reads uppdates:
"I've now started on the novel nr 3, The Kelpie who I got recomanded as one of the best ones from a member of Catahya.net The first one is just sad and not that good but the second are better, interesting and unexplained event following after each other. If you want to read good fantastical stories, read Patricia A. Mckillip :)"
March 23, 2013 – page 153
53.13% "Right now I've read thru 7 of the total of 16 st, I'm on "Knight of the Well" and this far it's suprisingly good, I didn't knew what to expect of her latest work but why did I have any doubth? If there are any author who woulden't do a single bad book it's Mckillip...\n "The Kelpie", ""Out of the woods", "Hunter's Moon" and "Oak Hill" for example who are my favorites so far :)"
April 6, 2013 – page 263
91.32% "Soon I'm fnnished and it will be with a sad smile on my face I will lay down this book, it's the best novelcollection I ever read, the best with just one author, with exception for the book "Legends" edited by Robert Silverberg with novels from the SF and Fantasygenes biggest authors."
From my first reads uppdates:
"I've now started on the novel nr 3, The Kelpie who I got recomanded as one of the best ones from a member of Catahya.net The first one is just sad and not that good but the second are better, interesting and unexplained event following after each other. If you want to read good fantastical stories, read Patricia A. Mckillip :)"
March 23, 2013 – page 153
53.13% "Right now I've read thru 7 of the total of 16 st, I'm on "Knight of the Well" and this far it's suprisingly good, I didn't knew what to expect of her latest work but why did I have any doubth? If there are any author who woulden't do a single bad book it's Mckillip...\n "The Kelpie", ""Out of the woods", "Hunter's Moon" and "Oak Hill" for example who are my favorites so far :)"
April 6, 2013 – page 263
91.32% "Soon I'm fnnished and it will be with a sad smile on my face I will lay down this book, it's the best novelcollection I ever read, the best with just one author, with exception for the book "Legends" edited by Robert Silverberg with novels from the SF and Fantasygenes biggest authors."
April 6, 2018
There were moments in this collection when I turned to my empty apartment and said “oh my god” out loud. I don’t even know, Patricia McKillip is too brilliant. She writes stories that are like no one else’s and yet feel so much like they’ve always existed. Sheer magic. Wonder and magic and invention and so very original. Among the best books I’ve read in years.
April 14, 2017
Mckillip's prose is undeniably strong. She's a poetic writer, and most of these short stories display that kind of lyrical prose that I can get lost in. Her strongest pieces, for me, are those told from everyday characters, the ones in the background. Like "Out of the Woods," told from the pov of a woman asked to clean a wizard's cottage. Another unique story from the collection is "The Old Woman and the Storm," a very short, poetic piece about love and storytelling. Many of the pieces were urban fantasy, a genre I'd never read from her before. These were hit and miss for me, my favorite being "Naming Day," perhaps my favorite because, once again, it tells the story of the everyday alongside the fantastic. Some of her urban fantasy pieces lost the lyrical prose and poetry of her other pieces, and the characters at times fell flat, like in "The Kelpie," though I loved the Kelpie folklore. Overall, this is worth reading if you're a fan of Mckillip or if you enjoy lyrical, fantastic and urban fantasy short stories.
February 26, 2013
I usually don't read short story collections. They are often uneven in quality and I prefer a longer format. But Patricia McKillip is an author I particularly admire, so I gave her recent story collection a read.
As I expected, the quality of the stories varies quite a bit. Some held my interest and made me yearn to read more, while a few are less than enchanting. But, o the ones that sing! I was particularly taken by "The Knight of the Well", one of the longer stories. It has a mystical underpinning and compelling characters with gorgeous descriptions. Some of the stories have a contemporary setting--those did not appeal to me as much. It is when Ms. McKillip spins a fable firmly grounded in the fantasy world that she has created that the stories soar. Her retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" has a twist at the end that makes you think, "Of course, it must end this way".
As I expected, the quality of the stories varies quite a bit. Some held my interest and made me yearn to read more, while a few are less than enchanting. But, o the ones that sing! I was particularly taken by "The Knight of the Well", one of the longer stories. It has a mystical underpinning and compelling characters with gorgeous descriptions. Some of the stories have a contemporary setting--those did not appeal to me as much. It is when Ms. McKillip spins a fable firmly grounded in the fantasy world that she has created that the stories soar. Her retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" has a twist at the end that makes you think, "Of course, it must end this way".
June 12, 2016
Patricia McKillip is an author I have never read before, and I am delighted to have made an acquaintance with her work. I've certainly heard of her, but she didn't cross any of my lists until io9 included her on a list of best books of the year back in 2012. Now that I've read Wonders of the Invisible World, I am interested to see what else she has to offer.
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
October 30, 2012
Patricia McKillip is hands down one of the best fantasy writers out there. Her writing is absolutely delicious, I wish I could swallow her books whole and just digest all of her beautiful wording and descriptions. Her books are all about senses and feeling. She can create an image with her words that can just melt your heart and send your spirit soaring into realms yet unimagined. I highly HIGHLY recommend her books, and this book of short stories, if you are looking for gorgeous fantasy.
December 19, 2012
Reading this book was like swimming with dolphins or finding a rainbow in your garden. The sense of wonder, the poetry of McKillip's sentences, the beautiful sense of stories still untold, all just sweep me away from the mundane world. I always grab her books at the first chance. This one did not disappoint. I particularly liked The Kelpie and Knight of the Well, but you will find your own jewels here. So---what are you dawdling for? Go grab it for yourself and ride the tide to Faerie!
June 1, 2013
McKillip's writing is always beautiful and lyrical, and though in every short story collection there will be stories that appeal more than others. This shows quite a range of settings and characters. My favourite was "The Kelpie", about a young woman artist in a pre-Raphaelite-like group of painters, who is pursued by an aggressive fellow-painter and whose near-fatal encounter with folkloric water creatures transforms her art. It was a perfect short story, balanced and complete.
January 24, 2019
Not a strong collection by McKillip. Particularly didn't like the title story, which had world-building issues that got in the way of its Idea.
On the other hand, the story of a siren attempting to lure her prey into the water was good, and McKillip's quite faithful-to-the-original take on the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" was very well done.
On the other hand, the story of a siren attempting to lure her prey into the water was good, and McKillip's quite faithful-to-the-original take on the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" was very well done.
October 29, 2012
Patricia McKillip is one of my favorite writers of fantasy. Many of the stories in this collection, written over the last decade or so, were previously published in YA anthologies; none are original to Wonders of the Invisible World, though nearly all were well worth re-reading for me. I hope she has another novel on the way.
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