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Od Magic
Brenden Vetch has a gift. With an innate sense he cannot explain to himself or describe to others, he connects to the agricultural world, nurturing gardens to flourish and instinctively knowing the healing properties each plant and herb has to offer. But Brenden’s gift isolates him from people—and from becoming part of a community.Until the day he receives a personal invitation from the wizard Od. She needs a gardener for her school in the great city of Kelior, where every potential wizard must be trained to serve the Kingdom of Numis. For decades the rulers of Numis have controlled the school, believing they can contain the power within it—and punish any wizard who dares defy the law.But unknown to the reigning monarchy is the power possessed by the school’s new gardener—a power that even Brenden isn’t fully aware of, and which is the true reason Od recruited him...
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2005
107 people are currently reading
4295 people want to read
About the author
Patricia A. McKillip
93 books2,925 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 474 reviews
July 28, 2016
I'm not sure I can come up with a capsule description for this book.
It started out really well, introducing Brenden, a young man who has suffered a terrible series of losses in the past two or so years, leaving him isolated and adrift. But he has a talent with plants and healing, and one day a woman named Od appears and tells him to go to her school in the city. He does ... and then practically disappears from the rest of the book.
The next chapters introduce Arneth, son of the City Warden; Mistral, daughter of a powerful traveling magician; Sulys, daughter of the king; Yar, a professor at the magic school; and ... I might be forgetting someone, but I honestly don't care if I am. The POV's kept bouncing around, so that I never felt very deeply involved with any of the characters, or invested in any of the story lines, which dwell too much on politics and power and not enough on the magic promised in the title and the first chapter. The magics in this book are varied and fascinating, but they seem to be there more for decoration than as any actual contribution to the plot or worldbuilding.
I think I would have loved this book had it been expanded and written as an adult novel, with a more complex examination of both the politics and the magic, and deeper insights into each character. Instead, it's kept very young-feeling and far too light and surfacey in tone for what the story seems to be about. I spent most of this book wishing I was reading a similar but very different book.
Sigh. I've loved some of Patricia McKillip's other books, so I'm writing this one off as a blip, and possibly I just wasn't in the right mood for it.
January 13, 2009
McKillip is a pleasure to read. She writes these little books that are more like fairy tales than they are anything else. They are finely drawn, beautifully detailed, perfect stories that make you think of the beautiful miniatures of another era. She borrows themes from old fairy tales and weaves them together into something surprising and new.
She doesn't write with the depth or character development of someone like Guy Gavriel Kay, but they're not meant to. While he writes novels that are like stunning wall-sized (or dome-sized ;)) mosaics, she writes gorgeous masterpieces that fit in a locket.
Od's Magic does not disappoint. It tells the story of a broken-hearted gardener, a confused wizard, a proud wizard, a rebellious princess, an enigmatic wizard's daughter, an Earth goddess, an apprentice, and a loyal city guard. And it's just so much fun to read! And comforting, like your favorite story from childhood read at bedtime.
She doesn't write with the depth or character development of someone like Guy Gavriel Kay, but they're not meant to. While he writes novels that are like stunning wall-sized (or dome-sized ;)) mosaics, she writes gorgeous masterpieces that fit in a locket.
Od's Magic does not disappoint. It tells the story of a broken-hearted gardener, a confused wizard, a proud wizard, a rebellious princess, an enigmatic wizard's daughter, an Earth goddess, an apprentice, and a loyal city guard. And it's just so much fun to read! And comforting, like your favorite story from childhood read at bedtime.
September 5, 2012
McKillip is one of my most favorite authors. I find myself hoarding her books, waiting for the perfect time to read them - because I know they're going to be perfect. (I know this makes no sense, and I will likely die with wonderful books unread due to this horrible tendency.)
McKillip's books remind me of neo-medieval bands (Qntal, Faun, etc.). They are deeply rooted in tradition, but unmistakably new. They are pure without being innocent, complex without being muddy.
That said, some of her books are very similar to each other. Reading Od Magic, in particular, I really felt like I was reading about many of the same characters portrayed in the last book I read by her, 'The Bards of Bone Plain.' Sure, it was a different story, and a different setting - but at times it was almost as if her standard characters had been dropped into a different story. However - I didn't really mind.
Here, a young man, suffering from grief and having lost his way in life, is approached by a mysterious elderly woman who instructs him to travel to her school of magic - they're in need of a gardener. When he arrives, he discovers that while that's true, the old woman, Od, has approached legendary status at the school - she hasn't been seen in decades. The school, on the surface a haven for talented magicians, is drowning in hidebound strictures and politics, and the king is deeply suspicious of any kind of magic that deviates from the ordinary.
When a group of traveling players with an extraordinary magic show arrives in town, suspicion is thrown on both them and on the innocent gardener, and the king demands arrests left and right.
The story is an excellent depiction of fundamentally decent people who often behave less-than-decently due to inflexible rules.
McKillip's books remind me of neo-medieval bands (Qntal, Faun, etc.). They are deeply rooted in tradition, but unmistakably new. They are pure without being innocent, complex without being muddy.
That said, some of her books are very similar to each other. Reading Od Magic, in particular, I really felt like I was reading about many of the same characters portrayed in the last book I read by her, 'The Bards of Bone Plain.' Sure, it was a different story, and a different setting - but at times it was almost as if her standard characters had been dropped into a different story. However - I didn't really mind.
Here, a young man, suffering from grief and having lost his way in life, is approached by a mysterious elderly woman who instructs him to travel to her school of magic - they're in need of a gardener. When he arrives, he discovers that while that's true, the old woman, Od, has approached legendary status at the school - she hasn't been seen in decades. The school, on the surface a haven for talented magicians, is drowning in hidebound strictures and politics, and the king is deeply suspicious of any kind of magic that deviates from the ordinary.
When a group of traveling players with an extraordinary magic show arrives in town, suspicion is thrown on both them and on the innocent gardener, and the king demands arrests left and right.
The story is an excellent depiction of fundamentally decent people who often behave less-than-decently due to inflexible rules.
February 4, 2022
McKillip is one of the rare never fail authors for me. I don’t always feel like her particular brand of beautifully written, fairytale-like classic fantasy, but so far, I haven’t been disappointed once. Od Magic is no exception.
The plot…there’s not much of it. It calmly meanders from POV to POV, and if there’s a central theme, it’d be the king’s restrictions on the knowledge of magic and the characters’ struggles against it. It’s at the same time, utterly old school fantasy, and yet slower, smaller scale.
The blurb led me to believe that this will be more about the gardener turned mage, so I was a little disappointed when it turned out to be multi-POV with all the other characters being far more prominent, but that’s hardly the book’s fault. I do wish his alienation from society was explored more, though – what little there was in the first chapter left me wanting more.
Enjoyment: 4/5
Execution: 4/5
Recommended to: anyone looking for comforting, classic fantasy with lovely prose
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
The plot…there’s not much of it. It calmly meanders from POV to POV, and if there’s a central theme, it’d be the king’s restrictions on the knowledge of magic and the characters’ struggles against it. It’s at the same time, utterly old school fantasy, and yet slower, smaller scale.
The blurb led me to believe that this will be more about the gardener turned mage, so I was a little disappointed when it turned out to be multi-POV with all the other characters being far more prominent, but that’s hardly the book’s fault. I do wish his alienation from society was explored more, though – what little there was in the first chapter left me wanting more.
Enjoyment: 4/5
Execution: 4/5
Recommended to: anyone looking for comforting, classic fantasy with lovely prose
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
April 28, 2019
Done with the first read. Now reading again because I don't want the story to end.
How many ways can I say how much I love Patricia McKillip's writing?
She makes fantasy worlds come to life for me like no one can, and reading her books is always an experience I want to savor for as long as possible. She is the answer and solution to all the finicky issues I have with traditional high fantasy.
How many ways can I say how much I love Patricia McKillip's writing?
She makes fantasy worlds come to life for me like no one can, and reading her books is always an experience I want to savor for as long as possible. She is the answer and solution to all the finicky issues I have with traditional high fantasy.
December 8, 2018
Od Magic starts off appealingly as the titular Od, a mysterious and magical giantess surrounded by animals, appears before an isolated young man named Brenden to recruit him to be the gardener at the magic school in the royal city of Kelior. There Brenden finds a weird plant in the greenhouse that no one else can figure out, either. And so the story begins.
Many of the descriptions in this book are just gorgeous. Tyramin's traveling carnival, the mysteries of the snowy north, and Od herself, are fascinating and absorbing. There's a strain of feminism running throughout that's both striking and refreshing in its unobtrusiveness.
Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there. There are a couple of interesting personalities in the very large cast of characters, but quite a few of them are hard to differentiate from each other because we aren't given a lot of room to get to know them in the crowd. On top of that, aside from Od and Mistral, we don't get a good idea of what they look like--"dark hair" isn't enough for the reader to distinguish one woman from another when almost every woman has dark hair. For this reason, sometimes I lost track of who had met whom, or where we'd left them in their last scene.
There's a capital-T Theme running through the book, and every single major character's motivation centers around it. Princess Sulys with her buttons-and-threads magic, Tyramin's daughter Mistral, Brenden the Gardener, Yar the wizard, Valoren the king's counselor... everyone. Even some of the scenery is a metaphor for it. One of the characters spells out the Theme in a speech to cap things off at the end of the book, just in case you missed the point.
Aside from the aforementioned absorbing descriptions, the whole thing felt stiff, passionless, and over-considered to me, and as a result it was a slow, slow haul. Let's not even get into the romance in the book, which was so lightly sketched that it was almost invisible. The pedantic ending was just a miserable way to ice a mostly-flavorless cake.
This was my first McKillip. Despite my lukewarm response to Od Magic, I'm looking forward to reading more of her work. There was promise of better things here that I would be genuinely happy to see fulfilled in another book. 2 1/2 stars, rounded up 'cause it's Friday.
Buddy read with Mimi. We've had a pretty good record so far, this is the first one that missed the mark...
Many of the descriptions in this book are just gorgeous. Tyramin's traveling carnival, the mysteries of the snowy north, and Od herself, are fascinating and absorbing. There's a strain of feminism running throughout that's both striking and refreshing in its unobtrusiveness.
Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there. There are a couple of interesting personalities in the very large cast of characters, but quite a few of them are hard to differentiate from each other because we aren't given a lot of room to get to know them in the crowd. On top of that, aside from Od and Mistral, we don't get a good idea of what they look like--"dark hair" isn't enough for the reader to distinguish one woman from another when almost every woman has dark hair. For this reason, sometimes I lost track of who had met whom, or where we'd left them in their last scene.
There's a capital-T Theme running through the book, and every single major character's motivation centers around it. Princess Sulys with her buttons-and-threads magic, Tyramin's daughter Mistral, Brenden the Gardener, Yar the wizard, Valoren the king's counselor... everyone. Even some of the scenery is a metaphor for it. One of the characters spells out the Theme in a speech to cap things off at the end of the book, just in case you missed the point.
Aside from the aforementioned absorbing descriptions, the whole thing felt stiff, passionless, and over-considered to me, and as a result it was a slow, slow haul. Let's not even get into the romance in the book, which was so lightly sketched that it was almost invisible. The pedantic ending was just a miserable way to ice a mostly-flavorless cake.
This was my first McKillip. Despite my lukewarm response to Od Magic, I'm looking forward to reading more of her work. There was promise of better things here that I would be genuinely happy to see fulfilled in another book. 2 1/2 stars, rounded up 'cause it's Friday.
Buddy read with Mimi. We've had a pretty good record so far, this is the first one that missed the mark...
May 13, 2025
I've been on a decade-long mission to read every fantasy novel with a Kinuko Y. Craft cover (I mean, look at them).
I adore McKillip's world-building and writing style. I put a Studio Ghibli filter over the story in my head - wizards, winding cobblestone streets, talks of small magics.
Unfortunately, after the first couple of chapters, I kept getting bored. The blurb promises a story about a gardener (I'm already intrigued) and his relocation from the isolated wilds to a magic school (mhm, I'm in). The first two chapters were enchantingly gardener-centric, then switched to 5+ other POVs. Low-stakes spoiler, I didn't even get to see the garden!
Od Magic wants to be two stories. On one hand, it's a high fantasy with many interlocking main characters and a critique of powerful Institutions. On the other hand, we have a fish-out-of-water tale about a magical gardener and the enchanting figures he meets along the way. The story can't be both, but it's trying. Both plots suffer from it.
That isn't to say I'd stop reading McKillip, OR stop my hunt for Craft book covers. Far from it! I just know there are stronger books in her catalog.
I adore McKillip's world-building and writing style. I put a Studio Ghibli filter over the story in my head - wizards, winding cobblestone streets, talks of small magics.
Unfortunately, after the first couple of chapters, I kept getting bored. The blurb promises a story about a gardener (I'm already intrigued) and his relocation from the isolated wilds to a magic school (mhm, I'm in). The first two chapters were enchantingly gardener-centric, then switched to 5+ other POVs. Low-stakes spoiler, I didn't even get to see the garden!
Od Magic wants to be two stories. On one hand, it's a high fantasy with many interlocking main characters and a critique of powerful Institutions. On the other hand, we have a fish-out-of-water tale about a magical gardener and the enchanting figures he meets along the way. The story can't be both, but it's trying. Both plots suffer from it.
That isn't to say I'd stop reading McKillip, OR stop my hunt for Craft book covers. Far from it! I just know there are stronger books in her catalog.
January 26, 2024
Among the ordinary things
March 12, 2013
I've read a few books by Patricia A. McKillip. Some I really didn't get into but some drew me in and stayed with me. When I read The Riddle-Master of Hed I found an amazing world and struggled with the wait between each book. Here we've got another world that grows around you and absorbs you into it.
Od is a giantess who seems to have lived hundreds or even thousands of years. She in the past established a school of wizardry in an old cobbler's shop. After establishing her school she wandered off crossing the world healing animals she came across who needed her and doing whatever it was/is that Od does. Every now then however there's a sighting of or and encounter with Od. As the book opens the last known sighting was 19 years before...well, the last sighting known of in her school, which has changed a bit since Od established it.
But as the book opens (as said before) Brenden Vetch a gardener who has an incredible way with plants (as they talk to him and tell him their secrets) encounters a large woman accompanied by a number of animals, some of them injured. There are mice and birds in her hair and all kinds of animals around her feet. Brenden has been badly hurt and is just about to give up on life all together but, Od asks him to go to her school as a gardener. The school is about to need a gardener. He can always come back here and give up later if he wants.
The story here drew me in and I stayed interested in this small book from beginning to end. I can highly recommend it. Not the best book I've ever read but a nice vacation from reality. Enjoy.
Od is a giantess who seems to have lived hundreds or even thousands of years. She in the past established a school of wizardry in an old cobbler's shop. After establishing her school she wandered off crossing the world healing animals she came across who needed her and doing whatever it was/is that Od does. Every now then however there's a sighting of or and encounter with Od. As the book opens the last known sighting was 19 years before...well, the last sighting known of in her school, which has changed a bit since Od established it.
But as the book opens (as said before) Brenden Vetch a gardener who has an incredible way with plants (as they talk to him and tell him their secrets) encounters a large woman accompanied by a number of animals, some of them injured. There are mice and birds in her hair and all kinds of animals around her feet. Brenden has been badly hurt and is just about to give up on life all together but, Od asks him to go to her school as a gardener. The school is about to need a gardener. He can always come back here and give up later if he wants.
The story here drew me in and I stayed interested in this small book from beginning to end. I can highly recommend it. Not the best book I've ever read but a nice vacation from reality. Enjoy.
June 2, 2025
This isn’t my favorite Patricia McKillip book because something about it feels less magical and more grounded than my favorites of hers, which are ethereal in a way only she can be!! I also feel like some of the characters and relationships didn’t quite work for me - the romance between “Tyramin” and the guard Pyt felt very random, and Brenden himself felt like the most indistinct character and more of a plot lynchpin than anything else.
That being said, I always enjoy how McKillip elevates classic fantasy tropes, and here I really liked how she wove the plotline of Princess Sulys not wanting to get married to the book’s bigger themes of control, conformity and seeing the importance in things that aren’t usually valued. The “princess who doesn’t want to get married” story can get boring fast, but McKillip’s way of having Sulys take a stand to protect others felt fresh because it went beyond the usual individual girlboss empowerment moment. I also enjoyed the disillusioned middle-aged wizard character, who she describes best herself as “kind, wry and experienced” and connects a lot of the other characters in an effective way.
People always talk about how beautiful McKillip’s writing is and how full her books are of *the most* enchanting imagery and wondrous magic, but one thing that I’ve really come to appreciate beyond that as I’ve read more is that she’s so adept at writing characters who feel human, real, loveable, and complicated in such short books - even more so than much longer, more “character-focused” fantasy I can think of. She has such a delicate touch in all aspects of her writing, and sometimes that can take a reader incredibly far.
My store of unread books by her is dwindling, which is bittersweet, but I am so glad that I decided to pick up The Forgotten Beasts of Eld in the first place because I’ve gone on such a lovely journey since then.
That being said, I always enjoy how McKillip elevates classic fantasy tropes, and here I really liked how she wove the plotline of Princess Sulys not wanting to get married to the book’s bigger themes of control, conformity and seeing the importance in things that aren’t usually valued. The “princess who doesn’t want to get married” story can get boring fast, but McKillip’s way of having Sulys take a stand to protect others felt fresh because it went beyond the usual individual girlboss empowerment moment. I also enjoyed the disillusioned middle-aged wizard character, who she describes best herself as “kind, wry and experienced” and connects a lot of the other characters in an effective way.
People always talk about how beautiful McKillip’s writing is and how full her books are of *the most* enchanting imagery and wondrous magic, but one thing that I’ve really come to appreciate beyond that as I’ve read more is that she’s so adept at writing characters who feel human, real, loveable, and complicated in such short books - even more so than much longer, more “character-focused” fantasy I can think of. She has such a delicate touch in all aspects of her writing, and sometimes that can take a reader incredibly far.
My store of unread books by her is dwindling, which is bittersweet, but I am so glad that I decided to pick up The Forgotten Beasts of Eld in the first place because I’ve gone on such a lovely journey since then.
September 15, 2016
A bit whimsical at times, it reminded me a little of Miyazaki's films in tone and wonderment.
flipped-to-the-end
May 22, 2015Not a successful story for me, I think in part because it seemed quite clear at the outset where the story was going. With so many viewpoint characters, it seemed to be taking an inordinately long time getting there (I have a strong preference for fewer viewpoints, not more). I was also bugged by the plotline of the princess, ordered to marry and not pleased with it. It just didn't seem to fit with the world, where every other woman we see seems to be having careers or, at least, possess considerably more self-determination than the princess did.
The narrator, Gabrielle DeCuir, read most of the story in a very floaty, new-agey voice (except for a couple of the men, where she seemed to be going for 'sepulchral') which really didn't work for me at all.
The narrator, Gabrielle DeCuir, read most of the story in a very floaty, new-agey voice (except for a couple of the men, where she seemed to be going for 'sepulchral') which really didn't work for me at all.
February 19, 2013
This started off pretty interesting with Brendan and then it bored me for awhile. By the time I was interested again, I was ready for it to be over.
I love the cover art though and I liked that the story is just this small little section in time.
I love the cover art though and I liked that the story is just this small little section in time.
January 8, 2026
3.5 stars
Perhaps my favorite of McKillip’s ensemble cast books (my overall favorites remain the single-protagonist The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and The Changeling Sea), or perhaps it just stands out for being my most recently read. I read it during the holidays and it has a nice vibe for the season, warm and magical and wondrous, without the sort of self-conscious or by-the-numbers coziness that’s popular today. At the same time, it does have serious and grounded political themes about power and fear, and how the combination of those two can lead to censorship and destruction.
The blurb is a bit off, as this book features several protagonists: yes, there is a magic gardener named Brenden whose journey provides some structure to the novel, but equally important are Yar, a magic school teacher who finds his youthful wonder lost in the royally mandated curriculum; Arneth, a police official; Sulys, a princess with a secret magical talent and an unwanted fiancé; and Mistral, an itinerant stage magician. The titular giantess, Od, is present more through the effects of her actions than being on-page. All of them become tied up in a series of events involving the king’s policy of controlling magic within his kingdom, and the zealous wizard who is his enforcer.
Being a McKillip book, it is excellently-written, with great vibes and sensory descriptions and a strong sense of wonder. I wasn’t deeply invested in any of the characters nor are they especially complex, but they are believable and sympathetic and I was at least a little invested in everyone. The plot is engaging, more down-to-earth than some McKillip. The politics even make sense, albeit McKillip has a tendency to write royalty in a fairy-tale-esque way that feels more like upper-middle-class people with royal tropes grafted on (for instance, the fact that Sulys has a whole group of “twittering” ladies employed as her personal companions impacts her life not at all, she apparently has no relationship with any of them and in fact does everything alone and they just make occasional, brief group appearances). But lots of fantasy does this sort of thing and McKillip at least can carry that fairy tale vibe.
The climax is different from a lot of fantasy, as . There’s an emphasis on the importance of wonder in magic vs. following royal laws that had me wondering if this was some meta-commentary on the fantasy genre, albeit 2005 is perhaps a bit early for the “hard” vs “soft” magic debates. The book is still around to lob at the “hard magic” crowd, though, and too slim to do anyone injury, which feels appropriate.
At any rate, I enjoyed it. I’m not sure how much it’ll stick with me, but it’s worth a read and refreshingly different from a lot of other fantasy out there.
Perhaps my favorite of McKillip’s ensemble cast books (my overall favorites remain the single-protagonist The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and The Changeling Sea), or perhaps it just stands out for being my most recently read. I read it during the holidays and it has a nice vibe for the season, warm and magical and wondrous, without the sort of self-conscious or by-the-numbers coziness that’s popular today. At the same time, it does have serious and grounded political themes about power and fear, and how the combination of those two can lead to censorship and destruction.
The blurb is a bit off, as this book features several protagonists: yes, there is a magic gardener named Brenden whose journey provides some structure to the novel, but equally important are Yar, a magic school teacher who finds his youthful wonder lost in the royally mandated curriculum; Arneth, a police official; Sulys, a princess with a secret magical talent and an unwanted fiancé; and Mistral, an itinerant stage magician. The titular giantess, Od, is present more through the effects of her actions than being on-page. All of them become tied up in a series of events involving the king’s policy of controlling magic within his kingdom, and the zealous wizard who is his enforcer.
Being a McKillip book, it is excellently-written, with great vibes and sensory descriptions and a strong sense of wonder. I wasn’t deeply invested in any of the characters nor are they especially complex, but they are believable and sympathetic and I was at least a little invested in everyone. The plot is engaging, more down-to-earth than some McKillip. The politics even make sense, albeit McKillip has a tendency to write royalty in a fairy-tale-esque way that feels more like upper-middle-class people with royal tropes grafted on (for instance, the fact that Sulys has a whole group of “twittering” ladies employed as her personal companions impacts her life not at all, she apparently has no relationship with any of them and in fact does everything alone and they just make occasional, brief group appearances). But lots of fantasy does this sort of thing and McKillip at least can carry that fairy tale vibe.
The climax is different from a lot of fantasy, as . There’s an emphasis on the importance of wonder in magic vs. following royal laws that had me wondering if this was some meta-commentary on the fantasy genre, albeit 2005 is perhaps a bit early for the “hard” vs “soft” magic debates. The book is still around to lob at the “hard magic” crowd, though, and too slim to do anyone injury, which feels appropriate.
At any rate, I enjoyed it. I’m not sure how much it’ll stick with me, but it’s worth a read and refreshingly different from a lot of other fantasy out there.
August 12, 2023
Somewhere beyond him, snow was falling. Somewhere, he had a name.
Every now and then, you read a book that reminds you what the experience of story is supposed to be. Od Magic was one of those books for me. It didn't necessarily become a new favorite (only time will tell, for that), but it kept making me think that this is the feeling I should be chasing in my fiction-reading life: the contentment, the immersion, the delight, the slow-bubbling excitement, the eagerness to find out what happens without the urge to skim ahead and spoil the ending.
Was it such an incredible story? No, not really. It was rich and entertaining, like McKillip's virtually always are, but it wasn't epochal. The writing -- though remaining, for the most part, stunning -- went moony in places, and the plot began to drag a little towards the end.
Still and yet, the characters were excellently drawn, the ATMOSPHERE WAS ATMOSPHERING, and I thoroughly enjoyed it in a way that I don't often enjoy books. For that, I am most grateful.
{4.5 stars}
December 28, 2008
Centuries ago, the mysterious giantess Odd founded a school of magic in the heart of the king’s city. Wizards learn there, magic ruled and regulated by the state. And once in a while Odd shows herself again, sending someone of her choosing down to the school as she does Brenden, the wild and untrained gardener of enormous natural power. Brenden is just one of many magicians in this book – the frustrated teacher tired of ruling his magic and his tongue, the king’s daughter secreting away her tiny illegal magicks, the people’s magician come to amuse the city with his illusions – and they all converge as the ancient seat of magic calls from the North.
Huh. You know how I used to complain about how McKillip’s imagery overtook her story? How she sometimes let the metaphors embedded in her scenery get so heavy they could nearly topple the whole book? How I wished she would be just a tiny bit less abstruse and a tiny bit more attentive to her characters as people, rather than walking, talking symbols?
Well she did, and I didn’t much like it.
Odd Magic is a book about the metered, precisely controlled magic of the school and the untaught, wordless magic of the wild. It’s about the damage people can do when they fear power. It’s about illusions, the magic trick kind that redirect the eye, and the real magic kind when you learn to really see something for how it is. It’s a book about the first quick look, and then that second look, and the power there.
All of which sounds like it should have lots of potential, and it’s a perfectly acceptable story, but I didn’t ever actually care, and McKillip wasn’t quite her focused, pithy self to carry me through. And the end left me surprised at its flat, happily ever after quality. I mean, I read McKillip for the way she tells fairy tales about roses, but always keeps the thorns in. And this book didn’t have any thorns at all.
I do have to say that I’ve collected yet another sharp McKillip definition of magic. She’s good at these, and at her very best mucking about in magic that comes straight from the brainstem and the heart, all instinct and the scored bedrock of hard experience.
“Magic,” he answered wryly, “is how you use what, in spite of all your good intentions, you learn."
Huh. You know how I used to complain about how McKillip’s imagery overtook her story? How she sometimes let the metaphors embedded in her scenery get so heavy they could nearly topple the whole book? How I wished she would be just a tiny bit less abstruse and a tiny bit more attentive to her characters as people, rather than walking, talking symbols?
Well she did, and I didn’t much like it.
Odd Magic is a book about the metered, precisely controlled magic of the school and the untaught, wordless magic of the wild. It’s about the damage people can do when they fear power. It’s about illusions, the magic trick kind that redirect the eye, and the real magic kind when you learn to really see something for how it is. It’s a book about the first quick look, and then that second look, and the power there.
All of which sounds like it should have lots of potential, and it’s a perfectly acceptable story, but I didn’t ever actually care, and McKillip wasn’t quite her focused, pithy self to carry me through. And the end left me surprised at its flat, happily ever after quality. I mean, I read McKillip for the way she tells fairy tales about roses, but always keeps the thorns in. And this book didn’t have any thorns at all.
I do have to say that I’ve collected yet another sharp McKillip definition of magic. She’s good at these, and at her very best mucking about in magic that comes straight from the brainstem and the heart, all instinct and the scored bedrock of hard experience.
“Magic,” he answered wryly, “is how you use what, in spite of all your good intentions, you learn."
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June 25, 2020This is such a weird little book; I feel like I find something new every time I come back to it, and every time I find something new the pieces make even less sense together and even though there are parts I really love, mostly why I keep coming back to it is that I feel like it's got to make sense if I just reread it enough.
It's about grief, and losing yourself, and finding yourself again, and the writing and worldbuilding is so damn pretty, but the pieces just don't fit together and the resolution (especially to Sulis' storyline, which would include Valoren taking a long walk off a short pier) just isn't satisfying in the way I want it to be each time I come back.
I normally appreciate when stories can resolve themselves without anyone being the villain, but in this case I can't help but feel the villains were there, they just got off way too easily.
And yet I know I'll be back to Kellior sooner or later.
It's about grief, and losing yourself, and finding yourself again, and the writing and worldbuilding is so damn pretty, but the pieces just don't fit together and the resolution (especially to Sulis' storyline, which would include Valoren taking a long walk off a short pier) just isn't satisfying in the way I want it to be each time I come back.
I normally appreciate when stories can resolve themselves without anyone being the villain, but in this case I can't help but feel the villains were there, they just got off way too easily.
And yet I know I'll be back to Kellior sooner or later.
July 13, 2008
I think the best thing about this book was the cover art…and that is where the interest ended for me. I am a little surprised that this book got so much praise from other readers because I actually found myself drifting off and thinking of other things repetitively while reading this book. It was that boring! Don’t get me wrong because the book wasn't horrible, but just not memorable. In addition, the plot and characterization seemed so simple it was almost like it was written for a child or a teen and I can think of many children's books that had a far more complex plot that this one. In my opinion, if you are considering reading this book, skip it!
January 2, 2018
It started out interesting, but the POV kept jumping around that it was hard for me to understand who this book was about and to figure out the plot point. It’s not very concise. The writing is ok, she has good imagery, but the lack of plot had my mind wandering and I had to go back to figure out what was just read. Hard to capture interest when I have no connection with any of the characters.
November 23, 2008
There is an almost leisurely pace to the book. The descriptions are wonderful, but at times the plot feels a little too slow. In some ways, I think the plot would've worked better as a poem than as a novel, if that makes sense.
October 21, 2018
How much do I love the way McKillip can tell three or four stories at once? A lot.
Od Magic isn't up to the heights of her best work, but it's got this almost distant sense of strangeness undergirding its worldbuilding - something wondrous and foreign - and, surprisingly enough, there's humor there, too, where I wasn't expecting any. It means that the book feels less epic, perhaps. It ends more peacefully.
But this is still a story about shaking the foundations of a world and seeing where the pieces end up - and the world itself is colorful and exciting.
(Which is good, because the pieces don't go very far, do they?)
I think the bare bones of the setting share a lot with Song of the Basilisk, and certainly the writing is familiar McKillip lyricism, so that this can still feel foreign in places is impressive. I'd like to hear more about the school side, though, and the students. I almost feel the focus is too narrow, sticking to Valoren and Yar and the princess, none of whom are students. I was reminded very strongly of Rachel Neumeier's The Floating Islands, only she did choose to focus on the school. We need more fantasy school stories, is what I'm saying. I'd like to see what McKillip can do with one: even in Riddlemaster, we only get hints.
Here we get the story of a tantalizing showman instead of the school story she opens with - and somehow it still works. Probably because the school story was a teaser, and the real focus was always on a power larger than all of them. The implications might be frightening, but they're not explored here, and there's something almost poignant about the narrowness they keep to, even when they're beginning to reach out.
Od Magic isn't up to the heights of her best work, but it's got this almost distant sense of strangeness undergirding its worldbuilding - something wondrous and foreign - and, surprisingly enough, there's humor there, too, where I wasn't expecting any. It means that the book feels less epic, perhaps. It ends more peacefully.
But this is still a story about shaking the foundations of a world and seeing where the pieces end up - and the world itself is colorful and exciting.
(Which is good, because the pieces don't go very far, do they?)
I think the bare bones of the setting share a lot with Song of the Basilisk, and certainly the writing is familiar McKillip lyricism, so that this can still feel foreign in places is impressive. I'd like to hear more about the school side, though, and the students. I almost feel the focus is too narrow, sticking to Valoren and Yar and the princess, none of whom are students. I was reminded very strongly of Rachel Neumeier's The Floating Islands, only she did choose to focus on the school. We need more fantasy school stories, is what I'm saying. I'd like to see what McKillip can do with one: even in Riddlemaster, we only get hints.
Here we get the story of a tantalizing showman instead of the school story she opens with - and somehow it still works. Probably because the school story was a teaser, and the real focus was always on a power larger than all of them. The implications might be frightening, but they're not explored here, and there's something almost poignant about the narrowness they keep to, even when they're beginning to reach out.
September 8, 2025
This was delightful, slow paced, beautifully written just all around excellent book.
This is what you read when you are exhausted and you need something intriguing and comforting.
It has a grown up love story, which is always a plus, (not the main focus or anything), a very sweet old lady breaking laws under the king's nose, a labyrinth, a woman who hides animals in her hair...
This is what you read when you are exhausted and you need something intriguing and comforting.
It has a grown up love story, which is always a plus, (not the main focus or anything), a very sweet old lady breaking laws under the king's nose, a labyrinth, a woman who hides animals in her hair...
May 15, 2019
Very enjoyable story and well done narration. Not your typical struggle between magicians but a question of who owns magic.
June 15, 2011
McKillip is absolutely wonderful at writing fantastic stories, but in this book she made so many odd choices (no pun intended). I think the main problem is that she wanted to tell too many stories and, for me, I felt that she focused on the wrong one. Brendan's story, so well developed in the first chapter, was not touched upon nearly enough, and for most of the plot he seems a backdrop to the princess and Tyramin. This also leads to the problem that there are far too many "main characters" that the narration follows: out of the nine or ten characters named in the plot, a whole six of them are the center of action during individual chapters. I know that to shift from one character to another in each chapter is something of a common device in modern literature, especially fantasy (I'm reminded of Game of Thrones), but I really don't find it all that compelling. Most of the time (particularly when reading about the princess, Arneth, and Yar) I wanted the story to get back to Brendan, who I found most compelling (even in his lack of development). I think this complaint really gets at something I keep noting in modern fantasy: the movement away from pure storytelling into a sort of modernist introspection (characterized most often by the horrible free indirect discourse). Did we really need to know what Arneth was doing for entire chapters? Did the princess really have to be in the plot at all? No, though this brings me to the second point: McKillip's theme was painfully apparent the entire time. And to make matters worse, a main character comes in at the end and spells out for all the collected characters just what we're supposed to get from the past three hundred pages. McKillip's theme, of course, is a very interesting one (the interplay between bondage and freedom, both in physicality and in the mind/learning), but it really didn't have to be so obvious, nor did she have to include most of the characters simply in order to make the point hit more strongly.
Saying this, McKillip's book is still an interesting one, and I would rather give it 2 1/2 stars than a simply 2. Her writing, though not as good as in the Riddlemaster Trilogy, is still good and her descriptions, at times, interesting (particularly the feeling characters get from true, free magic), and her characters are certainly colorful and, often, full of life. So, if you're a McKillip fan, this may be an interesting read to color more the area of thought McKillip has concerning magic and freedom, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it.
Saying this, McKillip's book is still an interesting one, and I would rather give it 2 1/2 stars than a simply 2. Her writing, though not as good as in the Riddlemaster Trilogy, is still good and her descriptions, at times, interesting (particularly the feeling characters get from true, free magic), and her characters are certainly colorful and, often, full of life. So, if you're a McKillip fan, this may be an interesting read to color more the area of thought McKillip has concerning magic and freedom, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it.
September 13, 2025
Third time. I randomly felt a deep longing to re-read this book last night, so I went home from a party instead of carrying on to do so instead, and found myself up for hours re-reading it, until I got too tired and had to finish it off in the morning.
Not entirely the book I remember. Brenden Vetch, the gardener, actually features very little in it. I can see what I liked about it over half a decade ago, when I was very much in my anti-authority phase, because this book is exactly about that kind of quiet resistance to ill-placed rules. Has everything you can expect from a McKillip classic, though what sets this book apart from many of her other books (for better or worse, depending on your taste) is the multi-POV structure.
PRIOR REVIEW, JULY 22ND 2023:
Second read, rating unchanged. This book is about nothing and about everything; you get the hints of a larger plot at the beginning and it feels like you sail a long, serpentine river to its heart. Lots of people who are at odds with themselves and the world they inhabit, lots of fear, but fear can turn into wonder. I was enchanted, but then I always am with McKillip!
PRIOR REVIEW, MARCH 2ND 2019:
Fantastic.
Not entirely the book I remember. Brenden Vetch, the gardener, actually features very little in it. I can see what I liked about it over half a decade ago, when I was very much in my anti-authority phase, because this book is exactly about that kind of quiet resistance to ill-placed rules. Has everything you can expect from a McKillip classic, though what sets this book apart from many of her other books (for better or worse, depending on your taste) is the multi-POV structure.
PRIOR REVIEW, JULY 22ND 2023:
Second read, rating unchanged. This book is about nothing and about everything; you get the hints of a larger plot at the beginning and it feels like you sail a long, serpentine river to its heart. Lots of people who are at odds with themselves and the world they inhabit, lots of fear, but fear can turn into wonder. I was enchanted, but then I always am with McKillip!
PRIOR REVIEW, MARCH 2ND 2019:
Fantastic.
December 26, 2018
This was good. It's amazing to witness what skilled authors can do within a limited amount of pages, Patricia McKillip managed to convincingly establish parts of a city and a few characters. Many modern authors need a trilogy of books with 600+ pages each for that. Her writing is concise, easy to follow, tightly controlled and descriptive enough to make the characters and city to feel believably realistic, without being flowery. It's a nice change of pace. At the same time, though, I wouldn't call it beautiful prose either. It's very well and solidly written.
Standout features were the magic magic and the character of the King, who—despite being mostly antagonistic—came across as a mostly reasonable and faceted person. No cardboard anagonists here.
Too bad the entire plot was really limited in scope and overall I wasn't really...entertained. This is utterly objective, of course, but overall it was just a solid and good book, nothing more, nothing less.
3.5/5
Standout features were the magic magic and the character of the King, who—despite being mostly antagonistic—came across as a mostly reasonable and faceted person. No cardboard anagonists here.
Too bad the entire plot was really limited in scope and overall I wasn't really...entertained. This is utterly objective, of course, but overall it was just a solid and good book, nothing more, nothing less.
3.5/5
September 13, 2009
Good book; not her best. I'll forgive her for cribbing a quarter of it from Harpist In the Wind, even though she didn't turn himself into a fish when she was turning him into stuff. (I always liked the fish thing.) It's quite good up till the last chapter, which reads like she was up against a very short deadline. You want to say, "Oh no, PM, too trite, too pat--he gave in way too quickly--gimme a break." Maybe she was out of disk space, or something. But I liked the many wild, different characters and constantly changing perspective. Too bad she didn't take that and run with it for another hundred pages. I'd have kept reading. Hear that, Mr. Publisher?
April 14, 2018
I enjoy Patricia McKillip as a writer, but this book seemed fairly weak. The more I think about it, the less I like it. There were several poorly written sentences that really stood out in comparison to the usual lovely, clean writing I've come to expect from McKillip. Although the characters were interesting, they and the story were not well fleshed out. The ending especially seemed a little too easy and anticlimatic.
April 20, 2020
I don't teach lies, but I do not teach all I know is true.
This was honestly quite relaxing - Patricia A. McKillip has a very soothing writing style and the story was fairly low stakes - it's definitely more of an environment than a super deeply developed plot, but I enjoyed it quite a bit and it made for a very pleasant audiobook experience.
This was honestly quite relaxing - Patricia A. McKillip has a very soothing writing style and the story was fairly low stakes - it's definitely more of an environment than a super deeply developed plot, but I enjoyed it quite a bit and it made for a very pleasant audiobook experience.
June 20, 2019
My first Patricia A. McKillip read and I see the appeal, this was just so...pleasant. A dreamy little adventure in an imaginative world, and it was just so...nice.
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