Fool's Run

by Patricia A. McKillip

When two sisters, bound together psychically, meet after many years at the Underworld, an experimental penal colony in outer space, their lives are drastically changed

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adult, Speculative Fiction, 20th Century

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Patricia 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.

Reviews

[Lightreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does have a plot, but I think it's more effective to just lay the pieces out: Terra killed over a thousand people seven years ago, and now she's locked in her strange, inexpressible visions on a prison colony; a musician who reads minds sometimes; a cop looking for someone who can explain the unspeakably horrible; a curious scientist with a machine that can project thoughts, who takes it upon himself to wonder if Terra might be sane after all.

So I keep reading McKillip, because -- well, I don't actually know why, except that every second or third book is strange in an engrossing way, not just in an opaque way. This is that book, only more so. It's kind of about what sanity is, kind of about language, kind of about symbology more broadly, kind of about forgiveness. It's an intense, mysterious little mechanism that got into my head and did unmeasurable, odd things in there.

I don't generally like opaque books, and this one isn't quite that . . . exactly. It's doing a whole lot of things; a few too many, actually, and I don't just say that because I didn't get it all. But McKillip managed such richness in writing and image, spun out on a thread of unspooling momentum, that I enjoyed the hell out of watching this book do it's thing, even though I don't entirely know what that was.

I suspect, though I can be convinced otherwise, that this book will be the best of McKillip for me, and everything else will be disappointingly impenetrable. But it was totally worth picking through her catalog to find it.

[Althea Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A re-read - but I'm fairly sure I read this way back, around when it came out, before I was actually a huge fan of Patricia McKillip specifically. I'd just grab all the sci-fi that turned up at the public library.
I was delighted that I liked it this time around as much as I'd hoped. While, in a way, 'Fool's Run' is quite different from most of McKillip's books, being sci-fi, not fantasy, it shares many of the themes that run though a great deal of her work.

The story enmeshes a convicted mass-murderer with the travails of a group of musicians.
The mass-murder is an insane woman, convicted and held in the highest security in a bleak space-prison.
The futuristic bar band is full of talent - but haven't been going much of anywhere. Suddenly, events come together, and they're offered an amazing opportunity for a multi-world tour: the only catch is that they have to give a charity show on board the space prison first.
Meanwhile, the administrator of the prison (who'd rather be elsewhere) is dealing with a psychologist who's got some new ideas about therapy; and wants to conduct mind experiments on the terrorist(?), Terra Viridian.

Like in many of McKillip's novels, a complex plot spins ever tighter, based on the concept that people have secrets and fail to communicate openly with each other, and that people seem to be on opposing 'sides' mainly because of misunderstandings.
There's a mystical element to the sci-fi here; which ends somewhat ambiguously. I can see that some hard sci-fi fans might not love that ambiguity, but I thought it was quite lovely.

[Macha · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is McKillip's only sf work, and the publisher hedges all bets by describing it as "science fantasy". and it does in some odd way belong in a genre category all by itself - though possibly Samuel Delany's early sf works, of which this book reminded me, might scootch in there beside it. the book doesn't entirely work, i think, but it's full of marvellous ideas, and often beautiful language to describe the indescribable. a poet's work, really. or a musician's. and it's worth the ride, to see where it chooses to go, all the way through mystery and dream to an eerie and disquieting last line that could have inaugurated a whole series. her fantasy works are brilliant, but i could wish McKillip had written more to this side of the genre too.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

One great line. Loved it as a kid. Not sure it aged so well.

[Caitlin (Ayashi) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably about a 2.5 stars... this book was well written but I wasn't super into the plot, there were a lot of characters and not enough time to get to know each one as much as I would have liked, and at times it was extremely confusing. The story was interesting at a surface level but once you actually were reading each chapter sometimes it was hard to follow. The ending also only kind of wraps things up, like I'm still not sure why this vision was so important in the first place.

That said, McKillip is an amazing author and I have adored the other book of hers that I read, so I suspect this one is a bit of an outlier.

[Jael Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first book of the year obviously had to be a McKillip. I wanted something different and I certainly got it with Fool’s Run. I love it when she writes about a sort of ensemble cast of characters who have lives that shouldn’t meet but do. This book is the same as many of her others where she makes you truly care for each character and you are so invested in how their stories - both individually and together - will play out. This was a fabulous adventure from start to finish and I loved reading one of her few forays into the sci-fi genre!

[Keri Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fool's Run has a lot of cool ideas, and some good moments, but the execution felt lackluster. Odd pacing, confusing dialogue, characters that were difficult to keep straight, etc. Worth picking up if you're super curious what the only science fiction novel McKillip wrote is like (like I was), but other than that I would give this one a pass.

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It makes me uneasy because sometimes I have a hunch that things rarely happen by chance. They happen because events tug each other, because people’s loves and hates and desires are constantly overlapping, because unfinished business, no matter how forgotten it is, is always asking to be finished.”

as all of McKillip’s books do, this fucked me up, I think more than I expected it to. it reminds me a lot of Samuel Delany (both stylistically and thematically), which makes sense to me in retrospect but which I did not anticipate going into it. I’m obviously very into her fantasy output, but after this tantalizing glimpse I wish she’d written more sci-fi to go with it.

[Katie Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book I've read all year. Easily the most amazing thing I've read since Riddle Master of Hed, with the significant advantage of being much shorter. I thought I understood Mckillip, her style and her strengths, but Fool's Run proved that she can do things with fiction that I never even dreamed possible. I didn't know what to expect from her in a science fiction genre and I started it looking for it to be science fantasy, but it isn't. It's magical, for it's a story of light and music and dreams, but the science is as hard as any die-hard fan could wish for, without being overt. But the most amazing thing of all is the sheer number of character. None of the players are insignificant. They all have their parts to play, and their backstory is interwoven in a way that makes you feel like you know them personally, rather than reading biographies on a stat-sheet. You shouldn't be able to weave seven years of history into a narrative spanning a few days at most without it weighing ponderously, but McKillip does. I don't know how she gets away with it because NOBODY writes like this and I'm starting to think she must have some dark ability the rest of us aren't privvy to...

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a bit mystifying. Bits of it were familiar, bits of it were sort of a lyrical science fantasy, and bits of it seemed to be almost surreal.

First off, let's say right up front that it's not really McKillip's fault that Terra (one of the main characters) seemed eerily familiar. I'm not saying she would definitely be played by Summer Glau in the movie, I'm just saying that the distant, deadpan, psychic woman who babbles apparent nonsense that actually isn't, and knows (and is terribly upset by) things that happen light-years away wasn't new and surprising. Though, of course, McKillip wrote this book first, I just found it second.

Though, I did have a bit of trouble with the character's name: Terra Viridian? Green Earth? That's a bit too heavy-handed for me.

Anyway, the rest of the book was, as I said, puzzling, but amusing enough. I wouldn't really recommend it for anyone other than McKillip fans who are curious about how she handles fields other than fantasy. My conclusion is, her strongest suit is fantasy, that's where she's most comfortable, and that's where I'm the most comfortable reading her.

[Viridian5 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, the only sci-fi novel I know of that she wrote, features the same vividness in imagery of her fantasy stories. Its plot points teeter on the edge between coincidence and fate but delicately enough that I didn't mind much. Every character has a mystery, and as those mysteries are revealed they intertwine with everyone else's. The musician known as the Magician somehow manages to be mundane and otherworldy, while the Queen of Hearts' way of rushing on as she speaks appeals to my love of dialogue. This is the novel I took my online pseudonym from.

[Rach · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of Patricia A. McKillip's earlier efforts, and it shows. While still filled with her trademark dreamy prose and lyrical weaving, the plot is ultimately confusing and unsatisfying. We are never given an explanation for Terra's strange vision - we are told it is important, but it is never explained why.

Give this one a miss, and try her other beautifully written fantasy novels, which therein lies her true talent.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book. While I enjoy just about everything McKillip has written, this book made me weep it was so beautiful.

[Lissa Notreallywolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the first few books I read this year, and I have to say how much I enjoy this author. I remembered her , as lyrical, a poet, but this book was both that and a sock in the jaw. It was written in the 80's wen the author was living in San Francisco, and so was I. I have no memory of ever meeting her, but it's clear that the dance club scene was an influence. A musician starts having uh...fugue states...of consciousness while playing, not unusual for musicians. It seems to settle down when the band gets its big break, starting with a concert at a high security prison and off to other planets and clubs thereafter. Unfortunately one of the band can't leave the planet due to some inner ear sensitivity, which leads then to take on an old favorite, The Queen of Hearts. But it turns out that she's a girl with a past and her twin sister is a mass murderer, currently incarcerated at said venue. The book leaves us waiting the waking of some kind of astral leviathon, winded from a high speed, high stakes chase. Oddly the book cover which told me a fair amount about McKillip at the time it was written, compares her to Anne McCaffery, who was the author of another book I snatched at high speed from the same library run. I see no comparison.

[R.C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A harbinger of some of McKillip's later books, where you go "yes, lovely prose...and I have no idea what actually happened". Where the plot is mostly "you meet some people you like, and then they get caught up in something supernatural/magical/psychedelic and nothing makes sense and you're supposed to find that charming and awesome rather than asking where the plot actually is". And then the climax is a big vague thing that you're not sure if it actually happened as a physical thing or was just some vision in their heads. And despite this world-shattering thing that had gripped them, and the flat-out crimes they committed, because they/what they saw was so special, somehow everything was fine.

This book was exactly like that, but in space. The ideas were interesting: the floating prison, the weird futuristic rock band, the brain-reading experiments. But in the end, I couldn't enjoy it much because so much of it just seemed oddly pointless.

An interesting diversion if you're a big McKillip fan, but a hard read if you're not, I'd say.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the few books by McKillip I hadn't read as they came out. This may be her only SF book and it is not one of her best, but it does have a lot of the features that I have enjoyed in her books. I like the way that her characters are unraveling riddles instead of fighting evil. In McKillip's worlds there isn't evil but rather misunderstanding and danger that arises from the misunderstanding or the state of not knowing all the facts. Spoiler alert. The story revolves around a horrible crime committed by a person who turns out to have been acting under the influence of an alien power. The story has gaps and at times the story does not achieve all it aims at. Still, it was interesting to see how a fantasy writer like McKillip approached the genre of SF. Certainly this book's is far better than Donaldson's foray into SF in the Gap series! Love McKillip. Liked this one OK.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my second Patricia McKillip book. I loved her prose in this nearly as much as in The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. There was also something in this I've not really come across in sci-fi (and science fantasy, which this probably fits better) before: a focus on music and musicians.

However, I spent most of my time reading this book in some state of confusion. I think that comes down partly to there being quite an ensemble of characters running around on these 252 pages, who are all introduced rather quickly without time to really familiarise and pin down who is who. The musicians all using stage names did not help. By the end I had figured most of them out, but still felt a little baffled. Like the story didn't quite wrap up.

Might revisit with a reread after I've gone through some more of her fantasy works.

[Desirée · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Fascinating and weird. The dreamlike quality reminded me a bit of Piranesi, even though the plot is completely different and very vast in many ways where Piranesi's is focused and contained. Still, it reminded me.

Lovely prose and dialogue and an amazing amount of character work considering there were a lot of them (and not so many pages).I will be missing many of them.

But it was also a bit confusing. I didn't really get the end, plus I found the way she treats everything that has to do with the theme of forgiveness a bit of a stretch.

So where does that leave me? Very happy I found this book in a Parisian second book shop and eager to read more Patricia McKillip, because it seems like I haven't read her best stuff yet.

[Ian Mathers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoo boy, I need to get through these. I am grading this one on a curve, I'll happily admit; McKillip is one of my favourite ever authors and have written many books that hit me harder than most things I can think of, so reading a novel of hers (sci fi instead of fantasy, even) that just seems okay is a bit of a let down. Honestly the setting is interesting enough, the writing good enough, and the ending moving enough that from almost anyone else I'd probably bump it up to 4 stars, but you'd be so much better served by many of McKillip's other books I just can't move it up. Still worth reading, though.

[D. T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5: A rare dip into sci-fi for McKillip. Its plot is fairly straightforward, but the mysterious motivations of the character around which the story revolves is nebulous and never really fully explained. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and If you’re able to appreciate that there will be ambiguity and opaqueness, I suspect it will be a more satisfying read. I’m not certain it works completely (since it’s such an important element) but I found the last few chapters rather pulled the nose up for me. And it’s still a McKillip story with some lovely imagery and her typically lyrical prose. As far as I’m concerned, she’s always worth the once through.

[Sally Boyington · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read

My rating might have been higher if the author had been anyone but Patricia McKillip, whose fantasy novels have long been favorites of mine. This is a solid sci-fi book, packed with action that supports a twisty music-based plot. As always, her worldbuilding is brilliant, and her character development kept me involved even when I felt confused about what was happening.

Then again, the unresolved questions about Terra Viridian's vision might have kept me from giving even four stars had the author been anyone but McKillip. I like answers; I want my mystery boxes (in the sense of J. J. Abrams's approach to screenwriting) to be opened.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way McKillip manages to blend very down to Earth with magic. This novel throws in another theme that attracts me, music. Fool’s Run involves an imprisoned woman that slaughtered an entire settlement because of a vision. A psychologist has developed a machine that shows a person’s ideas, and wants to try it out on the inmate.
Meantime , a magical musician and his band are invited to play at the prison the murderer is held in. Plus, the murderer has a twin sister that seems to have disappeared.
Keeping track of the bizarre musical instruments is slightly confusing.

[Belinda Mellor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science-fantasy of the highest order. I've had this on my shelf for a while, not because I didn't want to read it, but because it was nice to know I had a Patricia McKillop book waiting to be read. I love her writing, it is sublime, although I do worry about her endings. This one, I am glad to say, ends satisfactorily. Anyone interested in music will especially love it, I think. In many ways it's a sad book, but marvellous and amazing – both of those literally. After finishing, it stayed with me as a thing of marvel and amazement. Highly recommended.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first real book since school let out and, oh boy, what a trip. Fool's Run sat on my shelf for 6 years. I constantly said I would get around to reading it. This almost feels like the end of an era?

A neat 80s sci-fi about language and symbolism, about the past influencing the future. And glitter. Not a bad read at all. During the final part, I found myself racing across the pages to finally experience the meaning of the vision.

[Brian Geerlings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book - probably my favorite from McKillip and one of my new favorite books period, after perhaps Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Dune.

It's abstract, which is often the style of McKillip, and not 'hard sci-fi' really, though it has those elements. But I adored it. The characters were fantastic, the setting was amazing. All without over-explaining - just the right amount of detail to keep me hanging on every page and never bored.

[Pongo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one (again - I read it many many years ago) right after reading He Who Shapes by Roger Zelazny. Together, they tweeked my mind. I really enjoyed this book because it is so different from her fantasy stories. It is tense and full of strangeness. It is, perhaps, not as atmospheric as her fantasy works, but I like the musical elements tied into the unknown. I will read this again.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this when I was young and loved it. I've been thinking about it occasionally for my whole adult life, especially when playing cards and seeing the Queen of Hearts.

Re-reading it about 30 years later, I found it weird and still pretty interesting. Not an amazing book, but one that I will also have a lot of fondness for.

[Ruth Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not up to par with her other books. I stopped reading about a third to a half way through. I'm happy she stuck to writing fantasy, her strong suit! The other Sci fi piece she wrote, a short story about Cotton Mathers angel, also wasn't my favorite, though it wasn't too bad and was definitely better than this book!!

[Mei · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this as much as some of her other books. Her style suits fantasy more than it does sci fi, in a way. I found this book rather disjointed and it was hard to keep all the strands of the narrative in my head for any length of time; which is why it tkkk me ages to finish!

[Kimberly Karalius · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just absolutely loved it. The Magician has to be my favorite character and I breathed a sigh of relief by the end of the book (whew - kind of. He’s okay but... what a last line!). As usual, McKillip has the ability to make you connect with every character, no matter how big or small to the plot.