Dreams of Distant Shores

by Patricia A. McKillip

Featuring three brand-new stories and an original introduction by Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn.
Bestselling author Patricia A. McKillip (The Riddle-Master of Hed) is one of the most lyrical writers gracing the fantasy genre. With the debut of her newest work, Dreams of Distant Shores is a true ode to her many talents. Within these pages you will find a youthful artist possessed by both his painting and his muse and seductive travelers from the sea enrapturing distant lovers. The statue of a mermaid comes suddenly to life, and two friends are transfixed by a haunted estate.
Fans of McKillip's ethereal fiction will find much to delight them; those lucky enough to be discovering her work will find much to enchant them.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies, Adult, Short Story Collection

318 pages, ebook

First published June 14, 2016

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

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature :

Dreams of Distant Shores is a collection of seven shorter fantasy works ― five short stories and two novellas ― and a non-fictional essay by one of my favorite fantasy authors, Patricia McKillip. Several of these works are reprints of stories originally published elsewhere; “Mer,” “Edith and Henry Go Motoring” and “Alien” are the only ones original to this collection, but since I had never seen any of these stories elsewhere, they were all doorways to new and enchanting worlds for me. This collection, where faeries and other fantastical creatures and beings intersect with commonplace people, sometimes rudely intruding in our world and sometimes luring us into theirs, tends more toward urban fantasy than McKillip’s typical high fantasy work, but it’s not your typical werewolves and vampires type of urban fantasy.

“Weird” – 4 stars. A man and a woman, locked in a bathroom with a basket of gourmet food, tell each other about the weirdest things that have happened to them in their lives, with the stories growing progressively more odd. What begins as an apparent romantic hideout becomes gradually more ominous and unsettling, as outside of their locked bathroom there is a “menacing, furious, strangely desperate racket.” The couple is ignoring the appalling din as best they can … or are they?

“Mer” – 3.5 stars. An extremely long-lived witch shifts over time from shape to shape, place to place, and then is convinced by the goddess of ocean tides to take her place; it’s “only for a hundred years.” Exhausted after that stint of goddessing, she quietly creeps into an old wooden carving of a mermaid and brings her to life, upsetting the entire town of Port Dido, where the wooden mermaid is a local icon, especially the young men who were trying to temporarily “kidnap” the statue so she could be the illicit guest of honor at a friend’s wedding. The worshipers at Our Lady of the Cormorants, meanwhile, are trying to protect their bird from the fishermen who view the cormorants as unwelcome competition for fish ― and the mermaid inadvertently gets involved. “Mer” is a quirky and amusing story.

The Gorgon in the Cupboard – 5 stars. Harry, a struggling painter, finds inspiration in two sources: his former artist’s model, Jo Byrd, who slowly makes her way back to his home after an absence of a couple of years, initially unrecognized by Harry, after she has fallen on hard times; and the rude-talking Medusa who unexpectedly possesses and animates the voluptuous lips of one of his unfinished paintings, giving Harry unsolicited (and often unwanted) advice. This story takes place in a Victorian-type setting, in a time when servant girls were turned out on the streets for getting pregnant. The desperate and miserable existence of Jo and the other poor folk contrasts with the comfortable living and lovely country retreats of Harry and his painter friends and their families and friends. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the talking Medusa painting, but she does offer some pointed commentary and insights to Harry. Ultimately, I think this novella makes an excellent point about how people so often look without really seeing. Even Harry and his painter friends, whose business is observing life and recreating it on their canvases to provide inspiration to others, often don’t understand or appreciate what is in front of their eyes.

“Which Witch” – 3 stars. This is a brief vignette about a group of white witches who’ve formed a musical band called Which Witch. Witch Hazel (yes, that’s the main character’s name) and her group are playing a club one night, hanging with their familiars, when an evil monster invades the club. Mayhem ensues. It’s a lightweight, humorous diversion, easily forgettable.

“Edith and Henry Go Motoring” – 2.5 stars. In the early part of the twentieth century, a rather dissatisfied wife and her friend Harry go for a chauffeured drive in the country. They pass over a mysterious toll bridge, where the outlandish-looking toll-taker tells them the toll is half of whatever they bring from the other side, and end up in an odd, dreamlike place. It seemed to be a type of psychological experience for Edie and Harry, a disclosure of their possibilities and choices, but the story didn’t really resonate with me.

“Alien” – 4.5 stars. In “Alien,” the typical craziness of a family reunion, where love and irritation so readily mix, is sidelined when their grandmother, the materfamilias of the family, refuses to leave her home and drive the few miles to the reunion. Grandma had previously gotten “sucked up into the bowels of an alien spaceship,” and now she’s hopefully waiting for the aliens to come back for her again. A story of family ties, both humorous and poignant.

Something Rich and Strange – 4.5 stars. Megan, an artist, lives with her boyfriend Jonah, who has a curio shop on the ocean coast. One day Megan meets an odd jewelry-maker named Adam Fin, who seems to her to hail from some ancient, foreign seaport. Jonah is irritated and a little jealous of Adam, just from Megan’s descriptions of him; but then Jonah sees an intoxicating woman singing with a band in the local bar, and is instantly entranced by her. Jonah, who tends to see everything in black and white, is suddenly at sea, obsessed by a mysterious woman whose voice has an elusive undertone of sea tides.

Imagination is dangerous. It changes things. You think you know what the world is and where you are in it, and then you walk out the door, and the storm clouds are a migration of great white whales, and the moonlight on the water is a stairway down into the sea.

Megan is distracted by Adam Fin and the odd way her artwork is beginning to transform itself; Jonah can’t explain to her why he is so haunted by this unknown woman. Despite warnings from Adam, Jonah finds the stairway down into the sea. Megan, realizing something of the danger Jonah is in, seeks to rescue him, but there is a price to be paid to the sea.

Something Rich and Strange was originally published on a stand-alone basis in 1994, with illustrations by Brian Froud, whose artwork was used to inspire this tale of the ancient and magical rulers of the ocean and their underwater realms, and how they affect humans … and how humans affect them. McKillip’s trademark lush, poetic prose is in full flow here, giving a dreamy feel to this story. It’s lovely to read despite its very leisurely pace and occasional opaqueness. This novella has touches of Tam Lin and the Snow Queen about it, translated to an oceanic setting, which actually works very well. There’s an environmental protection message at the end that got a bit too heavy-handed, where I would have preferred more subtlety, but otherwise I really enjoyed this tale.

At the end of Dreams of Distant Shores are a brief essay and an afterword that offer some additional insights into the strange worlds created by McKillip. In “Writing High Fantasy,” McKillip explaining some of the ideas and thoughts behind some of her well-known high fantasy works. It gives some interesting insights into her thought processes.

At its best, fantasy rewards the reader with a sense of wonder about what lies within the heart of the commonplace world. The greatest tales are told over and over, in many ways, through centuries. Fantasy changes with the changing times, and yet it is still the oldest kind of tale in the world, for it began once upon a time, and we haven’t heard the end of it yet.

In an afterword entitled “Dear Pat,” author Peter Beagle adds his comments and insights regarding the stories in this book. It’s well worth reading, opening new windows of meaning in these tales and giving me a greater appreciation for McKillip’s great literary talent.

I originally thought Dreams of Distant Shores would be a 4 star book for me, but I’ve found that most of these stories beg to be revisited, and my appreciation has grown with rereading. McKillip’s prose is both lovely and thought-provoking. Highly recommended to readers who enjoy fantastical short works.

I received this ebook as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

[Althea Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** “Weird”
"Weird" is an appropriate adjective for this scene, not just its title. A couple are holed up in a bathroom, in what, at first, seems to be a romantic interlude. As, perhaps, a bit of pillow talk, one asks the other what the weirdest thing that has ever happened to her is. In between the relation of a number of odd incidents, we gradually realize that in fact, the 'weirdest thing' might be happening right now.
I liked the idea, and of course, the writing (It's McKillip!) but I don't prefer stories that are so open-ended and unexplained. (As I said, it's more of a 'scene' than a 'story.')

*** “Mer”
In tone and feel, this reminded me a lot of McKillip's latest novel, "Kingfisher" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). An ancient witch, after sleeping through the ages, ends up embodied in a mermaid statue... just at the moment that the statue is the subject of an illicit 'prank' committed by a few young men, in a modern-day coastal town.
I liked it, but I thought that the amount of time devoted to the witch's history made it feel unbalanced compared to the page time dedicated to current events.

***** “The Gorgon in the Cupboard”
I read this as a companion piece to McKillip's "The Kelpie" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).
There's no fantasy element here, but it's a powerful and lovely story that explores the relationship between Pre-raphaelite painters and their models: how the men often idolized and idealized these women, making them heroes and victims of classical and supernatural dramas - while ignoring or wholly blind to the very real dramas and trials going on in these women's very real lives.
Beautifully done.

**** “Which Witch”
A re-read - previously read in "Under My Hat." (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
"I challenge anyone to read this story and not wish they were a part of the rock band described. This tale would fit in really well with Terri Windling’s ‘Bordertown’ series. However, the plot elements are very slight, and cry out for further development…"
Upon re-reading, I actually though the plot was fine, but yes, I'd be happy to read a whole novel about the adventures of this band of witches and their familiars.

**** “Edith and Harry Go Motoring” (original)
The particulars of this story, as well as the general feel of it, reminded me quite a lot of Rudyard Kipling's 'They.' (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
A woman and her friend have a chauffeur take them on a drive, and, crossing a bridge with a strange toll keeper, they end up at a dilapidated and seemingly-abandoned mansion. Exploring the interior will lead both of them to profound - if vague - realizations.
A haunted house (?) tale with an undercurrent of mythology.

**** “Alien” (original)
When grandma starts saying she'd been abducted by aliens who are regularly visiting her, her family immediately is concerned about the obvious: senility, or possibly bad side effects of a medication. But is there another possibility?
A lovely, but poignant, story.

*** “Something Rich and Strange”
Previously read, some time ago. This was previously published as a book on its own. This one story is fully half the page count of this volume; which is worth considering, if you've already read it. (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
"A rather dreamy, slow book, this novella tells the story of an eccentric couple, Megan and Jonah, who live in a seaside town. Megan's an artist and Jonah runs an artsy souvenir shop. But a mystic couple arrive in town... Megan finds herself irresistibly drawn to a travelling jewelry-maker, and Jonah finds himself obsessed with a beautiful singer he sees in the local pub. Magic intertwines with reality as Megan and Jonah's relationship seems to be tearing apart, for these strangers are magical beings from the sea, and Jonah is drawn in like so many other of legend, by siren song. But today, the mermaids want for than sensual, cruel amusement - they want to draw attention to the ecological disaster being faced by the world's oceans.
I really love Patricia McKillip, but this novella gave me a bit of an 'unfinished' feel - there were a few loose ends, and the 'message' seemed awkwardly fitted in."

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon for the opportunity to read this book by one of my preferred authors! As always, my opinions are solely my own.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of High Fantasy short stories is mixed in with "Something Rich and Strange", a novella thrown in for very good measure, and it's easily my most favorite story of the bunch.

I've never read Patricia A. McKillip before, although hers is a name I've seen often over the years. After reading this, I'm proud to say I'm quite pleased to finally get to it. :) She's got a deep fascination with all manner of beasties, from Irish folklore to Greek, from witches of many breeds to merfolk of wonderful quantity and different quality. More than anything, though, and easily the high point of the reading, is the way she juxtaposes solidly grounded locations and situations and characters of one magical type with tropes of a completely different breed, slipping in between each realm as easily as a selkie switches between land and sea. Sure, you can say that a lot of good authors do this already, but McKillip takes it deeper, explores more fully, and never insults our intelligence.

Even from the first line of each tale, we're thrown right into the middle of things, and isn't that always what we expect in good fiction? Moreover, I was quite pleased to feel the magic, to be submerged into the awe.

Every story was more or less very good. I liked the zingers in "Weird" and "Edith and Henry Go Motoring" probably the most, while I eventually felt the best, overall, about "The Gorgon in the Cupboard", but it was really "Something Rich and Strange" that managed to blow me away. Or drown me, as the case may be. The payoff in the last story was really something to behold.

You might say it was a real treat to swim with the fishes. All these dreams of distant shores just got a lot closer, and if you're a fan of modern High Fantasy that still manages to be fresh and new, I definitely recommend this.

My only concern was the fact that while I did eventually get into the characters, it was always a bit slow-going for me. It might be only my concern and not a fault of the writing. I always enjoyed each by the end.

Thanks to Netgalley for the honor of the ARC!

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars--I really liked it. Patricia McKillip is one of my always-read authors, and this collection does not disappoint. The title is perfect: these stories are dreamy and fantastical, and McKillip's writing is, as ever, flawless.

The highlight of this collection is the novella "Something Rich and Strange," which is a nautical Tam-Lin story (kind of!). Two of the stories, "Alien" and "Weird," were different than what McKillip normally writes, being more grounded in the day to day, if that makes sense. (But still containing the fantastical.) I enjoyed the quirkiness of "Mer," and since I have a fondness for haunted(?), out-of-time(?) houses, I also enjoyed "Edith and Henry Go Motoring."

The characterization was the star of "The Gorgon in the Cupboard," even more so than the supernatural elements. Finally, "Which Witch" was a rocking story of music and witchcraft.

Recommended for fantasy readers.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

[9/10]

“Some people do that. Their lives are rigid, but their dreams are full of poetry. Monsters. Things rich and strange. Imagination is dangerous. It changes things. You think you know what the world is and you are in it, and then you walk out the door, and the storm clouds are a migration of great white whales, and the moonlight on the water is a stairway down into the sea.”

I am held spellbound once again by this amazing enchantress, this trickster who keeps pulling weird rabbits out of her hat, this siren whose song I will willingly follow to whatever exotic and dangerous shores it may lead me.

“In old tales, rabbit is a trickster. It changes sex, it changes shape; it lures you into this way and that; it steals power and gives it away; it changes the path under your feet, and in the end, it changes what you think you want into what you are really looking for.”

Whatever magic we can still discover in our modern, mechanical and implacably destructive reality is reserved to the realm of fantasy, to the spells crafted out of words that, when carefully weaved into story, yet have the power to refresh our sense of wonder at the ordinary world around us. The same word spells can turn evil and divisive in the hands of bigots and racists and power-hungry opportunists leading to dystopias, but that is another story.
This collection here is all about the wonder that you might ignore even when it is to be found right under your feet, in a tidal pool on the beach or above you in a tree where crows and cormorants might nest, in the art gallery where a portrait has eyes that are following you around the room.

‘Spells are alive. Spoken about, they find carriers and travel like rumor until they reach the one who craves that particular spell and will pay for it. The spell will be turn into words, and therefore lies its terrible and wonderful power.’

>>><<<>>><<<

Weird

A couple has a picnic in their bathroom, while outside their house something terrible roams. The story is rather short, but it sets the mood right for the next stories: a mix of the ordinary, the humorous, the strange and the dangerous. Witches and spells will be the common thread that links the story included in this volume.

Mer

In the same vein, a slightly humorous account of a sleepy witch crossing the ocean from the Old world to the New, settling finally down somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, in a small town with the wooden statue of a mermaid, a colony of cormorants and a coven of witches.

‘We are the faithful of our Lady of the Cormorants. It is our belief that we are all – even idiots like Niall and Markham – part of Holy Mother Nature, that we all belong to this earth, that cormorants are of an ancient and wild power that should be protected, and that the sea will provide for us all, human and bird, if we take care of one another and the sea. Amen, Ladies’

The Gorgon in the Cupboard

My first enthusiastic five star story here: a period piece about Victorian painters and their models: a different sort of siren song and magic spell, but one that still operates at the level of imagination / dream state in the audience.

Her face was all bone and shadow, full of stark paradoxes: young and ancient with experience, beautiful and terrifying with knowledge, living yet somehow alive no longer. Whatever those great, wide-set eyes had seen had left a haunting starkness in them that riveted him where he stood.

The painter will fall in love with two of his models, one rich, fashionable and unapproachable, the other poor, innocent and mysterious. One of his portraits starts talking, Pygmalion fashion, but what the Gorgon has to say is more challenging than comforting.
I liked the implication that men fall in love with an idealised image of the woman right in front of their eyes instead of making an effort to really ‘see’ her as she is.

“I see you – I see you as a very ancient power, a goddess, almost, who is herself mortal, but who can kill with a look. To see her is to die. But not to see her is to live without living. I see you, in all her terrible, devastating beauty, as Medusa.”

Which Witch

A live rock performance in a tavern and a ‘murder’ of crows form the background of a love triangle between two witches and a musician.

I had gotten into the habit of watching crows. I never guessed they were watching me back. Who does? City crows mingle so easily with people that people hardly notice them.


Edith and Henry Go Motoring

Not as memorable as the rest of the stories, but still an elegant and charming example of portal fantasy where an older couple crosses an ordinary bridge and arrives in a strange place.

Alien

This one reminds me quite strongly of the humorous sketches of Connie Willis: an extended family is getting worried about the grandmother missing her birthday party and/or going insane, while the lady in question is busy meeting with aliens in the backyard.

Something Rich and Strange

A prize winning long novella or short novel that would justify the price of admission all on its own, this one has a little bit of every theme that was presented in the previous stories: romance, magic, wonder, danger, artistic expression, poetry.
The title refers to the sort of critters that might be found in tidal pools, but also to the seducing power of myths.

“A snail with rabbit ears.”
“Little protrusions that look like ears. It’s called a sea hare. It shoots purple ink when it’s disturbed, it can lay twenty million eggs, and it’s both male and female.”
“Wow”

Megan is a young woman who likes to do watercolors of the things she finds by the edge of the sea. Jacob is her boyfriend and owns a curiosities shop for tourists. Both of them come across strangers, she on her sea walks and he at a live music show in the local pub. Both hear the irresistible siren call of the sea gods, but Jacob is the one that succumbs first and is lost to the depths. Megan must bargain with the fickle and often cruel strangers in order to save her lover.

The world was a dangerous place for mollusks without their shells, and yet they ventured into it, restless, curious, or maybe following some ancient instinct to return to the place were souls were spawned.

The lords of the deep sea are probably angry at humans for the pollution of their realm, for the heating waters and the overfishing that are turning the sea into a desert. Megan fills the pockets of her coat with plastic and garbage and broken toys every time she takes a walk on the beach, but her efforts seem so puny and futile against the size of the destruction.

“What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know. Secrets. Mysteries. Pearls and ambergris and black coral. But I keep finding garbage instead.”

“The dead coral, the crabs with their shells grown thin and fragile in those waters, the poisoned grasses and kelp, the jellyfish that died because you kill everything you touch – I am all that you see here, and I am that dark and barren sea.”

The environmental paean resonates strongly with me, just as strongly as the mention of the eternal fascination of the trackless expanse of blue, the appeal of the wonderful vistas hidden beyond the constantly receding line of the horizon, the beauty and the danger beneath the mirror of blue. I identify myself with the sort of tourist who arrives first to the small resort where Megan and Jacob live, well ahead of the official holiday season:

They were wanderers, following the paths of birds and whales, wanting to bring home visions, landscapes, the echo of barking seals, the endless siren song of the waves at the edge of the world.

The magic of the sea is worth saving, it may even be essential to our survival as a species, if only we could stop taking its bounty for granted.

We can’t separate ourselves from you. You still flow in our blood. You feed us. You rage at us, wreck our cities, drown our children, and still we come past safety to stand at the edge of your fury to watch all your deadly beauty. Without you, we will die.”

>>><<<>>><<<

Coming to the end of the volume is a bittersweet experience, not only for the sombre conclusion of the last story, but also because I know that this is the last volume published by this cherished author.
It seems fitting though that the editors have chosen to close with a short essay about McKillip’s lifelong fascination with the genre, and with a glowing afterword penned by her close friend and kindred spirit, Peter S. Beagle.

At its best, fantasy rewards the reader with a sense of wonder about what lies within the heart of the commonplace world. The greatest tales are told over and over, in many ways, through centuries. Fantasy changes with the changing times, and yet it is still the oldest kind of tale in the world, for it began once upon a time, and we haven’t heard the end of it yet.

[Susana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars



Arc provided by Tachyon Publications through Netgalley

Release Date: June 14th

It's no secret that I am a fan of the author luscious writing and enchanting imagination. As such it was with great pleasure that I read this anthology.

"Weird" - 4 Stars
I loved this story and for a moment there the author had me completely fooled, making me think that I was reading a ~normal~ contemporary story. Ah!*Yes, I should have known better*
We have two characters, and it seems as if they're having a rendez vouz in the bathroom... of course bit by bit, the fantasy comes crashing down on them. It was intriguing, and left me wanting much more. For real, I would love to know how it ends. Or more on how it started ;)

"Mer"- 3.5 Stars
Another intriguing story, this one featuring a jaded witch who loves to sleep *I can sympathize* .
The problem is where she ends up sleeping, namely in a mermaid statue that ends up being stolen as a prank.
Honestly, people, beware of what/who you steal ;)

The Gorgon in The Cupboard- 3.5 Stars
The story of a painter and of his obsession with a friend's wife. Fortunately for him the paranormal seems set on helping him.
Ironically enough he ends up falling under the spell of real life instead.

Which Witch - 2 Stars
I wasn't crazy about this one . A little too vague for me in the beginning it kept me wondering what I was reading about. There's witches and spirit animals and an evil to fight.

Edith and Henry Go Motoring - 1.5 Stars
I think that what Patricia Mckillip is trying to say with these stories, is that the mundane could be living next door to the unexplainable, the paranormal, without any of us being more the wise for it .
Like these two characters who go out for a drive in what seems to be a typical pastoral English setting and all of a sudden, there's troll bridges keepers and much more. Which is great... but it didn't work for me.

Aliens - 3.5 Stars
When the up until now sane grandmother of the family claims to have had sex with the aliens who abducted her, her family divides itself between concern and amusement.
But what is the truth? Has granny lost her marbles or is there really an alien infestation?
And which of them is easier to believe?

Something Rich and Strange - 4 Stars
A tale of two lovers who need to get lost in order to finally find each one another. The only problem is the toll it will take on both... and on their relationship.
While reading it, I felt as if this was supposed to be the master piece in this collection... and for a period of time it was. Strangely, I can't help feeling that this novella would have worked better as a short.
I know, I know, I'm impossible to please, lol.

As for the cover it is absolutely stunning.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and then you'll see a fantasy writer go on about how magic has to have rules - rules that the reader knows about in advance. Otherwise, the argument goes, the author can just cheat by using magic to resolve the problem, leaving the reader unsatisfied.

Well, that's one approach to magic. It assumes, among other things, that the main characters have the magic, and that they're setting out to solve a problem - neither of which is necessarily the case. This is why Patricia McKillip (and many other authors, mainly, but not exclusively, those writing before the 1970s commercial fantasy boom) can get away with magic that isn't like that.

In McKillip, the magic isn't what it needs to be to have the plot work; it's what it needs to be to have the poetry work. Usually, the protagonists aren't in control of it. They're experiencing its effects more than they're using its effects. They're not necessarily solving a problem, either, so much as coming to a realization, and for this, magic that doesn't have fixed boundaries works perfectly fine.

I will say that this approach tends to work better for me at shorter lengths. I didn't enjoy the novella in this volume (Something Rich and Strange) as much as the shorter pieces, and I think it was because the characters didn't have a clear goal and clear steps to take in order to strive towards it. I missed that structuring element, as I hadn't with the shorter stories. Still, Something Rich and Strange did give me my favourite of many fine moments in the collection: "I don't know how to bargain for Jonah. I don't know how to say, you can have this for him, but not this. I don't know what he's not worth because right now he's costing me everything." And there you have the book in a nutshell, and the reason that rules and limitations on the magic would simply be wrong: for the stories to be emotionally all-in, for the characters to reach the realizations they reach, the magic has to be unrestrained, wild, not circumscribed or calculated.

The opening story, "Weird," does something wonderful with the in medius res approach: a couple are forted up in a bathroom (a nice one), with supplies consisting of a luxurious picnic, while outside terrible noises imply that something is dreadfully wrong. Their conversation consists of the man asking the woman what's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to her - and she doesn't lead with "this". If that isn't guaranteed to keep you reading, I don't know what's wrong with you.

"Mer" is a prime example of magic without rules or restraints. A nameless witch, apparently immortal or very long-lived, transforms into various shapes as the story requires. It isn't the witch's story, though, but the story of ordinary people who encounter her and are vexed and challenged and changed by the experience.

"The Gorgon in the Cupboard" is set among Victorian artists and their models, and the magic is more a way of pushing events along and creating reflection on them than it is the core of the story. The core of the story is a woman who's been treated badly, and is now being treated kindly; who was the model for Persephone, and is now the model for Medusa. Alongside that runs a theme of the artist and his love for a "goddess," the wife of his mentor, and how he comes to see her, and his own model, as human. It's intricate and beautiful and draws power from myths while, at the same time, questioning a mythological view of the world.

"Which Witch" is a music/magic story, which for me are hard to pull off, partly because it's too easy to lean on poetic descriptions that don't really convey the experience of listening to music, and then having the magic arbitrarily happen while the audience is distracted. That's not a trap McKillip falls into (she's too experienced for that). In this case, the protagonist does have magic, but she doesn't know exactly what it can do, and when it activates she still has to exercise love and courage to battle on behalf of her familiar.

"Edith and Henry Go Motoring" is another very English period piece (like "Gorgon"), with none of the horrible wrong notes that American writers so often hit when they attempt to write about English people in England. It involves a psychological journey for the main characters in the guise of a physical journey.

"Alien" is, I suppose, technically SF, but only because the narrator's grandmother has seen aliens rather than Fae. Or has she? The story is about the response of a family to a beloved elder's unlikely claim of an experience, and the relationships are where the emphasis lies.

Something Rich and Strange I've already said a little about. It's full of the magic of the sea, with a sometimes heavy-handed ecological message (still, doesn't it need to be?). The main characters spend most of the time wandering lost and confused (literally or figuratively), ill-equipped to counter the moves of ocean gods. Though I felt it was overlong, it still had power and beauty.

McKillip closes with a reflection on "Writing High Fantasy," a kind of manifesto in which she declares that simply tromping through the tropes is not enough - that the challenge she chooses is to take the trappings of high fantasy and twist them just enough to be interesting. She offers examples from her novels.

In an afterword, Peter S. Beagle celebrates McKillip's genius, from his perspective as someone who knows her personally and writes in the same genre. He claims, I'm sure genuinely, to be jealous, and that he couldn't write some of these stories as well as she has done (he goes through personal reactions to each one of them). It's an enjoyable close to the book.

Overall, this is a fine collection of a rare type of story, the mythopoeic kind of fantasy that evokes wonder and shows us complex human people undergoing realizations about themselves that shake them to the core of their identities.

I received a review copy via NetGalley.

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note that ~1/3 of this volume is Something Rich and Strange, which was previously published as a lovely illustrated stand-alone.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was privileged recently see Patricia McKillip at ICFA, a conference on the fantastic, and to attend a panel she was on that discussed what's unspoken about fantasy. Here are some brief quotes from McKillip:

"Landscape is the human condition."
"Language speaks more than what the words say."
"As a fantasy writer, I have to believe that there's hope in the end."

She didn't speak as much as the other panelists, but I felt this was because she considers her words, considers everything being said. I could tell she processes ideas before responding, and I can see this depth of thinking in her fiction. Writing is her way of processing life, humanity, myth, hope. The stories in this collection are good examples of that.

Since I was reading these stories at the same time I attended the conference, I was struck by how accurately her discussions fit with her prose. All of these stories deal with landscapes, how inextricably humans are linked to landscapes. Her landscapes create ambiance, story, and purpose. The best example of this is the novella "Something Rich and Strange", where the ocean enraptures the characters, its wonders and marvels rich and strange and defining.

And McKillip is a wordsmith. She understand language speaks on more than one level. The right rhythms, patterns, words can be visceral, emotional. "The Gorgon in the Cupboard" (my favorite of the collection) is a lovely example of the power, both spoken and unspoken, of language.

My favorite quote from the panel was the last one, about how hope and fantasy are inextricably linked. She writes fantasy because she hopes, and this hope is why I love reading fantasy. Her short story "Alien" (my 2nd favorite) uses hope of the impossible as the impetus for plot.

The first story, "Weird", asks "What's the weirdest thing that's happened to you?" and the stories that follow answer that question again and again.

Weird: A couple lies on the bathroom floor while terrible noises echo around them. The man asks, What's the weirdest thing that's happened to you, and the woman tells stories amidst the noise. 3/5

Mer (original to this collection): A witch awakens after a 100 year nap to find a goddess who wants her body. The two switch shapes, and the witch is now a wooden mermaid. Lovely story of switched identities and small magics in a small town. 4/5

The Gorgon in the Cupboard: A painter struggling with his craft and obsessed with a model of another painter, one day paints the model's lips on an unfinished painting of another model he's been searching for. And then the lips speak, and he finds the girl he's been looking for, and he begins to see people where before he only saw paintings. This was a lovely short story (novelette?), reminiscent of Charles De Lint. It's going to stay with me for a while. 5/5

Which Witch: A young witch finally has a familiar--a crow--but the problem is they can't understand a word they're saying, and there's something dangerous at her rock concert that night. A lot of fun. 4.5/5

Edith and Henry Go Motoring (original to this collection): Edith, Henry, and their driver travel to a small town right out of a fairy tale, and find a house that appears empty, until they step inside. A story of confronting repressed hope, and letting your dreams go. 3.5/5

Alien (original to this collection): A family reunion where everyone gossips about their grandmother, who says she's being visited by aliens. Fantastic story about belief. 4.5/5

Something Rich and Strange: The sea is full of the marvelous, some we see, some we don't. When two sibling newcomers appear in a small coastal town, they bring this strangeness along with them. Jonah, an antique shop owner, becomes entangled in a singer's voice that sounds like the sea's song, and his wife Megan, an artist, is drawn to Adam, the singer's brother who brings beautiful, sea-inspired jewelry to sell in the shop. But even before the two appear, mysterious things begin to appear in Megan's drawings. This novella is a lovely, ecological-themed treatise on the ocean and its magic. 4/5

Writing High Fantasy (original to this collection): A short description of fantasy, using the Riddle-Master: The Complete Trilogy books as examples. I have not read the Riddle-Master books, so this essay didn't do much for me, but because of this I'm unable to give it an accurate rating.

Thank you Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've talked about my List plenty of times, that list of authors I always followed long before Goodreads made it so easy to do so. Patricia McKillip is someone I discovered in grade school. What my elementary school library was doing with a copy of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld I don't know; I haven't read it since then, but my sense-impression is that it was a little beyond that level. I'll have to read it again soon to find out. I remember loving it, with a sort of uneasy feeling that there were things in there that I wasn't quite ready for at that age.

Anyway. McKillip is a beautiful writer. I can't put my finger on why she isn't one of my absolute favorites, but there's no denying that her prose is absolutely lovely. There are a lot of books that fade quickly from memory, but with this collection it only took reading the story titles for each tale to come flooding back in full technicolor. Dreams of Distant Shores is a collection of nine stories which – as stories in collections will – range from completely wonderful to … just fine. (I think I finally put my finger on one reason I am not very fond of short story collections, beside the fact that they are rarely consistent in quality: There are no solutions provided in short stories. Maybe I'm shallow, but … often I like solutions in my fiction.)

And these tales are:

"Weird" – which is. It's short, and it's disconcerting, and it's suspenseful – partly because you're hanging on to every word trying to figure out what on earth is going on. Loved it.

"Mer" – is the tale of a witch making her way through the world and time, apparently oblivious to the results of her actions on the mundane populace around her. It was a little distant, in a way, but nice.

"The Gorgon in the Cupboard" was far and away my favorite. The story of an artist and his muse, and true love, was everything I could ask for, but don't usually ask for because I'm not going to get it. It was so good. I have felt deep empathy for Medusa since I first read her full story – she was wronged. She was so badly wronged.

"I go where I’m invited. Where I am invoked. When I hear my name in someone’s heart, or in a painting or a poem, I exist there. The young thug Perseus cut my head off. But he didn’t rid the world of me. I’ve stayed alive these thousands of years because I haven’t been forgotten. Every time my name is invoked and my power is remembered anew, then I live again, I am empowered."

"Which Witch" gives "Gorgon" a run for its money as favorite. I would be delighted to read a full novel – a series! – centered around this band of witches (a band as in a collective, and also a band as in people who make music together). Where "Gorgon" was complete in and of itself and made me happy as a discrete unit, with this story I want more. I so very much want more. Please?

"Edith and Henry Go Motoring" is also odd, and oddly poignant. I honestly don't know what else to say about it – I was baffled, it was excellent, and I liked it.

"Alien" is the story of a grandmother whose family assumes she's succumbing to dementia because she talks about having met aliens and how she is waiting for them to come back… but is she? - and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It had the feeling I've begun to associate with McKillip again of a sweet sadness.

We watched the stars, wanting and not wanting strangeness, change, danger. Wanting and not wanting aliens.

The last and longest story, "Something Rich and Strange", started out beautiful – I loved it … but I loved it less and less as it went on and on. It became a heavy-handed ecological story (the sea is angry about all the abuse it's taken at human hands). It's beautiful throughout, as is inevitable with McKillip's work, but just too long after the rest of the book, and just … overly overt, and a little wearying.

That was the last story, but the last piece was the essay "Writing High Fantasy", a rather informal and entertaining exploration of … what it says on the tin. Excellent. I didn't agree with all of it (or, at least not with Jung), but – excellent.

There is no question that Patricia McKillip belongs on, will forever stay on, my List. Like the ocean explored in "Rich and Strange", there are depths, darkness and light, and strange beings here. "The fierce, underlying point of all the froth and bother" … wow.

"To invent a convincing love potion you must, for a moment, make even the reader fall in love."

"What was that old tale about a ship? A flying ship?"
"The USS Enterprise?"
Heh.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book, with thanks, via Netgalley for review.

[tasya ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

rtc ✨🌾🍄🦋💛

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Weird" Locked in a hotel bathroom while unexplained howling and movement occurs outside, a couple in love compare their weirdest tales. It turns out the woman at one point gave a rag and bone to the rag and bone man, and that freed the man she's talking to, and now an ancient menace seeks out the scraps they've left. I don't entirely get what was going on here, but I think that mostly fits with how the magic here worked, so I'm fine with it.

"Mer" A witch and a goddess take turns filling various objects or animals with power. Nothing really happens, which disappointed me.

"The Gorgon in the Cupboard" A Pre-Raphaelite painter is in love with another of the brotherhood's muses. In despair he paints her mouth from memory, and it comes alive, speaking to him with the mind of one of the ancient gorgons. It gives him advice in working with his own newly found model, who has lived a hard life and needs a certain amount of sensitivity and sympathy to thrive. I really like this. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was by and large casually awful to the women in their lives, and writers tend to either dismiss/excuse this, or go overboard in castigating and villainizing them. In this, both the up and downsides of the dreamy romanticism of the main character are explored, and his model gets her own share of the story.

"Which Witch" Hazel has only recently acquired a familiar and been recognized as a full witch. But when her familiar tries to warn her about coming danger, they have difficulty communicating. Will Hazel and her band still manage to perform? Will the danger be averted? Naturally the answers are yes to both of the questions. This felt really lightweight and about 90% of it is about the clothes Hazel and her friends wear. It read like an uninspired piece that was meant for a Bordertown anthology.

"Edith and Henry Go Motoring" Two of the idle rich casually venture into what seems like a land touched by fey, and come back having seen visions of tempting possibilities they never pursued in life. There's a wonderful combination of Edith's prosaic thought process before they arrive at the fairy house and then her dreaming mind after.

"Alien" The beloved matriarch of a normal family says she's been abducted by aliens and then refuses to leave her house in case they come back while she's gone. I loved this bit, "I studied my grandmother, with her short white hair, her skin dropping, melting away from her bones. I had inherited her blue-gray eyes, her oval face, her hair that once had been heavy, dark, and smooth. With a sudden prickle of premonition I saw myself in her, that alien in me, waiting patiently, appearing little by little, line by line, hair by turning hair, until one day I was taken over by nothing I could possibly have imagined." But I did want less of the family (there are a lot of them and they are so boring my eyes involuntarily skimmed the sections on them) and more to do with the aliens and how believable or not the grandmother was.

"Something Rich and Strange" Megan is an artist; Jonah is a fossil-loving shopkeeper who sells her sketches. They love the sea and each other. Then Megan meets seal-eyed Adam and Jonah hears the incredible voice of a singer who might just be a mermaid. Slowly, and then with dizzying speed, they are enfolded in the strange magic of the sea. It's a bit like Tam Lin, but beautifully told and with an environmental bent.

"Writing High Fantasy" Various strategies McKillip has used to write high fantasy while breaking all the rules. I particularly liked her section on magic.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never ready anything by Patricia McKillip before, and I'm glad I finally changed that. Her writing is lyrical, everything is beautifully worded and somewhat formal, and that made every tale feel like a fairy-tale, even though all take place in the modern world.

My favorite of the stories was the novella "The Gorgon in the Cupboard" about an artist finding his muse. It illustrated how most people see what they want to see, and not who is really there. Most of the stories (if not all) had some kind of deeper meaning, and they were interesting in their own right as well.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me two months to read the first three stories, then I had this linger on my kindle for another two months. I just attempted to read another story, but I have zero interest. Sorry.

I received this free e-copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, but this wasn't for me.

DNF at 16%. Not rating it, as I simply did not read enough for a decent evaluation.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews

A collection of stories by Patricia A. McKillip

As regular readers know, I'm a big fan of Patricia McKillip. It wasn't instant, and I haven't liked everything she's written, but overall, she's near the top of my list of favorite authors. Not only that, but her short stories have been a pleasant surprise, and a break from her usual high fantasy realm. So, I snapped up this latest collection with enthusiasm.

Mostly, the enthusiasm was repaid. The book is thin, but then who wants to wait for more McKillip when you can have some now? Plus, some of the stories are set in Oregon. The stories here are occasionally whimsical, but all touched with McKillip's fey magic - except one. I'm sorry to say it, but the idol has feet of clay, and McKillip has done the unexpected by including one story that's actually bad, or the next thing to it.

The rest of the collection is more promising, though it's not quite as polished as her prior collection, Wonders of the Invisible World. Since the collection is short, I've included comments on all stories.
Weird - two people locked safely in a bathroom. The story certainly lives up to its title, but it's an example where McKillip doesn't entirely pull off the 'unexplained, but effective' trick. There's a good story in here, but there's too much scenery for it to get out.
Mer - a witch turned mermaid. Unlike "Alien" later, on, the humor here never quite works. The story is quirky, and the characters are fun, but the world never really gels.
The Gorgon in the Cupboard - Wonders of the Invisible World included two strong stories about art, "The Kelpie" and "Jack O'Lantern". "Gorgon" feels a bit like a remake of "Kelpie" - it uses some of the same elements and archetypes. However, it's also one of the strongest stories in this new collection, and does find its own path, so perhaps the three are best seen as a trio out to explore a theme together.
Which Witch - this is the one true weakling of the bunch, and the only bad short story by McKillip I've ever read. It aims for cool, funny YA, and misses its target almost entirely, landing instead in that uncomfortable zone where parents try out teen slang and look foolish.
Edith and Henry Go Motoring - just what it says. This is pretty far along the magic realism continuum, and is an excellent example of McKillip's ability to make a satisfying story out of pieces that separately make little sense.
Alien - Grandma was abducted by aliens. Humor and longing, deftly explored.
Something Rich and Strange - a couple on the Oregon coast meet the sea. This feels like a story that wanted to be a novel. It's long, moody, and romantic. Stripped of the otherworld fantasy setting of most of McKillip's novels, the story at times feels like a master class in magical realism. All the McKillip elements are here - deep characters, strange happenings, unexpected metaphors, powerful beings that are neither evil nor good - and yet the story doesn't quite work. It feels at times like McKillip has gotten so caught up in playing with her tools that she forgets to craft a good story with them. It's sometimes hard to follow what's happening, and not in a good, mysterious way. More than anything, this feels like a really strong draft that needed editorial direction but didn't get it. It also has a positive, but fairly heavy-handed environmental message.

There's also a brief and quite interesting essay on how to write high fantasy, and a less interesting afterword by Peter Beagle, who notably checks in on every story except "Which Witch", the collection's one stinker.

All in all, a collection of weird and wonderful, with a few false notes.

[Kitty G Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

* I was sent this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review *

This is my first Patricia A. McKillip book and I am glad that this is the start point for me because this is a collection of short stories. I think going into this I believed that McKillip might be fairly classic and maybe even a little more dull than some of the other short story authors I have read recently, but I was wrong (I'm pleased to say) and I was pleasantly surprised. McKillip does tend to focus on more classic ideas within fantasy & sci fi e.g mermaids, witches, and even aliens, but she still brings these troupes and character stereotypes into modern and fresh stories. I really liked that.

There are some very short stories within this collection and two rather long ones. I tended to find that the longer stories were the ones I found myself more drawn into and excited by, but this bodes well for the two novels of hers which I already own and I now think I will like them. That's not to say the shorter stories are bad (although there was one I didn't care for) but that there's just not as much development and so it's harder to connect.

The stories which I really enjoyed were:
Aliens - A short story about a grandmother who believes she's seen Aliens and that they will return to her some day.
Which Witch - A story about witches and their familiars and how hard day to day life can be as a witch when something nasty is hunting you and you can't yet communicate with your familiar very well.
The Gorgon in the Cupboard - This is one of the longer short stories and focuses on a painter with a Gorgon in his cupboard as he searches fruitlessly for the perfect model to paint Medusa with.
Something Rich and Strange - This is probably the longest of the shorts and I really enjoyed this. McKillip has a way to describe the wonders and allure of the seas which at times captivated me, and she also raises some great points later in the story which I thought were important in our own lives. Definitely one of my favourites from this collection.

On the whole I was pretty intrigued by this collection and it certainly made me want to try out more of McKillip's work in the future (so I am glad to have two novels by her already). I think she surprised me a little with her stories being a bit more up to date than I was anticipating, and yet she has a timeless quality to them too becuase of the focus of them. A solid collection with most of them being pretty interesting, particularly the long ones. 3.5*s overall.

[Melanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love McKillip, and this anthology isn't an exception. It has a few new stories and a lot of reprints - including the somewhat hard to find novella "Something Rich and Strange", which has previously been published as a stand-alone work.

"Weird" - Reprint - A fun story that derives most of its charm by starting in media res and never fully explaining how they got into such a weird situation.

"Mer" - Original to this edition - This reminded me of a half-reminded fairy tale where the princess in question just loved to sleep. Unfortunately, I just can't find the tale I'm thinking of!

"The Gorgon in the Cupboard" - Reprint - One of my favorites in the collection. Slightly longer story that reminds you that everyone - even those you idolize and put on pedestals - are real people. This makes me feel slightly guilty about NOT finding out more about my favorite author's real lives and it also reminds me that I have Hand's Mortal Love sitting around waiting impatiently to be read.

"Which Witch" - Reprint - Not my favorite McKillip story - but that's not entirely her fault. This is a magical rock band story - and I've read so many of those that it's hard to really get engaged with them - even if they do break from the standard formula as McKillip's story does.

"Edith and Henry Go Motoring" - Original to this edition - Another good period piece; this time a half fairy tale, half psychological ghost story.

"Alien" - Original to this edition - This one made me laugh. Because, of course, Grandmas talking about participating mating rituals is just as shocking as her talking about hanging out with aliens.

"Something Rich and Strange" - Reprint - I cheated. I really didn't want to miss out on Froud's lovely art work, so I switched over to my hardback copy of this. But I admit the art isn't necessary to enjoying it. My opinion of this hasn't changed much with a re-read. McKillip's descriptions are absolutely lovely and I love all the mythic elements she incorporates, but I still feel it's a bit too preachy.

Thank you to Tachyon Publications and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patricia A. McKillip's writing is often described as 'ethereal.' If you've read really anything by her you would be nodding your head. In her most recent anthology, DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES, we are treated to her lovely prose, with a collection of stories that are surprisingly different. They are alternately strange and silly, but all are thought-provoking.

"Weird" is a short story about a couple picnicking on a bathroom floor and to pass the time he (we don't learn their names) asks her to tell about the weirdest thing that's happened to her. I wasn't really sure what was going on, and why when there was a menace outside the door, they would go about their picnic as though they didn't have a care in the world.

"Mer" is a modern fairytale about a goddess who decides to inhabit the body of a witch for 100 years, then the witch inhabits the body of a wooden mermaid. This story shows McKillip's goofy side because of the things that happen to the wooden mermaid.

"The Gorgon in the Cupboard" is about Harry, an artist in a community of artists. Jealous of the local popular artist and his beautiful wife, he moons after the wife, desperately desiring his own muse, as his works feel uninspired. This synopsis makes the story sound ordinary, but McKillip infuses the scenes with magic--and despite the painting of Medusa that talks to Harry, it's really not the otherworldly magic that takes center stage here, but the magic of comprehension, understanding, and kindness. What starts out as two characters with unattainable needs turns into a sweet story.

"Which Witch" is completely different than the other stories in the anthology, especially in its prose and PoV narration, which is more snappy and sassy (this woman can really write, let me tell you). The witch Hazel's familiar is a crow, who has his time as a PoV narrator, as well. Hazel is a young witch still, and is learning about her magic and abilities. The crow warns her of danger, but she doesn't realize what the danger is until she joins her rock band at the club and they have to deal with the evil while on stage. Playing their music. All without letting their audience know what's going on. For the story style the actual fight was surprisingly non-specific, but in McKillip style was more abstract. I liked it.

"Edith and Henry Go Motoring" is about our title characters who decide to take a day trip with a picnic and unexpectedly pass a tollbridge operator with a nebulous toll of "half" what they bring back. They discover a mysteriously empty village gateway to a strange country not on any map. It's a little confusing at the end, but it's not unusual for McKillip to allow readers to draw their own conclusions at the end of stories.

In "Alien" a grandmother claims to have seen aliens, but the family doesn't believe her, and when the family congregates for a reunion they try to involve her, but she seems content to wait for her otherworldly visitors to return. Told from the PoV of a, adult granddaughter who is concerned about the well-being of a beloved widowed grandmother, she humors her grandmother into telling her about what happened, but doesn't really believe it herself. Even in short stories McKillip gives a sense of character and the relationships between people with a depth easy to understand.

"Something Rich and Strange" is a novella-length story about Megan and Joshua who live in a coastal town. When an artist drifter arrives in town, their sedate lives are jumbled, implying change. Then the stranger's sister arrives and Joshua is pulled into another world that he seems unable to navigate or stay away from. Megan realizes how she loves Joshua and discovers that she has more strength than she realized. McKillip's stories can be so full of the strange and yet make you feel like that's exactly the way the world works at the same time. I don't know how she does it, but it's beautiful.

Quick to read and at the same time thought-provoking, DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES is for the discerning fantasy reader.

Recommended Age: 14+ more for comprehension than content
Language: Hardly any
Violence: A scene or two but not bloody, mostly implied peril
Sex: Referenced

***Find this and other reviews at Elitistbookreviews.com***

[Kris Sellgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dreams of Distant Shores showcases Patricia A. McKillip’s outstanding talent for writing fantasy. It is a much better collection of short stories and novellas than her earlier collection, Harrowing the Dragon.

The novella Something Rich and Strange is the jewel of this collection. The writing is lyrical, poetical, riding on a wave of mystery and magic. Every sentence yearns for the sea. I love the underlying environmental message about endangered oceans, but it’s the struggle of the two young lovers with their own natures and with the siren’s call that breathes life into the story.

“Weird” is a perfectly balanced short story, beautifully written and sensual. A man asks a woman “what is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you?”. First she offers silly tales, then ghost stories. Her answers, as he repeats his question, become progressively stranger. But the weirdest thing of all is unspoken.

“Mer” is a humorous tale involves the Moon, the Sea, a particularly sleepy witch, more witches, cormorants, a wooden mermaid, and three drunken guys with a truck.

In “The Gorgon in the Cupboard”, Harry, a wealthy painter, feels turned to stone by beautiful women. He invokes Medusa as his muse, with unexpected results. Jo, a desperate woman from the streets, is modeling for Harry. Can Harry look beyond the ideal mythological subject he envisions and see the real woman with a tragic past? A wonderful meditation on different kinds of vision and sight, wrapped in a ribbon of romance.

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review at my Blog.

Back in the 80s, I read McKillip's Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy. Since then, I completely lost contact with the works of this wonderful author. So, I was drawn to this brand-new collection from Tachyon Publishing, as I wanted to rediscover her. I found that her stories are wonderfully written but sometimes not my taste. All the stories have in common McKillip's beautiful, evocative language. They are more dreamy than action-oriented. Fans will love the three previously unpublished stories and her writing essay. Most prominent in this collection is the fact that it contains a complete, although short novel: Something Rich and Strange. My favourite story was The Gorgon in the Cupboard.

I recommend this collection, as you get a novel plus lots of good short stories and a great novella for the price of one book.

[Chrystopher’s Archive · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's books like this that makes me want to abandon star-ratings completely because there's just not enough nuance.

This collection made me long on a molecular level for some gray, distant shore where the wind fills up your ears with your own thoughts and the cold sand bites into the skin between your toes, but it also made me want to rest, the way a hiker wants to rest when the trail they've taken turns out not to be the easy path they expected but a steep and rocky climb that they can't quite find their way off of or back from, so the only way out is through and when they finally reach the end they're relieved but also... they've lost something, and they feel that loss like the heartwood missing from the hollow of an tree and they know they'll never get it back.

How can three star shapes encompass all that?

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dreams of Distant Shores by Patricia A. McKillip is a collection of short stories that vary in length and subject but are all fantasy. Each story is intriguing and I liked each differently. I can't say I didn't like any of them, I just liked some more. I loved the way her stories made you think about them after you had already finished the stories. They lingered with you. It's as if they had magic in their words themselves. I have always liked her books and I am not disappointed with this one. Very nice job. I received this book for a honest review and it in no way effected my review or rating.

[Seregil of Rhiminee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

As many fantasy readers are aware of, Patricia A. McKillip is one of the best and most talented authors of lyrical fantasy fiction ever to grace the field of speculative fiction. Her beautifully written stories have the power to transport readers temporarily to another place where magic is real.

Dreams of Distants Shores is a remarkable collection for fans of Patricia A. McKillip, because it's everything that her fans have come to expect from her. It's also a fantastic introduction to newcomers who have never read anything by her.

I've personally loved Patricia A. McKillip's novels and stories ever since I first read The Riddle-Master of Hed. It convinced me of her writing skills, because she wrote fluent prose and the story was good. I consider her to be an excellent storyteller whose novels deserve to be read and praised, because they have depth, style and wit. I'm glad that I had an opportunity to read this wonderful collection, because it contains excellent stories.

Dreams of Distants Shores contains an essay and seven stories, three of which have not been published previously:

- Weird
- Mer (original to this collection)
- The Gorgon in the Cupboard
- Which Witch
- Edith and Henry Go Motoring (original to this collection)
- Alien (original to this collection)
- Something Rich and Strange
- Writing High Fantasy (essay, original to this collection)

These versatile stories form a stunning collection that is a testament to the author's ability to write spellbinding fantasy fiction. Each of the stories emphasises her strenghts as a fantasy writer and lets readers marvel at her imagination.

What's in common for these stories is the author's lyrical prose, evocative imagery and flight of imagination. Her writing style emphasises the fantastical nature of the stories in a charming way and brings out the best in them.

Some of these stories have a compellingly dream-like and mythological feel to them. I found this irresistible, because I'm drawn to stories that evoke a sense of something otherworldly and strange.

Here's a bit more information about the stories and my thoughts about them:

Weird:

- In this story, a man and a woman are in a bathroom and tell each other stories about what kind of strange happenings they've encountered in their own lives.
- This story grows steadily towards an intriguing ending.

Mer:

- A story about a witch who is convinced by a goddess to take her place for a hundred years. Afterwards she creeps into the heart of a carved wooden female shape - a mermaid - and brings her to life.
- An excellent and well-told story with charming quirkiness.

The Gorgon in the Cupboard:

- In this story, a struggling painter, Harry, finds new inspiration from two different sources: his former model and a talking Medusa painting.
- A fascinating and insightful story with good prose.

Which Witch:

- A charmingly light story about a group of witches who have formed a band.
- An amusing and fluently told story.

Edith and Henry Go Motoring:

- A story about a wife, who goes on a motor ride with his friend, Harry, along with the chaffeur. When they come to a toll bridge and meet the toll-taker, things take a turn for the weird, because the toll is half of what they bring back from the other side.
- An excellent and charmingly written fantasy story.

Alien:

- A story about a grandmother who refuses to participate in the family reunion. Because she has got herself sucked up into the bowels of an alien spaceship and thoroughly examined, she is waiting for the aliens to come back for her.
- A quirky and amusing story that will delight readers.

Something Rich and Strange:

- An excellent story about an artist, Megan, who lives with her boyfriend, Jonah. When Megan meets a man called Adam Fin and Jonah is intrigued by a singing woman, things become intriguing.
- I loved this story, because it was a perfectly written fantasy story for adults.
- Attentive readers will notice that this story has an underlying ecological and environmental message.

Although I enjoyed all of the above mentioned stories, "Something Rich and Strange" was my personal favourite. It contained such excellent characterisation and charmingly strange happenings that I was deeply impressed by it. It was something different and wonderfully captivating.

I also enjoyed 'Mer' and 'Edith and Henry Go Motoring', because they're amazing stories. Both of them are marvellously imaginative and contain intriguing happenings.

The essay, "Writing High Fantasy" is interesting and worth reading, because Patricia A. McKillip writes about how and why she has written high fantasy. It was interesting for me to read about what she wrote about her own novels, because I gained new insight into her works.

In my opinion, Patricia A. McKillip's approach to modern high fantasy feels refreshing and invigorating, because she writes high fantasy in a modern way. It's great that she doesn't lose sight of the fact the roots of modern fantasy fiction lie in classic fantasy fiction. She seems to be aware of the fact that in order to write successful modern fantasy it's important to combine modern and classic elements in a fresh way (she's one of the few authors who fully succeed in this).

I love the way the author blurs the line between realism and fantasy, because she plunges her readers into the middle of fantastical happenings with ease and confidence. Her beautiful prose emphasises the captivatingly strange atmosphere of the stories and makes them a joy to read. In this collection, good prose meets sparkling imagination in a powerful way.

I found it charming that there was a bit Rhys Hughes-like atmosphere in some of the stories. Because I've always been fascinated by beautifully written and well-told quirky stories, the quirkiness of the stories appealed to me.

Patricia A. McKillip's Dreams of Distant Shores is a stunningly beautiful and magnificent short story collection filled with excellent high fantasy. It's a perfect example of what lyrical fantasy authors are capable of achieving in modern fantasy fiction, because each of the stories is captivating and offers something new to readers. If you're a fan of lyrical fantasy fiction and love well written modern high fantasy, you're in for a delicious treat when you delve into the magical contents of this collection.

Highly recommended!

[Night Owling · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gorgon in the cupboard is an incredible moving story worthy of all the stars

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anticipated release date: June 14, 2016

The series of stories were each unique and contained within different settings. The continuous transition from one story to the next was extremely jarring and I felt like a fish flailing on land. There was so much detail and the characters were all so diverse that I felt overwhelmed...in a good way. The tales were simply bewitching and bewildering. I'm a new reader to Patricia McKillip but I loved the prose and the way the writing immediately sucked me in. I liked some stories better than most and each has something that snags my attention, but I favored The Gorgon in the Cupboard. There's just something about it that fits and connects with me since I've always had a fascination for the Victorian era. I left that story (and many others) wishing to know more.

Weird (4 stars)

This was the shortest of the stories and thus does away with the formalities of introducing the characters' names, the settings, and the conflict. It utilizes a common TV trope -in media res- with a man asking a woman what's the weirdest thing that's happened in her life. There are no contexts and in short, we are given no explanations. It's a clever hook and I loved how things were left open-ended.

Mer (3.5 stars)

Witches and goddesses are given a new meaning in this story.
Note: By the time I started in on this story, I think I got the hang of 'magic' in McKillip's mind. It's a difficult concept to write about because it's elusive and overridden with so many cliches. In a book, magic oftentimes must be explained and made sense of in order for readers to understand how it's usually used to create a power struggle. However, McKillip does not manipulate the 'magical element' to exert power on characters. As readers, we simply observe the effects it has on people and how they react to it.

The Gorgon in the Cupboard (5 stars)

The moral of this story was very realistic and the fantasy element is kept to a bare minimum. I liked the combination of Greek mythology that played into the inspirations of Victorian artists. It's a story rife with beauty and had much more character development than any of the stories. The characters had despair, fear, and hunger who was captured so well that it's not hard to see why it's my favorite. Character development is always a +1 for me along with a lesson well-learned at the end.

Which Witch (3.5 stars)

Witches in the modern-day world have animal familiars. I can't say much about this because they live rather mundane lives as band members playing for a club. The writing is exceptional but I didn't derive much enjoyment out of this story.

Edith and Henry Go Motoring (5 stars)

I'm not sure if there was a typo because Harry, not Henry, went motoring with Edith. This seemingly innocuous trip led to a visit inside an 'abandoned' house. Edith and Henry appear to be fanciful people prone to a little bit of adventuring so I'm pleasantly surprised that the author delves into the multi-layered nature of a person's life.

Alien (3 stars)

Rational relatives deal with their old mother who they believe is going cuckoo because she's spouting some ridiculous nonsense about aliens abducting her at some point in her life. A story steeped in reality, I can't say that it goes hand in hand with the fantasy/sci-fi genre. These relatives take everything with a healthy dose of skepticism but in a while, they question it. The multitude of names being thrown around irritated me because many of them were never mentioned again.

Something Rich and Strange (4 stars)

Taking place in a touristy beach town, the story starts out with a couple who are content with living by the sea and indulging in their hobbies. One of them loves discovering fossils while the other loves drawing the sea and everything underwater. A string of mysterious incidents and visitors leads to some turbulent upheavals in their lives. The longest of the stories, Something Rich and Strange places a heavy emphasis on the ecological effects of humans on the sea. It's a very insightful writing piece and I thought the subject was handled very well along with the involvement of mermaids that played into it. The two main characters were rather lackluster but they weren't meant to be drawn out as magnificent protagonists. It rather underlined the moral of the story through ordinary people who share an affinity for the sea.

Thank you to Tachyon Publications and to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[lychee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gorgon in the Cupboard was surprisingly good and sweet; Something Rich and Strange, although longer than necessary, blends environmentalism and fantasy seamlessly

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Patricia McKillip's writing is lovely, and "The Gorgon in the Cupboard" is a thoughtful, impactful story--easily my favorite in this collection and the only one I found particularly memorable, although I did appreciate the rest on some level. The longest tale, the novella "Something Rich and Strange" had some beautiful writing and a great character, but I thought it was much too long for the story being told. The other stories were much shorter than these two, and my favorite after "Gorgon" was "Mer," in which a witch just wants to sleep but ends up getting caught up in events involving a stolen wooden mermaid and a religious order of women dedicated to protecting cormorants.

3 1/2 stars

Full Review on My Site

[Lis Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of short fiction by Patricia A. McKillip. I've always loved her novels, but I have to confess I wasn't aware she had any short fiction. In this book are five short stories, two novellas, a non-fiction essay by McKillip, and an afterword by Peter S. Beagle.

It is, of course, wonderful. It's McKillip.

A witch, already old, accepts the invitation to be the Moon Goddess's body for a century. A century later, in our modern day, she wakes up out of a more-than-life-size statue of a mermaid, returning to the world as a strong, powerful, beautiful woman. A group of young men are suspected of stealing the mermaid from the bridge (they really tried), one of them is in trouble with his girlfriend because they had promised to have it for friend's wedding. The witch herself is puzzled by parts of the modern world and delighted by others, and there's the problem of the fishermen who regard cormorants as intolerable competitors and are trying to wipe them out. No, I'm not doing justice to the story.

A pair of friends go out for a ride, cross a bridge across a river they didn't know about, and come to a strange, haunted estate, where they see--strange things.

A young artist is obsessed with his muse, The Gorgon in the Cupboard, who by the way talks to him, and the painting he hopes will be his masterwork, and has to be prodded to notice his model.

At a family reunion, the family matriarch is worrying her children and grandchildren. She says she was kidnapped by aliens, who examined and returned her, and now visit her regularly. Obviously, something is wrong with her. Dementia? New prescribed medication? Something else? But what if she's perfectly okay?

The longest piece concerns a couple in a seaside small town. Megan and Jonah. Megan is an artist; Jonah collects fossils, and runs an artsy little gift shop, with the help of Megan and an employee, Jenny. Then two new people show up in town, and there's something strange about them both. Megan becomes fascinated by Adam, a traveling jewelry-maker, while Jonah becomes obsessed by a beautiful singer who won't give her name, at a local pub. Magic starts to tangle up their reality, and their relationship might be coming apart.

These are all wonderful stories, and McKillip's essay and Beagle's afterword are excellent too. Highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this as an ARC from the publisher but the review is my own.

I have never in all my reading days, as far as I know read anything by McKillip. How I have overlooked such a powerful storyteller I have no idea. This collection of stories is simply stunning; so good that I wound up rereading several of the stories so I could keep the entrancing spell each of them casts alive. Each is tuned to its own beauty and pulls you directly in, the reader invokes the spell but have no doubt McKillip is the one who breathes life into them.

There are seven enriched tales included. From the very first one, Weird, you know this is a master storyteller. How else to explain the gravitational pull created by two lovers locked within a bathroom while only your imagination knows what hunts them from outside. Or the sublime tale of Edith and Henry on an idyllic search for a cool breeze who find an afternoon of wonder. But by far the shining jewel in this collection is Something Rich and Strange. This story reaches back into the love we have had with legends and folktales, reaches back into our primal connection to the sea and pulls us down as surely as any mermaid ever compelled sailor to gladly dive to his doom. You could lose yourself in this story again and again and find something new and entrancing each time. This is not just a pearl, this is the story of the pearl full of the torment needed to create the ultimate beauty.

Buy the book in hardcover guys, you're gonna need a copy that can stand up to the constant need you'll have to read these stories over and over. McKillip's snare is set and waiting for you.

[William Leight · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of stories demonstrates an interesting evolution in McKillip’s writing, as she is increasingly abandoning her fantasy kingdoms for stories in which magic lies in, under, and around everyday life. Before turning to the stories, I need to mention her afterword, which discusses one of the features of her novels that often annoyed me, the way in which the ending would negate the conflict that had previously been driving the book. McKillip says that this was done in an attempt to avoid falling back on a Dark Lord: instead, she was trying to locate the source of the evil that drives the basic high fantasy conflict somewhere more interesting. The problem with this approach is that it resembles trickery more than an interesting new approach to writing fantasy. It’s not that the evil is recast or made more realistic: instead, the conflict in the book is reduced, at the final, climactic moment, to a mistake, or a misunderstanding, in a way that significantly blunts its impact. The alternate solution that this collection demonstrates is to simply to abandon high fantasy and its imperative for a massive conflict between good and evil: this allows McKillip to sidestep the Dark Lord problem entirely, and produces what I think is some of her best work.

“Weird” is itself a very weird story: we never really learn just what’s going on, but the way it builds up to the point where we get an inkling is very effective.

“Mer” is a rather amusing story, set in the Pacific Northwest, about a witch who just wants to take a good long nap, for a century or so, but things — gods, people trying to steal her bed (which happens to be a wooden mermaid), a coven/church congregation with a special fondness for cormorants — keep getting in the way.

“The Gorgon in the Cupboard” shows the contrast with McKillip's older work quite clearly: it's clearly influenced to some extent by the Pre-Raphaelites, but here McKillip is not trying to write the kind of story that Edward Burne-Jones could have illustrated. Instead of imitating Pre-Raphaelite romanticism, she tries to recreate an approximation of their milieu (historical accuracy is more general than specific), one of more-or-less wealthy upper class painters and the lower-class — indeed, sometimes desperately poor — girls who become their models, and then often their mistresses and wives. Literarily it has something in common with Dickens, with its extensive description of brutal poverty, coupled to a belief that things can be solved by rich people being nicer. However, the story goes beyond Dickens in its depiction of the dilemma facing models whose beauty has allowed them to escape poverty but has come to define them to everybody, even their painter husbands. Jo, our heroine, is also, I must admit, a much more complete character than she would have been in a Dickens novel (for one thing, as a fallen woman she would have been doomed, though doubtless Dickens would've given her a sympathetic death). The titular Gorgon, Medusa, who advises Harry, our hero, from one of his paintings, is also not a figure likely to turn up in Dickens, though even she displays a certain Dickensian sentimentality in the end. As I am, all too often, a sucker for that sort of thing, I didn’t mind too much, and the central metaphor about ways of seeing, and how beauty can be both escape and trap, is very well done.

“Which Witch” is not as funny as the book of the same name by Eva Ibbotson, but it’s still enjoyable. The magical music does a nice job of literalizing an oft-used metaphor, and it’s always good to get a familiar’s perspective on things. A few too many puns, though.

“Edith and Henry Go Motoring” is a rather strange story, in which self-reflection is embodied in a house. Like some of the other stories in this collection, the omission of some context adds an air of mystery without materially harming the work. The introduction makes the rest of the story rather unexpected.

“Alien” is a story of alien abduction that is unique for not featuring any aliens: instead, it focuses on the dynamics of a family reunion, illuminating its members via their responses to the claim by grandma that she has been abducted, and her refusal to come to the reunion so that she can be there if the aliens come back. Definitely the most interesting story on this theme I’ve seen in a while.

“Something Rich and Strange” makes up about half the book, and is very good. McKillip's new approach to addressing evil is on full display here, as Nereis and Adam are not evil so much as inhuman, and whatever evil there is in the book comes from human pollution of the ocean, not from any of the characters. The story itself is largely a reworking of the Tam Lin story (which McKillip already addressed somewhat more faithfully in the novel "Winter Rose"). The differences only start with the fact that the Queen who tries to steal (by seducing him, to be clear) Jonah, our hero, is Queen of the Sea, not the elves. McKillip also strikes a blow for gender equality by adding some symmetry to the story, putting in a brother who tries to seduce Jonah’s girlfriend Megan. This allows Megan to consider whether or not she actually wants to rescue Jonah, given that he has, after all, left her for another woman, as well as, somewhat ironically, putting them on something close to a similar footing at the end of the book: even though Megan still has to rescue Jonah, both have, in a fashion, succumbed to the lure of the sea. And substituting the sea for the elves allows for a wealth of brilliantly-deployed metaphors and more interesting antagonists. Nereis’s and Adam’s anger is clearly justified, even if it’s not entirely fair that Jonah bears the brunt of it. And though they aren’t human, they are clearly more so than the Queen of the Elves could be. With interesting characters and a plot that is a bit impressionistic at times but keeps your interest, this is definitely some of McKillip’s best work.