Rating: 
Summary: An Awesome Book!
Review: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is about a young sorcerous names Sybel who grows up all alone talking only to the mythical beasts that she and her father called there.
One day a man named Coren comes to her doorstep and pleads her to take a baby prince named Tamlorn. Tamlorn is the child of the half mad king Drede who was betrayed by his wife when she loved another. Sybel eventually says yes and then goes to an old witch named Maelga to help her take care of the baby and learn how to love him. Many years later, Coren comes back for Tamlorn. Sybel refuses to give him up, but Tamlorn finds out who is father is and wants to see him. Sybel only has two wishes, to make Tamlorn happy and to find the Liralen, so she calls the king to her house with her magic and shows Tamlorn to him. Tamlorn choses to go away to be the prince he was destined to be, but what will happen to Sybel now that she is all alone and with a broken heart? This book shows love, hate, war, revenge, magic, a great plot, and no draging parts.
Rating: 
Summary: simply beautiful
Review: this is the first book of patricia mckillip i've read after the riddlemaster trilogy. there are a lot of fantasy book writier who focuse on one world and one type of charecter and i was expecting it to be some sort of extention of that book. i was very pleased to realize that she invented a whole new world just for this book and such a beautiful world it is. there's somthing very airy about this book, very lucide and flowing, though the plot's not packed with imagery, charecter and places such as in the riddle master, there's somthing about the silence and minimalizm (well relative minimalizm, it's still a fantasy book...) that's vert apealing to me. the story is very beautiful, the charecter and interesting and round, and the simple massage of love and freedom just hit the spot for me and gave me the advice i needed when i read it.
Rating:
Summary: Not too shabby
Review: I really enjoyed this book. The story had a little bit of everything... romance, fighting, fantasy, love, hatred, pride. In comparison with other fantasy novels I read, it is not the best or even on my top ten. Even though I enjoyed it, I doubt I'll ever have the want to read it again. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves fantasy with a touch of romance.
Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: The title may make it seem the book is about magical animals, but the beasts are secondary to what the book is really about, which is the young sorcerer woman. I also suspected the book would be about motherhood since Sybel raises a child for a bit, but its not about that either. It's more about Sybel having rare magical powers and how she interacts with men after having lived in seclusion. It's also about the choices she makes with those powers. I never read a McKilip book before this but I may read her other books based on this book. It was an enjoyable read. It was simple to read, it was not long, and it didn't have any parts that seemed to drag on. The atmosphere I got from the setting was an enchanting, mysterious, melancholy, small land. There was also a bit of innocent romance in this book, which I liked the most.
Rating:
Summary: The Ice Queen
Review: Wizardry has never seemed so seductive or so dangerous as when Patricia McKillip gives a glimpse of it, with a lesson on revenge and hatred and what they do to a person. This is probably my least favorite of her books, but that is still several notches above the average fantasy. The protagonist, Sybel, is the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of powerful wizards, living in an isolated house on a mountain with an array of magical animals. Among them are an ancient dragon Gyld, riddling Boar Cyrin, the deadly Ter Falcon, and others. With telepathic links to her beasts, she has no need for human beings outside the walls of her home. But the animal she still longs to find is the Liralen, a legendary white bird. She is temporarily distracted from her quest when a nobleman, Coren, arrives with a baby, and asks her to care for it. Sybel learns how to love the child, Tamlorn, and for several years they are happy (with the help of an old lady). She also summons a strange smoky creature called Blammor, which terrifies many people -- but hardly affects the calm, icy Sybel. Coren returns and is attacked by Gyld, then brought into Sybel's house by Tam. She is angered when she finds that Coren is there to bring Tamlorn back to the world of men, where his father is a powerful and cold-hearted king named Drede. As time goes by, Sybel sees that Tam wants to see his father. She eventually relents and sends him to his father's home, with Ter Falcon to watch over him. Drede offers to let her come and stay near Tam, but she knows that he would only seek to use her wizardry against his enemies. A dangerous wizard comes hunting for Sybel at Drede's bidding, and tries to seduce her -- before being killed by the Blammor. Sybel is furious and wants revenge on Drede -- but what will she do to gain revenge, and what would the cost of revenge be? I sometimes wonder if Sybel was an experiment for Patricia McKillip, to see if she could write the ultimate "Ice Queen" and still make her sympathetic. I found Sybel less sympathetic than understandable, in that her lack of unnecessary emotion makes her clear-sighted in some situations, while simultaneously making her more susceptible to hatred. She is not really an admirable character in some respects -- we see her engaging in casual theft, using people like pawns, and coldly threatening to set deadly animals on Coren, but at the same time we see her love for Tamlorn and her struggling emotions for Coren. Like so many of Patricia McKillip's books, the plot is deceptively simple with nuances woven through it. McKillip's thoughts on revenge are intertwined with the "Riddle-Master" trilogy, "Fool's Run," and "Song for the Basilisk." Here we see how hatred and its offspring, vengeance, might destroy a person from the inside out and destroy what they most care for. The writing is not as lush and luxurious as in many of her other books, nor is the magic in it as take-your-breath-away as that of the Riddle-Master trilogy. We don't get inside Sybel's head very often. Nor is the attraction between Coren and Sybel quite as well-defined as some of her other romances. Coren himself is a wonderful male lead: handsome, brave, compassionate, forgiving, good-natured and with a tragic streak to make him more real. Tamlorn is an excellent portrayal of an innocent, sweet-natured boy raised in a semi-idyllic enviroment, but who craves something of the outside world. This is an excellent YA fantasy, but which is not childish in any way. Adults can also benefit from the weave of words and the lesson inside it.
Rating:
Summary: A book like Key Lime Pie.
Review: I loved the book. I enjoyed the tantalyzing peeks I got inside the animal minds the most. I have probably loaned or given away 2 dozen copies to friends. Those who read it enjoyed it. My take on the theme of the book is that revenge leads to hate, which damages the souls ability to be fearless. Hate seems to lead to other evils as well such as dishonesty. I would recommend reading this book whenever you have a taste for something light and sweet.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: This book is great! I LOVED IT! In this book,the setting is mostly on Eld Mountain.A beautiful wizard named Sybel is born there.She even can read animal's minds! But one day when she is 16,a man named Coren appears at her door and asks for her to take in a baby.It is a relitive of hers whose parents had died.His name was Tamlorn.Finally she takes him in and as he grows, learns to love him.But one day when Coren comes back for him, it breaks Sybel's heart.Will she decide to give him back? Find out for yourself and hurry up and buy the book!
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites (of all time)
Review: This novel is great, because it has a protagonist who isn't always honest, or pure, or even nice. It's refreshing, and great, because Sybel is someone who, even with so many faults, eventually figures out that what's important in life is what's unselfish, and ultimately decides to live that way. What a message for all of us to follow! I like the way McKillip writes, how she can reveal and describe so much with only a few words. Stream of consciousness elements work really well in this novel too. She manages to bring you into the depths of the characters' souls, which is helpful because most of the characters are animals :). Anyway, very enjoyable book, touching and thought-provoking. I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Lyrically beautiful
Review: Not truly a "coming of age" story, but it has a similar type of theme. A woman who becomes more than she was. McKillip writes with a near-lyric quality. Truly an enjoyable book.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Fantasy Book
Review: There are books that one goes back to, when life is hard, or empty, or you just need to cry, to get caught up in the passion of another person's hopes and fears. I am sure I have read The Forgotten Beasts of Eld more than ten times, and I have given it away to friends and siblings. The writing is more than beautiful. It is heartbreaking. The book is about reaching out, and learning to know (and name) the true being of others, which requires that you care. And to care, as we all know, is to open oneself to a world of hurt. It takes great bravery, it takes facing your own demons, and as McKillip reinforces with the metaphor of the Blammor, it is also the path to great beauty.
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