Rating: 
Summary: A Classic trilogy that's better than Lord of the Rings
Review: I've read this book about 7 times over the years. The first time in high school, and the last as a 40+ year old engineer. This trilogy weaves threads of light and hope and strength into the fabric of the READERS' own character. (The Lord of the Rings is dark and morbid in comparison.)
Here are some specifics of what I mean:
It demonstrates what logical thought process is like, and how it works in life... how to search through resources and possibilities to find the truth, how to abandon your opinions/theories when new facts come up, instead of lazily and arrogantly holding to what you think or what you've always been taught. (How else to learn the truth when the official Masters of education are themselves deceived?)
It teaches a balance of compassion and justice, and drives home over and over that failing to pursue the truth and to require it of others is a deadly mistake to everyone: yourself, those who love you, the nation you live in, and the entire world around you. It drives home the point that truth DOES exist, as we all know in our hearts -- rather than the myth taught so widely today that there is no truth. It does the same for evil, and nobility and honor.
It teachs that you cannot judge good or evil merely by surface appearance or by concensus of opinion, but also that both good and evil must be named and acted on.
It teaches how real love acts: driven by compassion, not passion; self-sacrifice, not self-focus; long-term results, not short-term gratification.
It teaches how to identify real betrayal rather than assuming it by appearance or accusation, and how to properly respond.
It challenges you to struggle to be better, and to shape a better world and life around you.
It teaches all this with balanced examples that are somehow instinctively related to real life - even to America on 9/11/01.
Above all, it is never boring, and makes you regret every time you have to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: A wonderful journey with amazing characters. I highly recommend this book to any fan of high fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Classic!
Review: The majority of fantasy fans refer to Tolkien, so I am definitely NOT like other fantasy fans. This trilogy is to me what the Lord of the Rings is to everyone else (although I loved the movie very much and I've read the first two books and understand why people love it so much). I'm not the biggest fantasy fan--I've only read fantasy books when I was in middle school, and this trilogy is perfect for middle schoolers. It is definitely my favorite story of all time (not to mention the first fantasy story I ever picked up) and it has helped developed me as a person. Because of Mckillip, I came to love fantasy (for young adults, that is) and discovered other writers like Louise Lawrence and Meridith Ann Pierce. I love that Mckillip's works are not as popular as other fantasy writers'--it just makes it all the more special to me.
I definitely recommend this trilogy to anyone who values innocent stories that feed the imaginations of young adults. As a college student now, I have my own criticisms about the trilogy, but I can never forget the effects it has had, and still has, on me. It is the epitome of my childhood and my innocence--I love it with all its flaws. Mckillip has created a magical world full of mysterious shape-changers, harpists, and wizards that is extremely unique from any other fantasy worlds(despite what other reviewers might say). Trust me--it is worthwhile to read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Stories that I've Ever Read!
Review: I love this series. I read it once a year. The easily readable prose and simplicity of the story is what makes it great! For those of you that have had difficulty trudging through the prose in the Lord of the Rings, you will love this book. The first chapter of the series (you can read the first six pages on Amazon) is among the best writing I've read. McKillip introduces the main characters, the description of the world they live in, and sets up the story. Most interesting is that she accomplishes these tasks almost completely with light dialogue and action -- there is very little description that distracts you from the story. The whole story is very much like this chapter. There are three things that are unique about this world: First, the deity of the world is called the 'high one', and he lives in the far northern wastelands. No one ever sees him, but he communicates through his emissary 'the high one's harpist'. Second, the rulers have a special, metaphysical connection to the land and beings of their nation -- they receive this 'land rule' from the high one. They also have a connection to their heirs. Finally, the history and culture are passed down through riddles with lessons attached. The most learned are 'riddle-masters' (hence the title). The story is very simple (I think Robert Jordon could learn something here). Some people may find this annoying. Also, there are some stereotypes such as the main character being from the smallest, most remote country, and he always wants to go home. Keep in mind that this story predates most of the stereotypes that are now commonplace. The bickering between the two main characters is a little annoying in the third book, but otherwise the interrelationships between characters are very interesting. I also enjoy some of the little details of this world, like the talking pig from 300 years ago. I read a lot of fantasy, and I'm very critical of much of it. Very little comes close to this series in terms of readability and story. It is a definite buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Great and not so good.
Review: I was determined to read this trilogy through regardless of how I felt about it, and frankly that's the only reason I finished it. On the other hand, I'm glad I did! The first book was interesting, if long-winded. It took its time getting where it was going, and had some detours that when all was said and done, seemed unnecessary to the whole of the plot. Still, the writing was much better than average and the story was engaging. The lead character had a very common syndrome caught by leads in fantasy epics: the "wanna go home" whine. Luckily, he got over it; once he did, he became a fascinating individual. The second book was, IMO, *filler*. It left the lead character in favor of spending time with the character's s.o., who had very little relevance to the story overall. She did a couple of interesting things (raising the dead, for one), but her actions felt like they had very little to do with the actual plot. Most of the time, she looked for her fiance and failed to find him. The point of that was...? Some very gripping things happen to the male lead character during book two; unfortunately, all of them happen "off-stage" and we only heard about them second-hand. That was a great loss. The third book put the other two to shame. The writing suddenly leapt to life. It got better and better the closer it came to the climax. Once there, everything came together, and a thousand questions that had been ignored for too long were finally answered. I felt like I was reading another story entirely, one that was vibrant and exciting and worth every penny. I regret that the first two parts of the story were not as good, but it was worth reading through them to get to the last part. There were times when I had to force myself to keep reading, especially during the second book which was the worst of the batch. Unfortunately, you can't skip books -- there's too much information you need to know in both the first and second book in order to appreciate the third. I recommend reading this triology collection anyway, because the final act is so splendid, and even the tedious parts are better written than the standard crap that is published in the Fantasy genre these days. FWIW, I heard this was one of the author's earlier works, so she was probably still learning her craft at the time. Kudos to her for mucking through it, and turning out something that must have taken a great deal of effort and talent. I look forward to reading other works by her.
Rating:
Summary: I am absolutely in love with this book!
Review: Having read Patricia McKillip's Winter Rose, The Book of Atrix Wolfe, and Song for the Basilisk in the last year I found that I liked the characters in the latter two so much that short length of the books left me wanting more of them. I think that this book compensates for that (but I still love all of her writing, because she's got style) Being a trilogy, her characters are finally given and bit more space and time to play out. I simply love Morgan and Deth. One of my current criteria for whether a book is good is wether it makes me want to draw the characters (fanart). One hundred pages into the book I'd filled a sketchbook page with character sketches. ....It's wonderfully slashable too, if anyone's interested in that aspect.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: This trilogy is ____. Fill the blank with the most positive adjective you can find (wonderful, amazing, perfect . . .) to make the sentence true. McKillip's Riddle-Master is, next to Tolkien, the most unique series I have ever read. And while being completely unique is indeed a rare find in the fantasy genre, Riddle-Master has the added bonus of being incredibly well written. I love this trilogy--and even now, after finishing it, I'm not certain I caught everything. If ever you feel a need to read an intelligent novel you should find your way to the Riddle-Master series. It's absolutely stunning. Go. Buy. Read. Now. . . . . . . . . . . Please.
Rating:
Summary: very little new here
Review: I suppose I can understand why so many other reviewers have given these books such high praise but I find myself unable to follow suit. If you haven't read much other fantasy, or if you have but don't mind reading the same plots with the same characters then you will probably enjoy these books. It's not so much that they are bad, rather that there simply isn't very much to recommend them. They are simple books with simple characters that lack much depth beyond the stereotype they are given. Many plot elements exist solely to drive the books towards their telegraphed conclusion. (It is always frustrating when the reader has figured out something by the middle of the second book that takes the characters another books and a half to sort out themselves.) In a lot of ways this is like the Reader's Digest version of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. Whining main character. Improbable and inexplicable romances. Annoying bickering between characters who should be deep in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. It is certainly more focused and more concise than Jordan's work. However, that conciseness comes at a price. The only characters in the books are Kings and Queens and Wizards. Despite taking place over the course of several years I can't recall the name of a single character that wasn't either a Wizard or born of royal blood. There were other flaws that marred my enjoyment: the basic premise s of the Earth-Masters, their war, the High One, and the hereditary Land Rule aren't adequately explained giving their fundamental importance to the entire story line. Not to mention there isn't even an attempt to explain why Morgon has the powers he does. There are also lapses in consistency that leave the reader confused. At times the Bad Guys are relentlessly chasing after protagonist. Then they seemingly leave him alone for weeks on end with very little explanation about why the change in strategy. Despite my above misgivings the book wasn't unenjoyable. It simply felt like a book I had read a dozen other times under different titles. I think this book finds it greatest popularity among a young adult audience that has little other exposure to the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Beware the unanswered riddle
Review: The other Amazon reviews give enough background of the story, so I won't repeat it all here. Like some of the other reviewers, I read this trilogy when it first came out and have re-read it often, and I am currently reading it aloud to my thirteen-year-old son, yet even after so many years, it can still bring involuntary tears to my eyes that make it hard to see the words. McKillip has a distinctive and almost unbelievably rich style, with a gift for bringing even the most unimaginative person directly into her worlds. One can savor the dark fire of Herun wine running over the palate or feel one's heart-strings resonating to the reverberations of Deth's harp even as his enigmatic silence beneath the music seeps into the blood. Unlike some authors who daub out great canvases with a palette knife, McKillip seems to create miniatures with a "brush of two camel-hairs" (Jorge Luis Borges), yet they vibrate with the jewel-like colors of a medieval illumination and draw you into their whirling pagentry until those worlds are more real than your own. In an age of movie-graphic writing, McKillip somehow manages with a fingertip against a wrist or a whisper of wind where there should be none to evoke an eroticism or a terror that can disturb my sleep for nights. These books should not be dismissed as the early attempts of a very young author to write yet another "coming of age" or "loss
of innocence" saga that is discrete enough to satisfy the Young Adult librarian. I disagree with those reviewers (and with the author herself!) who think her subsequent books--all of which I have read and loved--supercede this trilogy. The writing may be honed even finer and the colors tinged by a more mature palette, but this trilogy assaults more challenging questions and continues to resonate in the heart long after the book is set
back on the shelf, whereas the others, evocative and memorable
though they are, must confine themselves to more traditional ground since the heights have already been scaled. It is not for those who only want a "thumping good read" or characters to fall in love with, though they will find both. It will torment you with the unanswered riddles in your own life until you also have to decide whether you are who you think yourself to be or something more. Its warning "Beware the unanswered riddle" and its stricture "Give others what they require of you for their lives" require a response. Unless you are willing to give it, close your ears with wax against its harp-song like Odysseus's sailors did against the Sirens, or it you will be haunted forever by a silent harpist with silver hair and eyes as dark as your own forgotten dreams.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best fantasy trilogies/series I've ever read
Review: It's been years since I've read this series, so I don't remember the particulars, but I wanted to recommend it highly, because it's one of my favorite trilogies, probably right up there with Tolkien's and Michael Scott Rohan's. I've read numerous others, some of which I thought were just so-so. Give this a try if you like good fantasy.
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