Rating: Summary: Average Fantasy Review: A short little piece that embodies whats wrong with most fantasy writers today...Preachy and simple having the reader knowing that the hero cannot die....The book was ok at best and is hardly representative of the quality we should expect from Patricia A. McKillip. Skip this one, Go read The Princess Bride again...
Rating: Summary: Enchanting... Review: A strange, shape-shifting monster has imprisoned the King's bride, Gwynne of Skye, in a tower, and taken her place. Cyan Dag is sent by a mysterious old bard to rescue Gwynne. But his quest--so simple and desperate at first--keeps changing, twisting, turning in on itself. Instead of Gwynne's tower he finds a dark tower of dreams, a dragon-guarded tower full of gold, and a mouldering tower by the sea. And instead of the lady of Skye, he finds Melanthos, a village girl who obsessively embroiders what she sees in a magic mirror; Thayne Ysse, prince of Ysse, who wants to free his country from Gloinmere's rule; and Sel, a strange old woman haunted by something she has forgotten. No matter how hard he tries to keep to his one simple task, he is inexorably drawn into their many stories, which turn out, in the end, to all be different parts of the same story. Patricia McKillip has created yet another compelling novel that combines beautiful language, evocative imagery, a deceptively simple plot, and well-drawn characters. The only disappointing thing about it, to my mind, is the ending, which solves some problems a little too neatly and easily. It is still, however, a story well worth reading.
Rating: Summary: Beautiful writing with a weak plot Review: At her best, Patricia McKillip writes prose which is just sparse enough in its descriptions to give the reader's imagination room to flower. And this book has some of the best prose she's written. Unfortunately the story line is tremendously confusing. It is told from five perspectives, three of which have love interests of some sort. Keeping track of who is who takes tremendous effort. And there isn't space to fully develop the love interests (even though that of Cyan Dag is vital to the plot), with the result that the book ends poorly -- with loose ends and an unconvincing love match.
Rating: Summary: Unique damsel in distress. Review: Cyan accepts his quest, because he cannot do otherwise. The old bard who stops him with her eyes tells him that the new queen is no mortal but a horrible monster who has imprisoned the real queen in a tower. The real Gwynne of Skye is shut off from the world in a tower, where she must weave and never look upon the real world except through a mirror. Cyan travels to Skye and endures hardships and pain to help his king, little realizing that his actions will change history, and his very world. In the end, Cyan finds that he has rescued more than a mere young woman, and that he has accomplished more than a mere man. Patricia McKillip delivers a lovely tapestry of words and story in The Tower at Stony Wood, a clever and unique faerie tale told in eloquent prose and rich imagery.
Rating: Summary: diluted Review: From the very beginning, this book is confusing. The plot is diluted in the long narratives and descriptions of scenery and there is very little character development. The reader is lost by the different layers of the plot that are meant to be clever, but end up being boring and confusing. Half of the time, one hardly knows which characters to side with. The other half of the time the reader comes across a character in the scene he/she didn't know was there. The reader looses track of who is characterized by what and the ultimate goal of the main knight in the first place. All in all, I would never reccommend this book to anyone and will most likely never read it again.
Rating: Summary: This writer has my attention. Review: Fun and serious. P. Mckillip has shown considerable and surprising turns to her thinking and language usage. Some of her other books are more colorful in this regard, but there is no mistake; she has taken Rapunzel and added marvelously to it. This is a fine story, well written, and kept me wondering where she was going. I had to continue, if only to discover if Cyan finds his love still waiting for him. (P.S. To gain a five star from me, it would have to be laugh out loud funny too.)
Rating: Summary: Mckillip (and McKennitt) Review: I adore Patricia McKillip. I want to sit on a carpet near a fire in a room somewhere and listen for snatches and bits of stories she tells. Her words dance, a compliment many may not truly recognize, but that is why I love her. Her lyricism is is simply beautiful. Her stories are so different from each other, yet they all seem to share a common theme of self-discovery and I find it hard to believe I FEEL for each of her characters. They live their passions and I find things to understand, if not admire in even her hardest creations. (I'm thinking of two Broadway shows this season that failed for just that reason. Characters lived great extremes within their tawdry realities but I could not like them!) Her bad guys are the ones who have shuttered off parts of themselves for any number of reasons; lust for power, passion, boredom, yet they all maintain a nobility. Even Draken Saphier, McKillip's one true villain, is someone I am curious about! In "The Tower at Stony Wood", Ms. McKillip has ascended to new heights of the enigmatic. I have no ability to guess where her tales will lead (I'm pretty dumb that way and enjoy getting lost in the journey) so it was much to my surprise to find myself at a "happily-ever-after." The way the end of "The Changeling Sea" was really Peri's beginning: how Saro's new tale starts when she asks, "Tell me all your names", that's what I pretty much expected. It never occurred to me that the real story of "The Tower at Stony Wood" was to be one of a girl who, for love, forced her father to disown her, despite the intercession of his sworn king. This is a far cry from the ages of peaceful solitude ahead for Morgan and Raederle, yet similar to Sybil's desire to be taken home, but the twistings of this book, as it twines back into itself are brilliant. Horray for Cyan Dag (the green knight who holds the holly bush?) and thanks to the friend who introduced Ms.McKillip to Lorena McKennitt. How she expanded the thought that ".. the wind is full of a thousand voices.." into a full novel and captured in writing what McKennitt does musically is mesmerizing and astonishing! I want MORE!
Rating: Summary: Number 3 reviewer! Review: I got this book mainly because of the cover; whoever the artist is, that is really cool. But the book is great. Cyan Dag, a knight, is at the wedding of King Regis, when he is drawn by the strange, powerful eyes of the Bard of Skye. There, he learns the truth. Gwynne of Skye, is not who they think she is. In the shadows, Cyan sees her sixth finger, her scaled feet and her terrible eyes. The true Gwynne of Skye lies in a tower, where she cannot see the outside world at all, or she will die. Cyan, loyal to his king, sets out to find her. Meanwhile, Thayne Ysse, sets out for another tower, to get the gold and ride the dragon to the kingdom of Yves, and free the North Islands from Regis' kingdom. Melanthos, a young woman, daughter of a selkie, spends her time in yet another tower, and weaves pictures she sees in a magic mirror. Their lives are intertwined, though none can see how. It's a wonderful book, I swear. There's an unexpected twist at the ending, something you WILL NOT expect. This is a wonderful read, and recommend it to everyone, young and old.
Rating: Summary: Bewitching, enchanting, intoxicating... Review: I have nothing but praise for all of Patricia A. McKillip's recent novels, and her latest only strengthens my conviction that she is one of the finest fantasy writers out there. I would go so far as to say that she has the most lyrical prose of anyone in the genre. The Tower at Stony Wood is a typically enthralling offering, loosely based on Tennyson's poem, "The Lady of Shallot." McKillip never retells, however; she expands, using the lady with her mirror in a tower motif as the bare framework for her story. In Tower, there is more than one tower to be surmounted, more than one maiden to be rescued, more than one quest to finish. The mundane and overdone-- knights on quests, evil queens, dragons, and bards are all given new life and shown at different angles. Rarest of all, there are no evil or malevolent characters. As bewildered protagonist Cyan Dag discovers, not all is as it seems. In fact, very little is as it initially appears. Each apparently disparate thread is successfully woven into the whole, creating a surreal, beautiful novel of the sort only Patricia McKillip could create. If you have never read anything by McKillip, but appreciate gorgeous writing and intricate plots, do yourself a favor and read this one. And after you've finished, go on and read Song for the Basilisk, Winter Rose, The Book of Atrix Wolfe... Ailanna
Rating: Summary: Nutrasweet Fantasy Review: I knew, vaguely, that there were fantasy novels like this, but dear God, I had no idea they were quite this awful. "Lady Gwynne" and her tame knights--it would be funny if it weren't so revealing of the tawdry dreams of lonely cubicle-worker women. To hate your office-life so much that you have to daze yourself with knights and kladies is sad enough--but to bowdlerise those knights and make them caricatures of sensitive nineties guys--I'm sorry, I shouldn't mock the handicapped like this. But really, Trish & friends: don't you think your enterprise is a wee bit oxymoronic--emphasis on the last two syllables?
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