can you hype your feelings re the riddle master series by Patricia McKillip? I've read Forgotten Beasts of Eld and Od Magic by her and loved them but I only made it through part of the first riddle master book before i stalled out and never got started again. it was really hard to get hooked. What's the biggest draw/thing you like best for this series for you?
you know, there’s just something about patricia’s writing in general that captures me every time? a quirk of character, a flow of phrase, the way magic winds its way through her stories like notes in a song - but right off the bat i think it was the little exchange in the like first page when morgon’s hungover and complaining and his brother’s being obnoxiously cheerful and their sister is holding her braids in her hands and telling them they smell and it’s just such a grounded, lovely place to start, meeting this prince who unloads beer wagons and knows every inch of his family’s land and the people on it. then we head to magic central and meet rood and learn about the crown morgon keeps under his MATTRESS and the riddle and raederle and this doof who’s just like i cant make my gf live with me and our pigherder snog nutt who eats breakfast with us every day and i dont know, that breakdown with rood who has his father’s vision that begins his journey settled me in for this ride and what kept me there was, naturally, our heroine: raederle
who REALLY IS THE HEROINE right alongside morgon - this story is as much hers as it is his, as he discovers his destiny she discovers hers and its kind of dark and kind of scary and kind of great both the descriptive and the capital G kind, and i think it’s blended kind of wonderfully with their romance and the general plot as a whole
it’s been a while since i’ve read it, and now that im talking about it and have it in front of me PROBABLY I’LL BE DOING A REREAD STAT but another thing about patricia’s writing in general & this book in particular is there’s the rote fantasy adventure stuff where our heroes travel and meet those who help their journey along the way but it never feels empty? there’s always gravitas, some lingering meaning in the interactions, the meetings. no one feels extraneous, every character has to be who they are, where they are - we spend time with them and we care about them and we should care about them, it isn’t like we’re just wasting time dawdling on our way to the real goods, you know?? i mean i guess you don’t since you only made it through part of the book and maybe you dont agree and thats why, but!!! i feel it, man, echoing throughout, everyone and everything is magic slowly revealed
