Customer Reviews

Alphabet Of Thorn

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fans of Patricia McKillip will know to some degree to what to expect in her novels -- magical atmosphere and beautiful, totally original plots. In her latest novel, "Alphabet of Thorn," McKillip delves into a strange language, and an invader who cannot be stopped.

The Twelve Crowns of Raine have a new queen -- very young, very timid and very unhappy. Lost in the shuffle is Nepenthe, a girl left to unravel old, mysterious alphabets. She was abandoned as a baby and raised in the library, and is quite happy there. Her knack with languages comes into play when she gets a book from student mage Bourne, the nephew of a possibly treasonous nobleman. The book is written in a language made out of thorns that no one except Nepenthe can decipher.

It tells the story of the warrior emperor Axis and the sorcerer Kane -- except that the book also shows that Kane was a woman. She was Axis's cousin, lover and right hand. What makes the book puzzling is that Kane claims to have helped Axis conquer countries that hadn't existed yet. As Nepenthe struggles to uncover the mystery of Kane and Axis -- and her own origins -- the queen of Raine is warned... about the thorns that will destroy Raine.

Patricia McKillip's novels are both predictable and unpredictable -- you can expect lots of rich language, ornate kingdoms, and enticingly weird magic. At the same time, you can never predict how that magic is going to appear. In "Alphabet of Thorn," McKillip tackles something old and something new, magicwise. On one hand, there's the floating magic school and stuff like that. On the other, there's Kane's frightening, majestic, bend-time-and-space magic.

As always, her writing is lush and slightly dreamy. McKillip includes lots of little details like peacock feathers, pearls, crumbly books, candles and pebbles. She revitalizes ideas like the abandoned person with a Hidden Identity, the long-dead king who will return in times of need (sort of a female King Arthur) or the disguised sorceress. The only downside is that when a certain part of Kane's story is revealed, Nepenthe's secret is also out in the open before it's actually revealed.

Nepenthe's a nice lead character, reluctant and confused without being self-pitying; her lover Bourne is rather less defined, but still good with his own confusion. Other supporting characters like the naive young queen, kindly librarion and the aging sorceress are nice supporting roles; Axis and Kane are rather lacking in dimension (king obsessed with conquering, and a sorceress obsessed with him) until the end. They seem as distant and weird as they do to Nepenthe.

McKillip expands her boundaries in the enticing, mysterious "Alphabet of Thorn." It's an adult fairy tale that revitalizes the ye olde kingdom genre, and tells a good story while it's at it.

It's hard not to fall in love with Patricia McKillip's characters, who try to do right in the face of an unknown but overwhelming doom. The new Queen is young and inexperienced, and many doubt that she will be able to hold the twelve Crowns of Raine into one dominion. One Crown openly revolts. But that isn't the doom that the mages seem to sense. The true doom of Raine has something to do with thorns.

Deep in the library tunneled through the stone beneath the palace, an orphaned transcriptor is translating a book received from the mages of the Floating School. It is written in an alphabet of thorn that only she can read. Could a book about the conquests of an ancient king and his shadowy mage bring about the destruction of Raine?

"Alphabet of Thorns" is a twining, cobwebby sort of tale. The author strays into this elusive type of story-telling when there is no strong villain such as the Basilisk-prince or the evil Domina Pearl plotting and spinning at the center of her novel. McKillip's "Ombria in Shadow" and "Eye of the Basilisk" are easier to read because of their villains. This fantasy is a-brim with the author's quicksilver, magical descriptions but it doesn't proceed directly from Point A to Point B. As much as the spirit is willing to linger in the wondrous Floating School for mages, or drink ponds of wine with the coronation guests, or descend to a hollow in the cliff where a skeleton sleeps "with a crown on its head and a great sword at its side," the eyes do sometimes wander off to a book with a brisker plot.

This is an intricate, spell-binding fantasy, but it's not McKillip's best.

Patricia A. McKillip has done it AGAIN with this book, Alphabet of Thorn. It's just as good as her other books, but it IS easier to understand-it's much less dreamy than her other books, a lot less confusion. You don't need to be a fan of hers before you pick this up-anyone can can enjoy it.

I would warn you though, because as soon as I started reading it, I got as obsessed with this book as Nepenthe, the 16-year-old translator, got with her book of thorns! Once I picked it up, I wanted to constantly read it. Although I didn't enjoy all of the charactres as much as I enjoyed Nepenthe, Bourne-a mage from a floating school of wizardy, and the characters that Nepenthe reads about, Axis and Kane. In my opinion, Vevay, a very powerful mage, wasn't that interesting to read about. But since every chapter the book changes viewpoints, you're never with someone you don't like to long, and there is a bit of variety.

I also think that a certain romance between two of the characters was much too rushed. Yes, they belonged together, and they had "chemistry", but I think that the author should have slowed it down a bit.

Otherwise, this book is definitley one of my favorites of hers. She is such a good writer; if you're already a fan, you don't need to be worried, and if you're just getting into her, this is a good place to start out. Have fun!

With the ARC of OD MAGIC just arrived (thank you, eBay), I revisited this, one of my favorite of Patricia McKillip's recent novels. As before, the book is a pure pleasure, appealing as much to the bibliophile in me as to the fantasy reader.

McKillip may not be to every fantasy reader's taste. Devotees of the more accessible, facile sort of fantasy (see: Melanie Rawn, David Eddings, et. al.) may find her more fundamental influences and slightly archaic style a bit off-putting. Perhaps this explains why, even after myriad outstanding reviews and recommendations, her work lacks the widespread popularity of certain other fantasists; possibly the strong feminine viewpoint contributes to this as well. I see these as strengths: there is a consistency of character and setting, an established and maintained atmosphere in each of her books that rings wholly true; if her perspective skews towards the feminine, well, so much much the better for the immediate and strong female characters she draws, and the better to understand how the men that surround them truly appear.

ALPHABET OF THORN, moreso than much "traditional" fantasy, benefits from these attributes: set at either end of circumstance (and time), two women's lives unfold, drawing closer together as the intricacies of the novel compound: in our near view, a librarian, a foundling, with a passion for her work and a world only beginning to expand beyond it; at the far, a woman of great power who chooses nearly an opposite path. McKillip presents each with a clarity and depth that binds us to them, enveloping us as much in their lives and loves as in the story itself, which builds to a fine (if a trifle abrupt) conclusion.

Overall, I consider ALPHABET OF THORN (with OMBRIA IN SHADOW and SONG FOR THE BASILISK) as top-tier among the fine work Patricia McKillip has produced above and beyond the "Riddle-Master" trilogy. This is one to seek out in a fine first edition, and add to the permanent collection.

AS usual Mcillip effortlessly draws the reader into this latest fantasy tale.
Nepenthe is a scholar and translator of languages, raised by the librarians of the royal library of Raine after having been abandoned as an infant by her mother. Raine is in fact twelve 'crowns' or lands at a very uncertain point in its history. The king is dead and his young daughter Tessera is being crowned queen. The mage Vevay, chief counsellor to the king, fears she cannot rule well and hold the realm together.
Tessera is strangely apart from her duties and almost seems simple-minded.
At the same time, a book written in a strange 'alphabet of thorns' is put into Nepenthe's hands for translation. She should have simply handed it to the librarians, but instead she secretly kept it for her own work by some strange compulsion and attraction she felt for this alphabet.
As Nepenthe is drawn ever more fascinatedly into the book (an ancient saga of Axis, Emperor of the Night and Kane his infinitely powerful sorcerer), so too is the security of Raine brought into question by powers both tangible and, even more dangerously, intangible and magical.
A sleeping king rises to warn of terrible danger, magic awakens in the confused Tessera, a mysterious wood with a life of its own draws wanderers in, evil leaps from history into the present ...
McKillip's prose always flows and eddies to draw in the reader's attention and almost make one read faster to catch its meanings. This tale is not nearly so dense and fey as some others. Yet, it also is full of ideas only glimpsed and a rich world that is not merely skimmed over as a mere background.
This is a finely realized, beautiful tale.

I have read several of McKillip's books, and while I haven't always understood them completely, I've never disliked them. McKillip's style is vague and dreamy, more apt to give impressions rather than photographic descriptions. If you can appreciate that style, give her books a try; if not, might I suggest you look somewhere else?

As to the Alphabet of Thorn in particular, I found it surprisingly grounded in reality (as real as fantasy gets, anyways!) for one of McKillip's stories. (Never fear, it was still occasionally obtuse and mystifying, but less so than her previous works.) It was an interesting premise, and had me hypothesizing until nearly the end. Once the mystery was revealed, the book quickly drew to a close in a moderately anticlimactic finish. Don't get the wrong impression; this was more of a disaster-averted-at-the-final-moment sort of anticlimax rather than a disappointing conclusion. This is also one of the few of her books I'd be willing to reread at some future date (once I've forgotten the answer to the riddle of thorns). Give it a try.

You don't just read McKillip's books, you savor them. The way she writes is just beautiful - more so than any other author I've read. This was a wonderfully designed book with two plots that take place in different times. It was beautifully written, and I was really impressed with how the characters developed through the story. I was also delighted with the entire Alphabet concept...it was a lot of fun to visualize it.

I highly recommend it.

She is my favorite fantasy author and one of my favorite authors period, but that doesn't mean she always hits a home run. Her use of language is consistantly stunning, but occasionally her tales seem to stray too far from comprehensible structure.

This one is one of her best. It is the author at her strongest, with wild, imaginative use of language paired with a strong story that reveals itself with pinpoint precision.

Nothing matches the pitch-perfect trilogy of the Riddle-Master, but this is clearly one of her best since then. I always recommend a McKillip book to read, but this is one I can point to and say - this is how it should be.

This is a really amazing book overall, but it falls short on a few points. First, Nepenthe's character just didn't resonate with me, and Bourne and Tessera were so two-dimensional that I didn't care what happened to them. McKillip makes up for this boring-ness with the second subplot, about Axis and Kane, which was truly wonderful and had all the elements of a good fantasy. The Axis and Kane story was so good, in fact, that I would still have given the book five stars. However, without spoiling the book, the ending was just bad. It was unnecessarily emotional and Kane's big decision seemed to just come out of nowhere and be a spur-of-the-moment decision instead of one she'd thought through, which I'm sure was how McKillip wanted it.

My overall feelings on this book are: Read it, definitely, but stop about five pages from the end and make up your own ending. It will save you from throwing an otherwise amazing book out a window into the rain.

I am new to McKillip's work but love her cover art, so I couldn't help it! "Alphabet of Thorn" was pretty interesting, was written just beautifully, but I can't get past some parts.
I don't know if it was the whole premise; an orphaned girl in a quiet library, how low-key could you get with that? or that I felt the story didn't really take off at first. I really can't say all the amazing things about the story. But the world McKillip created was very "realistic" with detail and dream-like wordings. It felt like the story could be expanded, but then was abruptly cut off at the end. The end just ended---it didn't really conclude as much as I would've liked. Is this normal for this author? But truly, it was a masterful story.
I really enjoyed the part about the sleeping ruler in the cave who is buried at the base of the city. The ruler awakens when trouble threatens its kingdom. It made me think of Arthur and I liked that.
An orphaned girl lives and translates in the palace library. One day she is given a book of thorns that "speaks" to her...
her story is entertwined with the new queens, and the mages of the Floating School.