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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Bell at Sealy Head, September 5, 2008
This review is from: The Bell at Sealey Head (Hardcover)
Sealey Head is no ordinary town. Every evening most of the townsfolk hear the tolling of a bell, no one knows why it rings or where it's at. It's been going on so long that many of the townspeople don't hear it anymore.
Aislinn House on the edge of town harbors a mystery. It's a place where two worlds coexist, with few privy to its secret. On one side lies the quiet manor with its aging servants and ailing mistress, while on the other a princess and her subjects must perform strange rites.
The links between two worlds are the princess, a maid and her mother who've been running into each other for years throughout the house. No one else in town knows their secret, but the arrival of a stranger in town sets off events that will change life in the house forever.
I've been a fan of Patricia McKillip's for years. This is a wonderful book bordering on high fantasy. Its charming fairy tale like character entertained me and held my interest to the very end. I highly recommend it.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A place without doors, without dreams, October 2, 2008
This review is from: The Bell at Sealey Head (Hardcover)
A crumbling mansion with doors to another world, a small seaside town, and a mysterious bell that tolls every day at sunset where no bells are.
With that to describe it, it's no wonder that "The Bell At Sealey Head" is a book by Patricia A. McKillip, spinner of hauntingly lyrical fantasies. And her newest book is no exception -- an exquisite magical mystery full of humour, secret doors, and a sorcerous power that is creeping into Sealey Head.
A mysterious scholar -- Ridley Dow -- comes to Judd's run-down inn one day. He's come there to search for the magical bell that tolls every night.
Elsewhere in Sealey Head, Judd's childhood friend (and love interest) Gwyneth is fending off a boring suitor when she isn't spinning magical tales about that same bell. And up at Aislinn House, Lady Eglantine is dying, and her housemaid Emma is opening magical doors into another world -- a parallel Aislinn house, where the princess Ysabo is caged in a realm of mindless rituals and fearful traditions.
But things begin to change as Lady Eglantine's heir, Miranda Beryl, arrives with her friends and servants, and Ridley Dow's investigations take him into the magical other world. Someone strange and magical is lurking in the town, and old books and half-forgotten legends slowly unveil the sorcerer that cast a spell on the other Aislinn House...
There are actually two magical worlds in "The Bell At Sealey Head" -- one is a coastal town of tree houses, briny ships and folkloric mysteries. The other a dreamlike tangle of crows, rituals and spellbound knights, stuck in traditions with no meaning. It's a credit to McKillip's writing ability that she can make both worlds come alive, in their different ways.
McKillip wraps both worlds -- and all the subplots -- in her ornate rose-petal prose ("Little flecks of snow on the wind, and the last bitter black leaves falling in the lake, where the cold shield and the torn pennant lay..."). And she spins a complex, languidly-paced fantasy story that is far simpler than it seems, with people (good and bad alike) who are not what they seem, and magical passages that appear and vanish. And, of course, a bell ringing where no bells are.
But this is also perhaps McKillip's most humorous book -- she weaves in some mildly comic love triangles, an eccentric woodwitch living in a hollow tree, as well as Daria Sproule's romanticized fantasies ("Not my pirates. Mine would be well-brought-up, sensitive types...").
And the cast is as varied and likable as the settings -- Judd and Gwyneth are likable, down-to-earth types, with Gwyneth as something of an authorial insert. On the other side, Ysabo is an ordinary young girl who is struggling to break, especially since she's being forced to marry a cold knight. The fact that she never figures out what his name is tells you a lot.
It's the supporting characters who are more than they appear -- the seemingly chilly Miss Beryl, her creepy assistant, and the mild housemaid Emma. But it's Ridley Dow who really steals the show -- he's clever, secretive, funny and charming, but also incredibly strong-willed when the situation is dangerous and things are going strangely.
"The Bell At Sealey Head" is only one mystery among many, spun in silky prose and full of lyrical magic. Patricia A. McKillip hit the mark on this one.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"That's Where the Bell is...Between the Lines...", February 17, 2009
This review is from: The Bell at Sealey Head (Hardcover)
McKillip's latest novel takes us to the little fishing of Sealey Head; tiny and inconsequential, and dominated by four influential families: the Cauleys (father and son innkeepers), the Blairs (a large family of merchants), the Sproules (rich farmers who have gained some degree of nobility) and the Aislinns (living in the crumbling manor house). Actually, there's only one Aislinn now: old Lady Eglantyne, who lies dreaming in her bedchamber, waited on by a host of servants. The extensive cast of characters have interconnecting friendships, rivalries and romances with one another, but everyone in the seaport is linked by one specific peculiarity of their home-town: each night as the sun goes down, a ghostly bell tolls over the coastline.
There is various speculation over what and where exactly the bell is, but no one has been able to satisfactorily answer any questions about it, and most don't even notice it anymore. But naturally, the bell is of more consequence than anyone gives it credit for, and is the mysterious centerpiece of the story.
There is a domesticity and humour to the proceedings that's certainly unusual in a McKillip novel, and at first glance one would hardly think there was a fantasy element to it at all...but then odd things begin to transpire. Judd Cauley welcomes an unusual guest at the inn, who claims to be looking for the source of the tolling bell. Lady Eglantyne's heiress appears: a strange and aloof young woman with an even more mysterious manservant. And we discover that young Emma Wood has a secret concerning Aislinn House: for as long as the young maid can remember she has been able to open doors into another Aislinn House, one that seemingly exists alongside her own world of shut rooms and covered furniture. This world is filled with silent knights and bloodthirsty crows, but Emma has struck up a friendship with a young Princess called Ysabo, who lives her life by the strange and mindless rules of a ritual that she has been raised to follow exactly and ordered to never question.
As you can see, there's a sprawling cast of characters to keep track of: family members, otherworldly hosts, servants and strangers, and it is a testimony to McKillip's skill that she keeps them all (no matter how inconsequential) clear and unique. Likewise, her portrayal of a world is vivid and imaginative. She rarely creates large, sprawling sub-universes, but rather brings to life little corners of a fantasy realm could exist anywhere: in the distant past of our own world, the realm of faerie, or in another world altogether. It doesn't matter where it exists, for Sealey Head is real enough to its inhabitants, and therefore to the reader as well.
The inter-joining stories throughout "The Bell at Sealey Head" are juggled as delicately as the myriad of the relationships, and no one character's thoughts and ambitions are given prominence above another's. Gwyneth's frustration at her dull suitor, and Judd's secret pining for his childhood sweetheart are just as poignant as Ysabo's life of dreary ritual, and her pervading fear that any break in the ceremony will destroy her world, (as well as her terror at the thought of marrying a perfect stranger). Everyone seems to have a secret, as well as hidden talents.
The characters are vivid, the situation is fascinating, the language is beautiful (even if the word "spindrift" pops up too many times) and the themes and symbolism is fascinating. It is best compared with my favourite McKillip novel Alphabet Of Thorn in which a commentary on the mutability of time centered round the image of a folded cloth. Here, the "worlds-within-the-world" idea of books and stories take prominence, in which McKillip's characters must learn to "read between the lines" of their own story.
Up until the last few chapters, I was delighted, certain that "Sealey Head" was about to become my new favourite McKillip novel. Unfortunately, and I hate to say it, but the story unravels a bit in the final chapters. The villain is defeated easily and anti-climatically, and we never get any real sense of his motivation. Three important characters turn up in order to lead a rescue mission...only to end up sitting in a cellar, doing nothing. The relationship between the real Aislinn house and the "spirit" Aislinn house is never explained. And if you thought there would be some sort of clever twist concerning Lady Eglantyne (like maybe everything in the secondary Aislinn house was her lucid dreaming, or that somehow she was a older version of Ysabo that was caught out of time)...well, you'll be disappointed.
Still, "The Bell at Sealey House" is high up on my list of McKillip's vast collection of books, and I always appreciate fantasy writers who tell intricate and thought-provoking tales that don't have a deluge of sequels that have to be waded through in order to get the complete story. The odds of her ever reading this review are slim, but Mrs McKillip, if you're out there: please don't ever stop.
Finally, as I've said many times in my reviews for McKillip's novels, this particular author has a unique way of telling a tale. Her language is dense and poetic, and often it can be hard to get through the ornamentation of a sentence in order to grasp its meaning. McKillip, like Francesca Lia Block, has a style that is an acquired taste - one must get used to it before it can be enjoyed. However, the syntax of "Sealey Head" is significantly less complex than some of her earlier novels, and so would be a perfect introductory novel to a McKillip newbie. Either way, "Sealy Head" is to be savored and enjoyed - you do yourself a disservice if you rush a McKillip book.
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