To Ride A Rathorn [Paperback]

P. C. Hodgell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2007

To Ride a Rathorn the fourth book of the Kencyrath, P. C. Hodgell,'s latest high fantasy novel, is the sequel to Seeker's Mask (3rd), which in turn follows God Stalk (1st) and Dark of the Moon (2nd) collected in the Meisha Merlin omnibus, Dark of the Gods. These are the chronicles of Jamethiel Priest's-bane, otherwise known as Jame, as she struggles to find a place in a universe full of danger, intrigue, and more than a bit of downright lunacy. The current novel's title To Ride a Rathorn, comes from the Kencyr phrase that refers to someone attempting something insane, but it is too dangerous for them to stop. The reference is also to a certain young rathorn (think of an armor-plated, carnivorous unicorn with a nasty temper) who is after Jame for killing his mother and about to catch up with her. At Tentir, Jame faces cut-throat competition and finds even more buried, poisonous family secrets. Not only is the Caineron heir sent to humiliate her but a charming Ardeth Highborn arrives hell-bent on seducing her. Then too, what is she to make of the mysterious White Lady who haunts her dreams or of the growling monster and prowls Tentir's hallways and is said to eat young cadets for breakfast? For she is learning Tentir has secrets of its own. And it is fighting for its soul. Under political pressure that threatens to compromise its independence, it looks to its Commandant, an honorable man; but also a Caineron. As the college tests Jame, so she tests it. "Some things need to be broken."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Meisha Merlin Publishing, Inc. (September 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592221033
• ISBN-13: 978-1592221035
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Pat Hodgell can't remember a time when she wasn't passionately interested in science fiction and fantasy. She's sold stories to such anthologies as Berkley Showcase, Elsewhere III, and Imaginary Lands and has also published four novels. God Stalk and Dark of the Moon, the novels included in The God Stalker Chronicles, begin her critically praised fantasy saga which is concerned not! only with high adventure, but also with questions of personal identity, religion, politics, honor, and arboreal drift. She earned her doctorate at the University of Minnesota with a dissertation on Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, and is a graduate of both Clarion and the Milford Writers Workshop. Recently retired, she was a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in modern literature and composition, and teaches an audio-cassette-based course on science fiction and fantasy for the University of Minnesota. Par lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in a nineteenth-century wood-framed house, which has been in her family for generations. In addition to writing and teaching, she attends science fiction conventions, collects yarn, knits, embroiders, raises cats, and makes her own Christmas cards.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High fantasy of the highest quality, October 23, 2006

By 

V. Chan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Ride A Rathorn (Hardcover)

At last, the next installment in this series! Four novels and one slim collection of short stories in twenty years - this author is not just for Christmas, she's for a lifetime. P C Hodgell should be far better known than she is. She should be a NYT bestseller. She is brilliant. Her novels are dark, funny, intricate in characterisation and worldbuilding and deeply original. Tropes that have become standard in the twenty years since she started writing - lost heirs, soul-bonds to people and animals (and Hodgell makes it clear what a deep and terrible thing this is), the boarding school from hell (a military college, this time, and trying to shoot the Principal leads to a truly horrible death)- are made logical, convincing and terrifying. Hodgell does not shrink from the consequences of her premises, and I am pleased to be completely unable to predict what will happen next. The only point that irritated me was the reappearance of the child-abuse-as-important-traumatic-event motif, which is tediously common in US fiction at the moment, but that was a minor flaw in an otherwise deeply enjoyable book.

In her world, trees migrate and leaves fly south for the winter, and unicorns eat people and grow ivory armour that eventually grows over and suffocates them to death, and butterflies drink blood and feed on carrion (which, depending on where it dies, doesn't always stay dead).

The publisher could have spent some time and money proofreading. I hope that the next volume will come out soon.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great addition to a fantastic series..., September 20, 2006

By 

Holly Lewis "Free-Range Librarian" (Stow, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Ride A Rathorn (Hardcover)

17 years ago I discovered a dusty copy of PC Hodgell's God Stalk and was forever lost in Jame's world. To Ride a Rathorn gives us a few more clues to the tangled lives of the Knorth twins, Jame & Tori, as well as sinking us deeper into the rotten polital game that infects the Kencyrath.

Lovers of this series will find this a must read - those new to this world should start at the beinning with the publisher's reprint of the 1st two novels under the title Dark of the Gods.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended with some Reservations, October 6, 2006

By 

Vee (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Ride A Rathorn (Hardcover)

I hardly know what to say. It's a great book, though the editing left a bit to be desired. Even Americans don't spell "disdain" as "distain"; the editor clearly let the story pull them along too fast to take note of the spelling and grammatical errors they should have been correcting. It's an annoying detraction from an otherwise fitting addition to the wonderfully entertaining, richly layered and textured world that Hodgell has created.

I'm still giving this 4 stars though, because it *is* a great book, enriching previous plot threads and introducing new ones as it takes us on the usual riotous ride of Jame's extremely peculiar life. I also note, with mixed admiration and relief, that despite the amount of time elapsed between books, Hodgell remains wonderfully faithful to her characters, adroitly picking up the flavours of their personalities and adding to them without destroying what has gone before. This is the Jamethiel Priest's-Bane I came to know in all the books before, but not a Jame in stasis, rather one who continues to grow from each alarming new twist in her life.

This book isn't stand-alone, so if you haven't read "God Stalk", "Dark of the Moon" and "Seeker's Mask", run, don't walk, and read those first ("God Stalk" and "Dark of the Moon" can be found in the omnibus "Dark of the Gods"). Also, if the long wait for this book was only made bearable by the fact that "Seeker's Mask" left us at a reasonable resting place, maybe you should brace yourself and wait a bit longer.

While certainly not leaving us on a cliff-hanger, events within "To Ride a Rathorn" reveal the disturbing consequences of one of Jame's actions in a previous book, and this particular plot-line is not brought to any form of resolution by the end of the book. Without spoiling but for those who have read the book, I refer to the importance of names. I, for one, find myself even more desperate for the sequel to this than I was to the one for "Seeker's Mask", and view with great disturbance the potential for an equally lengthy wait.

If you are resolved to wait but feel you have the mental discipline to refrain from reading (which I assuredly do not), I do recommend snapping this book up quickly, since the publisher is not known for large print-runs, and "To Ride a Rathorn" may well be hard to find if/when its sequel finds its way to book-stores.

I also find myself in the somewhat conflicted position of having to recommend, despite the unimpeachable qualities of the book, that you avoid reading "Blood & Ivory" if you haven't already. This anthology of short-stories by Hodgell reveals a lot of information on Jame and the Knorth history that should perhaps be avoided until after reading "To Ride a Rathorn" (perhaps even until after the entire series itself has been completed and read). I believe I would have found certain parts of "To Ride a Rathorn" more gripping had I not already known what would be revealed.