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The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld (2006)

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (2006)

Book Info

Rating
4.06 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
0152055363 (ISBN13: 9780152055363)
Language
English
Publisher
hmh books for young readers

About book The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld (2006)

This is the third McKillip book I’ve read, and my clear favorite so far. The spare, detached style puts one in mind of a fairy tale, but the story works because it’s a very human and emotional one; in the end the narrative detachment doesn’t distance the reader from the tale so much as prevent all the strong emotion from dragging it into melodrama.The blurb is all wrong (and the cover seems to be based on the blurb): it’ll tell you it’s about a 16-year-old and implies that this is one of those tiresome stories celebrating its isolated heroine’s choice to give up solitude and learning in favor of marriage and motherhood. [Sidenote: I really have no patience for those books' aggressive rejection of unconventionality in favor of traditional choices and have to wonder about their appeal. Is it because most people make conventional choices (hence, why they're conventional) and want to feel vindicated?] Actually, after Sybel accepts a baby to raise in the first chapter, the book skips 12 years, and the real story is about how she is dragged into the scheming and enmity between kingdoms that she had tried to avoid.I really enjoyed this: it’s a quick read (sure, there are 343 pages, but they’re tiny pages), and the story is compelling and feels fresh even though it was published nearly 40 years ago. It’s stripped down to the essentials, with the worldbuilding relegated largely to the background. The characters are well-drawn and come alive in the details, and their dialogue rings true, grounding the story in reality without jarring with the elevated tone of the narrative. I liked Sybel, with her pride and her lack of sentimentality or social skills, and quickly came to care about her story. But even the minor characters are well-drawn and their relationships believable. I especially liked the romance, which is sweet without being overly perfect, and the fact that Sybel needs her man to love her, not to rescue her or solve her problems for her.The one thing I disliked was the ending: McKillip has a reputation for fuzzy sorts of climaxes and that is the case here; I also found Sybel’s abdication of responsibility rather less than triumphant, although that may have been the point. (view spoiler)[I had it all worked out that the Liralen was one's own soul, and that Mithran had lost his soul through his nefarious deeds and Sybel risked losing hers if she continued her quest for vengeance. And then it turned out to be the Blammor, and.... what? There must be some symbolic meaning behind that that I don't understand. (hide spoiler)]

Αυτή τη γυναίκα θέλω απλά να τη σαπίσω στο ξύλο. Προσέξτε: έχει απίστευτη πλοκή, απίστευτους χαρακτήρες και την ανάλυσή τους, απίστευτους μύθους και πλάσματα και σκηνικά κι ό,τι άλλο βάλει ο νους σου, μεστή δεμένη γλώσσα και:αγνοεί κάθε έννοια έντιτινγκ και λογικής συνέχειας.Όχι κυρία μου, όχι, δε μπορείς να καταστρέφεις ένα τέτοιο βιβλίο ξεχνώντας να βάλεις την πληροφορία που πρέπει στην ώρα που πρέπει! Δε μπορεί να μας λες για την ηρωίδα σου, όλο το γενεαλογικό της δέντρο σε τρεις σελίδες, και πόσο μαύρα μάτια είχαν όλοι και τι σπουδαίοι μάγοι που ήταν και να φτάνω στη σελίδα είκοσι για να μου πεις ότι η ηρωίδα σου έχει μαλλιά στο χρώμα του ελεφαντόδοτου. Ήμαρτον δηλαδή, έχεις μια εικόνα στο νου σου γι' αυτή την κοπέλα, πες τη μας κι εμάς και μη μας στέλνει αδιάβαστους στη σελίδα είκοσι!Και δεν είναι η πρώτη φορά που το κάνει αυτό, και στον Άρχοντα των Γρίφων τα ίδια έκανε. Διάβασα το μισό βιβλίο και περισσότερο από το άλλο μισό, για να μάθω επιτέλους σε ποιο σημείο του σώματός του έχει ο ήρωας τα σημάδια που τον χαρακτηρίζουν και του καθορίζουν το πεπρωμένο του. Έλεος δηλαδή πια. Ας της πει κάποιος να μην ξενερώνει έτσι τους αναγνώστες της!

Do You like book The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld (2006)?

One of the pleasures of young adult fantasy literature is that often the best of it will a subtle, insightful, and very much approachable exploration of life's themes and humanity through whimsical and alluring metaphor. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld does not quite accomplish this, but the rhythmic pace and language McKillip chooses is as much to blame for this as to credit for a final product that feels like a modern legend of yore. If one were to translate a minstrel's tale into common speech this could be what it would sound like. And there is a desirable, very pleasurable effect in that which allows a smooth read from cover to cover.That smoothness sometimes becomes an enemy of the storytelling, however. When McKillip sculpts her tale to reveal some truly aching insight into human nature the effect is dulled around the edges by constant distance from the characters. With a character often referred to as "Ice Lady" as the protagonist whose journey it is to find her humanity, it makes sense that sometimes the empathy between her and reader may be vague. But when the reader seeks out the comfort of those supporting characters whose gradual accomplishment is to help her find it, they are as those of the legend McKillip's style echoes: far away.From this far away place, that style does manage to bring to fancy the forgotten beasts of the title. The mythology of the story is modestly enchanting with a quiet individuality. The world McKillip creates is alive and a pretty place to be for 343 large print pages.One final side note: I was a bit disturbed by how the heroine is constantly described as "beautiful": "slender," "thin," and always "forgetting to eat." I've never minded an attractive protagonist but, after the eighth mention of her starved allure, I lost my appetite.
—H.

My first encounter with Patricia A. McKillip, and I enjoyed every moment of it. Told in the style of a myth or fairytale, this is the story of Sybel, a young and very powerful sorceress (more of a conjurer, really) who has a very traumatic encounter with another wizard that starts her down a path of vengeance that takes her to places she was never previously interested in going and exposes her to emotions she had never previously felt.This is, primarily, a story about an emotional journey, but it maintains a poise and dignity that belies the melodrama inherent in the phrase "emotional journey." A big part of the gravitas of the book is achieved by the consistently mythic tone that McKillip uses in her prose. It's not written like a myth is written, though; this is no Le Morte d'Arthur, no dry telling of noble deeds and base villainy. The prose itself is actually quite beautiful, and the mythic quality adds a thin layer of separation between the reader and the raw emotions of the characters. The intensity of the interpersonal relationships is therefore somewhat, but not entirely restrained, enabling the reader to get what they want out of the love story aspect of the tale while still being able to take the story seriously in a literary sense. This would be quite the juggling act for most authors, but McKillip makes it look easy.The characters were great, too. The human characters were very well-realized, and were delightfully complex and believable in their reactions and motivations. No bad guys or good guys here, just various people with differing points of view. The Beasts themselves were incredibly interesting, as well, especially the riddling boar, Cyrin. Parsing the meaning from his sometimes opaque riddles was very enjoyable for me.In short, a terrific tale told terrifically. Highly recommended to anyone who's tired of the same old trope-filled epic fantasy stories, and who wants to read a fantasy novel with depth and meaning as well as creatures and magic.
—Bryan

I first read this book probably 20 years ago, and was a little leery of re-reading it, since I had remembered loving it, but worried that I wouldn't like it so much anymore. Fortunately, I ended up loving it as much as the first time. It is a short book, but the plot is tight, and weaves an enchanting mood throughout. There is no time to develop a vast, detailed world such as Middle Earth, but McKillip manages to give her small world as real a feel as any other. I also appreciated that this is world of good acts, bad, acts, and questionable acts, but not one with a rigid good vs. evil found in so many fantasy tales.
—Henry

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