First cursed by a witch and then forcibly engaged to an unknown princess, Prince Ronan of Serre caps off a bad day by following a singing firebird and vanishing into a fairy tale. As he chases the glowing bird through fantastic landscapes, his new fiancee and her guardian wizard attempt to rescue him, but at every turn, they become entangled in new commitments and betrayals.

Sometimes I find McKillip's books a tad oblique and cold, but not this one. All the traditional stylistic quirks--the random specific details, the free-floating adjectives--align perfectly with a set of compelling, complicated characters. (The mid-book conversation between Sidonie and the disguised Gyre is heart-breaking.) Beyond its style, The Forests of Serre echoes and parallels many of the narrative elements found in the author's other books: doubled figures with faces both ominous and innocent; the puppeteering witch-woman (The Tower at Stony Wood); the exhausted wizard (The Book of Atrix Wolfe) and his summoned monster (The Forgotten Beasts of Eld; the siren firebird (The Cygnet and the Firebird); the shifting reality of stories (The Sorceress and the Cygnet) and texts (Alphabet of Thorn).
( )

Usually I try for something more intelligible than a burble of awestruck cussing, but sweet pants, this book was well wrought. I dunno what to say, other than go read it, and maybe read it a second time. It's worth both of those and a third as well. ( )

McKillip is one of the favourite authors of someone whose reading taste I admire, but unfortunately I have never found her works particularly appealing. ( )

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Title: In the Forests of Serre
Series: ----------
Author: Patricia McKillip
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 316
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Prince Ronan, the son of the heartless and one-eyed King Ferus, had his wife and child die several months ago. Now his father has arranged a marriage for him with Princess Sidonie, from a small neighboring kingdom known for its magic. Before Ronan hears of this news though, he accidentally kills a white chicken belonging to the witch Brume, who goes about the forests of Serre in walking house of bones. She curses Ronan and he becomes enamoured of the firebird. He begins to hunt the firebird down only to become as wild as an animal.

Sidonie meets Ronan on her way to the castle only she doesn't know it is him. She is with a wizard named Gyre who has been sent as a guardian by the powerful wizard Unciel, who fought a battle in The North and barely survived. Once at the castle Sidonie is pretty much held captive under threat of invasion of her home until Ferus can find his son. Gyre pretends to be Ronan but his magical disguise is seen through and Ferus attacks him and drives him into the forests, leaving Sidonie alone.

Gyre runs into Ronan and helps him pay back Brume. Ronan has to give Brume his heart and since it is already broken, he gladly gives it up and returns to the castle. Sidonie realizes something is wrong with Ronan and sneaks out of the castle to find Brume and bargain with her for the return of Ronan's heart. At the same time Gyre is roaming the forest looking for Brume for the heart of power that makes Serre so mysterious.

While all of this is going on, a nameless, faceless monster appears and begins terrorizing Serre. It would appear that the threat Unciel the great Wizard defeated is not truly defeated.

Turns out that Gyre stole the dead monsters heart and so it doesn't know it is dead. Sidonie gets Ronan's heart back, Ronan falls in love with Sidonie and Brume, the firebird and Gyre all figure out what is going on and destroy the monster's heart, which was Gyre's heart which merely needed to transform from a jewel into a real human heart.

I think.

My Thoughts:

This was confusing and weird and perfectly delicious. It was definitely one of the most fairytale'ish and straight forward of McKillip's tales, as there was NO misapprehension with what was going on with Brume or Ronan or Sidonie. Where things were confusing was all with Gyre, Unciel and the nameless terror. I think the firebird's egg was involved somehow, but I really didn't catch it all. I was too busy enjoying the parts I could easily understand.

It has been almost 14 years exactly since I last read this and I have to say, it has only gotten better. Despite my not understanding the nameless terror, or maybe because of it really, I am going to be adding the “Best Book of the Year” tag and put this in the running for the end of the year. Something in this book just resonated with me and while not making me jump up and down with glee, so thoroughly satisfied me that I felt like a fat little buddha statue full of literary satiation.

So far, my re-reads of McKillip have only enhanced my enjoyment of her storytelling and of her writing skill. It saddens me that more people don't love these books as much as I do and at the same time I realize that I'm not exactly a focal point for what is hot. I do hope that McKillip's books stand the test of time and survive where other fantasies simply dissolve back into the morass from which they came.

The cover is once again an amazing one by Kinuko Craft. I'll be including the full size piece of art in clickable linkiness so you can peruse as you wish. I can already tell you that this cover is probably going to win April's Cover Love hands down at the end of the month.

★★★★★ ( )

Good take on Baba Yaga ( )