World Fantasy Award-Winner First time available in an e-book edition “Rich and regal.” –The New York Times Young Sybel, the heiress of powerful wizards, needs the company of no-one outside her gates. In her exquisite stone mansion, she is attended by exotic, magical beasts: Riddle-master Cyrin the boar; the treasure-starved dragon Gyld; Gules the Lyon, tawny master of the Southern Deserts; … tawny master of the Southern Deserts; Ter, the fiercely vengeful falcon; Moriah, feline Lady of the Night. Sybel only lacks the exquisite and mysterious Liralen, which continues to elude her most powerful enchantments.
But Sybel’s solitude is to be shattered when a desperate soldier arrives bearing a mysterious child. Soon Sybel will discover that the world of men is full of love, deceit, and the temptations of vast power.
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This is my favorite book of all time. If I had to pick a desert island book, it would be this one.
There is something about the way this book flows that is actually literary magic. It’s about magic, and riddles, and all sort of other legendary things but it’s like fractal mathematics: beautiful, impossible for an ordinary human to understand, and yet hypnotic. Just the opening paragraph is chilling, and thrilling, and all sort of other trilling llls in a row. I can’t describe this book, because its better than that. It’s not funny, or cute, or silly or any of those things. It’s a work of pure lyrical genius. If you haven’t read it yet, shame on you.
Let me start off by saying this: I’m pretty sure the author of this book is Patricia A. McKillip, not Gail. Am I the only one who sees that mistake? This mistake on Bookbub has been bothering me so much I felt like writing a review just to complain, and it had me second guessing who the author is, even though it clearly says it on the cover (I notified bookbub of this mistake a while ago, but I don’t think anyone cared enough to change it or read my complaint). Sorry for my run-on rant.
Anyway, beautifully written book. It’s a short book that gets pretty straight to the point, but you still get to view the author’s imagined world, clearly. The main character goes through some pretty intense stuff, and she given the power to choose vengence or forgiveness. Love this kind of stuff: fantasy genre, short, simple, beautiful world, beautifully written, and a character you can empathize with.
This book is magical. I find myself so entranced by her lyrical prose sometimes that I have to read the paragraph again to return to the plot of the story.
This is one of my favorite childhood books. I recently re-read it and still stands up well. Also, as an adult, I picked up on some plot points that went right over my head as a kid!
This book (by Patricia A. McKillip) was the first fantasy I ever read. I love it so much. I knew exactly the types of books I wanted to write “when I grew up.” I have a first edition and a paperback and have read it numerous times.
Patricia A Mckillip is an amazing author who writes beautiful fantasy with lyrical prose that draws you into her dreamscapes. This is one of my favorite books which stays with you and lingers in your mind. I read this book years ago and was so glad when it became available as an ebook. I will be reading it again!
I hope you take a chance with this old favorite of mine. It has everything good in it that is fantasy: a witch, magical beasts that talk, kingdoms that need saving, big battles, and in the end, human truth.
Originally published in 1975, this book still stands today as a masterfully told tale of a woman who learns that revenge isn’t enough. Beware though – if you read this story you may find most of the fantasy being published today to be flavorless nothings.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip is a story about Sybel, a wizard that does not need the outside world. She locks herself behind her gates with her enchanted beasts, but when a soldier beckons at her gates with an infant, she about to find out about love and deceit.
This story is about love, deceit, and revenge, and the toll it can have on one’s heart and mind. It was well written with lively characters, and magical beasts. A wonderful story with clean romance.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is lyrical. McKillip creates a world that is at once a dream and a colorful, abstract landscape painting, haunted by magical beasts.