Patricia A. McKillip and The Changeling Sea

Today I finished reading Patricia A. McKillip’s The Changeling Sea for the third time. This is a beautiful fantasy novella by one of the finest fantasy authors living today.

I first discovered Patricia McKillip one summer while working at the library, through her book Winter Rose. I don’t remember many details from the story; what struck me was her prose. I had never read such exquisite writing. Since I was spending so much time at the library, I decided to read my way through her bibliography and see what I found.

Her Riddle-master trilogy profoundly affected the way I view the world, literature, and my faith—in other words, nearly every aspect of myself. Her writing was like a crafted sculpture, her story a breathless journey perfectly fulfilled. I recommend it to anyone who asks me about books.

Today, I’ve read well over half of her published books (though not all of her short stories). It seems that Riddle-master was something of an anomaly—the word-craft, the conception, the fantasy-weaving in her other books are all beautiful (the most beautiful fantasy I’ve ever read aside from Lord of the Rings), but her climaxes and endings mostly leave something to be desired. She often misses the truly satisfying ending (be it happy or sad, open-ended or neatly tied) that the best of literature calls for. By that I mean an ending that fulfills its themes. (Yes, it’s nebulous, but I know it when I see it. I think most of us do.) Literature should delight or comfort or teach; it should not disturb merely for the sake of disturbing, and a story ending that rejects or subverts True Story and the tradition streaming from True Story is only that.

The Changeling Sea, I am happy to say, does not fall into her typical pitfall. It is a story of sea-dragons and princes, floor-scrubbers and magicians, gold and hexes and spellbooks and flowers, about love and anger, and mostly about grief. What kind of a journey do we go on when we grieve? It also contains a character who, I discovered, might be one of my favorite fictional characters. (After Samwise Gamgee, of course.)

For a reader who is interested in tasting McKillip’s fine writing, The Changeling Sea is a good place to start. It’s well-contained, and of all of her books (that I’ve read) I think sustains the least the criticism that her writing style is too dense or confusing to understand. I would also recommend The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, one of her earliest books and both the winner of the World Fantasy Award and a finalist for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.

Of course, you simply must read her Riddle-master Trilogy: The Riddle-master of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire, and Harpist in the Wind. If you do, won’t you let me know what you think? Share your thoughts on your favorite McKillip books below.