Solstice Wood 
asked by h2o on November 15, 2006 4:22 AM
No stranger to the realms of myth and magic, World Fantasy Award winning author Patricia A. McKillip presents her first contemporary fantasy in years. Solstice Wood is a tale of the tangled lives we mere mortals lead, when we turn our eyes from the beauty and mystery that lie just outside of the everyday.
When her beloved grandfather dies, bookstore owner Sylvia Lynn knows she must finally return to her childhood home in upstate New York and face the grandmother who raised her and the woods which so beguiled- and frightened-her. But it's not until she meets the Fiber Guild-a group of local women who meet to knit, embroider, and sew-that Sylvia learns why her grandmother watches her so. A primitive power exists in the forest, a force the Fiber Guild seeks to bind in its stitches and weavings. And Sylvia is no stranger to the woods.
When her beloved grandfather dies, bookstore owner Sylvia Lynn knows she must finally return to her childhood home in upstate New York and face the grandmother who raised her and the woods which so beguiled- and frightened-her. But it's not until she meets the Fiber Guild-a group of local women who meet to knit, embroider, and sew-that Sylvia learns why her grandmother watches her so. A primitive power exists in the forest, a force the Fiber Guild seeks to bind in its stitches and weavings. And Sylvia is no stranger to the woods.
Reviews
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I adore Winter Rose, just as I adore most of McKillip's work, and I was looking forward to this title.
It's--ok. McKillip's prose is, as ever, beautiful. Sylvia and the Changeling are both interesting characters, and there is some truly haunting material here.
However, the fact remains that McKillip is not really suited to writing with a Message (I can't think of any author that is, really), and this book has a Message, much as Something Rich and Strange had a Message.
Nor does Mckillip truly expect her readers to show much intelligence in understanding the Message--it sticks up painfully all through the novel and then is announced at the end by the Faerie Queen, just in case we'd missed it.
If you really love Mckillip, and you want to read everything, go ahead & read it--there are some wortwhile nuggets here and there. If you only like her, or are reading her for the first time, skip this book. Read Winter Rose instead.
It's--ok. McKillip's prose is, as ever, beautiful. Sylvia and the Changeling are both interesting characters, and there is some truly haunting material here.
However, the fact remains that McKillip is not really suited to writing with a Message (I can't think of any author that is, really), and this book has a Message, much as Something Rich and Strange had a Message.
Nor does Mckillip truly expect her readers to show much intelligence in understanding the Message--it sticks up painfully all through the novel and then is announced at the end by the Faerie Queen, just in case we'd missed it.
If you really love Mckillip, and you want to read everything, go ahead & read it--there are some wortwhile nuggets here and there. If you only like her, or are reading her for the first time, skip this book. Read Winter Rose instead.
reviewed by formula on November 22, 2006 4:04 PM
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Sylvia Lynn is Rois' (from Winter Rose) four times great granddaughter and Lynn Hall has been left to her after the death of her grandfather. She has moved a continent away from Lynn Hall and her grandparents, because like Rois and Corbet she is half- fay. Her grandmother Iris has been the leader of the Fiber Guild, which she describes as a sewing circle, but it's more of a coven about fear -- and good food-- and binding up the rents between this world and the Otherworld.
Owen, Sylvia's near -relation thinks:
"The heir to Lynn Hall had just walked out of the world into fairyland. The heir to Lynn Hall, born to guard, and watch, and keep all passageways locked againsr the wood- folk, was one of them herself. And one of us.
And so was the young man who had stolen my daughter's heart."
This is an excellent tale, well worth reading and owning. I liked the varying POV and contemporary setting very much.
Owen, Sylvia's near -relation thinks:
"The heir to Lynn Hall had just walked out of the world into fairyland. The heir to Lynn Hall, born to guard, and watch, and keep all passageways locked againsr the wood- folk, was one of them herself. And one of us.
And so was the young man who had stolen my daughter's heart."
This is an excellent tale, well worth reading and owning. I liked the varying POV and contemporary setting very much.
reviewed by tubi on November 27, 2006 9:39 PM
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McKillip is a true master of the fairy tale. Solstice Wood is set many, many years after her wonderful tale, Winer Rois (which I devoured in one setting!) It may be helpful to pick up that book before reading this, as sort of a background because McKillip doesn't delve much into what happened in Winter Rois, she just sort of uses it for a setup. Syl the main character is part fay, part human, whom has hid her heritage from her grandmother her whole life and must come to terms with this upon the death of her grandfather (whom embraced the fay and the wild wood in which they lived.) There is not a ton of action, but what action there is is well wrought. The characters are well described and the plot is solid. I know Amazon toted "The Stolen Child" as the "new" fairy tale but I believe Solstice Wood to be a much better selection.
reviewed by jrivera on November 29, 2006 2:05 AM
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I love some of McKillip's books, but this isn't one of them. Some I have read many times; I was unable to get up the interest to finish this one. Some cool parts but mostly boring.
reviewed by bulldogs on November 29, 2006 5:22 PM