Claim Now The Sorceress And The Cygnet (Cygnet, #1) Originated By Patricia A. McKillip Readily Available As PDF

was really rooting for this bookfinally a swordsandmagic fantasy quest that follows almost none of the typical tropes, Constellationmagic, bog ghosts, and ancient town traditions, all told in dreamy, misty prose that suits the swamps and midnight town gates.
But, alas, McKillip's dreamy language runs away with the book, until at times it's difficult to understand what she's even describing.
Not in a good way, Not like, say, Faulkner. More in a "I literally can't understand what's happening" sort of way, I couldn't begin to tell you what exactly happened in the surreal climax, or, more importantly, why, I'm not sure the characters could, either, Each of them is asked, in the final pages of the book, to describe what exactly went on, and each of them politely declines.
Not my favorite McKillip, but still rich and entertaining, Mckillip has a way of taking me right out of the waking state logical mind, and into a realm of dreamlike fantasy, with a subtle undercurrent of menace.
This is really the point of fantasy for me, I remember spending most of my time being confused when reading this novel, and at the same time, it kept me totally enthralled.
Mckillip has made no attempt to make this novel, or its characters relatable, in the normal sense, These are fantasy characters, and like magical people, somewhat ineffable in terms of their motivations, The story is riddled with obscure, arcane archetypes, but not recognizable ones, and the story unfolds like a dream, In spite of the fact that fantasy has the ability to be boundless in terms of imagination, much of it follows a very set pattern: Unlikely boy hero, prophesied to save the realm, finds sword, goes on quest to defete dark lord, at some point dragon appears, flailing maiden needs to be rescued.
Mckillip takes us far beyond the confines of this model, and leaves us almost giddy with the sensation of falling in a realm of baffling supernatural wilderness.
I wish more fantasy writers had this kind of vision, Midrange McKillip, I'd say.

The first chapter features some of the author's most poetic writing, as she introduces Corleu, a young man out of place among the restless Wayfolk who, his greatgrandmother tells him, long ago wandered out of the.
Corleu is a "child of the horned moon," whitehaired where all of the other Wayfolk are dark, He gets it from his grandfather, and his greatgrandfather, a stranger whom his greatgrandmother once coupled with among the corn one summer day.
Who was he A lord A commoner A sorcerer One of his greatgran's dreams and stories No one knows for certain.


I love the culture, the lore, and the world of the Wayfolk, and in this chapter McKillip provides one of the most beautiful descriptions of falling in love I've ever read:

"Venn's younger sister, Tiel, crossed the camp one day carrying a bucket of water from the stream, and Corleu, chopping wood, glanced up to find that in the interim between her going to the stream and returning, the world had transformed itself under his nose.
The wooden ax handle was of a finer grain the ground her bare feet touched had never been walked on before.
Even the air was different: too shallow to breathe, "

When the Wayfolk choose to go south to the Delta for winter rather than the usual Hunter Hold, Corleu's father and mother see danger in this departure from custom, but Corleu follows the rest on account of Tiel.
As they journey along through the hazy south, Corleu starts to notice that they aren't making any real progress, that time isn't passing, that they are trapped in some kind of enchantment.
He finds a doorway out himself, but in order to free his people and his love, he must find the heart of the Cygnet for the Gold King, whom Corleu previously thought was a story, a constellation in the sky, the sign of one of Ro Holding's four Holds.


But this isn't only Corleu's story, It's also the story of Nyx Ro, a mysterious sorceress who lives in a swamp, and whom he goes to for help in finding the Cygnet.
And it's the story of Meguet Vervaine, Nyx's cousin, who serves the Holder and is sworn to protect the country and royal family.


I like Meguet she's got grit, I like her relationship with the Gatekeeper, one of the most grounded and mature romances I've written in a fantasy book.
And I do like the royal family in general, There's one particularly wonderful scene where Iris, the daughter who seems the least magical of the lot, is the only one who is able to perform an important spell.
It's a great character moment, And there's a great sense of tension as figures out of legend begin to appear in Ro Holding, although I still missed the Wayfolk after the first few chapters.


The structure bothered me a bit: Part One was from Corleu's point of view, Part Two from Meguet's, and Part Three switched between the two.
One sad casualty of this setup is Nyx, By the time you get to the end of the book, you come to realize that Nyx is in reality the most important character to the story, and it's she who changes the most in the course of it.
But we are never able to see that change from the inside, Heck, we barely see it through Corleu's and Meguet's eyes, We have to be told about it, Weak.

I'm finding more and more that my enjoyment of McKillip novels varies depending on their endings, All of her books feature beautiful prose, complex and inimitably human characters, and a wonderful air of mystery, In the best of her novels, all of the mysteries come together and are explained in startling but entirely logical ways well, logical for fantasy novels that place such a high value on symbolism and illusion.
My least favorite of her novels are those that build up a great threat and then reveal it to be no threat at all, merely some kind of ploy by the universe to teach the characters a lesson.
The Tower at Stony Wood and Solstice Wood fit this category, So does The Sorceress and the Cygnet, So despite the beautiful poetry of the writing, despite the Wayfolk, despite Meguet and her Gatekeeper, I can't say that it's a favorite.
Corleu was different from the typical darkhaired Wayfolk, His blond hair and his fascination with the legends and children's rhymes about the Cygnets, Gold King, Blind Lady, Dancer, and Warlock set him apart.


When Corleu and a band of Wayfolk become trapped in an endless swamp, he crosses a threshold an unthinkable act for Wayfolk seeking a means of escape.
This impetuous act puts him on a collision course with the legends of his childhood, This is not a simple novel, The intricately woven plot laced with surrealist qualities will appeal to mature fantasy lovers, This is one of McKillip's earlier novels, and one of her consistently darker ones I especially love the swirling plot twists in the final few pages that are all McKillip.
The characters are passionate and driven, and the motives that drive them and hidden sources of their power are revealed slowly throughout the book, layers peeling back revealing deeper layers.
Even as you read the same story from the perspectives of several characters, there are others whose thoughts and motives are not revealed at all only glimpses caught here and there, suspicions and glimmers, and in the end the characters whose eyes the reader sees who the reader must trust are left blinking and wondering.
McKillip is the only author I have found to do this consistently well and the beauty and sheer breathtaking swirl of building tension and anxiety and fear that drag you relentlessly through her novels throw you suddenly into a swirling maelstrom in the final pages, where realities shift and nothing is as it seemed.
The best thing about her novels is that, no matter how many times I read them, they are new every time.
The details, and passions, and tensions, and finely spun net of story grab you while you read, and then leave you at the end wondering what happened and feeling the details slipping away.
Fantasy, and magic, at its finest, I've read this book many times in my life, but, without spoilers, this is the first time that I've actually truly understood the turning moment, the choice that determined success or failure.
In the light of this, I'll have to add sitelinkThe Cygnet and the Firebird to my soon to reread book list.
I tend to appreciate the McKillips where she uses her lyricism in service of story, This is not one of those books, But this is classic McKillip: its dreamy and beautiful, and its about constellations and myths made real, and the writing is lyrical and brilliant and Im not actually sure I followed the story.
I certainly dont remember much of it beyond “myth” and “magic” and “maze”, and I think the average McKillips are characterized by that haziness.


Theres one writing slip up, a shift in point of view which is pretty abrupt I was surprised out of the dream, and it took a while to adjust.


This is not your typical average book, because of the overall quality of the writing, but its average for

McKillip.
Not one of her great ones, A fantasy mystery from renowned author Patricia McKillip, A mysterious wanderer named Corleau, with blonde hair among darkhaired wandering people falls in love and his girl is held by the powerful Sun King.
All he wants from this whitehaired young man is the heart of the Cygnet,

What is it Where is it He doesn't know, nor does anyone else, Not even the Sun King,

Corleau awakes in a swamp and then is taken to the home of a swamp sorceress, Nyx, She too is wrapped in unknown power, She becomes interested in his missiononly he is bound to not tell her what he searches for,

How do all these mysteries resolve It is a story of great and subtle power stretching across the world and time.


Read it if you love mysteries, if you love fantasy, Definitely at the top of my classics list Although I didn't understand everything and had to read the first few chapters again a couple of times to make sure everything was clear, the prose was gorgeous and the imagery stunning.


The story doesn't move forward using definite events, but rather evolving symbolism and imagery, Little by little, the storieswithinthestory become real, functionning as riddles that unlock each other one by one, The physical journey of Corleu, the protagonist, who asks the help of a sorceress to save his people and the woman he loves, is intertwinned in his symbolic journey from story to story, which is itself intertwined in the politics of the various countries of the world, politics of which the hero, as a member of a wandering folk that doesn't care about boundaries or governance, is completely unaware.


The multiple levels of symbolism in this book thus mix the temporal and the mythical, the material and the symbolic, the personal and the collective.
The results are arresting. I didn't understand everything, but I'm not sure that the plot is meant to be "understood", one event after another, in a conventional way.
This is the kind of book that should be approached like poetry: I think it's best to read it several time, paying attention to the way the images and symbols echo through the story.
Even if you only have time to read it once, though, it's a lovely read, .