The Essential Patricia A. McKillip

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

World Fantasy Award winner Patricia A. McKillip (The Forgotten Beasts of Eld) has inspired generations of readers with her enchanting, and subversive fiction. This lovely hardcover career-retrospective edition offers McKillip's finest short stories. Featuring an orignial introduction by Ellen Kushner (Swordspoint) and cover art from frequent McKillip illustrator Thomas Canty, The Essential Patricia A. McKillip is a must-have for fans of classic fantasy.

Patricia A. McKillip has been widely hailed as one of fantasy's most significant authors. She was lauded as 'rich and regal' (the New York Times), 'enchanting' (the Washington Post), and 'luminous' (Library Journal).

Within McKillip's magical landscapes, a mermaid statue comes to life; princesses dance with dead suitors; a painting and a muse possess a youthful artist; seductive sea travelers enrapture distant lovers, a time-traveling angel endures religious madness; and an overachieving teenage mage discovers her own true name.

Reviews

Praise for Patricia A. McKillip

"Rich and regal."
--New York Times

"Gorgeous, lyrical prose."
--Guardian

"McKillip deserves all the praise she received for creating such a masterful, brave, intricately crafted universe."
--Starburst

"McKillip's is the first name that comes to mind when I'm asked whom I read myself."
--Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn

"Some authors we read for their characters and their plots, others for the beauty of their language. I read McKillip for all three."
--Charles de Lint, author of The Riddle of the Wren

"Wise and deep."
--Antick Musings

"Fear, hope, love, hatred, and all that makes us human assume magical forms in McKillip's characteristically gorgeous prose."
--E. Lily Yu, author of On Fragile Waves

"Soaring prose, lyrics to songs our hearts have forgotten they knew how to sing."
--Seattle Review of Books

"Full of magic, wonder and fantastic creatures."
--Speculative Herald

Ageless, eternal, light and perfect like a star."
--SF Site

"Patricia McKillip weaves an incredibly rich, poetic, wise and mystical story."
--St. Louis Dispatch-Post

[STARRED REVIEW] "World Fantasy Award winner McKillip can take the most common fantasy elements, dragons and bards, sorcerers and shape-shifters and reshape them in surprising and resonant ways."
--Publishers Weekly

"I read, and reread McKillip eagerly. She reminds me that fantasy is worth writing."
--Stephen R. Donaldson, author of Lord Foul's Bane

"Ever since finding and loving The Riddle-Master of Hed many years ago, I have read everything Patricia McKillip has written. You should too."
--Garth Nix, author of Sabriel

Author Bio

Patricia A. McKillip was the beloved author of twenty-seven fantasy novels, including The Riddle-Master of Hed, Harpist in the Wind, Ombria in Shadow, Solstice Wood, and The Sorceress and the Cygnet. She received the inaugural World Fantasy Award for The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and later received the World Fantasy lifetime achievement award. She was also a three-time Mythopoeic Award winner. Her last works included the novel Kingfisher and the collection Dreams of Distant Shores. McKillip lived in Oregon for most of her life.