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Original Essays | February 8, 2012

Kent Hartman: IMG A Raider by Any Other Name

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Perhaps you are aware of the fact that there is an oddly popular trivia game floating around that a group of clever (and likely bored) college... Continue »
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    The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret

    Kent Hartman 9780312619749
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Solstice Wood

Solstice Wood Cover

ISBN13: 9780441013661
ISBN10: 044101366x
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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.

Review:

"World Fantasy Award-winner McKillip revisits the setting of her masterful novel Winter Rose (1996) in this compelling contemporary fantasy. Summoned home for her grandfather's funeral, Sylvia Lynn arrives with the intention of leaving as soon as possible. Once there, however, she feels the treacherous pull of the old house, the shadowy forest around it and the otherworldly beings who live there. Sylvia's grandmother introduces her to the Fiber Guild, women who meet once a month to sew the magical barriers that protect Lynn Hall from the fay, 'a cold, loveless, dangerous people.' But the hall's protective magic has weakened, leaving Sylvia — both mortal and faery herself — vulnerable as 'the bridge across the boundaries' between the two worlds. Can generations of mistrust and long-hoarded secrets yield to a truce, let alone a new understanding and even trust between faery and human? Though McKillip has traded her usual lyrical style for a sparser approach, she doesn't stint on characterization, mood or mystery in this multilayered tale." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"McKillip dazzles with this lovely tale of fairy and human worlds meeting and melding." Booklist (Starred Review)

Review:

"With the same gentle elegance that she uses to craft her fairy tale fantasies, McKillip (Od Magic) infuses the present-day world with the elements of myths and the elusiveness of the supernatural." Library Journal

Review:

"As always, McKillip writes sparely, with elegance and precision..." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"McKillip does not overdo the whimsy or let her inventiveness run amok. Her approach is cool, understated. Even readers who think they don't like fantasy may find themselves drawn in." Boston Globe

Synopsis:

The World Fantasy Award-winning author of "Od Magic" makes a foray into the modern world with this contemporary fantasy about the tangled lives mortals lead when they turn their eyes from the beauty and mystery that lie just outside of the everyday.
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About the Author

Patricia A. McKillip is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, and the author of many fantasy novels, including The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy, Stepping from the Shadows, and The Cygnet and the Firebird. She lives in Oregon.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
Anna Creech, August 29, 2007 (view all comments by Anna Creech)
The story pulls together the threads of the real world and the otherworld and creates something so intertwined that at times it's hard to tell which is which. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of six characters, and the perspective shifts each time. Surprisingly, this does not disrupt the flow of the story, and only once or twice was it necessary for the timeline to back up in order to follow the new perspective from where it diverged from the previous one.

All in all, it's a satisfying read and has a real-world message about relations between different groups of people with different cultures and motivations.
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Fantasy Writer & Ph.D. Scholar, July 27, 2007 (view all comments by Fantasy Writer & Ph.D. Scholar)
This tome, a literary spell of magic, bridges the worlds of mortals and Faery.
McKillip weaves a tale sparkling with mythopoeic enchantments.
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bookofkell, July 8, 2006 (view all comments by bookofkell)
Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip

Sylvia has not been home in seven years, not until her grandfather?s death pulls her back. Now, she?s returned to the small town she grew up in, the town small enough to know everyone her father could have been. Unless, of course, he was one of Them.

Sylvia knew better than to tempt fate, or Them. Unfortunately, her grandmother, the local Fiber Guild / border guardians, and her curious teenage cousin Tyler all have other ideas...

A modern day small town (not urban) fantasy from Patricia McKillip, grand master of layers of illusion upon illusion. In the universe (but not the time period) of Winter Rose.

(I ask you, what?s not to love about a glamorous bartender forced to crochet nine pairs of baby booties to keep the Sidhe at bay? And that?s just a minor character! Not to mention, helpful hints on how to tell a changeling from a teenage boy in love...)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780441013661
Publisher:
Ace Hardcover
Subject:
Women
Author:
McKillip, Patricia A.
Subject:
Young women
Subject:
Fantasy - General
Subject:
Fantasy - Contemporary
Publication Date:
20060207
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
288
Dimensions:
8.20x5.54x.98 in. .79 lbs.
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Solstice Wood
0 stars - 0 reviews
$ In Stock
Product details 288 pages Ace Books - English 9780441013661 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "World Fantasy Award-winner McKillip revisits the setting of her masterful novel Winter Rose (1996) in this compelling contemporary fantasy. Summoned home for her grandfather's funeral, Sylvia Lynn arrives with the intention of leaving as soon as possible. Once there, however, she feels the treacherous pull of the old house, the shadowy forest around it and the otherworldly beings who live there. Sylvia's grandmother introduces her to the Fiber Guild, women who meet once a month to sew the magical barriers that protect Lynn Hall from the fay, 'a cold, loveless, dangerous people.' But the hall's protective magic has weakened, leaving Sylvia — both mortal and faery herself — vulnerable as 'the bridge across the boundaries' between the two worlds. Can generations of mistrust and long-hoarded secrets yield to a truce, let alone a new understanding and even trust between faery and human? Though McKillip has traded her usual lyrical style for a sparser approach, she doesn't stint on characterization, mood or mystery in this multilayered tale." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review" by , "McKillip dazzles with this lovely tale of fairy and human worlds meeting and melding."
"Review" by , "With the same gentle elegance that she uses to craft her fairy tale fantasies, McKillip (Od Magic) infuses the present-day world with the elements of myths and the elusiveness of the supernatural."
"Review" by , "As always, McKillip writes sparely, with elegance and precision..."
"Review" by , "McKillip does not overdo the whimsy or let her inventiveness run amok. Her approach is cool, understated. Even readers who think they don't like fantasy may find themselves drawn in."
"Synopsis" by , The World Fantasy Award-winning author of "Od Magic" makes a foray into the modern world with this contemporary fantasy about the tangled lives mortals lead when they turn their eyes from the beauty and mystery that lie just outside of the everyday.
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