Review of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

I have previously tried and failed to read a Patricia McKillip novel, The Riddle Master of Hed. Perhaps it was just my mood, the wind in the trees, or position of the moon, but for whatever reason, my mind kept wandering, and every time it snapped back, it encountered vanilla this and vanilla that and eventually wandered away again. I put it down, perhaps for another day (or moon). Based on the accumulated weight of recommendation from trusted sources (and non-trusted), I picked up The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (1974). An excellent thing there are second chances.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is the story of Sybel, a teenage girl who lives alone on a mountain surrounded by animals and creatures she communicates with telepathically while studying magic. One day a man arrives at her house named Coren. He delivers a small boy, Tamlorn, whom he requests Sybel to care for. And for the next decade, Sybel does as much, becoming Tamlorn's mother in essence and spirit. It's thus when the boy's true identity is revealed and people come looking for him that Sybel's future comes under a different light. Everything she has learned about magic needed in the aftermath of these events, Sybel and her menagerie are forced into a role in the kingdom of Eld beyond her mountain, but one that may have more advantages in the long term, no matter how hard it is today.

Tone, tone, tone. Where McKillip's style had me tasting vanilla in Riddle Master, it swept me off my feet in Forgotten Beasts. Managing to be both epic and personal, ethereal yet direct, and vague yet moving, it evoked in me emotions and ideas that my finger had difficulty pointing to, and yet that same finger effortlessly turned the pages with the flow of prose. The story feels like “A long time ago, in a far land away...”, and yet it is a story populated by living, breathing humans that we meet in real life. Fantastic—in more ways than one.

I can't help but take The Forgotten Beasts of Eld as predominantly a work of self-actualization, one which is very feminine in nature. While many of today's fantasy novels try to club the reader with overt politics (I am woman, hear me roar!), McKillip's novel is far more subtle, realistic in tone and gait despite the fantastical animals and secondary world. The reader understands and feels Sybel's emotions as she deals with the situations, expectations, and difficult choices that she encounters on her journey of life while trying to retain her personal sense of identity. Some readers may consider the ending a touch trite, but the path she takes to that point is anything but.

In the end, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is a glowing example of story which transcends era and time. Like John Crowley's Little, Big or Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, it could have been written 200 years ago, or two. It is as affective as it is effective, a human heart beating in the chimera clothes of fantasy. Like so many others, I too cannot recommend it enough. Maybe give Riddle-Master another shot?