This book was a bit of a weird one, and not in a particularly good way. I was confused and turned off by how muddled the message of this book was. So, the basic premise of the book is that the King (named Galen) is a man who is scared of wizardry (because he "is scared of power, of which he has none") and thus the citizens of his country live in a vaguely totalitarian world, where if you are found practicing "unregulated" magic you either get exiled from the country or have wizards invade your mind and actually change the way your brain works--removing all knowledge of and interest in the unregulated magic. Further, if you learn the approved-magic and were any good at it, you were given a "prestigious" position working for the king either at his court or for the same school you were taught in. However, you were never allowed to leave the country or even the capital city without the kings permission, and you were watched closely for all your days. There were a lot of references to what basically is thought-crime and when you were able to freely speak your mind...heck, half the wizards were mind readers so you weren't even allowed to freely *think* your mind. And of course the kings daughter practices unregulated (read, restricted) magic, and is getting engaged to the kings #1 lap/watchdog. Plus, there's this other dude who is from some backwater village and it turns out he's actually this massively talented wizard but doesn't know it, and has been accidentally practicing all kinds of unregulated magic (and he has a lost love and a missing brother, too), and he gets recruited to be the gardener of the school of magic which is conveniently located in the palace. All these elements seem like they could be the basis for a really great story. However, the actual story seems to mostly go nowhere, except random places. Like, at the end of the story basically everyone lives happily ever after because the king realizes the error of his ways and allows unrestricted magic again, largely because of what is sort of a Deus Ex Machina, and not because of any actual...like...anything. The big "showdown" is just a talk where some really powerful wizard yaps a whole bunch and then everyone is like "well, okay, if you say so!" Also nothing happens with the supposed main characters' missing love interest or brother--at some point about halfway through the book they just stop being mentioned all together.The thing that makes the story muddled is the way McKillip alternates between making Kellior seem very totalitarian (forbidden quarters of the city, thoughtcrimes, etc) and then turning around and just making it seem like the ruler (and his lapdogs, and the school that teaches them all) just mostly lacks imagination and that the problem isn't a terrified/terrifying ruler who wants control over everything, but instead is a problem of treating an art (magic) like a trade. Well....fine. The story could be about either thing--a terrible, evil king who has control issues and wants to know everything that's happening in his city to the minutest detail OR a boring king who thinks magic is like math--something that has a right and a wrong answer. And maybe a different author could even have a king who was both, but McKillip just seems to not know WHO she wants Galen to be, and thus not to know how she wants his COUNTRY to be. Thus, the story just wiggles all over the place and comes to a very boring and lackluster conclusion.However, McKillip still has a really pretty and poetic writing style, so the book was enjoyable, even if it was sort of stupid and slightly incoherent fluff.
Find this and other reviews posted at http://momsbookbanter.blogspot.com/. A gardener with unrealized magical capacity in a fantasy adventure sounds like the makings of a great story to me. This story has almost everything you need and want in a fantasy novel. The imagery in McKillip’s adventure was amazing; my favorite parts being the descriptions of the twilight quarter and the magician’s performances. Her descriptions were so vivid I felt transported to the performance. As we read along, several stories develop bringing together a slew of wizards, a petulant princess, the micromanaging king, and one reclusive gardener. I listened to the audio version of this book, borrowed from the library. The reader did a great job, sometimes the voice doesn’t match the tone, or isn’t quite right, but this one was spot on. I found the cover art for the audio version to be good, but enjoy the hard cover artwork more. I felt that the hardcover art represented the story as read better. This was a rather lite read, and great to pass the time while doing laundry. I recommend to those who enjoy wizard tales and fantasy, but also to those with a soft spot for princesses and love stories. I’ve not read McKillip’s other novels, but I must say I’m inspired to look them up after reading this.
What do You think about Od Magic (2006)?
I missed this book when it came out, and stumbled across it just a few days ago. It shares a few ideas with her earlier works, but it felt much more polished and I found it hard to put down.Od is powerful and eccentric, even in terms familiar to readers of fantasy. She makes Merlin and Gandalf look positively normal. Centuries before this story takes place, she founded a school for magicians, and it has mostly operated without her all this time. The thing is, she keeps popping in every few decades, to drop off a new student or make a cryptic comment. In the meantime, the royal family has taken the magic school under its wing and made it into a training ground for the royal magicians, which wasn't quite the original idea.This time, Od has sent an adult to the school, not as a student, but as the new gardener. This new gardener seems to be a magician himself, but of an unfamiliar type. The story also involves a mysterious new student, a brilliant illusionist entertainer and several others, all telling a story about the uses and misuses of educational structures.My only quibble was that Od so thoroughly neglected the running of the school that it's hard to fault the king for taking it over in the first place. He may have been wrong to do so, but it's easy to see how and why it happened.
—Nick
This would be a 3 1/2 star book if we had that option. McKillip's prose is always a pleasure to read (it must be, since this is the 15th I've read by her) and this one isn't any different, but somehow it left me wanting.Perhaps it was the too-neatly-tied-up ending. Perhaps it was the shifting between the five story lines that ultimately did not completely mesh for me even when they started to converge. McKillip's usually nuanced when it comes to her characters motivations; maybe it was that the motivations of the antagonistic characters at times seemed simplistic and cliché. Likely it was the combination of it all which made it just miss the mark for me. I do appreciate the way she re-imagines the way magic works from one novel to the next. In this one, the history and structure by which magic is practiced and controlled and the conflict with the wild, clandestine use of it was an intriguing setup. It was also an obvious indicator for the direction the plot would be moving. And it was rather neatly tied up at the end, satisfying in one way but…McKillip's still an author I continue to rely upon for a good read. For me, "Od Magic" falls somewhere in the middle of the pack: a diversion worth the time (a quick read, to be sure), but not her best.
—D. T.
More like 2 stars but I'll round to 3...This book has too many adjectives!In the first six lines alone, we have 'busy street, tiny shop, neat black letters, wooden clog'. It's too much! Perhaps instead of informing us the street is busy, the author could walk us through it - bring us along with the character. There are also lots of adverbs - more than I think there should be. Show not tell is so important in a good story!Anyway, to get to the point, the first quarter or so of the book was a slog, but it did improve after that because I finally started getting into the story.I probably wouldn't really recommend it to someone, but if you happen to have a copy, it's a decent read.
—Ellie
