“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English.”

The Riddle-Master’s Game by Patricia A McKillip
Gollancz (2001)
640 pages

You know what the best thing about this book is? It’s about people. It’s about their joys and their griefs, their struggles and the losses and victories. I loved the characters. Well, some of the minor ones came off as a bit two-dimensional, but the protagonists were real and likeable, and you can’t help but root for them up until the end.

This single volume actually holds the whole trilogy of the Riddle-Master. A trilogy in 640 pages! Frankly, I was relieved. After reading Robert Jordan and George RR Martin, I was ready to give up reading fantasy series due to sheer length. The first book, The Riddle-Master of Hed, starts off with Prince Morgon of Hed being confronted by his siblings about the crown he has hidden under his bed. Strange thing to do with a crown, don’t you think. (His frustrated sister pours sour milk on Morgon and his brother to stop their fighting. That startled me into a fit of giggles.) That’s only the start of Morgon’s problems — now he has to go to An to meet his bride-to-be: Raederle, the second most beautiful woman in An, but he gets sidetracked along the way by all sorts of things.

After the cliffhanger ending of the first book — and man, I am glad I had everything in one volume, because otherwise I’d be tearing my hair out — the second book, Heir of Sea and Fire, focusses on Raederle as she tries to discover what has happened to Morgan. The last book, Harpist in the Wind, has Morgan and Raederle planning what to do next as they figure out who are their real friends and allies.

I liked the book. The prose is spare but evocative, and McKillip uses the language so deliberately and beautifully. The pacing moved at a sedate pace without making the story boring, and the system of magic intrigued me. And it’s a whole trilogy in 600+ pages.

The cover is rather ugly, though. I had stared and stared and stared at it, wondering what the illustration was portraying, and only somewhere near the end of the second book that I realised that it was Morgon (probably walking in the snow against the wind — I still am not too sure about that) holding his harp. If there’s a reissue, I certainly hope it gets a better cover!

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This is the last book read in 2007. I am done with 2007. Finally. Talk about slow. /o/ This book is also the last book read for the Speculative Fiction Challenge, hosted by Renay.