Helpful Score: 3
All of McKillip's novels are beautiful. Her exquisite prose and her ability to capture the sense of magic (both light and dark) that imbues traditional fairy tales ensures that any novel she writes will tantalize and delight. Her style is deliciously archaic, even baroque, and she has a habit of giving the reader the bare minimum of information to make the plot and motivations of her characters understandable, tingeing every action with the spice of mystery. This has worked not very well in some novels -- I found the climax of In the Forests of Serre near-incomprehensible -- but even when the mystery isn't working her novels are delightful confections designed to be savored.
Ombria in Shadow is McKillip at her best -- a dark chocolate truffle, rich and beguiling. The city of Ombria, with its decaying streets, and its shadows that bleed into the underworld of its past, and its hints that there is yet another shadow city that may overlay Ombria itself, is the most breathtakingly beautiful McKillip creation I have encountered since I read Alphabet of Thorn (my first McKillip, though published two years later -- clearly McKillip was on a hot streak). The cast of characters is just as good, each one three-dimensional and bowed (but not broken) by heartbreak. And the central mystery, of how the city will cope with the loss of its prince in an already uncertain time, is always enticingly just out of reach until the climax, when strand after strand of the plot comes together in a breathless resolution that answers a host of questions and raises a dozen more, but which is still entirely satisfying on a visceral level. The denouement is quietly wonderful, granting the happy ending that seemed hopeless in a most unexpectedly melancholic way.
All in all, I don't think I could have loved this book any more.
Ombria in Shadow is McKillip at her best -- a dark chocolate truffle, rich and beguiling. The city of Ombria, with its decaying streets, and its shadows that bleed into the underworld of its past, and its hints that there is yet another shadow city that may overlay Ombria itself, is the most breathtakingly beautiful McKillip creation I have encountered since I read Alphabet of Thorn (my first McKillip, though published two years later -- clearly McKillip was on a hot streak). The cast of characters is just as good, each one three-dimensional and bowed (but not broken) by heartbreak. And the central mystery, of how the city will cope with the loss of its prince in an already uncertain time, is always enticingly just out of reach until the climax, when strand after strand of the plot comes together in a breathless resolution that answers a host of questions and raises a dozen more, but which is still entirely satisfying on a visceral level. The denouement is quietly wonderful, granting the happy ending that seemed hopeless in a most unexpectedly melancholic way.
All in all, I don't think I could have loved this book any more.
Recipient of McKillip's second World Fantasy Award... and well-deservedly so.
This is definitely one of McKillip's best (does she have a worst? - I don't think so!)
Here, McKillip introduces us to Ombria - a city of shadows and secrets, labyrinthine palaces and alleys, intrigues and magic... Ombria is somewhere between Gormenghast and Tanith Lee's Paradys... that fantasy city that we all dream of (but might not want to actually live in!)
Although the other McKillip book I read recently (Winter Rose) was a quiet story, more involved with emotion than action, this book is action-packed, with murders, sword-fights, desperate flights and pursuits, etc..
At the outset, we meet Lydea, mistress of a prince who has recently been killed in a palace intrigue. The regent to the child heir (Kyel), a viciously conniving old hag known as Domina Pearl, throws Lydea out on the street in all her finery, hoping she will be killed by some cutthroat mugger.
However, Lydea survives, with the help of a mysterious young girl, Mag, who may or may not be human - she is servant to a sorceress, Faye, who lives in the underworlds below the city, who claims that she created Mag from wax, and gave her life, golem-like.
Lydea wishes nothing more than to somehow return to the palace and somehow save the young heir, whom she loves like a son, from the clutches of the regent - but, working in disgrace at her father's tavern, she can see no way to do so.
But Mag has been discovering a mind of her own, and doesn't wholly approve of the poisons and spells that her mistress has been purveying - especially those that have been going to the regent, for her nefarious uses.
And in the palace, plots are afoot to put a young lordling, Ducon, upon the throne. But he would much rather wander the streets of Ombria, living the life of an artist. Will he agree to assassinate his royal cousin? Is the only one young Kyel is safe with his history-obsessed tutor, Camas? Or does Camas care more about his researches into the ancient legends that surround Ombria? ...rumors of a shadow city, of mysterious shifts and transformations....
The story has a rather unexpected ending - and one that some people didn't really agree with - but I thought it really worked, and made sense with clues proffered throughout the story... can't really say more without spoilers!
A wonderful book....
This is definitely one of McKillip's best (does she have a worst? - I don't think so!)
Here, McKillip introduces us to Ombria - a city of shadows and secrets, labyrinthine palaces and alleys, intrigues and magic... Ombria is somewhere between Gormenghast and Tanith Lee's Paradys... that fantasy city that we all dream of (but might not want to actually live in!)
Although the other McKillip book I read recently (Winter Rose) was a quiet story, more involved with emotion than action, this book is action-packed, with murders, sword-fights, desperate flights and pursuits, etc..
At the outset, we meet Lydea, mistress of a prince who has recently been killed in a palace intrigue. The regent to the child heir (Kyel), a viciously conniving old hag known as Domina Pearl, throws Lydea out on the street in all her finery, hoping she will be killed by some cutthroat mugger.
However, Lydea survives, with the help of a mysterious young girl, Mag, who may or may not be human - she is servant to a sorceress, Faye, who lives in the underworlds below the city, who claims that she created Mag from wax, and gave her life, golem-like.
Lydea wishes nothing more than to somehow return to the palace and somehow save the young heir, whom she loves like a son, from the clutches of the regent - but, working in disgrace at her father's tavern, she can see no way to do so.
But Mag has been discovering a mind of her own, and doesn't wholly approve of the poisons and spells that her mistress has been purveying - especially those that have been going to the regent, for her nefarious uses.
And in the palace, plots are afoot to put a young lordling, Ducon, upon the throne. But he would much rather wander the streets of Ombria, living the life of an artist. Will he agree to assassinate his royal cousin? Is the only one young Kyel is safe with his history-obsessed tutor, Camas? Or does Camas care more about his researches into the ancient legends that surround Ombria? ...rumors of a shadow city, of mysterious shifts and transformations....
The story has a rather unexpected ending - and one that some people didn't really agree with - but I thought it really worked, and made sense with clues proffered throughout the story... can't really say more without spoilers!
A wonderful book....
A haunting fantasy set in an older time in an other world.
