BobQuasit reviewed The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
An enchanting book of sorcery, magical beasts, love, and betrayal
5 stars
Winner of the World Fantasy Award in 1975, "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" is a truly lyrical, magical book. Back in those days most fantasy wasn't much more than retellings of "The Lord of the Rings" with a few gender or race-swaps; they were, pretty much without exception, awful.
Patricia McKillip considers this her LOTR copy, but I don't see that at all. This is the story of Sybel, a sorceress and the last of a line of wizards. Her sorcery consists primarily in summoning unique magical beasts to her service. They include:
"BOAR CYRIN Keeper of Wisdom, who knew the answers to all riddles... save one.
THE BLACK SWAN OF TIRLITH Who had carried a king’s daughter from the stone tower of exile.
GYLD Green-winged Dragon who dreamt for eons over the cold fire of gold.
FALCON TER Immortal Lord of Air, who had torn to bloody pieces the …
Winner of the World Fantasy Award in 1975, "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" is a truly lyrical, magical book. Back in those days most fantasy wasn't much more than retellings of "The Lord of the Rings" with a few gender or race-swaps; they were, pretty much without exception, awful.
Patricia McKillip considers this her LOTR copy, but I don't see that at all. This is the story of Sybel, a sorceress and the last of a line of wizards. Her sorcery consists primarily in summoning unique magical beasts to her service. They include:
"BOAR CYRIN Keeper of Wisdom, who knew the answers to all riddles... save one.
THE BLACK SWAN OF TIRLITH Who had carried a king’s daughter from the stone tower of exile.
GYLD Green-winged Dragon who dreamt for eons over the cold fire of gold.
FALCON TER Immortal Lord of Air, who had torn to bloody pieces the seven murderers of the wizard Aer."
All serve Sybel, who spends her time seeking lost knowledge of rare magical beasts...until she seeks in the wrong wizard's library, and finds herself the hunted rather than the hunter.
There's love, betrayal, revenge, death, and redemption here. It's a relatively short book, but very full and extremely well-written with a thoughtful depth of feeling to it. It's also, unusually (for those times and these) a singleton; no sequels were ever published. Nor written, as far as I know.
You can borrow it for free from the Internet Archive, but personally I'd say this one is well worth owning.
archive.org/details/forgottenbeastso0000mcki_x1p4
Happy reading! 🤓📖
