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violinknitter's review against another edition
5.0
Ok, this is kind of a cheat, because I've read both of these books before in their separate editions. I always love McKillip's books, but the Cygnet books hold a special place in my heart, even among McKillip's excellent stories.
justfoxie's review against another edition
3.0
I am a huge fan of McKillip's later works and this one had been languishing on my shelves for some time. It looked like a good bridge between some of the next books I was wanting to read and so picked it up. The first book is something of a slog - the writing isn't quite as polished as to what I've become accustomed in her later books and the plot moves in some very unfamiliar, difficult to follow ways without any satisfying resolution. The second book in this compendium is a much more traditional narrative and the writing becomes just that little bit tighter so that it compels you forward. Still, it wasn't until the last hundred pages or so that I finally got the story and everything clicked. It seems to me also that this is where she works out what is later to become her more organic style of working magic into stories. In many ways this is the fight between a much more classical version of magic as controlled and controllable power and something more imbued into the essential being of her characters and their surroundings. I really enjoyed watching this aspect of the novel play out and by the end I was even beginning to think I may miss these characters, particularly Hex as his real development as a character only comes in the last dozen pages. I really, really want to know more about his relationship with Meguet and how her power evolves.
At the end of the day it is a really good book, just a shame that it takes so long to get going.
At the end of the day it is a really good book, just a shame that it takes so long to get going.
kittarlin's review against another edition
3.0
Two books in one volume. Liked the second one best. Full of McKillip's usual magical, evocative words and worlds.
yati's review against another edition
3.0
Two books in one volume: The Sorceress and the Cygnet and The Cygnet and the Firebird.
I'm still not sure what to think of the book as a whole. The writing is beautiful but the characters seem distant, though they become more real in the second book. I think I've said this before about McKillip -- her prose is beautiful but exhausting! It takes me forever to get through the pages and I almost always take a break from the book at the end of each chapter.
I'm still not sure what to think of the book as a whole. The writing is beautiful but the characters seem distant, though they become more real in the second book. I think I've said this before about McKillip -- her prose is beautiful but exhausting! It takes me forever to get through the pages and I almost always take a break from the book at the end of each chapter.
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