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A review by synoptic_view
Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip
Really not sure how I felt about this one. For the first half of the book, it was heavy on tropes: orphan girl with a mysterious past working in an ancient library is embroiled in a love triangle. Nothing wrong with tropes per se, but I wasn't getting much out of them in this arraingment.
Things started picking up once the story within a story about Axis and Kane--the unstoppable king and his sorcerer-lover--developed more. The writing of that story was snappy and the plot was more novel. The frame story's writing was more stilted and relied too much on contrived puns about thorns, fish, and the like.
At the same time, I would love to discuss the story with someone who has read it and has more depth of experience with fantasy, fable, and precocious librarians who may or may not wear bell bandoliers (nudge, nudge Carly!). There might be more to this than I am getting, and with how easily this story went down, I am happy to read more by McKillip.
Things started picking up once the story within a story about Axis and Kane--the unstoppable king and his sorcerer-lover--developed more. The writing of that story was snappy and the plot was more novel. The frame story's writing was more stilted and relied too much on contrived puns about thorns, fish, and the like.
At the same time, I would love to discuss the story with someone who has read it and has more depth of experience with fantasy, fable, and precocious librarians who may or may not wear bell bandoliers (nudge, nudge Carly!). There might be more to this than I am getting, and with how easily this story went down, I am happy to read more by McKillip.