Here are some customer reviews of
Riddle-Master
: I have been a Fantacy reader, since I was a child, I thought my Fantacy reading was over when I grew up, but luckily I found, that this was not true. I have read Mythology, Philosoph and Psycology. Fantacy is the very Potluck of it all. The Riddle Master of Head starts in a hazy tumble, and it takes a little while till you know that this is a fantacy, but then you are already lost. This is the most outstanding Fantacy I have ever read, and I think I have read them all. It will linger in your memory for ever, because you feel as if you were there. The discriptions of feelings, emotions and scenery are rare masterpieces. Putting it into one Complete Trilogy is a mercy to the reader, who does not have to wait for the next book to hit the shelf. This is to my knowledge the best book Patricia McKillip has written. Read it.
 I suppose I can understand why so many other reviewers have given these books such high praise but I find myself unable to follow suit. If you haven't read much other fantasy, or if you have but don't mind reading the same plots with the same characters then you will probably enjoy these books. It's not so much that they are bad, rather that there simply isn't very much to recommend them. They are simple books with simple characters that lack much depth beyond the stereotype they are given. Many plot elements exist solely to drive the books towards their telegraphed conclusion. (It is always frustrating when the reader has figured out something by the middle of the second book that takes the characters another books and a half to sort out themselves.) In a lot of ways this is like the Reader's Digest version of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. Whining main character. Improbable and inexplicable romances. Annoying bickering between characters who should be deep in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. It is certainly more focused and more concise than Jordan's work. However, that conciseness comes at a price. The only characters in the books are Kings and Queens and Wizards. Despite taking place over the course of several years I can't recall the name of a single character that wasn't either a Wizard or born of royal blood. There were other flaws that marred my enjoyment: the basic premise s of the Earth-Masters, their war, the High One, and the hereditary Land Rule aren't adequately explained giving their fundamental importance to the entire story line. Not to mention there isn't even an attempt to explain why Morgon has the powers he does. There are also lapses in consistency that leave the reader confused. At times the Bad Guys are relentlessly chasing after protagonist. Then they seemingly leave him alone for weeks on end with very little explanation about why the change in strategy. Despite my above misgivings the book wasn't unenjoyable. It simply felt like a book I had read a dozen other times under different titles. I think this book finds it greatest popularity among a young adult audience that has little other exposure to the genre.
I read 'Riddle of Stars' a collection of all three books (The Riddle Master of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire, and Harpist in the Wind) close to 10 years ago. I hadn't seen a copy anywhere since then... until I came here! I'm buying this book! Morgon's journey into the legends woven through time is one that *no-one* should forsake. This book will make you want to read it cover to cover without pause! I'm making a MUD out of this book, If you're interested in helping promote RoS, (now RM) mail me!
The other Amazon reviews give enough background of the story, so I won't repeat it all here. Like some of the other reviewers, I read this trilogy when it first came out and have re-read it often, and I am currently reading it aloud to my thirteen-year-old son, yet even after so many years, it can still bring involuntary tears to my eyes that make it hard to see the words. McKillip has a distinctive and almost unbelievably rich style, with a gift for bringing even the most unimaginative person directly into her worlds. One can savor the dark fire of Herun wine running over the palate or feel one's heart-strings resonating to the reverberations of Deth's harp even as his enigmatic silence beneath the music seeps into the blood. Unlike some authors who daub out great canvases with a palette knife, McKillip seems to create miniatures with a "brush of two camel-hairs" (Jorge Luis Borges), yet they vibrate with the jewel-like colors of a medieval illumination and draw you into their whirling pagentry until those worlds are more real than your own. In an age of movie-graphic writing, McKillip somehow manages with a fingertip against a wrist or a whisper of wind where there should be none to evoke an eroticism or a terror that can disturb my sleep for nights. These books should not be dismissed as the early attempts of a very young author to write yet another "coming of age" or "loss
of innocence" saga that is discrete enough to satisfy the Young Adult librarian. I disagree with those reviewers (and with the author herself!) who think her subsequent books--all of which I have read and loved--supercede this trilogy. The writing may be honed even finer and the colors tinged by a more mature palette, but this trilogy assaults more challenging questions and continues to resonate in the heart long after the book is set
back on the shelf, whereas the others, evocative and memorable
though they are, must confine themselves to more traditional ground since the heights have already been scaled. It is not for those who only want a "thumping good read" or characters to fall in love with, though they will find both. It will torment you with the unanswered riddles in your own life until you also have to decide whether you are who you think yourself to be or something more. Its warning "Beware the unanswered riddle" and its stricture "Give others what they require of you for their lives" require a response. Unless you are willing to give it, close your ears with wax against its harp-song like Odysseus's sailors did against the Sirens, or it you will be haunted forever by a silent harpist with silver hair and eyes as dark as your own forgotten dreams.
Here is the master work of one of the most sensitive and brilliant writers. Here is a world and people you will love and never forget, an intelligent plot which is paced beautifully, and phrases so fine they bring tears. This is one of those works I come back to every few years. Unique and perfect. Read this!!!
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