3.5
Solstice Wood
ByPublisher Description
The World Fantasy Award-winning author's foray into the modern world-now in paperback.
No stranger to the realms of myth and magic, World Fantasy Award-winning author Patricia A. McKillip presents her first contemporary fantasy in many years-a tale of the tangled lives mere mortals lead, when they turn their eyes from the beauty and mystery that lie just outside of the everyday...
When bookstore owner Sylvia Lynn returns to her childhood home in upstate New York, she meets the Fiber Guild-a group of local women who meet to knit, embroider, and sew-and learns why her grandmother watches her so closely. A primitive power exists in the forest, a force the Fiber Guild seeks to bind in its stitches and weavings. And Sylvia is no stranger to the woods
No stranger to the realms of myth and magic, World Fantasy Award-winning author Patricia A. McKillip presents her first contemporary fantasy in many years-a tale of the tangled lives mere mortals lead, when they turn their eyes from the beauty and mystery that lie just outside of the everyday...
When bookstore owner Sylvia Lynn returns to her childhood home in upstate New York, she meets the Fiber Guild-a group of local women who meet to knit, embroider, and sew-and learns why her grandmother watches her so closely. A primitive power exists in the forest, a force the Fiber Guild seeks to bind in its stitches and weavings. And Sylvia is no stranger to the woods
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3.5
Dawnofthenerds
Created 11 months agoShare
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Quaisior
Created about 1 year agoShare
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Ellen1113
Created about 1 year agoShare
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Byrd Nash
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“I have been a fan of Patricia McKillip since she published The Riddle-Master of Hed in 1976, so it pains me to write that this book really failed to meet the bar she sets so high with her other better stories.
Solstice Wood (2006) is a companion book to Winter Rose (1996) but you do not need to read Rose to read Solstice. Personally, I wish the books were not connected because in the long run there is no real need for them to have done so. IMO it actually diminishes SW which would have been a stronger tale if independent of WR.
The dilemma set up in SW is like that party game of Telephone. Person 1 whispers to Person 2 a phrase, and by the time Person 30 hears it, the meaning is mangled. The events of WR have become twisted through the generations and the current matriarch (Iris) is obsessed with blocking all fae/fairy from entering the real world. This is her mission and she is always right.
Like many of McKillip's works, this is an ensemble cast, and follows different POV's to unfold the tale. There is Iris, the grandma character whose actions are the main plot point of the story. When her husband Liam dies, it gives her a reason to demand that her granddaughter Sylvia return home for the funeral.
Why I hated Iris from the get-go is she denies her husband's last wishes - to be cremated and have his ashes spread around his ancestral home. Instead, Iris insists on a traditional funeral, and he is buried in the church graveyard with all the pomp of being the master of Leith Hall.
It's pretty clear that Iris does this out of revenge and what she views is proper. Liam has spent his life wandering away from her, exploring the mysteries of the woods (and most likely fairy), and she has felt shut out of this part of his life. It's not what the master of Leith Hall should be doing! In the end, she puts his body where she will always know where he is. No more wandering for you, Liam!
I blew a gasket reading her lame excuses on why she went against his last wishes, and Owen's statement that they couldn't have Liam blowing around. Why not?? If you consider Liam's role as guardian of Leith Hall (see WR), denying him being cast around his home could have had devastating consequences!
Iris really is a fool, and the end of the book proves it. I could have dealt with her being a selfish old lady if she had been properly punished at the end, but alas, that doesn't happen.
Reluctantly, Sylvia upends her city life to return to the backwoods town (classic Hallmark special with country girl goes to the city, returns and finds out she always belonged). She meets up with her younger cousin Tyler (another POV), and a childhood BFF Dorian (who she lost contact with), and her father, Owen.
Everyone is holding secrets and as we follow them about they get revealed. Sylvia is half-fae (this isn't really a spoiler as it is openly discussed early on that her parentage can't be trusted), Owen is having an affair with someone unacceptable, Tyler isn't what he seems, and granny's old sewing circle is a bunch of witches trying to stop the fae with their stitches (this also is revealed earlier on so I don't feel is a true spoiler).
The first time I read this book in 1996, I hated the character of Iris - and in the re-read I still hate her. As a lot of the book revolves around her making food, or running the Fabric Guild it means I have to grit my teeth a lot of the time and plow through to the better parts with Sylvia, Tyler, and late to the party - Leith.
Iris is the real weakness of this book. Her POV starts out pretty strongly as an old woman who is ready to give up Leith Hall to its heir because of the overwhelming grief of losing her husband. But this is quickly swept away and her voice just becomes cranky, her reasoning gravely flawed. Liam's death as a catalyst also gets dropped rather quickly.
An interesting aside, but barely touched upon is that Iris is a 'married-in.' The actual descendent of the WR characters is her husband Liam who told her from the beginning that there was nothing to fear from the woods.
She refuses to listen to him, and instead does what her hated MIL, Meredith told her to do - lock up the fae. I think Meredith was also a married-in, so you have these people making decisions about ancestral home of Leith Hall instead of the people who actually have a blood relationship with it.
It's almost a reverse of what happens in Winter Rose, where the fae are the problems. In Solstice Wood, it is the humans.
The many varying viewpoints is another weak point. If McKillip had stuck to three, you could get into the characters, but each chapter skips to someone else. While that gives us a well-rounded view of what is happening, we get little character development (another McKillip weakness).
The finale where Iris simply gives up the battle with a weak whimper is simply lame. This exposes another of McKillip's weaknesses: endings. They happen rather abruptly and like Diana Wynne Jones characters must be happy even though there is no justice or emotional payoff.
About half way through the book (if you can stick with it), the story starts to gain steam. Secrets start to be exposed. Sylvia claims her heritage. There is a really touching scene with Sylvia when she is trapped in the fae world and how she escapes. McKillip's descriptions of the otherworldly is top notch as always.
McKillip has a lot of very good books, and has a poetical writing style that is charming and magical when at its best. She is well worth exploring but sadly, this is not one of her best works.
This is a story about family, lies, and truths. Not a romance. This book will mostly appeal to readers who like dual worlds existing side-by-side (another McKillip favorite theme). The descriptions of fairy are some of the most powerful you'll find in books in this genre. There is also some heartfelt details of Tyler grieving for his dad.
Overall, far below McKillip's usual standards but a solid book.”
Jessa
Created about 1 year agoShare
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