The Forgotten Beasts of Eld

This is a new edition of the 1974 original classic written by Patricia A. McKillip, released by Tachyon Publications.  So much has been written about this book and much of it is absolutely true.  The prose is luminous and beautiful.  The story is deep and profound and entertaining at the same time.  When I was reading, I was completely immersed in the narrative itself, for me one of the benchmarks of a really well written fantasy.  I found myself thinking over phrases and bits of the book when I wasn't reading though; it changed me.  For me, that's a hallmark of great literature.

Patricia McKillip is a fantastically gifted author.  She's really really really good at writing.  The book is beautifully simple to read and wonderfully nuanced and complex at the same time.  It's a story about love and revenge and wanting, and how those things change us and the risks (and rewards) involved in making ourselves vulnerable.

The story itself is appealing, and well discussed in other reviews, but it's the writing, the language, that keeps me revisiting this book.  Every single time, I think it can't be as good as my nostalgic memory of my 40/30/20/10 year younger self remembers, and every single time, I'm blown away and notice things I didn't appreciate on earlier readings.

What a beautiful book.  Throughout a lifetime of almost literal nonstop reading, this is one of the few that I keep coming back to and one that I still own my original physical copy of. 

Five stars, one of my favorite books ever.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.