The Book of Atrix Wolfe
(eBook)

{STARRED REVIEW} "McKillip's signature talents are on full display in this wondrous tale." -Foreword This brand new edition celebrates the 30th anniversary of a classic, luminous novel from the World Fantasy Award-winning author Patricia A. McKillip (The Forgotten Beasts of Eld). Discover the spellbinding legend of generational atonement and redemption between a reluctant mage, a powerful wizard, a struggling heir, fae royalty, and a mysterious scullery maid. When the White Wolf descends upon the battlefield, the results are disastrous. His fateful decision to end a war with powerful magic changes the destiny of four kingdoms: warlike Kardeth, resilient Pelucir, idyllic Chaumenard, and the mysterious Elven realm. Twenty years later, Prince Talis, orphaned heir to Pelucir, is meant to be the savior of the realm. However, the prince is neither interested in ruling nor a particularly skilled mage. Further, he is obsessed with a corrupted spellbook, and he is haunted by visions from the woods. The legendary mage Atrix Wolfe has forsaken magic and the world of men. But the Queen of the Wood, whose fae lands overlap Pelucir's bloody battlefield, is calling Wolfe back. Her consort and her daughter have been missing since the siege, and if Wolfe cannot intervene, the Queen will keep a sacrifice for her own. Patricia Anne McKillip, widely considered one of fantasy's finest writers, was the bestselling author of more than thirty adult and children's fantasy novels, including The Riddle-Master of Hed, Harpist in the Wind, and The Bards of Bone Plain. Her short fiction has most recently been collected in Wonders of the Invisible World and Dreams of Distant Shores. McKillip received three World Fantasy Awards, for The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, Ombria in Shadow, and Solstice Wood, for the latter of which she also received the Mythopoeic Award. She was also recognized with the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement. Born in Salem, Oregon, McKillip lived in Germany, the UK, and the Catskills in New York. Kathleen Jennings (cover art) has won the World Fantasy Award, and has been shortlisted for the Hugo and Locus Awards. She has also received the E. G. Harvey and several Ditmar Awards. Many of her illustrations and incidental drawings appear on her blog Jennings lives in Brisbane, Australia. {STARRED REVIEW} "McKillip's signature talents are on full display in this wondrous tale, wherein memories of 'barren crags and ancient forests, winds scented with honey, wolf, wildflowers, swift water so pure' can be summoned as a force for good, and love is an articulation of guileless recognition of another." -Foreword "No writer has better captured the elusive power of language than Patricia A. McKillip. The Book of Atrix Wolfe is a shimmering tale of language, power, magic, and soul." -Rambles "Prince Talis, heir to the Pelucir throne, has been away from his homeland studying magecraft. At the wizards' college, he discovers a mysterious book of spells whose words carry hidden meanings. Returning to Pelucir, Talis encounters the Queen of the Woods, who is looking for her daughter, Sorrow, lost ever since the mage Atrix Wolfe misused his magic to divert a war. Now Talis and Atrix must solve the riddle of Sorrow's existence, and rid the world of the evil that Atrix {McKillip's} words and images remain masterfully evocative as she manages to invoke great beauty using the simplest language. Connoisseurs of fine fantasy will delight in this expertly wrought tale." -Publishers Weekly "A spell woven from moonlight, dirty pots, golden leaves, and shadows. Patricia McKillip describes magic I can believe in-the magic of place, captured in the stones of a wall, the wood of a door, the light shining through a window, the reflection in a pot of water." -Pat Murphy, Nebula and H...