Despite its uninspiring surface, I liked The Sorceress and the Cygnet for its minor details and supporting characters. Its sequel, The Cygnet and the Firebird, retains all the surface and loses all the charm.

The problem is Nyx Ro: she's a delicious character, but she's a lousy point of entry for the poor reader. She's self-absorbed and inward-focused, but The Sorceress and the Cygnet overcame her alienating aspects by making her a figure of interest, not empathy. (More conventional characters assumed the mantle of empathy in the book.) But she's the major protagonist of The Cygnet and the Firebird, and the novel makes unsuccessful stabs at softening Nyx and making her more palatable. But by forcing her into blandly placid mold, the novel loses a great anti-heroine without producing a good heroine.

And the story's boring, and Nyx has a dreary love-interest, and all the conflict and resolution happens at a plane far removed from the actual characters. So I didn't like it. ( )

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Title: The Cygnet and the Firebird
Series: Cygnet #2
Author: Patricia McKillip
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 315
Format: Digital Edition



Synopsis:

Taking place 2 weeks after the Sorceress and the Cygnet, we follow the continued adventures of Nyx Ro and Meguet Mervaine.

A magician invades Ro Holding looking for a hidden key of Chrisom's. Nyx and Meguet foil him. At the same time a magical firebird that turns everything to jewels and gold with its cry comes to Ro Hold. Nyx figures out it is an ensorcelled young man and in her studies he, she and Meguet all go to the land of Saphier. Where the first magician lives as well.

Saphier is ruled by the son of a magician and a dragon and he, Draken, wants ALL THE POWER. And he wants Ro Hold. It is up to Brand (the ensorcelled young man, who happens to be Draken's son), Nyx, Meguet and Rad (the first magician) to put a stop to Draken's quest to conquer all of time and space.

The dragons solve it all because the humans are annoying them.

The End.

My Thoughts:

SO MUCH BETTER THAN The Sorceress and the Cygnet. There is no Corleu. In fact, there are no stupid characters; confused, unsure and discombobulated characters, but not an idiot in sight! And that pushed this book right into traditional McKillip territory. Beautifully worded phrases, symbols and pictures with much deeper meanings, lyrical prose that you have to follow like a song. It was everything that I like about McKillip.

I found this more polished, more lyrical and more fantastical than Sorceress. Sorceress was a rough fairytale told by farmers after a tough season of haying. Firebird felt more like a courtly bard singing a story before the entire court. Obviously, with me being King Bookstooge, I prefer the latter.

I was glad to have read the duology so close together. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed Firebird so much if I didn't have the immediate taste of Sorceress still on my mental tongue.

This, along with Austen, is the kind of romance that not only can I stand but actively enjoy. It is understated but powerful, much like a current in a river. Too many authors rely on the rapids of the river for their romances and it always upsets my literary canoe and tosses me into the drink. I don't like that. But this, this is like gliding down the Mississippi on a shady day. You can't ask for much better.

★★★★ ½ ( )

The story was interesting, but I am cutting down on my collection and something has to go out. ( )

Second or third read now. Time to pass it along. I keep forgetting the tale, the characters, etc. If I can't remember them between reads, then they are not that shelf-worthy ( )

This review was originally posted on Hot Stuff for Cool People.

I don’t even know where to start with this review. This book is such a beautiful, frightening, vivid hallucination. After I read this book, I have weird dreams. I feel like I’m walking around in a fog because this book is so realistic, it leaves the real world looking a bit drab.

‘The Cygnet and the Firebird’, by Patricia A. McKillip, is a fantasy story about two cousins, Nyx and Meguet. The story starts with a magician thief, Rad, who comes to steal a key. He’s followed by a firebird, who turns into a man, Brand, at night. Rad and Meguet make their way across time and into Rad’s homeland, Saphier, which is mostly a big desert inhabited by the ghosts and memories of dragons. Meanwhile, Nyx tries to solve the problem of Brand’s encorcelling.

It doesn’t sound like much. It sounds like an fantasy story, and maybe a convoluted one, at that. But it’s so much more. The amazing thing about Patricia A. McKillip is the way she writes. Not only is her writing solid, not only does it flow, but it is nearly magical in its ability to make you see and feel exactly what the characters are feeling and seeing, until you actually believe you’re there, in the story. And, I think, in ‘The Cygnet and the Firebird,’ she shows off this talent more than in any other book. Like I said, it’s like a hallucination, a dream that feels real and leaves you wanting more when you wake up. It also has amazingly well-realized characters, and a strong, attention-grabbing plot. It’s never boring. The intelligence and emotion behind the writing are both strong and deep.

There’s a prequel to ‘The Cygnet and the Firebird,’ called ‘The Sorceress and the Cygnet.’ This prequel is good, but for me, it wasn’t as wonderful as ‘The Cygnet and the Firebird.’ I recommend you read it, but read it after ‘The Cygnet and the Firebird.’ That’s how I read them, and it works just fine. You’re only going to be missing a few minor points, none of which really have much to do with the plot of ‘The Cygnet and the Firebird.’

This is the kind of book that you just have to let wash over you. Don’t force yourself to understand everything that's going on from the first page. Just let yourself sink into it. It’s that kind of book. ( )