Song for the Basilisk

As a child, Rook had been taken in by the bards of Luly, and raised as one of their own. Of his past he knew nothing - except faint memories of fire and death that he'd do anything to forget. But nightmares, and a new threat to the island that had become his own, would not let him escape the dreaded fate of his true family. Haunted by the music of the bards, he left the only home he knew to wander the land of the power-hungry basilisk who had destroyed his family. And perhaps, finally, to find a future in the fulfillment of his forgotten destiny.

From Publishers Weekly

In most of McKillip's novels (Winter Rose, etc.) and short stories, this veteran author, a World Fantasy Award winner (for Forgotten Beasts of Eld, 1975), uses words in precisely the same way her mages do, to shape images and create fantastic visions where none previously existed. Sometimes the images are grotesque and violent, but more frequently they are ethereal and exquisite. McKillip's new novel is no exception. In it, a royal child escapes fire and certain execution by hiding in the ashes of the castle fireplace. Flame and death fill his mind and shape his thoughts so he is invisible to his enemies. After he is discovered, his rescuers rename him "Caladrius. After the bird whose song means death," and send him to the bards living on Luly, the music school on a rock at the end of the world. There he is called Rook. He masters the picochet, a peasant instrument, loves Sirina and begets Hollis, a son. Thirty-seven years pass and his family's enemy, Arioso Pellior, patriarch of the house of Basilisk, again reaches out his hand to crush any remaining members of the house of Tourmalyne. Rook remembers that his name is Griffin Tourmalyne and he journeys home. There he becomes an impetus for revolution and an inspiration for the royal opera, which draws the novel's principals together for a performance before the Basilisk and his family. McKillip is at the top of her form in this sweeping story about the redeeming powers of kindness and the potentially deadly beauty of music. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A young man denies his past for a life as a teacher of bards until a chain of events too compelling to ignore plunges him once more into a confrontation with the Prince of Berylon, who slaughtered an entire noble family to gain his throne. The author of Winter Rose (LJ 7/96) weaves a lyrical story of passion and revenge set in a Renaissance-like world where music and magic are one and the same. McKillip's luminous prose and compelling characters combine to produce a masterwork of style and substance. Highly recommended for most fantasy collections.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

One of the least-publicized American masters of fantasy returns with a tale told with her usual elegance. A child, later known as Rook, survives the massacre of his house to be rescued by bards and raised on a distant island, where he marries and settles down to a contented life. His only ties to the past are faint dreams that he tries to forget. Then the dreams turn into nightmares and the nightmares into violence. Rook must eventually visit the city of his birth to confront the destroyer of his house. The prose is lyrical, the themes of music and musicianship are woven into the story with great skill, basically archetypal characters and plot are brought to life with dozens of subtle touches, and McKillip's narrative technique is as her enthusiasts have come to expect. Maybe this is a trifle cerebral for some readers, yet surely they can admire the quality of McKillip's execution even if their emotions are not always fully engaged. Roland Green

From Kirkus Reviews

Once the city of Berylon was benevolently ruled by Raven Tormalyne, until his rival, the ambitious Arioso Pellior, the Basilisk, burned Tormalyne Palace. Of all the family, only young Rook, cowering under the ashes in the fireplace, survived. Rook was sent to the remote island Luly, where he became a bard (poet/musician) and produced a son, Hollis, but could never bring himself to remember his heritage. Nearly 40 years later, young Griffin Tormalyne, a distant relative, arrives at Luly, forcing Rook to confront his past. So he travels into the magical hinterlands, where, after various adventures, he recovers his memory and some of his inherited magic powers. But when he returns to Luly, Griffin is dead and the school burned. The Basilisk, meantime, a master of subtle magics, trains his dragon-eyed daughter Luna to succeed him. Rook, arriving in Berylon, takes a job cataloguing old music manuscripts that the Basilisk recovered from ruined Tormalyne Palace, and acquires a magical pipe to use against the Basilisk. But there are further complications: relatives of Griffin are smuggling in weapons and plotting against the Basilisk; the Basilisk's plain, empty-headed daughter Damiet falls in love with Rook; Hollis shows up; and Rook finds himself strongly attracted to Luna, a magician more powerful than her father. Previous McKillip offerings (Winter Rose, 1996, etc.) have been charming, elegant wisps; this one, after a rather laborious start, presses forward with altogether more determination and substance: a significant improvement overall. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Stephen R. Donaldson

"There are no better writers than Patricia A. McKillip."

just the way people out here in the real world do.”

“I’ve been reading Pat’s books from the beginning...I’ve always loved her work for the obvious things, the things that everybody else who writes about her loves her books for, too: her sense of style, her deep understanding of the ancient story-myths that all of us story-tellers build on, the humanity, which is also to say the unpredictability, of her (human!) characters, who are and are not what they appear to be, and who often surprise us for both good and ill

New York Journal of Books

“Weaving the past and present together into a vividly human and deftly layered story, master storyteller McKillip once again shows that language can be magic.”

About the Author

Patricia A. McKillip is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, and the author of many fantasy novels, including The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy, Stepping from the Shadows, and The Cygnet and the Firebird. She lives in Oregon.

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