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Publication
Ace Hardcover (2005), Edition: 1st, 320 pages
Description
Brenden Vetch has a gift. With an innate sense he cannot explain to himself or describe to others, he is able to connect to the agricultural world, nurturing gardens to flourish and instinctively knowing the healing properties each plant and herb has to offer. But Brenden's gift isolates him from people and from becoming part of a community-until the day he receives a personal invitation from the Wizard Od. She needs a gardener for her school in the great city of Kelior, where every potential wizard must be trained to serve the Kingdom of Numis. For decades the rulers of Numis have controlled the school, believing they can contain the power within it, and have punished any wizard who dares defy the law. But unknown to the reigning monarchy is the power possessed by the school's new gardener, a power that even Brenden isn't fully aware of, and which is the true reason Od recruited him.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Herenya
There is a certain comfort in discovering a new favourite author who has written a lot of books. Ooh, these will last me a while, I think happily. And there's a certain anxiety when I realise the number of books I've read is greater than the number left to read. What if I've already read the best
When it comes to McKillip's novels, this anxiety is greater because sometimes I like the parts of her novels more than I like the whole. I say McKillips are worth reading for the writing alone and I mean that... but I still prefer it when I reach the end and have no cause to be disappointed by the novel's bigger picture.
Consequently I was tempted to review Od Magic while I was halfway through, because I was enjoying it so and I wanted to write about that, unhampered by whatever I might think of the story's ultimate bigger picture. However, that required putting down the book and ... no, I couldn't. And I needn't have worried, because the bigger-picture was just as satisfying as all the things which added together to make that bigger picture.
Od Magic gorgeously written, vivid and poignant. It felt subtly meaningful, as if it were highly metaphorical and yet not explicitly so. Quietly thought-provoking. Its characters were beautifully realised; even though the numerous protagonists have to share the narrative with each other, they seemed to be emotionally complex and convinced me that their lives continued beyond the borders of the story.
The story begins with a young man, sent to be a gardener at Od's School of Magic in Numis, but the story is less about him than the school of magic itself, and the impact of the king's fear of magic. It's about Yar, one of the school's teachers, who is beginning to doubt and question; Sulys, the king's daughter, who has just been told who she is to marry; Mistral, a performing magician's daughter; and Arneth, the warden of the Twilight Quarter, investigating the magician's appearance. Although these characters do not know each other and their lives are initially disparate, there is a strong thematic unity binding them - undercurrents about grief and power and choice. The mystery is about the story itself, not about how the strands of the story twisted together.
Sorrow was like sleeping on stones, he decided. You had to settle all its bumps and sharp edges, come to terms against them, shift them around until they became bearable, and then carry your bed wherever you went.
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ones and cannot properly appreciate the others because they don't live up to my expectations?When it comes to McKillip's novels, this anxiety is greater because sometimes I like the parts of her novels more than I like the whole. I say McKillips are worth reading for the writing alone and I mean that... but I still prefer it when I reach the end and have no cause to be disappointed by the novel's bigger picture.
Consequently I was tempted to review Od Magic while I was halfway through, because I was enjoying it so and I wanted to write about that, unhampered by whatever I might think of the story's ultimate bigger picture. However, that required putting down the book and ... no, I couldn't. And I needn't have worried, because the bigger-picture was just as satisfying as all the things which added together to make that bigger picture.
Od Magic gorgeously written, vivid and poignant. It felt subtly meaningful, as if it were highly metaphorical and yet not explicitly so. Quietly thought-provoking. Its characters were beautifully realised; even though the numerous protagonists have to share the narrative with each other, they seemed to be emotionally complex and convinced me that their lives continued beyond the borders of the story.
The story begins with a young man, sent to be a gardener at Od's School of Magic in Numis, but the story is less about him than the school of magic itself, and the impact of the king's fear of magic. It's about Yar, one of the school's teachers, who is beginning to doubt and question; Sulys, the king's daughter, who has just been told who she is to marry; Mistral, a performing magician's daughter; and Arneth, the warden of the Twilight Quarter, investigating the magician's appearance. Although these characters do not know each other and their lives are initially disparate, there is a strong thematic unity binding them - undercurrents about grief and power and choice. The mystery is about the story itself, not about how the strands of the story twisted together.
Sorrow was like sleeping on stones, he decided. You had to settle all its bumps and sharp edges, come to terms against them, shift them around until they became bearable, and then carry your bed wherever you went.
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LibraryThing member phoebesmum
Having thoroughly disliked the previous book I'd read I was in the mood for something nice, and I'd been saving this for about a year so it seemed as good a time as any. It's not the most plot-driven of McKillip's works by a long chalk – there isn't even really an antagonist; people are foolish,
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blinkered, misguided, but not actually bad – but it was, as one expects from this author, a lovely, enchanting read, lyrically written and peopled with characters one would not at all mind spending one's life with. (By the way, although I can figure out most of what's going on in the cover art, I am at a loss to account for the man in what appears to be a diver's helmet in the upper left-hand corner.) Show Less
LibraryThing member kaionvin
I'm starting to think you have to read McKillip from a very right-brained perspective. Od Magic is all mood and veils, with its thin characters moving along a thin surface along their different stories. The result is a little too slight when the short page count is divided amongst so many subplots
The advantage of the shortness was that I did overall enjoy the trip through McKillip's brain (and admittedly, if the book were long enough for her to describe yet. another. character as "tall and fair", I would've been throwing things).
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(actually none even emerges as a main plot), even for the effortless style she's concocted. I really would've been intrigued by a whole novel about a garderner wizard, or one about the performing magician who uses magic to gild his tricks ... or the other way around (admittedly, I could've done without the story of the mildly rebellious princess avoiding an arranged marraige or the bureaucratic wizard torn between loyalty to his magic school and the crown).The advantage of the shortness was that I did overall enjoy the trip through McKillip's brain (and admittedly, if the book were long enough for her to describe yet. another. character as "tall and fair", I would've been throwing things).
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LibraryThing member ftmckinstry
This didn't grab me right away. But as I read, it began to exert a subtle, powerful hold on me. McKillip's writing style is breathtaking. I turned page after page awash in flawless descriptions of magic, wizards, nature, emotions, and sensual impressions. The characters are strong and beautiful as
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they confront the rigid, hoary structure of outdated laws that inhibit their spontaneity and deeper powers. It's a story about change even in something as intrinsically mutable as magic itself, and it's woven to the end with heartwarming and laugh-at-loud twists that left me chilled and deeply affected. This book will stay with me for a long time. Show Less
LibraryThing member jarvenpa
I debated between three and four stars. It is a lovely book, full of pretty images, with strands of interesting but never quite developed narratives. As with a fairy tale you have the sense of people moving through a careful plot, encountering wonders, coming to the...well, the uncertain future,
It is something of an allegory about the creative spirit, and where and how it thrives. Od was wonderful (the being, not so much the book as a whole).
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which is where this departs from fairytales. It is something of an allegory about the creative spirit, and where and how it thrives. Od was wonderful (the being, not so much the book as a whole).
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LibraryThing member sylvan_eyre
I find myself again of two minds about McKillip's style; on the one hand, her prose is as gorgeous and as odd-brained as a Joanna Newsom album, and is a delight for me because it gets close to what I think is the heart of magic in fantasy books. On the other, well, her characters may have grown
That said, this book in particular is now one of my favorites of hers. It echoes the plot of Riddlemaster in many ways, but is much more compact and understandable without losing the deep metaphorical sense and wondrous metaphysical, almost synesthetic sensations of magic. All of the characters are flawed and defined in relation to each other, which is very nice to see and adds much of the depth that I enjoy. The setting itself, usually McKillip's extra and most important character, kind of recedes into the background but it's still resonant.
My problem with the book, then, is the END. I don't think I've seen a more literal DEM since watching a Gluck opera. I wanted to see a real resistance to the authorities, and I thought maybe that would happen with the penultimate scene (sorry, trying to avoid spoilers), but alas, no.
Instead of a showdown between censorship and freedom *ahem* magicians and the government, we get a gentle, impossible-to-obey reprimand from the magical authority to the secular one (rather like Jesus coming back, was my first thought), a unbelievable change of heart for a few characters, and a vague promise of change. Very disappointing for a book that held me literally in rapture for about three hours on a Sunday afternoon.
In all, it's about average for a McKillip book; a trip to a hazily defined but specifically detailed magical world, strange characters that float between the real and the unseelie, and breathtaking scenes of magical power. I might add that this one struck me forcefully because of personal psychological buttons, but your mileage might vary.
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outward and upward from Riddlemaster (revealing all of your closely-held and potentially world-altering secrets to the antagonist? Really, Morgon and Raederle?), they still require some leaps of understanding.That said, this book in particular is now one of my favorites of hers. It echoes the plot of Riddlemaster in many ways, but is much more compact and understandable without losing the deep metaphorical sense and wondrous metaphysical, almost synesthetic sensations of magic. All of the characters are flawed and defined in relation to each other, which is very nice to see and adds much of the depth that I enjoy. The setting itself, usually McKillip's extra and most important character, kind of recedes into the background but it's still resonant.
My problem with the book, then, is the END. I don't think I've seen a more literal DEM since watching a Gluck opera. I wanted to see a real resistance to the authorities, and I thought maybe that would happen with the penultimate scene (sorry, trying to avoid spoilers), but alas, no.
Instead of a showdown between censorship and freedom *ahem* magicians and the government, we get a gentle, impossible-to-obey reprimand from the magical authority to the secular one (rather like Jesus coming back, was my first thought), a unbelievable change of heart for a few characters, and a vague promise of change. Very disappointing for a book that held me literally in rapture for about three hours on a Sunday afternoon.
In all, it's about average for a McKillip book; a trip to a hazily defined but specifically detailed magical world, strange characters that float between the real and the unseelie, and breathtaking scenes of magical power. I might add that this one struck me forcefully because of personal psychological buttons, but your mileage might vary.
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LibraryThing member SandyAMcPherson
A novel of how 'A Good Idea' (Wizards' school) became entrenched in rules and blinkered thinking. The new gardener, (Brendan Vetch), epitomizes outside the box thinking so he ultimately flees. The teachers who should have been brilliant are prodded by an upstart student who challenges all the
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conventions and ultimately leads the main protagonists to face their prejudiced thinking and reach enlightenment. Lost a star because the novel seemed like two stories running concurrently but could have existed on their own. I really liked both plots but Brendan and his school were often sublimated in the story about the 'wild magics' in the lower city. Maybe the themes were the same but the duality muddied the plot. Show Less
LibraryThing member xicanti
A magically-inclined gardener comes to work a school of magic.
I find myself in an odd (ha!) position here. I have nothing bad to say about this book. It's a beautiful, detailed, well-written story with a fairy tale feel to it. And yet, it did very little for me.
I'm stymied. The writing is elegant.
The plot is composed of lots of little bits and pieces that McKillip weaves together to create a complex, meaningful story with a satisfying ending. The politics of magic play a key role as they serve as a metaphor for power, responsibility and flexible leadership. What's more, McKillip delves into such themes as grief, loss and the need to communicate. It's the sort of book I normally like very much. I should've been all over it.
And then we've got the characters, who are well-limned and interesting. There are an awful lot of them, but I never felt that McKillip gave anyone short shrift. They're fully-realized people with very human concerns. Again, I should've been all over them.
And yet... none of it was enough. I couldn't connect with these people. I couldn't lose myself in their world. I wasn't exactly bored, but I was most definitely disappointed. Last year, I read one of McKinley's novellas. It was elegant and heart-felt, and it drew me in right away. I was expecting something in a similar vein, and I did get it... but without the oomph.
Sigh. It's like I always say: you love what you love, and you just rather like what you just rather like. I rather liked this. That's all.
(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina).
I find myself in an odd (ha!) position here. I have nothing bad to say about this book. It's a beautiful, detailed, well-written story with a fairy tale feel to it. And yet, it did very little for me.
I'm stymied. The writing is elegant.
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It's sparse and evocative and all that jazz. The world is detailed and easy to visualize, and it has a lot to offer the reader.The plot is composed of lots of little bits and pieces that McKillip weaves together to create a complex, meaningful story with a satisfying ending. The politics of magic play a key role as they serve as a metaphor for power, responsibility and flexible leadership. What's more, McKillip delves into such themes as grief, loss and the need to communicate. It's the sort of book I normally like very much. I should've been all over it.
And then we've got the characters, who are well-limned and interesting. There are an awful lot of them, but I never felt that McKillip gave anyone short shrift. They're fully-realized people with very human concerns. Again, I should've been all over them.
And yet... none of it was enough. I couldn't connect with these people. I couldn't lose myself in their world. I wasn't exactly bored, but I was most definitely disappointed. Last year, I read one of McKinley's novellas. It was elegant and heart-felt, and it drew me in right away. I was expecting something in a similar vein, and I did get it... but without the oomph.
Sigh. It's like I always say: you love what you love, and you just rather like what you just rather like. I rather liked this. That's all.
(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina).
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LibraryThing member Staramber
Od Magic deals with the politics of a nation that doesn't allow magic that it can't control in to its borders. It explores this through very rich, very compelling, very human characters. There's the jaded teacher, the travelling magician looking to settle down, the gardener stung by loss and many
The only phrase I can think to describe this book is 'no expense spared'. It has beautiful characters, a beautiful setting, and a beautiful story. McKillip writes with a great understanding of loss, love, and the need we all have to be our own person.
The one down point was the ending which, while believable enough, seemed slightly forced and hurried. Especially given how much was going on before. Ambiguity isn't a bad thing, it's the suddenness that detracts.
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more just as wonderful minor characters.The only phrase I can think to describe this book is 'no expense spared'. It has beautiful characters, a beautiful setting, and a beautiful story. McKillip writes with a great understanding of loss, love, and the need we all have to be our own person.
The one down point was the ending which, while believable enough, seemed slightly forced and hurried. Especially given how much was going on before. Ambiguity isn't a bad thing, it's the suddenness that detracts.
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LibraryThing member stylo
One of McKillip's best so far--
LibraryThing member plappen
This fantasy story is about a young man who doesn't know the extent of his magical powers.
Brenden lives in the far north and has an innate connection with plants. He doesn't so much talk to them as instinctively nurture them and understand their healing properties. One day, he is visited by the
The Kingdom of Numis, with Kelior as its capital, is a place that fears magic. All students at the school can only learn "authorized" magic; even the instructors are not allowed to know any "unauthorized" magic. All graduates are required to serve Numis.
A portion of Kelior is called the Twilight Quarter. It is the sort of place where the shops and taverns open each day at sunset, and continue until dawn the next day, every day. What happens in the Twilight Quarter, stays in the Twilight Quarter. It is visted by a group of magicians led by a man named Tyramin. No one knows what he looks like, or where he comes from, but news of his arrival spreads through the Twilight Quarter like wildfire. There is a fine line between harmless illusions to thrill the average person, and serious, hardcore magic that might be used against the King of Numis, so the authorities are very interested in Tyramin. Several attempts are made to arrest him, but he always manages to keep just out of reach. Brenden is in the Twilight Quarter looking for the name of a strange plant, where he, unintentionally, shows just how powerful he really is.
This is a gem of a story. McKillip ceratinly knows her way around a fantasy novel, and this one is no exception. It is easy to read, and well done from start to finish.
Brenden lives in the far north and has an innate connection with plants. He doesn't so much talk to them as instinctively nurture them and understand their healing properties. One day, he is visited by the
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great wizard Od, who invites him to become a gardener at her wizard school in the city of Kelior, far to the south.The Kingdom of Numis, with Kelior as its capital, is a place that fears magic. All students at the school can only learn "authorized" magic; even the instructors are not allowed to know any "unauthorized" magic. All graduates are required to serve Numis.
A portion of Kelior is called the Twilight Quarter. It is the sort of place where the shops and taverns open each day at sunset, and continue until dawn the next day, every day. What happens in the Twilight Quarter, stays in the Twilight Quarter. It is visted by a group of magicians led by a man named Tyramin. No one knows what he looks like, or where he comes from, but news of his arrival spreads through the Twilight Quarter like wildfire. There is a fine line between harmless illusions to thrill the average person, and serious, hardcore magic that might be used against the King of Numis, so the authorities are very interested in Tyramin. Several attempts are made to arrest him, but he always manages to keep just out of reach. Brenden is in the Twilight Quarter looking for the name of a strange plant, where he, unintentionally, shows just how powerful he really is.
This is a gem of a story. McKillip ceratinly knows her way around a fantasy novel, and this one is no exception. It is easy to read, and well done from start to finish.
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LibraryThing member HopingforChange
I just finished this book, and I loved it! It is prose that reads like poetry, something that current novels are definitely missing much of the time. McKillip's writing did take longer to read because of her syntax, which is unique, but the experience was well worth the time. The most fascinating
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part of the book was her commentary on power. McKillip tells us that it is, after all, pointless and self-defeating to try to restrain that which we do not understand. In McKillip's created world, this is magic. In our own, I think "magic" can be seen as creativity, ingenuity, and change--we are so afraid of these things, yet they can bring so much good when left to grow. Two thumbs up for this book. I really enjoyed it. Thanks to Miryam for the recommendation! Show Less
LibraryThing member Krumbs
Reading this book is like having someone hug my brain. Yes, that sounds kind of gross, but I become fully immersed in it. It's best not to read on a train, though, as I will miss my stop.
LibraryThing member the1butterfly
Patricia A. McKillip's Od Magic had the same sort of feeling about it that all her work does. If you've read a lot of her stuff, you'll know what I'm talking about... It's a good read, however, once the story comes together.
LibraryThing member jennorthcoast
I loved this McKillip book! Of course, I love them all, but this one had me sitting with a big smile on my face at the end. The characters and some pieces of the plot reminded me of her RiddleMaster trilogy and Cygnus series, using earth magic, and also the “magic” of love and friendship.
And
Anyway, read this book because it is wonderful -- and it even includes gardening, one of my person passions!
And
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I always thrill at the crucial scene where all the main characters are in one room together discovering the mysteries solved (two mysteries, at least, in this book). These scenes always remind me of the classic climaxes in whodunits written by Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, the Thin Man movies (I didn’t read the books), and even recently the climax of Gregory Maguire's A Lion Among Men, with all the bizarre characters stumbling toward revelation at the Cloister. They all have me chuckling aloud whether I guessed the truth or whether I am as surprised as the characters.Anyway, read this book because it is wonderful -- and it even includes gardening, one of my person passions!
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LibraryThing member karinnekarinne
Oh, Od Magic. You are so fluffy and earnest and full of wizards and magic and princesses and labyrinths. These things are familiar and pretty and can be interesting, I guess, if you're in the mood for them. I was not.
Maybe if I were sixteen I would have loved this, but it was a little too
Whatever it is, it's pleasant enough. That is just what it is: a pleasant book, a nice book. I probably just picked it up fifteen years too late.
Maybe if I were sixteen I would have loved this, but it was a little too
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heavy-handed and predictable, and I got tired of McKillip's characters being so . . . I've got to go with "earnest" again. Maybe it IS a YA novel. That would make sense.Whatever it is, it's pleasant enough. That is just what it is: a pleasant book, a nice book. I probably just picked it up fifteen years too late.
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LibraryThing member ncgraham
Patricia A. McKillip's Od Magic concerns the state of magic in Numis, some four hundred years after the wizard Od first strode out of legend to save the kingdom from invading armies, and then founded her school in the royal city of Kelior. She has been mostly absent since that time, and the school
For the first time in nineteen years, Od appears in the northernmost parts of Numis, to the lonely Brenden Vetch, and asks him to come and be the new gardener for the Od School of Magic. With no one left to tie him to his childhood home, he journeys south, carrying within him a power he himself does not understand. When he arrives in Kelior, so does a troupe of street performers led by the fabled Tyramin, conjuring up night wonders in the rowdy Twilight Quarter. Magic outside of that taught in the School is banned in Numis, so the authorities are concrened: does Tyranin posess true power, or are his entertainments mere trickery?
The city setting of Kyreol is typical of McKillip's later work, and may remind her regular readers of the settings of Ombria in Shadow, Song for the Basilisk, and (most recently) The Bards of Bone Plain. But the strange, lonely, wild power that Brendan discovers lurking on Skrygard Mountain is more reminiscent of her earlier novels The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and the Riddlemaster trilogy; leading up to the unfortunate double climax, there's a chase scene right out of Heir of Sea and Fire. The most original aspect of the novel, in my mind, is the Twilight Quarter, a topsy-turvy portion of the city that sleeps by day before turning to a strange carnival of light and music as soon as the sun goes down.
There are four point of view characters aside from Brenden: Tyranin's daughter, Mistral, who performs in his show and guards all of his secrets; Yar Ayrwood, an instructor at the School who has become bored with the curriculum he's made to teach; Princess Sulys, newly engaged to a man she does not know or trust; and Ameth Pyt, Quarter Warden for the Twilight Quarter, who is far more fascinated with the streets he's been charged with overseeing than his bureaucratic father would like. And that's only the beginning! Through their eyes you'll also meet Valeren Grayle, the King's chief wizard and Sulys's fiancee, determined to stamp out any trace of rogue magic; Ceta Thiel, a noblewoman-turned-historian, Yar's lover; Lady Dittany, Sulys's grandmother from foreign lands, who teaches her small magics that the wizards of the school wouldn't even notice; Wye, current head of the School of Magic; and Elver, a trouble-making new student.
With such a large cast of characters inhabiting a 315 page novel (in a comfortably large typeface) it's unsurprising that a lot of them get short shrift, and the fact that McKillip describes their physical appearances in such generic terms doesn't help matters. I wound up feeling like McKillip should either have written a much longer novel set in Numis, or perhaps taken some of her characters and plotlines out, and saved them for another book.
That said, it is unusually straightforward for a McKillip novel, and not as confusing as some of her work. It is also, perhaps, the most political, and most feminist, book of hers that I have read. Apparently the fact that it has a Message bothers some readers; I for one did not mind it. Others have likened the kingdom's oversight of magic to censorship of the arts, while I thought that the School's focus on orthodoxy and narrowness rather than openness and a sense of Wonder paralleled a lot of fundamentalist religious thought, but it works on multiple levels. And in the end small, conventionally feminine magics, tricks, are able to baffle the power-seeking, rigidly inflexible patriarchy.
So, not my favorite McKillip, but one with a few unique elements, and still a pleasing, brief comfort read.
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has gradually been bent to the will of the kings of Numis, who wish to use it only for their own power and protection.For the first time in nineteen years, Od appears in the northernmost parts of Numis, to the lonely Brenden Vetch, and asks him to come and be the new gardener for the Od School of Magic. With no one left to tie him to his childhood home, he journeys south, carrying within him a power he himself does not understand. When he arrives in Kelior, so does a troupe of street performers led by the fabled Tyramin, conjuring up night wonders in the rowdy Twilight Quarter. Magic outside of that taught in the School is banned in Numis, so the authorities are concrened: does Tyranin posess true power, or are his entertainments mere trickery?
The city setting of Kyreol is typical of McKillip's later work, and may remind her regular readers of the settings of Ombria in Shadow, Song for the Basilisk, and (most recently) The Bards of Bone Plain. But the strange, lonely, wild power that Brendan discovers lurking on Skrygard Mountain is more reminiscent of her earlier novels The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and the Riddlemaster trilogy; leading up to the unfortunate double climax, there's a chase scene right out of Heir of Sea and Fire. The most original aspect of the novel, in my mind, is the Twilight Quarter, a topsy-turvy portion of the city that sleeps by day before turning to a strange carnival of light and music as soon as the sun goes down.
There are four point of view characters aside from Brenden: Tyranin's daughter, Mistral, who performs in his show and guards all of his secrets; Yar Ayrwood, an instructor at the School who has become bored with the curriculum he's made to teach; Princess Sulys, newly engaged to a man she does not know or trust; and Ameth Pyt, Quarter Warden for the Twilight Quarter, who is far more fascinated with the streets he's been charged with overseeing than his bureaucratic father would like. And that's only the beginning! Through their eyes you'll also meet Valeren Grayle, the King's chief wizard and Sulys's fiancee, determined to stamp out any trace of rogue magic; Ceta Thiel, a noblewoman-turned-historian, Yar's lover; Lady Dittany, Sulys's grandmother from foreign lands, who teaches her small magics that the wizards of the school wouldn't even notice; Wye, current head of the School of Magic; and Elver, a trouble-making new student.
With such a large cast of characters inhabiting a 315 page novel (in a comfortably large typeface) it's unsurprising that a lot of them get short shrift, and the fact that McKillip describes their physical appearances in such generic terms doesn't help matters. I wound up feeling like McKillip should either have written a much longer novel set in Numis, or perhaps taken some of her characters and plotlines out, and saved them for another book.
That said, it is unusually straightforward for a McKillip novel, and not as confusing as some of her work. It is also, perhaps, the most political, and most feminist, book of hers that I have read. Apparently the fact that it has a Message bothers some readers; I for one did not mind it. Others have likened the kingdom's oversight of magic to censorship of the arts, while I thought that the School's focus on orthodoxy and narrowness rather than openness and a sense of Wonder paralleled a lot of fundamentalist religious thought, but it works on multiple levels. And in the end small, conventionally feminine magics, tricks, are able to baffle the power-seeking, rigidly inflexible patriarchy.
So, not my favorite McKillip, but one with a few unique elements, and still a pleasing, brief comfort read.
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LibraryThing member susiesharp
This was a good book..have to agree with other reviewers about the ending..but what I did like about the ending is she didn't tie it up in a little bow..I thought I'd guessed the ending and was wrong so to me thats a good book.
LibraryThing member jenngv
Wonderful book full of color and fantasy. The characters are fabulous too!
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
McKillip is one of my most favorite authors. I find myself hoarding her books, waiting for the perfect time to read them - because I know they're going to be perfect. (I know this makes no sense, and I will likely die with wonderful books unread due to this horrible tendency.)
McKillip's books
That said, some of her books are very similar to each other. Reading Od Magic, in particular, I really felt like I was reading about many of the same characters portrayed in the last book I read by her, 'The Bards of Bone Plain.' Sure, it was a different story, and a different setting - but at times it was almost as if her standard characters had been dropped into a different story. However - I didn't really mind.
Here, a young man, suffering from grief and having lost his way in life, is approached by a mysterious elderly woman who instructs him to travel to her school of magic - they're in need of a gardener. When he arrives, he discovers that while that's true, the old woman, Od, has approached legendary status at the school - she hasn't been seen in decades. The school, on the surface a haven for talented magicians, is drowning in hidebound strictures and politics, and the king is deeply suspicious of any kind of magic that deviates from the ordinary.
When a group of traveling players with an extraordinary magic show arrives in town, suspicion is thrown on both them and on the innocent gardener, and the king demands arrests left and right.
The story is an excellent depiction of fundamentally decent people who often behave less-than-decently due to inflexible rules.
McKillip's books
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remind me of neo-medieval bands (Qntal, Faun, etc.). They are deeply rooted in tradition, but unmistakably new. They are pure without being innocent, complex without being muddy.That said, some of her books are very similar to each other. Reading Od Magic, in particular, I really felt like I was reading about many of the same characters portrayed in the last book I read by her, 'The Bards of Bone Plain.' Sure, it was a different story, and a different setting - but at times it was almost as if her standard characters had been dropped into a different story. However - I didn't really mind.
Here, a young man, suffering from grief and having lost his way in life, is approached by a mysterious elderly woman who instructs him to travel to her school of magic - they're in need of a gardener. When he arrives, he discovers that while that's true, the old woman, Od, has approached legendary status at the school - she hasn't been seen in decades. The school, on the surface a haven for talented magicians, is drowning in hidebound strictures and politics, and the king is deeply suspicious of any kind of magic that deviates from the ordinary.
When a group of traveling players with an extraordinary magic show arrives in town, suspicion is thrown on both them and on the innocent gardener, and the king demands arrests left and right.
The story is an excellent depiction of fundamentally decent people who often behave less-than-decently due to inflexible rules.
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LibraryThing member Lydia_Perversius
If there's one woman I consider the mother of all things fantasy-themed, that's Patricia McKillip. I remember reading her Riddlemaster Trilogy and literally squealing like the fangirl I am because of the plot twists and the flow of the story. So of course I would go after other titles of hers. And
In Od Magic, we meet Brenden, a lonely man who came upon great magical power by observing the nature around him. Od, a woman so powerful and knowledgeable in the ways of magic that she built a school for people to learn said ways, too, finds him and asks him to become the new gardener at her school. Thus, Brenden travels there, only to stumble upon trouble, since his powers weren't gained by the school's education and are thereby considered dangerous. Add to that a travelling masked magician who illegally performs magic shows in the city's Twilight Quarter and the kingdom's princess running away in an effort to make her betrothed listen to her, and you have a mess in your hands spiralling out of control with every page turned!
I loved this book! Not only was it extremely well-paced, it also filled my time reading it with laughter and awe. McKillip is a master with inspiring quotes, and her way of storytelling resembles the old fairy tales, so it's like reading something akin to the classics every time I open a book of hers.
The characters were all complex and yet so simple in their flaws and stereotypes. None of them escaped the portraiting they had gone through by the author, and they stayed true to their shown personas, so despite having to deal with a big cast, the reader still doesn't get confused or lost. Moreover, the characters were not above some major growth. Most of them after they had acted wrong, which is another bonus of McKillip's writing - no man is prone to changing his ways, unless experience and life have lead him to it.
Now that the whole general thing is out of the way, let's talk about quotes. There was a particular line in the story that really made me shiver and brought tears to my eyes. At one point, Valoren, a talented yet very narrow-minded wizard, couldn't comprehend how Yar, his old teacher, wasn't seeing the danger in the ancient magical beings they found. And it was then that Yar told him, that those creatures Valoren so feared, were scared of him. Probably more than he was of them!
Do you people see the meaning those words, or was I the only one with the theory on it?! Yar was stating, loud and clear, that while these beings of unimaginable power could very well end Valoren in the blink of an eye, they still trembled at the possibility that Valoren would decide to destroy them. It goes to show that, just because we see someone bigger and stronger than us, someone we know can outdo us and squash us like bugs, it doesn't mean that said someone doesn't have their own insecurities and fears. We consider some people dangerous, but have we ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, those same people might think the same of us? In a social level, especially these days, that line of Yar's speaks volumes of what true humanity really is.
Before I finish this review, there's one last thing I want to mention: the end scene. Oh my God, that ending was spectacular! I love circular stories, and this one wasn't an exception. Whenever a story ends in a similar or the same way that it started, a good portion of my brain cells is singing hallelujah and throwing flowers out of handmade straw baskets!
All in all, a great book. Perfect for cuddling up in your bed with right before you go to sleep.
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I didn't regret this decision.In Od Magic, we meet Brenden, a lonely man who came upon great magical power by observing the nature around him. Od, a woman so powerful and knowledgeable in the ways of magic that she built a school for people to learn said ways, too, finds him and asks him to become the new gardener at her school. Thus, Brenden travels there, only to stumble upon trouble, since his powers weren't gained by the school's education and are thereby considered dangerous. Add to that a travelling masked magician who illegally performs magic shows in the city's Twilight Quarter and the kingdom's princess running away in an effort to make her betrothed listen to her, and you have a mess in your hands spiralling out of control with every page turned!
I loved this book! Not only was it extremely well-paced, it also filled my time reading it with laughter and awe. McKillip is a master with inspiring quotes, and her way of storytelling resembles the old fairy tales, so it's like reading something akin to the classics every time I open a book of hers.
The characters were all complex and yet so simple in their flaws and stereotypes. None of them escaped the portraiting they had gone through by the author, and they stayed true to their shown personas, so despite having to deal with a big cast, the reader still doesn't get confused or lost. Moreover, the characters were not above some major growth. Most of them after they had acted wrong, which is another bonus of McKillip's writing - no man is prone to changing his ways, unless experience and life have lead him to it.
Now that the whole general thing is out of the way, let's talk about quotes. There was a particular line in the story that really made me shiver and brought tears to my eyes. At one point, Valoren, a talented yet very narrow-minded wizard, couldn't comprehend how Yar, his old teacher, wasn't seeing the danger in the ancient magical beings they found. And it was then that Yar told him, that those creatures Valoren so feared, were scared of him. Probably more than he was of them!
Do you people see the meaning those words, or was I the only one with the theory on it?! Yar was stating, loud and clear, that while these beings of unimaginable power could very well end Valoren in the blink of an eye, they still trembled at the possibility that Valoren would decide to destroy them. It goes to show that, just because we see someone bigger and stronger than us, someone we know can outdo us and squash us like bugs, it doesn't mean that said someone doesn't have their own insecurities and fears. We consider some people dangerous, but have we ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, those same people might think the same of us? In a social level, especially these days, that line of Yar's speaks volumes of what true humanity really is.
Before I finish this review, there's one last thing I want to mention: the end scene. Oh my God, that ending was spectacular! I love circular stories, and this one wasn't an exception. Whenever a story ends in a similar or the same way that it started, a good portion of my brain cells is singing hallelujah and throwing flowers out of handmade straw baskets!
All in all, a great book. Perfect for cuddling up in your bed with right before you go to sleep.
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LibraryThing member librisissimo
The usual medieval-cum-early-renaissance milieu. The rules of magic are not explained, nor the purpose of Od in founding a school of magic which she then essentially ignores for 400 years, until now.
The romantic elements are understated and therefore charming rather than cloying.
The climax is
McKillip's body of work seems to me to have a trajectory like that of Ellis Peters' Cadfael series: the early books are all new and fresh, and the setting and stories have some depth, but then invention starts to flag and they become little more than costume-drama light romances.
Still fun to read and better than the bulk of the offerings for historical Rooo-Mance (pronounced with a well-deserved slightly derogatory tone), but not the best of her offerings.
The romantic elements are understated and therefore charming rather than cloying.
The climax is
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entertaining, but the denouement unbelievable in any real world setting. McKillip's body of work seems to me to have a trajectory like that of Ellis Peters' Cadfael series: the early books are all new and fresh, and the setting and stories have some depth, but then invention starts to flag and they become little more than costume-drama light romances.
Still fun to read and better than the bulk of the offerings for historical Rooo-Mance (pronounced with a well-deserved slightly derogatory tone), but not the best of her offerings.
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LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
This is a beautifully written story, but is just a bit to juvenile for me to enjoy it properly. It feels like a re-written fairy tale, with fleshed out characters and a thicker plot. Unfortunately, the "problem" was heavy handed, and really didn't make much sense in the context of the story,
I do love the story and the setting. Making it a bit darker would have helped, but the message of being who you are and not letting society keep you down is good, but not when its pointed out every few chapters. Also, I'm with the magicians on this - there are some things that shouldn't be done because it is too dangerous, a kingdom doesn't want a rogue magician running around, destroying things.
But, overall, I liked it. More solid than the Forgotten Beasts of Eld, I found it a much easier read.
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actually, some of the setting felt very much the same way. I do love the story and the setting. Making it a bit darker would have helped, but the message of being who you are and not letting society keep you down is good, but not when its pointed out every few chapters. Also, I'm with the magicians on this - there are some things that shouldn't be done because it is too dangerous, a kingdom doesn't want a rogue magician running around, destroying things.
But, overall, I liked it. More solid than the Forgotten Beasts of Eld, I found it a much easier read.
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LibraryThing member rocalisa
I generally love Patricia McKillip's books and the plot of this one sounded interesting, so I picked it up from the library. Unfortunately, the ongoing reading funk got it and I found myself grinding to a half about a third of the way into it. I put it down to start something else and didn't have
Knowing McKillip, I'm sure it all came together at the end, but sadly I didn't make it that far.
I've ordered her new book, The Bell at Sealey Head, in hardcover so I hope this isn't an indication of my current ability to read McKillip books.
Od Magic
Patricia A. McKillip
Did Not Finish
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the urge to go back to it (I guess this should teach me to stick with a book rather than being tempted by something else, as I often don't go back to them). I think there were just too many characters and plot-threads the story was following for me to keep up. If McKillip had just stuck with the main plotline that was in the blurb I'd had enjoyed it more. But we just kept on getting more and more characters.Knowing McKillip, I'm sure it all came together at the end, but sadly I didn't make it that far.
I've ordered her new book, The Bell at Sealey Head, in hardcover so I hope this isn't an indication of my current ability to read McKillip books.
Od Magic
Patricia A. McKillip
Did Not Finish
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LibraryThing member Isana
Another wonderful read from Patricia A. McKillip. This one was a very nice story. He flitting around with countless points of view can annoy me sometimes, but I liked or was interested in all the characters enough this time that it did not detract to much from the book. The ending was sweet though
The world was as excellently developed in one novel as always from McKillip. I felt that I would actually be interested in living there. It's amazing how much she can do in one novel in terms of world building. It's quite amazing.
Od was wonderful. I am in love with her forever.
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perhaps a bit too easy, but sometimes you want it that way so that you can feel good. The world was as excellently developed in one novel as always from McKillip. I felt that I would actually be interested in living there. It's amazing how much she can do in one novel in terms of world building. It's quite amazing.
Od was wonderful. I am in love with her forever.
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Subjects
Awards
World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Novel — 2006)
Locus Recommended Reading (2005)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2005
Physical description
320 p.; 5.62 inches
ISBN
0441012485 / 9780441012480
Local notes
Brenden Vetch's unique gift for connecting with the agricultural environment has brought him to the attention of the enigmatic wizard Od. Recruited as a gardener, Brenden suddenly finds himself at the wizard's school in Kelior, where every potential mage is required by law to serve the Kingdom of Numis. But unknown to the rulers of Numis, Brenden is far more than he seems-and his presence just may tip the balance of power back into the hands of the wizard community.