Summary
Kyreol, growing up in the simple community of Turtle-Crossing as daughter of the Healer, is unhappy with her life there and full of questions no one can satisfactorily answer. She wants to know where her long-lost mother disappeared to, and why lies beyond the edge of the world. Her dissatisfaction comes to a head with the Moon-flash ceremony betrothing her to the unimaginative Korre, and the appearance in her dreams of the strange and powerful Hunter.
Kyreol decides she must leave home, following the River into the unknown beyond the rapids of Fourteen Falls. Accompanying her is her childhood friend Terje. On their journey they learn of other peoples and cultures, increasingly sophisticated, and other uses of the moon-flash symbol. Their quest culminates at the great Dome, holding the key to the Riverworld's mysteries and the road to the stars.
Reception
Barbara Hutcheson in School Library Journal calls the story a "lyrical tale," writing that "Kyreol's search can be understood on many levels. On one, she is a child looking for the mother who disappeared years before; on another, she is a young primitive gradually becoming aware of life in cultures apart from her own; on another, she is a girl finding her way into womanhood. All these strands are developed subtly but in depth and are woven smoothly together by analogy to the River as it winds through the story. McKillip's theme is not original, but she attunes readers so completely to the primal mind of her characters that the first contact with outside forces falls like a blow. Her language is fluent and full of memorable imagery enlivened by touches of humor." She finds the "only disappointment" in the "explanation of the 'Moon-flash' of the title," which "seriously undermines not only the empathy of readers for [the] heroine, but also the author's underlying message of respect for primitive cultures" by seeming to reduce it "to a cargo culture manipulated and perpetuated by paternalistic anthropologists." Nonetheless, she concludes that "this is excellent leisure and social studies support reading for fantasy fans." [2]
Beth and Ben Nelms in English Journal write "[t]his book is a powerhouse of ideas; questions are seen as the beginning of progress; each culture is honored for what it has meant to life on ea[r]th; the quest for answers is safer and more bearable if the traveler is not alone; the power of love overcomes tribulation; and humans have the ability to love what has been while looking forward with hope and confidence to the sometimes frightening future." [3]
The book was also reviewed by Faren Miller in Locus no. 283, August 1984, Charles de Lint in Fantasy Review v. 8, no. 1, January 1985 and Science Fiction Review v. 14, no. 1, Spring 1985, Robert Coulson in Amazing Stories v. 59, no. 2, July 1985, and Michael E. Stamm in Fantasy Review v. 8, no. 11, November 1985. [1]
Tanith Lee was a British science fiction and fantasy writer. She wrote more than 90 novels and 300 short stories, and was the winner of multiple World Fantasy Society Derleth Awards, the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. She also wrote a children's picture book, and many poems. Additionally, she wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. She was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award, for her book Death's Master (1980).
Firebird Books is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., publishing mainly paperback reprint editions of science fiction and fantasy for teenagers and adults.
3000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction is an anthology of fantasy and science fiction short stories, edited by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp. It was first published in both hardcover and paperback by Lothrop Lee & Shepard in 1972. It was the first such anthology assembled by the de Camps, preceding their later Tales Beyond Time (1973).
Gertrude Barrows Bennett, known by the pseudonym Francis Stevens, was a pioneering author of fantasy and science fiction. Bennett wrote a number of fantasies between 1917 and 1923 and has been called "the woman who invented dark fantasy".
The Birthgrave is a 1975 science fantasy novel by British author Tanith Lee. The novel was Lee's first published novel for adults, and also the first novel in The Birthgrave Trilogy. Inspired by Lee's own personal dreams from her early twenties, the story follows a nameless protagonist through various towns on a journey to discover who she really is and what she is capable of. The Birthgrave received mostly positive reviews and was nominated for the 1975 Nebula Award for best novel.
The Nebula Awards #18 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by American writer Robert Silverberg. It was first published in hardcover by Arbor House in October 1983; a paperback edition with cover art by Gary LoSasso was issued by Bantam Books in September 1984.
The Throme of the Erril of Sherill is a fantasy novella for juvenile readers by Patricia A. McKillip, as well as a subsequent collection containing the novella. The novella was first published in hardcover by Atheneum in 1973. It bears the distinction, along with The House on Parchment Street, of being one of McKillip's first published books. The novella was later gathered together with the author's short story "The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath" into a paperback collection, also titled The Throme of the Erril of Sherill, issued by Tempo Books in January 1984. The collection was reprinted in February of the same year.
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Wonders of the Invisible World is a collection of fantasy short stories by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in trade paperback and ebook by Tachyon Publications in October 2012. The title of both the collection and the first story in it derive from the 1693 book of the same title by Cotton Mather.
Dreams of Distant Shores is a collection of fantasy stories by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in ebook by Tachyon Publications in May 2016, with the trade paperback print edition following from the same publisher in June 2016.
Fool's Run is a science fiction novel by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in hardcover by Warner Books in April 1987, with a paperback edition issued by Questar/Popular Library in February 1988. The first British edition was published in paperback by Orbit in June 1987, with a hardcover edition following from Macdonald in August of the same year. The novel has also been translated into Italian.
The Bards of Bone Plain is a fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in hardcover and ebook by Ace Books in December 2010, with a book club edition issued simultaneously with the Science Fiction Book Club and a trade paperback edition following December 2011. The first British edition was published in ebook by Gateway/Orion in December 2015.
The House on Parchment Street is a fantasy ghost story novel for juvenile readers by Patricia A. McKillip, first published in hardcover by Atheneum in 1973 and reprinted in trade paperback by the same publisher in March 1978 and April 1991. It bears the distinction, along with The Throme of the Erril of Sherill, of being one of McKillip's first published books.
The Changeling Sea is a fantasy novel for juvenile readers by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in hardcover by Atheneum/Macmillan in October 1988, with a paperback edition issued by Del Rey/Ballantine in December 1989. It was subsequently reissued in paperback and ebook by Firebird/Penguin in April 2003. The first British edition was published in hardcover by Oxford University Press in September 1991, with an ebook edition following from Gateway/Orion in December 2015.
Kingfisher is a fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in hardcover and ebook by Ace Books in February 2016. The first British edition was published in ebook by Gateway/Orion in June 2017.
The Night Gift is a novel for juvenile readers by Patricia A. McKillip, first published in hardcover by Atheneum in June 1976 and reprinted in trade paperback by Aladdin/Atheneum in April 1980.
The Moon and the Face is a science fiction novel for juvenile readers by Patricia A. McKillip, a sequel to her earlier novel Moon-Flash. It was first published in hardcover by Atheneum in September 1985, with a paperback edition issued by Berkley Books in October 1986. It was subsequently combined with its prequel Moon-Flash in an omnibus edition, also titled Moon-Flash, issued in paperback and ebook by Firebird/Penguin in March 2005.
Stepping from the Shadows is a novel by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in hardcover by Atheneum in 1982, with a paperback edition issued by Berkley Books in August 1984.
The Cygnet and the Firebird is a fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip, a sequel to her earlier novel The Sorceress and the Cygnet. Despite a mixed reception, it was nominated for the 1994 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. It was first published in hardcover by Ace Books in September 1993, with a paperback following from the same publisher in September 1995. The first British edition was published in paperback by Pan Books in July 1994. It was subsequently combined with The Sorceress and the Cygnet into the omnibus collection Cygnet, issued in trade paperback by Ace Books in March 2007. It has also been translated into French.
The Sorceress and the Cygnet is a fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in hardcover by Ace Books in May 1991, with a paperback edition following from the same publisher in January 1992. The first British edition was published in hardcover and trade paperback by Pan Books in June 1991, with a standard paperback edition following from the same publisher in May 1992. It was subsequently combined with its sequel The Cygnet and the Firebird into the omnibus collection Cygnet, issued in trade paperback by Ace Books in March 2007.
