Solstice Wood, Patricia McKillip

This is the first book set in contemporary time Ms. McKillip has written in an age. Don't ask me what the most recent previous contemporary-time title is because I don't know. According to the Penguin website Ms. McKillip has two stories in separate anthologies coming this week. One book is Flights, Extreme Visions of Fantasy and the other is Firebirds Rising. So far as I can tell there isn't an 'official' website by her- which is fine with me since I want her to write more & surf less. LOL :P

Solstice Wood is about tradition & fear. How communities and individuals can perpetuate and enforce these same ideas almost (but not quite) to the point of no return. On another level it is a book about death & change & the flow of time and boundaries. The power of family, community & love. Forests, meadows, hearth magic & beings not of this world. Or are they?

Sylvia Lynn, a bookstore owner in the Pacific Northwest, must return to her childhood home upon the death of her grandfather. Events unfold from there. I won't say more except that things are not all what they seem to be.

Ms. McKillip writes a lyrical & beguiling blend of myth, allegory & fantasy just right for a spring weekend bursting with new life.
Books, Book Review, Fantasy Review