In rereading this novel for the 30th anniversary, I find myself in awe of Patricia A. McKillip. Her words are haunting and gorgeous as she blends magic and complexity, knitting them together in a way I’ve seen by few others. I will get into the story itself but if you have never visited her worlds, I recommend you find a copy as soon as possible.
In The Book of Atrix Wolfe, one of the elements that I noticed is the lyrical language choices, beautifully descriptive, pulling you into the glorious story. The characters are complex and multi-faceted. Atrix is neither a villain or the hero of the piece, he is simply a man with power and it is the nature of power that is explored in this narrative. That and the nature of sorrow. I love the clash between the immortal fey and the fleeting humans, between magic and love, and the unchanging versus the ever changing. This story delves into all of those ideas and in some ways leaves you with more thoughts left behind than conclusions. But it also teaches about life, love, and death as well.
No other author I know could combine all of those elements in one story and be so successful as Patricia A. Mckillip. Her skill with words and with ideas transcends time. Even after thirty years, there is still an immediacy to her writing that pulls in the reader and compels them to surround them with her world. If you love stories of magic, of the fey, of love and life, this book is for you. You will find the characters unexpected, in just who saves who, and you will find the words, the narrative haunting and glorious as you revel in the language and the thoughts.

I've never been great with "the classics", I associate them too much with being forced to read for school 😅 But as an adult who loves fantasy, I've been trying to read more classics of the genre - because they've got to have stuck around so long for a reason right?! Some of these have been a struggle (Lord of the Rings, SORRY), but I've also found some favourites. So I jumped at the opportunity to try out this stalwart of the fantasy genre.

The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip is set decades after a war between two kingdoms, only ended by the controversial intervention of a powerful mage, and examines the event's impacts not only on those who live to tell its story, but future generations of humans, mages and magical bystanders.

I would describe Atrix Wolfe as closer to an extended prose poem than a novel honestly, the language is so lush and detailed - which fits well with the book's themes of scholarship and the power of words. It also has definite fairytale vibes to it, in the way it loops and eddies, rather than hurrying between plot points. These are both things, honestly, that can turn me off some classic literature, but here it worked for me - which I will admit may be partially because it's an easily-consumable <300 pages! I felt I could just lean into the experience and let myself get carried away in the flow, rather than feeling I was battling against the words at every turn (ironically, IYKYK).

One of the classic authors I *do* love is Ursula K. LeGuin, and to me this had a similar gentle, meditative feel - so I'm glad it was brought to my attention with this new re-release, and am definitely adding more of McKillip's award-winning repertoire to my TBR!

'He spoke. “You're coming alive,” he said. “Your eyes are listening.” He touched his fingers to his lips. “Don't let them see. You're someone's secret. Don't let them find you alive.”'

#gifted Thanks @tachyonpub and NetGalley for an e-arc to read and review. The book of Atrix Wolf by Patricia McKillip was originally published July 1st, 1995, and this new edition was published yesterday to celebrate its 30th anniversary with a beautiful new cover design.

This is my second McKillip book. I gave Beasts of Eld book a 5 ⭐ rating, but Atrix Wolfe gets FIVE🌟. Is there a quantitative difference in those ratings? No. But I said what I said.

The Book of Atrix Wolfe follows three characters in a world of mixed magic and overlapping realms. It reads like poetry, myth, music, and that feeling you get walking through a beautiful gallery with high ceilings and pillars and Van Gogh on display.

It's the most sensory book I've ever read, and I say that confidently and without hyperbole. Every setting and character has scent, the action is marked by food you can almost taste. McKillip uses light as if it were also a character in its own right.

The biggest theme is that of the space between right and wrong, good and evil. The immense difficulty of wielding power and using it wisely when the stakes are high and the cost is ultimate. The book is about that strange reality of discernment in practice as it grows and is used.

For fans of Tolkien, Lewis, Le Guin, Chesterton, and Enya music lol. Here are some bullet points:

▪️Brothers who are besties
▪️Unlikely, slowest burn romance subplot with top notch non-lusty yearning
▪️Cottage core except make it classic and sophisticated
▪️A little bit of spookiness
▪️Fairytale vibes and the naming of things

There’s something both nostalgic and timeless about The Book of Atrix Wolfe. It rides the line between classic late 20th century fantasy and fairytale, with its tropes of conquering kings and mages coupled with a rhythmic, repetitive writing style reminiscent of oral storytelling tradition. As a fan of both genres, I was thoroughly enchanted.

This was my first foray into the strange and wonderful work of Patricia A. McKillip, and I loved it! It was fascinating to read the introduction from the artist who created the gorgeous cover for this 30th anniversary edition; Kathleen Jennings perfectly captured the magic of McKillip’s prose, and her musings about the visual elements of the writing really helped me get into the story. The lush imagery, so like a medieval tapestry, made this feel like a fairytale right from the beginning, and I immediately understood all the accolades from Jennings and others. This is not a straightforward story with a beginning and an end, but rather a shared dream between characters, with repeated memories and events. The tone of eerie otherworldliness felt plucked right out of dreams I myself have had, and I was left in complete awe of McKillip’s descriptive talent. Everyone is lost and searching in this story, from prince to mage to scullery maid, and while it was sometimes difficult to separate reality from dreams, that fine hovering balance was what made this book special.

4.5 stars

Thanks to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for providing me with e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is the first book I have read by classic high fantasy author Patricia A. McKillip, but it won't be the last!

In The Book of Atrix Wolfe, we follow young Prince Talis, the orphaned heir to the kingdom of Pelucir, as he discovers a corrupted spellbook and is haunted by visions from the woods.

Beautifully written, this feels more like poetry in parts, with reflexions on the value and power of language itself. The book has a dreamlike quality, both through the writing style and the topic itself. I found the story compelling and enjoyed the themes of the nature of words, being human, and acknowledging the past.

A recommend read for fans of Patricia McKillip, Ursula Le Guin, and ethereal fantasy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly, this book wasn't for me, but it's not the book's fault. There is much to love:

It felt like a fairy tale with kings, magic and fairy queens. The prose is wonderfully dreamlike and utterly beautiful as is the world itself.

I found the pace quite slow with a focus on the beautiful descriptions instead of moving the plot along. I don't mind slower books, but in this case, it was hard for me to keep going.

Another issue for me was that I couldn't connect to the characters at all. They somehow didn't feel real and I couldn't make myself care about them. This made me lose all interest in the story and I had to force myself to keep reading.
I liked the Hunter though!

I was reminded of Ursula K. Le Guin's writing style - I have similar problems with her books even though I want to love them so much.

If you like fairy tales and Ursula K. Le Guin you might like it, and I would recommend it.

I absolutely loved the introduction by the cover artist Kathleen Jennings

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book.

Very unique and beautiful story, overall highly enjoyable! It is a very well written fantasy, I highly recommend.

Anytime I hear or see a reader bemoan the overabundance of series in today’s fantasy market, I recommend Patricia McKillip’s books quicker than the complaint finishes its articulation. In my opinion, McKillip holds the master spot in the standalone fantasy category, even though she did write a few series. Not a single McKillip title boasts the length of a tome, yet every world in each book feels like it’s hundreds of pages long. I’ve not finished all of McKillip’s backlist, but I’m very happy that her books are getting some special treatment, though I’d like to see a very nice hardcover collection of them with nice edges and beautiful artwork (that’s not stock). If you haven’t read a Patricia McKillip book yet, I highly recommend you pick all of them up, starting with The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and go from there.

True to form, The Book of Atrix Wolfe possesses a short page length yet a fantastic plot full of fully fleshed-out characters and complicated, yet sympathetic villains. We start the book on the even of a pivotal battle for the land, with a wise mage making a significant error in judgment and the consequences spanning multiple realms and generations of the inhabitants.

McKillip’s true strength likes in the deftly immersive fantasy worlds she builds, and the fae realm of the forest pulls the reader in so well the world seems to go dark no matter the time of day to match it. Characters provide similarly ethereal encounters, with no small part going to any one of them. Even the most inconsequential characters in the story must have close attention paid to them, for they may end up the accidental heroes. And though McKillip’s books bear character names in the titles, those characters may be the ones who cause the problems instead of the ones to save the day.

I’m always surprised when I mention McKillip to other fantasy readers for standalone recommendations; most fantasy fans have never heard of her. Her wonderful debut, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld celebrated its 50th anniversary last year in 2024 and got its own special hardcover release, but it didn’t really seem to feature much on socials or bestseller charts, despite the fact that EVERY SINGLE white-haired, dragon-riding FMC in today’s popular fantasy and romantasy is based in some way, shape, or form on McKillip’s Sybel.

As a bonus, fantasy readers looking for stories with no explicit language or sexual content will find extra joy in The Book of Atrix Wolfe, for it contains none.

My thanks to Tachyon Publications via NetGalley for the DRC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.

I own not one but two copies of this book, so I really do love it.

“Words had gotten into her somehow, to get out again. She yawned, inhaling, and tasted bitterness and gold, a letter without a sound.”

4.25⭐ rounded up to 5. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of this classic fantasy novel, a brand-new edition is coming out next month, with an original introduction and new cover art. It was my first experience with McPhillips’ writing, and I’m looking forward to reading more.

After a streak of alien and monster smut/romance books, I think I might have been in the wrong mindset to *truly* appreciate this one, so I fully plan on doing a reread at some point. I was taken aback by the slow pace, never-ending sentences, and confusing parts (I know it was intentional--the characters themselves were confused--but still, it made me switch off). At the same time, so many things were simply flawless. That ending!

Read this if you love: fabulous poetic prose, a slower pace, short reads, unpredictable magic, Arthurian legends & fairytales, Eldritch-horror-style villains, allegories and moral reflections.

❤️ Flowy and poetic writing style
❤️ The simple, yet mysterious and gripping plot
❤️ The last 25%
❤️ Complex relationship between Atrix and Talis
❤️ My girl Saro <3
❌ Some confusing parts
❌ Lack of emotional connection to the characters for the first half
❌ Too much moral filler
❌ Unnecessary romance

Tropes to expect: magic misfire, cursed princess, dream communication, big brother instinct, school of wizardry, words are magic!, enchanted mage tower

Trigger warnings: violence, death and grief, war, injury and injury detail, missing child, missing significant other, suicidal thoughts, classism.

We open in the highest of high fantasy registers, exalted as Eddison or William Morris, the White Wolf sweeping down from the snow-bound crags to a siege in Pelucir, the Queen of the Woods and her family watching the human world from a place a little out of reach – but not far enough once great sorceries are unleashed. Then it's 20 years later, and Talis, a prince born in that besieged castle, is at wizard school*, a less elevated setting with more human rivalries, even mop cupboards, but that's still high fantasy compared to our other protagonist, Saro, lowest of the low, an unspeaking pot-washer in the castle kitchen, where the minute gradations of labour (mincers, boners, even a couple of jobs that aren't innuendos) carry echoes of Gormenghast. And the way McKillip runs up and down that scale is a big part of the effect here, but of course all these slices of her invented world are ultimately nothing but words, and words are what she's determined to wrestle with, right from that prologue, where the Queen tells her consort "Sorrow is a word that means nothing until it means everything." Telegraphing a plot which, yes, if you stop too long to think about it, will be revealed as in large part a massively overwrought variation on the fork handles sketch. But McKillip weaves her own words with enough magic that you mostly don't, or feel cheated when we ultimately come to one of the most pat and fairytale resolutions of the lot and yet it feels almost new because of the route we took to get there. And part of the beauty of a story about words not meaning what they seem to, most obviously dangerous in the case of the titular spellbook** is that you can read a whole novel which has wise*** things to say about trauma, that decades-past war still haunting and damaging every character all those years later, but as against how blatant and artless a lot of recent genre fiction has become about its themes, is executed with sufficient skill and confidence that it doesn't need to use the word 'trauma' once.

*Of course he has glasses. They always do.
**Yes, it's another for my long list of real works which share the name of works existing only within themselves, a phenomenon itself ironically unnamed.
***If perhaps too optimistic, but then given the times, pretty much anything I can bear to read feels too optimistic.

(Netgalley ARC)

Like one of those dreams where you wake knowing that some profound truth about your life has been revealed, but the details fade into mist at the edges... The plot of this novel weaves in and out of my grasp, but the sense of mythic depth remains.

This is my favourite of McKillip's books. I read it years ago, and was pleased to re-read this beautiful new edition. Her writing is as elegant and elusive as poetry.

What a stunningly beautiful book this was! This is my second McKillip book, and I'm becoming convinced that her prose is the best I've come across. The way she writes is just pure poetry, filled with emotion and magic.
This one is about a mage, Atrix Wolfe, who created an evil spell twenty years ago, in an attempt to prevent a war. Fast forward to today, and an orphan Prince and amateur mage discovers the Wolfe's magic book with simple, introductory spells. But nothing is as it seems, and he manages to reawaken this great evil from twenty years ago. There's also this pot scrubber in the kitchen, unable to speak and who somehow lacks language completely...

It's a classical fantasy story, with a magical fae forest, shapeshifting mages, magical books, evil curses, kings and princes and their kingdoms, but still this felt like an unique story. Nostalgic, yet fresh.

I'm gonna avoid spoiling this, but it's an atmospheric read about past regrets coming back to haunt you, tragedy and sorrow. It reads very much like a fairy tale, but is still very grounded. Some of my favorite sections were just what was going on in the kitchen. Saro, the pot scrubber, has such an interesting perspective, and it was really fun to read how she observed the cooking of the kings meals. Made my mouth water too.

Highly recommend if you like classical fantasy stories with a dreamy, magical atmosphere!

I love discovering classic fantasy novels as I love discovering new to me authors. This was a BANG as I fell in love with the gorgeous cover and fell in love with the story, sort of love at first page.
Well written, enthralling, entertaining.
A great story, excellent world building and storytelling, well developed characters
Loved it.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

10/10 stars

My full review on my blog.

McKillip wrote many outstanding fantasy novels, renowned for the skilfully poetic, evocative and yet precise language. Among the most widely known are undoubtedly her early works The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and The Riddle-Master of Hed, both reviewed on my blog – but I’ve also read her newer stuff, like Alphabet of Thorn or Winter Rose, or In the Forests of Serre. I picked up The Book of Atrix Wolfe on a whim, as the new edition had become available on NetGalley – and intriguingly enough, this turned out to be my favorite McKillip book I’ve read to date.

I’d be hard-pressed to explain why this book worked better for me than any of the others – there is still plenty of threads hanging loose, which has bugged me before but, surprisingly, not this time; the trademark bitter-sweet ending of McKillip’s novels somehow feels entirely right where it had not worked for me in her other books; the illogicality of certain choices seems more believable here whereas before it was enough to pull me out of immersion. I could go on trying to justify my delight, but I think you get the gist – The Book of Atrix Wolfe is a typical McKillip novel which nevertheless turned out to be a perfect McKillip novel for me :).

I love how nothing is straightforward in this book – no choice is simple or made in void, everything is interconnected and mediated by things we have no control over. Coincidence, not fate, is what in the end influences the outcomes of our decisions – although there is a bit of fate involved, too, otherwise aligning all those elements together would be near impossible ;). It seems to me McKillip was acutely aware of that, and, tongue-in-cheek, reflected it in the title of the novel – the eponymous book has a mind of its own and it is its behavior that starts the chain of events that form the plot.

[...]

I thoroughly enjoyed this little jewel of a book and it is perhaps the one McKillip novel I will be happy to return to in the future.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.

I read THE BOOK OF ATRIX WOLFE five years ago for the first time, and the thing I remember most about it is McKillip’s amazing prose and imagery—specifically, the image of Saro in the nearly ghibli-esque kitchen full of industry and people, collecting a never-ending pile of pots and climbing under tables to stay out of people’s way. I specifically remember how VIVID everything felt and how concrete and tactile the hustle and bustle and the scent and feel of the world came through the pages.

Rereading it now for the 30th anniversary edition makes it feel even more alive.

THE BOOK OF ATRIX WOLFE is about a magician, the white wolf of Chaumenard, who intervenes in a war with unforeseen consequences. Years later, he is roused again by the queen of the wood to find her daughter, who went missing in all his sorcery years earlier.

I can never predict what happens in a Patricia McKillip book because so much of the story is a fairytale, but in such a way that plot is never the primary concern. Her stories have such an emotional and tangible FEEL to them, but that’s not to say that plot isn’t important. It’s that you get to swept up in her imagery and prose that when things happen, you are taken off guard.

The magic of the book is just as present in this new edition, full of wonder and mystery and life.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC.

Sometimes McKillip's lush, mannered language works for me, and sometimes it doesn't. This was a case of it feeling over the top (for me) and getting in the way of my relating to the characters, who were distanced from me by the elaborate wall of words. I know there are many who love this style unilaterally, so this is merely my opinion.

On the plus side, I have never seen a cover illustrator write an introduction before, and I think it's a marvelous idea. I would like to hear more from illustrators about their experience of the books they work on.

I love Patricia McKillip's writing. Love love love. It's always so lovely, and brings me into worlds of whimsy and magic.

The Book of Atrix Wolfe is the story of, among other people... Atrix Wolfe (gasp!)... He is a legendary mage in these lands. Twenty years previously, he used some powerful magic to end a war between kingdoms, and then disappeared.

It is also the story of Talis, the prince of the kingdom of Pelucir. His brother is King, unable to have children, and it is up to Talis to carry on the line, but Talis isn't really interested in doing so. He's found a strange spellbook and is more interested in testing all the spells inside.

The Queen of the Elves has been missing her consort and child since the days when Atrix Wolfe ended the war, and she demands that the mage come out of hiding and find them or else she will steal Talis into her woods and keep him.

But on top of all of that, this is the story of a kitchen. A very busy, hot, steamy kitchen, and one special person who works in it, among all the peelers, tray maids, pluckers, spitters, and other kitchen people with their kitchen words.

As I said earlier, this is a beautifully written book. It is a quick, easy read and I really enjoyed my time with it. The story unfolds in a way that kept me interested, and it was definitely a good example of McKillip's whimsical, otherworldly imagination.

I recommend this book to anyone who liked any of McKillip's other work, or enjoys authors like Robin McKinley, Charles de Lint, or Peter S. Beagle. If you enjoy them, I think that this is a book that you all would enjoy as well.

This is one of my favorite authors. I fell in love with her as a child when I read the Riddle Master trilogy.

Yo me she writes so beautifully- her words are lush and dream like. She really takes you to another world in her novels.

I found out that she has passed away and the world is poorer without her in it and gifting us with her writing.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

#TheBookofAtrixWolfe30thAnniversaryEdition
#NetGalley

Un romanzo da leggere se si cerca qualcosa di fuori dal tempo, e il piacere di una lingua che si svoltola come un incantesimo, per qualche ora di lontananza da tutto, sospesi in un modo senza tempo.