{"id":31529,"date":"2016-02-25T06:30:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T17:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=31529"},"modified":"2016-02-24T21:25:02","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T08:25:02","slug":"why-i-like-patricia-mckillips-the-riddlemaster-of-hed-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/02\/25\/why-i-like-patricia-mckillips-the-riddlemaster-of-hed-so-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Like Patricia McKillip’s “The Riddlemaster of Hed” So Much"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"riddlemaster_of_hed_3\"<\/a>Lately, I’ve done a lot of interviews, which is just what happens when you have a book come out. (Daughter of Blood<\/em><\/strong>, The Wall of Night<\/a> Book Three: released into the wild on 26 January 2016 — just for those who might<\/em> not know!)<\/p>\n

And it’s great — I very<\/em> much appreciate the time interviewers and podcasters put in. Nonetheless, when the interviews start coming thick and fast, sometimes the questions and answers blur into each other just a bit — not unlike colours running. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely try and answer each question fresh. It’s just that sometimes I can’t ec-zackerly remember who, precisely, asked me what.<\/p>\n

So although I know that someone (or possibly several someones) have asked me about some of my favourite and or most defining reading experiences, I can’t point you to exactly which interview or where. But I do know (or I think I know!) that I have said, in at least one interview, that one of my favourite Fantasy series is Patricia McKillip’s The Riddlemaster of Hed<\/em> trilogy. (The Riddlemaster of Hed <\/em>is also the title of the first book, which may be why I always apply the same handle to the series, correct or not.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"HeirOfSeaAndFire\"<\/a>I really love the series and highly recommend it, for a number of reasons. Awesome storytelling, for starters. Beautiful and inspiring use of language for another. Interesting and intriguing characters, as well — and a fascinating world and magic system.<\/p>\n

I know what you’re thinking about now, i.e there’s no need to go on, the case is not only made, but made well. All entirely true, thanks to the books. All I am doing is enumerating their manifest virtues.<\/p>\n

However, there is one more reason that I love this series — and that’s the hero, Morgon of Hed. What I love about Morgon the most is that he is\u00a0 a hero that stands for the values of peace, and by extension civil society, rather than one that lauds military and militaristic behaviour. At one point in the series, a Morgon driven almost to breaking point by the forces ranged against him is checked by a single, and in his case devastating sentence: “They* were promised a man of peace.”<\/p>\n

\"Harpist<\/a>Morgon’s stubborn, dogged, adherence to those values is inspiring — and also relatively unusual in a Fantasy milieu where we often focus on those who either embrace or readily resort to violence.<\/p>\n

A story for a more innocent age, some might say. In fact, I believe it is a story that very much ‘speaks’ to us today — in the spirit of Augustine of Hippo who said, nearly 2000 years ago, “that as we are…so are the times.”<\/p>\n

As Morgon is, in The Riddlemaster of Hed<\/em>, so too are his<\/em> times. Food for thought, perhaps — but also a might fine yarn, very well told.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

* You'll have to read the books to find out who \"they\" are.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lately, I’ve done a lot of interviews, which is just what happens when you have a book come out. (Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: released into the wild on 26 January 2016 — just for those who might not know!) And it’s great — I very much appreciate the time interviewers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epicfantasy","category-recommended-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31529"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31541,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31529\/revisions\/31541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}