The Bards of Bone Plain and Something Rich and Strange by Patricia McKillip

Something Rich and Strange is a parto of the "Fairylands" series, and I think the only one to be issued with Brian Froud's artwork. (I read a library copy and some horrible person traced over a lot of the pictures.) It combines 4 of my favorite things-Patricia McKillip, Brian Froud, Tam Lin, and sea lore-to make a modern fairy tale that...is technically good, but somehow left me cold. (Slightly disconcertingly, I also share a name with the heroine.) It had all the right elements, but never completely grabbed me, I suspect largely due to disinterest in the Tam Lin figure. But it had all the things that make McKillip good, and Brian Froud's art is always a good thing.

The Bards of Bone Plain is, I think, McKillip's latest book. Set in what seems to be a fantasy version of Edwardian England, it revolves heavily around music and legends and fairy tale themes and students coming across secrets and mysteries and mythic figures who aren't what they seem (and adventurous princesses) and finding the truth behind the myth and the history. Many aspects of the story are reminiscenent of Alphabet of Thorn, and it's hard not to compare them. Alphebet of Thorn is the better of the two, but The Bards of Bone Plain is also worthy on its own merit, and better than McKillip's last couple of books.