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meganbmoore Harrowing the Dragon is a collection of McKillip's short stories from various mythologies. As I've mentioned before, McKillip's strength lies in he characterization, the worlds she creates, and her prose. While the prose is still present in the short stories (perhaps even moreso than in the books) there isn't as much room for the other two. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but when I read McKillip's books, I tend to read 20-30 pages without really registering anything, then suddenly it clicks, and I go back to the beginning. This isn't a flaw in the writing, just my getting distracted from what McKillip is saying with how she's saying it. Most of these short stories ended just as they were starting to click in my mind, some before they did.
This isn't to say the book is a bad read. Far from it. I'm particularly fond of Baba Yaga and the Sorcerer's Son, which is pure fun, and Lady of the Skulls, which was surprisingly fleshed out for its length. The Lion and the Lark, which seems to be very similar to Hans My Hedgehog(ah...probably not the right name for the tale, but I'm too lazy to look it up) was wonderful and felt like a shorter version of one of her books, and Star-Crossed was a fun little investigation into the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The Snow Queen was an interesting one for me. Andersen's fable is probably my favorite fairy tale, but it's my favorite for Gerda. Kay is just something of an add-on to her story, the object of her quest, but I've never really put a lot of thought into him. Even in his part of the story, I find the Snow Queen herself more interesting. Here, though, I had to honestly wonder why she thought he was worth the trouble, or why she'd want him back. (I'm also attached to it as the pure love of children, and am never quite comfortable with it being retold as pure romance.) In many ways, I love other fairy tales for the way they're worked into larger pieces of fiction and/or directly adapted, but The Snow Queen is the one I love for being exactly as it is in its original form.
In short, a good read, but I think McKillip is much better suited for full novels.
This isn't to say the book is a bad read. Far from it. I'm particularly fond of Baba Yaga and the Sorcerer's Son, which is pure fun, and Lady of the Skulls, which was surprisingly fleshed out for its length. The Lion and the Lark, which seems to be very similar to Hans My Hedgehog(ah...probably not the right name for the tale, but I'm too lazy to look it up) was wonderful and felt like a shorter version of one of her books, and Star-Crossed was a fun little investigation into the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The Snow Queen was an interesting one for me. Andersen's fable is probably my favorite fairy tale, but it's my favorite for Gerda. Kay is just something of an add-on to her story, the object of her quest, but I've never really put a lot of thought into him. Even in his part of the story, I find the Snow Queen herself more interesting. Here, though, I had to honestly wonder why she thought he was worth the trouble, or why she'd want him back. (I'm also attached to it as the pure love of children, and am never quite comfortable with it being retold as pure romance.) In many ways, I love other fairy tales for the way they're worked into larger pieces of fiction and/or directly adapted, but The Snow Queen is the one I love for being exactly as it is in its original form.
In short, a good read, but I think McKillip is much better suited for full novels.