[DTH]≡ Libro Gratis The Riddlemaster of Hed Patricia A McKillip 9780345331045 Books

The Riddlemaster of Hed Patricia A McKillip 9780345331045 Books

Download As PDF : The Riddlemaster of Hed Patricia A McKillip 9780345331045 Books

The Riddlemaster of Hed Patricia A McKillip 9780345331045 Books

It is an old series that has some real twists and turns. I have read them several times over the years.


Tags : The Riddlemaster of Hed [Patricia A. McKillip] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Long ago, the wizards had vanished from the world, and all knowledge was left hidden in riddles. Morgon,Patricia A. McKillip,The Riddlemaster of Hed,Ballantine Del Rey,0345331044,902203796,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9),Fantastic fiction.,Fantasy,Fantasy.,Juvenile Fiction,Juvenile Grades 7-9 Ages 12-14,MASS MARKET,Non-Classifiable

The Riddlemaster of Hed Patricia A McKillip 9780345331045 Books Reviews

Reading "The Riddle-Master of Hed" is like trying to solve the riddle of someone else's partially-glimpsed dream. You enter a rich world of metaphor, sometimes baffling but always beautiful. A standard hero's quest is overgrown with fabulous beasts, children of stone, and death-dealing harps.

When Land-Ruler Morgon of Hed wins a bride and a crown in a riddling contest with a ghost, he wipes the cow manure off of his boots and sets sail from his tiny island kingdom. Unsure as to whether his beautiful, red-haired prize has any interest in marrying a farmer-king, Morgon sets course for the College of Riddle-Masters at Caithnard, where he was once a student and where his bride's brother still resides. His companion for the journey is Deth, the thousand-year-old High One's harpist.

Morgon and Deth are shipwrecked, and once Morgon regains his memory he discovers that he has unknown, shape-changing enemies who will stop at nothing to destroy him. As he flees through the kingdoms of his world, he is befriended by the various land-rulers and is gifted with a harp and a sword that are decorated with three stars--identical to the birthmark of stars on his forehead. He also learns how to change his own shape into beasts and trees.

Finally Morgon makes his way to Erlenstar Mountain with Deth, the harpist, hoping that the High One will solve the riddle of his stars and defend him against his implacable enemies.

Warning don't read "The Riddle-Master of Hed" without the last two books of the trilogy at hand. The ending of the first book is a completely unexpected sucker-punch, and although "Heir of Sea and Fire" ends by reconciling Morgon with his bride Raederle, they are both still being pursued by a very nasty wizard and an equally nasty horde of shape-changers. You have to read to the very end of this absorbing trilogy before you find even a tentative glimmering of peace and happiness at the end of "Harpist in the Wind."
Like the best of fantasy, The Riddle-Master of Hed reads like a beautiful dream. And the reluctant warrior at its center, fated to be a powerful figure of prophecy despite all his wishes for a quiet life back home, makes for a compelling hero. But the worldbuilding is maddeningly opaque here, such that the reader can feel the subtleties eluding us every time a character speaks. It adds to the hazy dreamlike quality of the text, but it's frustrating for anyone trying to actually follow the plot.
I read this partly in a paperback copy and partly in an e-copy borrowed from the library (the e-copy was Riddle-Master with all 3 books in the trilogy put together). I think that readers with a paper copy may be at a slight advantage as there are some nicely drawn maps in the paperback edition that might help you follow the geography/path of travel if this is something that matters to you.

I struggled to keep going with this book. It's actually fairly short, weighing in at just around 200 pages, which seems tiny by today's standards. Despite that, this book read very slowly to me as a result of the author's style. She likes to describe things that are happening rather than telling you. Normally I enjoy this, but in this case she uses a lot of metaphysical/imagery type language rather than just laying out what's going on. It makes it hard to follow the action on more than one occasion.

The basic premise is we meet Morgon who is the Price of Hed. Hed is a pretty small, rural kingdom and so being a prince there doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. Until Morgon inherited Hed he was studying at the college of the Riddle-Masters and was an exceptional student there. Riddles in this context really seem to just be history and the lessons you learn from those historical events.

Anyway, as the book goes on, you discover Morgon has a Fate that he doesn't want to pursue but he ends up having to follow anyway. He spends the vast majority of the book wandering from kingdom to kingdom and picking up random helpful skills. There's a big plot twist/reveal literally on the last two pages of the book which set up the sequel.

I had several problems with this book that I haven't already touched on 1) The protagonist spends an inordinate amount of time wandering from location to location without really advancing the plot a whole lot; 2) Everywhere he goes, magically he immediately finds the king of whatever land he's in and they know him and can't do enough to help him out. There are apparently 5 commoners in the entire kingdom and a whole slew of traders and then just lots of kings and queens; 3) Why is everyone bending over backwards for this guy? His supposed "fate" was hidden from him and everyone else, so there seems to be a real disconnect in the logic; 4) The author seems really enamored of having things happen in mystical dream sequences and then surprise, the character wakes up and some part/all of the dream really happened.

Despite all my complaining, something about the book did appeal to me and after the big plot reveal I went ahead and started book 2, Heir of Sea and Fire (which, incidentally, is moving along a little faster though it does so far have some of the same wandering around the landscape for no reason issues).
A poorly written book with no redeeming qualities.
Couldn't seem to get back into it. One of these days. I suppose you have to be in the right mood.
This is simply one of the best books out there. Read it today!!
It is an old series that has some real twists and turns. I have read them several times over the years.