The Bards of Bone Plain, by Patricia A. McKillip
The kingdom of Belden was united from five kingdoms by a foreign invader who brought with him a a bard named Declan. When Declan retired from his position as Court Bard, he set up a school on a hill on the Stirl Plain, where he trained other bards, looking for bards of power and skill, who might be trained in the magic that had been lost to the land. His most promising student was Nairn, who had sung the jewels from Declan's harp and had been the marching bard of one of the defeated kings, and who would fail at the Three Trials of Bone Plain and become known to poetry as the Unforgiven.
A thousand years later, Belden has become a modern society, where the car has just been introduced and most wealthy houses have electricity. Jonah Cle is a wealthy man and friend of the king who, when he is not drunk, leads excavations around the kingdom's capital. His son is Phelan, a student at the school on the hill, which is now surrounded by the city. Phelan wants nothing more that to graduate from the school and go on his way, and so researches the Bone Plain for his final paper, thinking it would be easy. One of Jonah's more enthusiastic pupils is the princess Beatrice, much to the disappointment of the queen.
The story goes between Nairn, in the beginning of the kingdom and how he came to take the trials of Bone Plain; and Phelan and Princess Beatrice, as they discover the past in their various ways; and how the past was still with them. In many ways, the parts set in the "modern" era feel very similar to Georgian England (around the beginning of the twentieth century), with people starting to look at their history with a critical eye, and the upper class living in strict social codes (which a young woman digging in the dirt does not include).
One of my favorite fantasy series is McKillip's "The Riddle Master" trilogy, which I read a young lad and was still touched when I finally reread it a couple of years ago. I've also read a couple of other things by her, which I found good but not quite the same. In this book, she hits her A-game. There are passages where she almost sings (appropriate for the theme of the book).
This is a gooooood book.
A thousand years later, Belden has become a modern society, where the car has just been introduced and most wealthy houses have electricity. Jonah Cle is a wealthy man and friend of the king who, when he is not drunk, leads excavations around the kingdom's capital. His son is Phelan, a student at the school on the hill, which is now surrounded by the city. Phelan wants nothing more that to graduate from the school and go on his way, and so researches the Bone Plain for his final paper, thinking it would be easy. One of Jonah's more enthusiastic pupils is the princess Beatrice, much to the disappointment of the queen.
The story goes between Nairn, in the beginning of the kingdom and how he came to take the trials of Bone Plain; and Phelan and Princess Beatrice, as they discover the past in their various ways; and how the past was still with them. In many ways, the parts set in the "modern" era feel very similar to Georgian England (around the beginning of the twentieth century), with people starting to look at their history with a critical eye, and the upper class living in strict social codes (which a young woman digging in the dirt does not include).
One of my favorite fantasy series is McKillip's "The Riddle Master" trilogy, which I read a young lad and was still touched when I finally reread it a couple of years ago. I've also read a couple of other things by her, which I found good but not quite the same. In this book, she hits her A-game. There are passages where she almost sings (appropriate for the theme of the book).
This is a gooooood book.