The Riddle-Master of Hed (Trilogy)

The Riddle-Master Trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip

Consists of:
The Riddle-Master of Hed
Heir of Sea and Fire
Harpist in the Wind


I decided that I was going to review this trilogy as one books because that's what it should have been the whole time. Not three book. Not even two books. One. One book. Do you know why it should be one book? It was SO confusing that the only way of making a little sense out of it all was to read one book right after another. No breaks. Like a real book.

I started out thinking good things about this book. Several of my friends thought this book was good and I even had strangers tell me it's good. And then I started this book. I read the first three chapters three times because I could not understand what was going on. Even after finishing this book I am confused about several things in this book. I thought that this book had moments of brilliance but overall I did not care for the writing style or even the plot. Really? A harp player who is a farmer prince travels across the lands, loses his memory, is kidnapped/betrayed, tortured, and then gains all this power over the lands that he doesn't know what to do with. Meanwhile his fiancé, who refuses to actually marry him, gains a power over fire and sea. (Really. Okay?) So she is figuring all that out while wraiths are popping up all over her home kingdom. And there are wizards and some stone-children which I still don't understand. And there are some evil undead that I feel like nothing happens to them. And they are never really explained they just are but they never get figured out. I am pretty sure that these wraiths and undead and wizards coming out of hidding are from a war between the creators (also known as really powerful wizards). The was was sort of put on hold for thousands of years while they searched for the Star-Bearer, who is our hero of the story, who apparently was the key to winning the war for both sides.

Overall I found the story absurd and I didn't care for it. I caught myself several times while reading this thinking that I want to read Lord Of The Rings or even Pride and Predjudice or something with a plot that is worth spending two weeks reading.

A Harpist by Adele Lorienne