Patricia McKillip’s newest book, the Bards of Bone Plain turned out to be a highly enjoyable read. Although my long time favorite of hers has been A Winters Rose, Bards of Bone Plain may just have usurped it for she has combined her misty magical mood with a story that is remarkably relatable and witty.
Bards of Bone Plain is divided into alternating chapters following two story lines. The “modern” is set in a quasi fantasy world that melds the typical medieval mood and setting with modern amenities such as indoor showers and steam powered vehicles in the central City of the Kingdom; and the “past” is set in their mystic quasi Celtic history.
It follows three main protagonists, the first we are introduced to is Phelan. He is a young academic, about to graduate from the school on the hill that has been dedicated to the training of bards since Declain, the great bard founded it thousands of years ago. Phelan is eager to graduate, he never wanted to stay in school but has been forced to remain at the wishes of his eccentric father who works as a kind of freelance archeologist for the King. The only thing standing between Phelan and graduation is his final dissertation like paper and he is determined to choose an easy subject (never mind how over done) so he can get out with as little bother as possible. But while poring over manuscripts he comes across a mystery that sets him off on a journey of discovery far more complicated then he was looking for.
Zoe, Phelan’s oldest friend wants a simple life, days spent teaching at the Bardic school, nights spent with her boyfriend who is a bar-keeper down at the wharf. But her amazing voice throws her into the spotlight when the King’s bard who has been teaching her suddenly decides that he will retire and wishes her to compete (and win!) so she can take his place instead. Unfortunately her main competition is a strange man with an unearthly charm who may not be who he seems to be.
Princess Beatrice is the youngest daughter of the King and therefore has been allowed to escape some of her royal duties. She works for Phelan’s father at his archeological digs and is drawn, both due to her own curiosity and due to her connection with Phelan and his father, into the complex mystery of the past that has started affecting the present. Together these three must protect the Kingdom and find a way to stop the past from destroying the future.
As the three main characters wade through the past from their present McKillip allows us ,the readers, to follow along with a bit more knowledge, between each chapter following our protagonists she gives us one that is set up in three parts, first an excerpt from an academic paper writing on the legend of bone plain much like what Phelan is reading in his research, second an excerpt from the ballad that tells the story of Narin the Unforgivin and finally the storyline following Narin himself. This interplay of timelines gives us, the readers just the right amount of information we need to understand both what the characters in the modern time are starting to comprehend, as well as allowing us to guess at what they might be overlooking.
Although some might argue that some of the personal lives of the characters developed too quickly and with little explanation, I think that McKillip is merely expecting her readers to do as her characters are learning to do, read between the lines. Look for the meaning behind the words and the power within them. It is all there if you know where to look. The story is complex and dense and like all of McKillps works the reader starts to feel almost as if they are falling under a spell like the ones that weave around the pages of the books. I always come away from her stories feeling like I have walked the boundaries between this world and another and this one was no different. However what was unique about this one was a lot of smiles and a couple of outright laughs. Her wit shines through on the page and her hilarious little side moments like Phelan’s purple silk sheets, her description of Zoe’s boyfriend Chase having yellow “sunflower” hair, Phelan’s banter and arguments with his father, or the moment when Beatrice insists on wearing a grimy medallion she just dug up around her neck with her silk court dress, brighten the pages and provide plenty of levity to counter the intensity of the enchantments that saturate the pages.
McKillip has once again written an amazing and enthralling novel and I highly recommend it to both long time fans and newcomers to her work.
