9/10
Raederle, promised to the Star-Bearer after he answered an unanswerable riddle, is the focus of this second book in the Riddle-Master trilogy. The author’s prose is lyrical and enchanting, weaving its own spells as Raederle learns the mysteries of her own magic. The story relates her journey through the lands and deep into herself. I am looking forward to the conclusion of this series. ( )

The writing is still magical, just like in the first book.

“The sunlight seemed to leap goatlike from peak to peak; the air crackled white with the smell of melting ice.”

There are so many heartbreaking and horrifying things happening, with something dark and unknowable always in the background.

I love it that Raedarle has a strong will, and a temper, and strange amazing powers. Her character arc was something I enjoyed very much - there are no princesses in towers patiently waiting for heroes to come back from quests in this book. Thank you!

I jumped for joy when Raedarle and Lyra teamed up and were being badass together. It was great to see Tristan again, and I liked the interactions between her and Lyra and Raedarle. I loved them all - even when their quest was all over the place. Really, I am impressed that a fantasy book published in the 1970’s did such cool things with its female characters.

The themes of the nature of trust, love of land and home, understanding who you are are woven very skillfully into the book (and the whole series, I am beginning to think).

(Insert minor complaint here: Why does everyone keep bringing the heels of his/her hands up to their eyes? It happened several times in book one, and at least three times in this one. Please stop doing this.)

Here is my favourite part - Raedarle gives Morgon a piece of her mind when he is all “thank you, love you, you are great, I have this and that quest left to do, wait for me a little longer”:

“Her smile faded. “Morgon of Hed”, she said evenly, “if you take one step across this threshold without me, I will lay a curse on your next step and your next until no matter where you go your path will lead you back to me.”

(She can do it, too.)

Wonderful ending. (Awwww…) ( )

I’m sorry, but this book is so boring. I wasn’t a big fan of the first one, but at least I liked two of the characters. Those characters are mostly absent in this book and, in fact, it gets a two stars from me because of the parts they were in.

This felt very much like a second book in a trilogy. It did almost nothing to advance the plot. We follow a different main character, Raederle, who is the betrothed of the first book’s main character. Unfortunately, she hasn’t really changed in the entire book and a lot of information I already knew is being repeated because she wasn’t present in the first book.

I should be glad that this book featured three female characters when there was a lack of them in the first one, but unfortunately I found them all to be very dull. They also had no character development. The only development in this book happened off page with characters I actually cared about and that I would have been more interested in following.

The world is still confusing. There are shapeshifters and shape changers and a magic system revolving around weird riddles that aren’t so much riddles as they are general knowledge. I decided not to really care about that because I can’t make much sense of it. It might be because I am not that invested in this story too.

I will still attempt the third one because I am curious about how everything will wrap up and it seems like the two characters I care for are back. Otherwise, I would have given up on this trilogy. It’s a pity because Patricia A. McKillip is one of my favourite writers, but these books don’t feel at all like her usual style. ( )

I recently finished rereading [The Riddle-Master of Hed] trilogy by Patricia McKillip. It's been decades since I last read these little novels. They remain favorites from my youth. When I spent a semester in Costa Rica in the 1980s, the only books I brought to sustain me were this trilogy for my fantasy selection and David Brin's [Startide Rising] and [The Uplift War], which felt like a duology at the time.

I worried that rereading this high fantasy trilogy would tarnish the sheen of fond remembrance. No such thing! I still savored the lyrical prose, the imagery and metaphors, the characters, the world-building, all of it. I thought then and still think that these would translate well to the cinema given the advances in special effects that really bring magic alive on the screen. But of course, I'd hate to see how Hollywood would butcher the story.

[Heir of Sea and Fire] is the second book of the trilogy, where we're introduced to Raederle. It's spring again, and no one has seen or heard from Morgon or Deth for a year. Raederle sets out to find out what happened to Morgon, accompanied by his sister Tristan and Lyra, the land heir of the kingdom of Herun, who had met Morgon two years ago and is haunted by his refusal to accept her help and his possible death. Along the way, Raederle discovers she's more than the second most beautiful woman of An, with dangerous and powerful magic of her own.

These books remain charming classics for me. They were a perfect bedtime read--comforting and familiar and uncomplicated. ( )

Once again, I was really swept up in this magical and complicated world. The story here is more about the characters than about the journey, as The Riddle-Master of Hed was but I still felt that tremendous sense of place. Very much worth a reread.