Review : Alphabet of Thorn
Author: Patricia A. McKillip
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 2004
I enjoyed this whimsical book and I would rate it 4.5 stars. Alphabet of Thorn is a story about languages, distant history, magic, mages, books, a library, empires, time travel, and love at first sight. It is a fantasy novel written by Patricia A. McKillip (1948-2022), and published in 2004.
The story follows a young woman who is an orphan raised by the royal library, who becomes a transcriber and translates books from magical languages. The book is beautifully written, but it's hard to say what the core themes are. We follow a handful of characters and multiple POVs; we find some themes about trusting oneself, embracing love, questioning folklore, being a scholar, and looking for evidence, and so on. All quite positive. But I guess one of the major themes is about how we interpret history or folklore. How much of it is true, what is hidden, and does it really matter?
The writing is whimsical, perfect for a fantasy novel. It feels "light" and floating, somewhat resembling the floating magic school in the book. It can be confusing at the start, because we get to know about 11 characters in the first few chapters, following different POVs. Later, it all starts to make sense, especially when we readers get to know the translated work done by the FMC. As readers, we learn about the lore in the book at the same time as all the characters do.I liked it a lot; here's a short paragraph I loved:
"...he waited, while she laid his name on her scales and weighed it against all kinds of things. Trouble, for one, he guessed. Heartache, he hoped, for that was on his scale as well." (Chapter 2)
I finished the book in 10 days and enjoyed it a lot. I'm happy that I found another great author. Next up I plan to read The Changeling Sea and The Bell at Sealey Head by McKillip.