Kingfisher (McKillip novel)

Kirkus Reviews calls the novel a "delicately wrought, twinkle-eyed fantasy from the accomplished author of The Bards of Bone Plain," who "skillfully blends a thoroughly modern passion for technology and seafood with folklore, myth, and magic in a narrative consistently full of surprises," though "[t]he characters ... aren't always fully drawn," and "[i]t's disconcerting to realize that most of McKillip's characters have, at first, no idea what's going on--and the few that do are saying nothing." The reviewer finds that "the overlarge back story too often merely tantalizes," but "Fantasy lovers looking for a lighter touch amid all those vampires, zombies, werewolves, and industrial-strength malefactors will find this a refreshing change of pace."^[3]

Charles de Lint in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction writes "A NEW Patricia McKillip book is always a cause for celebration. McKillip has never disappointed me, regardless of how she flits about genres. She’s written high fantasy, contemporary fantasy, science fiction, and horror, leaving her own distinct fingerprint on each so that in the end the best classification is that she writes McKillip novels." He notes "The title of the book—Kingfisher—is a giveaway as to its underlying theme. This is an Arthurian story, through and through, with all the familiar elements set slightly askew but no less recognizable for that." He further states that "Kingfisher is McKillip writing at the peak of her game — which is amazing when you consider how long she’s been at it. I loved the richness of the story and characters, the mingling of old with new, mythic with contemporary, and can’t wait to reread it."^[2]

Michelle West, also in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, gives the book a "highly recommended" rating, praising McKillip as "an author of my youth who has never been visited by the suck fairies — or, putting it another way, rereading her as I get older reveals layers and textures in her writing I missed the first time through." She notes that "[t]here is more — there's always more, in McKillip's work. She has always been adept at creating people who are profoundly human, but she has also been the master of magic, of creating magic that feels wild and larger than life and all-encompassing. In lesser hands, the magic becomes the focus; in McKillip's, it's wed, always, to the people whom it affects, and the results of this are almost alchemical; she takes the base materials and transmutes the whole into pure gold. She lets people be people in all their complications: their wrongs, their rights, their strengths and weaknesses."^[4]

The novel was also reviewed by Gary K. Wolfe in Locus no. 664, May 2016, and Gautam Bhatia (2016) in Strange Horizons, 12 September 2016.^[1]

The novel won the 2017 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, and placed twelfth in the 2017 Locus Poll Award for Best Fantasy Novel.^[1]