Riddle-Master #1: The Riddle Master of Hed—Roll Call & First Impressions *NO Spoilers*

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Are you reading or planning to read The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip, book 1 in the Riddle-Master trilogy? Please check in here.

NO spoilers in this thread!

[Gabi]

Yes, I'm definitely reading it. I own the trilogy and my sister used to love it. Somehow I never got around reading it. This I will rectify now.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I plan to start it today. I, too, have never read it before. In fact, I don’t think I’ve read anything by McKillip.

[Shel, Moderator]

I won't be reading it again this time around, but I've read it twice - once many years ago, once when this group read it in January 2019.

[DivaDiane]

I really would like to read this one, but the only place I could find it (besides buying it) was in the wider Library system and that's shut down at the moment due to Lockdown. I may clink in later.

[Gabi]

I have the omnibus with a short introduction of the author, which I was glad about. There she wrote that this trilogy is an early work of hers, written as and for her teenage self and that she wouldn't write like this anymore. With that in mind I wasn't so perturbed by the quite simple prose and plotting in the beginning. It is a 180° turn from Lord of the Rings, which I'm reading aloud with my boys at the moment and where we wished Tolkien wouldn't only be half as talky as he was.

[Ryan]

I DNFed this one last year. The first half just wasn't interesting enough. I won't be revisiting it. I hope you guys like it more than I did.

[Paul]

Yep, I bought the kindle/audible combo and am switching between them. Amazon have found my sweet spot with Whispersync

[Mary]

Gabi wrote: "I have the omnibus with a short introduction of the author, which I was glad about. There she wrote that this trilogy is an early work of hers, written as and for her teenage self and that she woul..."

Oh, yes. I can see various hints of her future developments in this trilogy, but she left this vein.

Then, back in 1980, it was considerably more pioneering than it may look with hind sight.

[Paul]

Gabi wrote: "With that in mind I wasn't so perturbed by the quite simple prose and plotting in the beginning.."


I confess I was initially finding the style a bit twee but, once the story got going, I was completely sucked in, largely by the world building.

[Amanda]

I loved this book the first time I read it, did not love it as much the second time I read it. It's still dear to my heart but I've aged beyond it I guess. The first one in the series is still my favorite of the series.

[Kimberly]

I just downloaded the trilogy and started yesterday.

[Wolf_Maiden]

I got the trilogy on Kindle, and have started the first book. I am really enjoying it so far. The story is interesting, and the writing style is lovely.