Though McKillip's sf is unusual and well written, she has clearly found the conventions of fantasy more adaptable to her needs, which centre on intricate, deeply worked storylines whose exact wording and emphases demand, and reward, focused attention demands perhaps less taxing than Gene Wolfe (see above) makes on his readers, but similarly mandatory.
Fool's Run ( 1987), which is adult sf, retells the Orpheus myth in a story of a woman visionary who has been found guilty of mass murder and is incarcerated in a Prison satellite, the Underworld (see Crime and Punishment) it is memorable for its evocative sequences about future Music. Much as in her fantasy books, the central theme is Conceptual Breakthrough, in this case from an Edenic but primitive Pocket Universe, Riverworld, which turns out to be an isolated corner of a planet containing the way station of an interstellar civilization, and the protected object of anthropological study. Her sf proper began with the poignant Kyreol sequence for the Young Adult market: Moon-Flash ( 1984) and The Moon and the Face ( 1985).
While in no way resembling sf, the trilogy contains one of the most sophisticated uses of the Shapeshifter theme to be found anywhere in sf or fantasy. Thus the book's meaning is enacted by the way it must be read. It has been argued, by Peter Nicholls in Survey of Modern Fantastic Literature ( 1983) edited by Frank N Magill, that the trilogy is a work of classic stature: the intricate narrative of its quest story echoes a moral complexity almost unheard of in fantasy trilogies McKillip's protagonist has a special skill at unravelling riddles and, through a series of strategies (including subliminal hints as little obvious as leaves in a forest) not unlike those adopted by Gene Wolfe in his The Book of the New Sun ( 1980-1983 4vols), she forces the reader also to become a decipherer of codes.
These showed an increasing assurance (and appeared to be for increasingly older children) from The House on Parchment Street ( 1973) through to The Throme of the Erril of Sherill ( 1973 chap exp as coll with "The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath" 1984) and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld ( 1974) – the last winning a World Fantasy Award for best novel – an assurance which culminated in the Riddle-Master trilogy: The Riddle-Master of Hed ( 1976), Heir of Sea and Fire ( 1978) and Harpist in the Wind ( 1979), assembled as Riddle of Stars (omni 1979 vt The Chronicles of Morgon, Prince of Hed 1981). (1948-2022) US author whose early books were all fantasy, mostly for children.
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