Harrowing the Dragon is the first collection of short stories by celebrated fantasy author Patricia A. McKillip. Patricia and I have a special bond. Early on in the development of my reading tastes I was exposed to science fiction by my uncle and could not get enough. At that point in my life I had not read any fantasy novels. Then one birthday or Christmas my brother Jason bought a book for me: The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip. It was the first in a trilogy and I devoured all three. Between the late 70’s when I read the Riddle-Master series and the late 90’s I hadn’t realized that Patricia was such a prolific writer. Around that time her novels began coming out in hardcover with wonderful covers by artist Kinuko Y. Craft and my fond memories of her earlier work had me buying these books. Her incredible artistry with language has kept me buying each new book the moment it is released.

Having read so many of her novels I was excited to see how her writing style translated into the short story format. Harrowing the Dragon contains 15 stories written between 1982 and 1999 that had not been collected before. Patricia A. McKillip writes fantasies. There is nothing of the science fiction vein in these tales. To be quite accurate about it, however, Patricia A. McKillip’s work always seems to have a strong sense of the fairy tale in it, much more than many fantasy authors I have read. Her stories have an atmosphere about them formed by tapping into the mythos of the fairy tales of old. These 15 tales are no different.

In Harrowing the Dragon you will find dragons and trolls, witches and princesses, love and loss, music and magic. You will not always find happy endings. You will also not be fed fairy tales in small, easy-to-digest nuggets. Patricia A. McKillip has a true gift of creating art with language. Her stories are not confusing by any means but they are thought provoking and several of these short tales hint at much more going on under the surface than one can see with a quick read through. It is hard to describe how Patricia A. McKillip is different from other fantasy writers, but she is. There are many good writers who do not necessarily have a unique voice. Then there are writers like Neil Gaiman, Gene Wolfe, Jonathan Carroll, and Patricia A. McKillip that you could recognize just by reading a few chapters of their work even if you weren’t aware of who the author was. Patricia’s command of the English language is present in these tales and they are truly enjoyable, but for the full effect of her work I would recommend her novels, Ombria in Shadow being my favorite.

Of the stories in Harrowing the Dragon my favorites are Baba Yaga and the Sorcerer’s Son which in some ways feels like a Hellboy story, Lady of the Skulls, Toad (which is the kiss-a-toad story told from the toad’s point of view), and the Lion and the Lark. Those are my favorites but that isn’t to say that the rest of the stories aren’t good. I actually enjoyed each and every one. Star-Crossed is a very interesting take on the deaths of Romeo and Juliet told from the point of view of the man on watch sent to investigate the mystery of their deaths. The Snow Queen tells a tale of a woman forced because of love lost to become more than she ever was before. There really are some great original stories in here standing side by side with wonderful reworkings of classic fairy tales.

When it comes to Patricia A. McKillip you really cannot go wrong. Her unique and talented voice has produced a number of memorable novels over the last 25 years and I look forward to many, many more. For me, walking into a bookstore and seeing a new Patricia A. McKillip book is akin to finding lost treasure and there are few authors that I would recommend more highly than her.