I just finished The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, by Patricia McKillip. It started off very clunkily for me. I think I may have been nursing wounds from attempting Eragon, because the usual deluge of names and places and legends and vernacular put me off for many pages. But what McKillip does early on is give that hook that so many good narratives have - that emotional lynchpin that is introduced, played with, but never given a spotlight until it's needed.

On the surface, the story is about a silver-haired wizard woman who calls magical legendary creatures to her, and keeps them in her relative solitude on a mountain, far away from the doings of men.

On a much deeper (and yet simple) level, this book is about love, fear, and forgiveness. The conclusion was so satisfying to me that I am sitting here with tears in my eyes. Good stuff. Forgotten Beasts is a thought experiment wrapped up in fantasy trappings, and it works pretty well. I am glad I stuck it through.

Thanks again to Melissa for the recommendation.

Taking another trip to the library today on lunch, I think.

In the meantime, here's some stuff I've read so far in 2006:

Clouds End, Sean Stewart
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, Kenzaburo Oe
All the Myriad Ways, Larry Niven (I can never see his name without automatically reversing it like on the Magic card. How many nerd points do I get for that?)
Coke Machine Glow, Gordon Downie
The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper