‘In the Forests of Serre’ a fairy tale for adults

  Award-winning fantasy writer Patricia A. McKillip paints such a vivid, magical world in her books that I never want to put them down.
  For me, there isn’t much better than curling up under a comfy throw on a rainy day with one of her books.
  Her descriptive prose transports me to a dreamy world of beauty, color and fairy tale creatures.
  McKillip’s “In the Forests of Serre” centers around Prince Ronan, who after running down a white hen comes face to face with Brume, the “Mother of All Witches.”
  “As in all the tales he had heard of her, there was the ox-bone pipe in her apron pocket, the green circular lenses over her eyes, the knobby, calloused feet that broadened to an inhuman size when she picked up her cottage and carried it. There, behind her, stood the cottage made of bones, some recent and still bleeding marrow, others of a disturbing size and indeterminate origin. A single circular window, its pane as green as her lenses, seemed to stare at Ronan like a third eye among the bones. The door stood open. Never, all the tales warned, never go into the witch’s house.”
  Brume demands repayment for her white hen. Ronan refuses her requests for him to enter her home and pluck the hen. He refuses to lead his company into the house for a cup of broth.
  Brume curses him.
  “ ‘Then,’ she said softly, ‘you will have a very bad day.’ ”
  Ronan is not the only voice in this fable. Princess Sidonie is on her way to Ronan from her home in Dacia. She is to marry the prince in the hopes of averting war between Serre and Dacia. She is guided by a shadowy, shape-shifting sorcerer, whose alliances are questionable. And watching from afar is an aged, ailing wizard, left battered from a previous battle.
  McKillip is a master of imagery, complemented by the beautiful artwork of Kinuko Y. Craft.
  With “In the Forests of Serre,” McKillip takes readers on a journey to a land where animals talk, witches steal the hearts of princes, and princesses fight to get those hearts back. What a wonderful journey for a rainy day.