The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Young Sybel, the heiress of powerful wizards, needs the company of no-one outside her gates. In her exquisite stone mansion, she is attended by exotic, magical beasts: Riddle-master Cyrin the boar; the treasure-starved dragon Gyld; Gules the Lyon, tawny master of the Southern Deserts; Ter, the fiercely vengeful falcon; Moriah, feline Lady of the Night. Sybel only lacks the exquisite and mysterious Liralen, which continues to elude her most powerful enchantments. But when a soldier bearing an infant arrives, Sybel discovers that the world of man and magic is full of both love and deceit―and the possibility of more power than she can possibly imagine.
What you might want to know about The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Sybel grew up on Eld Mountain with a household of legendary beasts called by her wizard father. When a soldier brings a baby to her door and asks her to raise him, the world she has held away from herself comes for her.
Yes. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1975. Patricia McKillip was 26 at the time. The novel has remained continuously in print as a beloved fantasy classic.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is sometimes classified as YA fantasy, suitable for readers 12 and up. There is no explicit content. The lyrical prose and fairy-tale tone work for both younger and older readers.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld was written by Patricia A. McKillip, published in 1974 by Muses.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is 229 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is a standalone novel by Patricia A. McKillip, not part of a series.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
