Alphabet of Thorn

Infobox Book
name = Alphabet of Thorn
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Patricia A. McKillip
illustrator =
cover_artist = Kinuko Y. Craft
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Ace Books
release_date = February, 2004
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 314 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0-441-01130-6 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Alphabet of Thorn" is a 2004 fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip.

Plot summary

Nepenthe is a sixteen-year-old maiden who was found and raised by the Royal Librarians of Raine. During the new queen's coronation, visitors and ambassadors from the Twelve Crowns (domains) that comprise Raine gauge Queen Tessera's strength. Bourne of Seale, a junior mage from the Floating School, meets Nepenthe in the library with a book made from an animal hide unknown in the Twelve Crowns and inscribed with an unknown language.

Nepenthe plans to deliver the book to the Master Librarians, but she then decides to transcribe it herself. She divides her time between her official duties and translating the book, which seems to be written in configurations of plant thorns. Both Bourne and Laidley, another transcriptor in the Royal Library, note Nepenthe's obsession with learning the book's outcome. On the surface, it appears to be an epic poem documenting the conquests of Axis and Kane, an emperor and "the Hooded One", three thousand years ago.

As Nepenthe continues reading, though, the ruler of the Second Crown (Seale) prepares to usurp the throne from Tessera, whom he views as weak. This view is borne out when Tessera disappears into the woods around the Floating School for a time and can't explain it. The Raine court mage Vevay learns of a dream Tessera had that "the Dreamer", the first ruler of Raine, awoke and said that thorns would be responsible for Raine's destruction. That's confusing enough, but Tessera reveals that "the Dreamer", whom history recorded as a man, was actually a woman.

Nepenthe reads in the mysterious book how Axis and Kane conquered the known world and expanded their kingdom. Upon reading some of the place names, Nepenthe and Laidley confirm that the story of Axis and Kane must be fiction, for it records conquests of places that didn't even "exist" three millennia before. Reading further as Seale's army marches (and Bourne is imprisoned for treason), Nepenthe learns that Axis and Kane traveled through time to expand the reach and strength of Axis' empire. Popular histories in Raine list the man Kane as Axis' court mage; Kane was, but the "woman" Kane was also his lover who opened the Gates of Time for him. Kane became pregnant with his child, but she traveled with the infant through time because Axis' queen would never let her acknowledge his illegitimate child as his heir.

Kane arrived with her and Axis' daughter by a cliffside near Raine, and in anonymity she writes a book about her life in the language of thorns. Thanks to her enchantments, no one but her daughter will be able to read it -- which at the book's climax, she has. The final words of the book open the Gates of Time that admit Axis and Kane, Nepenthe's parents, and their uncountable s of followers near Raine, three thousand years in their future.

When Queen Tessera has learned of the planned invasion, the Floating School uses magic to hide Raine, making it seem a dilapidated ruin. Nepenthe comes out to meet Kane, and refuse her offer of the rule of Raine, because it would require Nepenthe to turn her back on the only world she's ever known. Kane realizes that Nepenthe has made a happy life of her own and gets the army to withdraw, by telling Axis that she took them to the wrong time and will stay behind to find the right one. In truth, Kane realizes that she must choose between Axis and her daughter, and chooses to remain behind, where she can be with her daughter and won't have to hide her identity. This effectively stops Axis' conquests because without her, he can't travel through the Gates of Time. The forces of Seale had seen Axis's army retreated in fear; thereby strengthening Tessera's claim on the throne of Raine. Kane will stay with her daughter Nepenthe in Raine and learn the local language, and Nepenthe will remain in the Royal Library, the only life she ever wants to know.

Literary significance and reception

The Magill Book Review said in their 2004 review that "Reading Patricia A. McKillip's novels is itself like being drawn into a faraway world thick with magic. The intricate style weaves a tapestry whose extra dimensions reveal themselves only gradually." cite journal|last=Alward|first= Emily|date=2004-08-01|journal=Magill Book Reviews|issn=08907722] Publishers Weekly praised the female leads saying "Best of all, the strong female leads neither rail against nor submit to patriarchy. In this magical world blissfully free of bias, people are simply themselves, equally intelligent and witty and thoroughly capable while prone to the occasional error, in a manner that transcends feminism and becomes a celebration of essential humanity."cite journal|date=2004-01-19|journal=Publishers Weekly|title=ALPHABET OF THORN|volume=Vol. 251|issue=Issue 3|pages=p58|issn=00000019]

Notes