book data
267 ratings, 3.85 average rating, 67 reviews
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published
2005
(first published 2006)
by Ace Hardcover
binding
Hardcover, 432 pages
characters
isbn
0441012868
(isbn13: 9780441012862)
description
Mélusine—a city of secrets and lies, pleasure and pain, magic and corruption, and destinies lost and found…
Felix Harrowgate is a das...more
Felix Harrowgate is a das...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 394)
Read in July, 2007
I briefly considered giving this 2 stars because I dislike Felix so much, but Mildmay and Melusine bumped it up to 3.
I don't just dislike Felix because he's an annoying character -- though he is SO annoying; at several points when I was reading the book I was just squirming around squeaking in indignation that it was making me spend so much time in his stupid annoying head. I also dislike Felix because so many of his sections are utterly pointless. Monette could just as well have moved the s...more
I don't just dislike Felix because he's an annoying character -- though he is SO annoying; at several points when I was reading the book I was just squirming around squeaking in indignation that it was making me spend so much time in his stupid annoying head. I also dislike Felix because so many of his sections are utterly pointless. Monette could just as well have moved the s...more
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Read in July, 2007
Fantasy. Something's rotten in Melusine and the Virtu, a collection of spells that protects the city's wizards, has been destroyed, sending the city into disorder. The story's told by two narrators: Felix -- wizard, drama queen, perpetual victim -- and Mildmay -- thief for hire, regular guy, and a hundred times less whiny than Felix. I hated Felix. I spent most of the book wishing he'd shut up and go away. He's a big wet blanket, cowardly and useless, and would be perfectly at home in a bad piec...more
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recommends it for:
'Fraid I wouldn't, unless it improves dramatically.
Hrm. A hundred pages into this novel, I had to come back here to see if my friend's review was really is as glowing as I remembered it to be. I'm baffled.
I'm struggling to keep interested in this book. This is a poorly-explained world, where magical and social elements are introduced in passing, but not fleshed out; the book itself is structured with a bizarrely flip-flopping POV, reminiscent of a soap opera, which changes so frequently as to prevent me from getting interesting in either of...more
I'm struggling to keep interested in this book. This is a poorly-explained world, where magical and social elements are introduced in passing, but not fleshed out; the book itself is structured with a bizarrely flip-flopping POV, reminiscent of a soap opera, which changes so frequently as to prevent me from getting interesting in either of...more
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Read in March, 2008
While reading this book, I started to think of it as a whimsical runner in a marathon. Sometimes it jogged, sometimes it sprinted, sometimes it stopped to chase butterflies in the field, but surprisingly, it never fell on its face, and when it frolicked gaily (fear my puniness) across the finish line, it still managed to look fabulous, so it gets four stars.
Metaphors aside, I know this book is part of a four-book series, but I agree with others reviewers on this site in that it felt like a l...more
Metaphors aside, I know this book is part of a four-book series, but I agree with others reviewers on this site in that it felt like a l...more
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Read in December, 2007
I really liked this book (so much so that I picked up the second book the day after I finished the first one).
As with any book that has constantly alternating points of view, I found it distracting at first but eventually I was able to settle into it. (It's a personal preference. It works for some people and not for others). The world is an interesting place, though I think the nonstandard measurement of time is unnecessary and irritating.
I did not guess the connection between Mil...more
As with any book that has constantly alternating points of view, I found it distracting at first but eventually I was able to settle into it. (It's a personal preference. It works for some people and not for others). The world is an interesting place, though I think the nonstandard measurement of time is unnecessary and irritating.
I did not guess the connection between Mil...more
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Read while traveling. I didn't have a good reading environment for enjoying this until midway through, and then I was hooked. I need to reread the first half at least, though. I have a feeling I missed some important details.
...
Okay, I've reread enough to write a coherent review.
Mélusine was a much more intense, disturbing, and violent book than I was prepared for, and so reading it was in some places extremely disturbing. But if you don't get squicked by rape, torture, mindfuc...more
...
Okay, I've reread enough to write a coherent review.
Mélusine was a much more intense, disturbing, and violent book than I was prepared for, and so reading it was in some places extremely disturbing. But if you don't get squicked by rape, torture, mindfuc...more
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Read in August, 2006
I picked this book up on a recommendation from one of my favorite authors - Charlaine Harris - and I wasn't disappointed. Sarah Monette does a marvelous job pulling us into this new world. For instance, if the names she gives to months sound oddly familiar, it's because they are borrowed from the French Revolution's republican calendar system. This deft touch, in addition to many other captivating details, creates an alternate universe with a historical past that is both familiar and exotic. Hal...more
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recommends it for:
Fantasy fans, slash fans, tortured protagonist fans
Dark, tortured fantasy fans, rejoice! Sarah Monette is here for you with a stellar new world, a wonderfully academic vision of magic (lots of different schools of thought, all of which think the others are nuts), obnoxious aristocrats, thieves, and two compelling protagonists who are destined to have a long, volatile, satisfying relationship.
Felix Harrowgate was plucked from the slums by Malkar, a powerful wizard (and an incredible bastard) and trained to pass as an aristocrat. On the night ...more
Felix Harrowgate was plucked from the slums by Malkar, a powerful wizard (and an incredible bastard) and trained to pass as an aristocrat. On the night ...more
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Read in July, 2007
Overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit (enough to stay up until 4 a.m. reading), but I think in the end I found it a bit unsatisfying and liked the idea better than the execution.
It felt like an awful lot of build-up for very little payoff, and I know that's because the story isn't finished, but I really hate that. I know it's all the rage in publishing these days, but I am terribly stupid about storytelling things and happen to expect that unless a book says "Part 1" on the cover, it w...more
It felt like an awful lot of build-up for very little payoff, and I know that's because the story isn't finished, but I really hate that. I know it's all the rage in publishing these days, but I am terribly stupid about storytelling things and happen to expect that unless a book says "Part 1" on the cover, it w...more
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Read in September, 2008
Felix is possessed and weepy while Mildmay plays the Artful Dodger and they are on the run while very bad things are happening in... whatever the name of this book's world is.
The fact that I just finished this and can't remember what Monette called her world is one of the problems I had with the book -- I didn't get enough of a sense of place, here, and was never clear on the power structure of the society. I was never sure who the main characters were running from. Or to, for that matter. ...more
The fact that I just finished this and can't remember what Monette called her world is one of the problems I had with the book -- I didn't get enough of a sense of place, here, and was never clear on the power structure of the society. I was never sure who the main characters were running from. Or to, for that matter. ...more
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6 comments
Read in August, 2008
recommended to K.ty by:
KendrawesomeThis review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Rachel by:
Katie, who kindly lent it.recommends it for: fantasy lovers, fans of queer lit
Once again, I wish there were more gradiations of stars. This book was highly entertaining to me, a lover of fantasy, and a lover of all things queer. Unfortunately, it falls into that category of fantasy that isn't really outstanding in its writing, and has moments that make you cringe--but you love it anyway. I enjoyed the world created in this book, though sometimes it felt forced, and I enjoyed the characters, though sometimes they behaved so erratically or were so unusual in appearance t...more
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Read in June, 2007
If I had to force myself to be coherent about this, I'd say it's about mages and murder and madness and political intrigue and heresy and witch trials. Most importantly, it's about family connections and what you do for those connections even when you don't like your family. Or know them.
It's a pure fantasy novel that hooked me when I'm more of a sci-fi kinda gal. And what immediately snagged me was the prologue because of the very distinctive voice of the character in that prologue: Mildma...more
It's a pure fantasy novel that hooked me when I'm more of a sci-fi kinda gal. And what immediately snagged me was the prologue because of the very distinctive voice of the character in that prologue: Mildma...more
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
fans of Ellen Kushner or Jacqueline Carey,
This book is one part terrific novel, and one part huh? I definitely recommend you have the sequel, The Virtu on hand when you read it, because this is one of those books that feels like it was arbitrarily split in half. Although, honestly, there are ends left hanging even when you read both books, and now that I'm reading the third one, I'm still not certain they will be tied off. I found the world of Melusine to be gorgeously conceived and complex to the point of utter confusion---t...more
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Read in May, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
people who like character-centric novels
Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this novel. I enjoyed it, but I can clearly see the numerous problems in it.
Mostly, it's written like a seat-of-pants story where people meander around, angst, until the author inserts something so they move to meander around after that. Big events are used just for that, then dropped rather undramatically. Not destroying the potential of the large events, but rather leaving them unused. The action scenes were usually similarly uninteresting, most of the...more
Mostly, it's written like a seat-of-pants story where people meander around, angst, until the author inserts something so they move to meander around after that. Big events are used just for that, then dropped rather undramatically. Not destroying the potential of the large events, but rather leaving them unused. The action scenes were usually similarly uninteresting, most of the...more
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I did like this book, but I can't give it a blanket rec because I know its flaws.
Firstly, this book has a pretty unbalanced structure. It works from two different first person narrators, Mildmay and Felix, who don't meet until halfway through the book. The book could really have started from that point.
Mildmay is going on pretty much as normal. This is not to say stuff doesn't happen to him, because it does. Things that are significant on a personal level, things that show you the wa...more
Firstly, this book has a pretty unbalanced structure. It works from two different first person narrators, Mildmay and Felix, who don't meet until halfway through the book. The book could really have started from that point.
Mildmay is going on pretty much as normal. This is not to say stuff doesn't happen to him, because it does. Things that are significant on a personal level, things that show you the wa...more
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Read in August, 2006
Okay, I think I'm finally ready to admit that I really do enjoy the genre we call Fantasy. Up until breakfast this morning, I was embarrassed to say this, but there's nothing for it at this point. I'm hooked. This novel proves it. I'm still not entirely sure what the overarching point of Mélusine was, but I was so busy being swept up in the wonder of it—the many-layered nature of the characters and scenes and settings, the depth to the writing—that when I got to the end, it was all right th...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
I wouldn't
I really loved this book's introduction. It promised danger, magic and adventure with undercurrents of greed, sex, cruelty and love. But the story that follows couldn't keep its own word. Unfortunately, sometime around page 250 the plot got bored and wandered off and what remained of the story was so fantastically lame it was better when narrated by a crazy man. I actually did enjoy the descriptions of madness, but Monette doesn't write sanity half so well.
But I must confess; I am guilty ...more
But I must confess; I am guilty ...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Fantasy readers
An enjoyable fantasy novel based around two characters; Felix Harrogate, court wizard and Mildmay the Fox, cat-burgler and former assassin. The story is written in first person for both characters switching between view points at it progresses. What sounds like technique that would make it difficult to get a feel for the characters and plot works extremely well. Sarah Monette's use of language wonderfully contrasts the two characters.
For a fantasy series this book has some reasonably mature...more
For a fantasy series this book has some reasonably mature...more
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