Mélusine (Doctrine of Labyrinths, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

Jul 23, 2007 Punk rated it liked it

Shelves: queer, fantasy

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 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 piece of fanfiction. If it wasn't for Mildmay, I would have given up on this, but I loved Mildmay. He's a street tough, uses "fuck" a lot, and just generally gets the job done, whatever it is.

This is a long book, almost 500 pages in paperback, and it starts off at a promising pace, but then we spend a lot of time being crazy (Felix) and going out to bars with our gold-digging girlfriend (Mildmay), and nothing really happens for several hundred pages. The story finally picks up again when Felix and Mildmay meet, and I found I could like Felix as long as it was Mildmay who was looking at him. Felix's own narration is as soggy as a teenaged girl without a date to the prom, but Mildmay's protective of Felix and finds his weepy craziness almost endearing. They don't meet until more than halfway through the book, though, so don't hold your breath on that.

Once I dragged myself over the enormous hurdle of all the made-up fantastical language (and there's a lot of it; I'm still not clear on half the words used to tell the passage of time), and once Felix and Mildmay join up for their quest, I really did enjoy the last half of the book. Things to recommend it: Mildmay's awesomeness and use of language ("Like I said, you could put the Yehergod militia in a string shopping bag and still have room for two heads of cabbage and a parsnip."); the fact that we eventually do get to go on a quest; and the varied sexualities represented as a matter of course. Now I either need to read the sequel right away before I forget how, or skip it entirely. ...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, dtb-own, witches_wizards, ghosts-hauntings

I bought a copy of Sarah Monette's dark and twisted Melusine based on Jo Walton's recommendation of books that made her excited to read fantasy:

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/06/eigh...

And then sat on it for quite a few years both due to the very mixed reviews here as well as the trigger warnings on most of them - I needed some kinder & gentler things than this tale of sexual assault-induced insanity (NB: those trigger warnings are there for very good reasons). But a rainy weekend and that entici ...more

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Dec 14, 2009 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides marked it as decided-not-to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-fiction

Seemed like it was moving a bit too slowly for my taste, though the characters were intriguing. But what really made me set it aside was that almost all of the important characters seemed miserable, and the ones who weren't miserable were making the miserable ones so. I'm not saying that everything has to be sunshine and rainbows, but I like a little leavening of happiness even in unhappy stories. ...more

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Jul 02, 2012 emily rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011-to-2015, fantasy-high-fantasy, queers-and-queer-relationships, con-artists-pirates-and-thieves

i liked a lot of things about this book, but i would've liked it a lot more if the latter two-thirds of it had been narrated from mildmay's pov. felix's crazy babble wasn't interesting after the first few times; i couldn't get into the monster-heads and flapping shadows and nonsense. i like that felix is gay and that that isn't at all the focus of the book, but i think i'll like the sequel much more, assuming there's some actual sane felix bits in it. i will read the sequel, because the world is ...more

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Aug 31, 2007 Wealhtheow rated it liked it

Shelves: mannerpunk, fantasy, queer-characters

Felix Harrogate trained for years to masquerade as a noble and be part of the wizarding elite of Melusine. But his sordid past is revealed and he crawls back to his old master--who uses him in a ritual to destroy the protective magic of the Melusine. Believed to be a traitor, with his mind broken from the ritual, Felix's only ally is his criminal half-brother Mildmay. Together, they search for a cure for Felix's madness. ...more

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Aug 09, 2010 Kati rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, in-english, queer, dropped, work-reviews, 2014

Too much rape. Too much sexual violence in general. Suffering on top of suffering on top of suffering. Felix was too much of a limp noodle for me to sympathize with his plight. Not my cuppa. Dropping it. As far as gay fantasy goes, I'll rather go and re-read Lynn Flewelling. ...more

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