What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Illusion
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. Fantasy - Alt-French revolution - Possibly called Butterfly? [s]
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This sounds exactly like Illusion by Paula Volsky, right down to the character names. There's only one sentient execution machine, called Kokotte, but there are three or four other sentient devices, one of which is called NuNu, which is a spymaster with an army of little flying nits that spy on the populace.I gather that this is book 1 of a series informally called Volsky's Parallel Universe (I hadn't known that).
That's it! Brilliant. Thank you!
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The cover I had is illustrated and shows a young woman with pale violet or grey hair in tattered clothes standing in a partly open gate. the gate is shaped like a butterfly. I think there is snow on the ground.
The story is a fantasy version of the French revolution.
The main character's name is something like Eliste vo Derivale. She lives out in the countryside with her aristocratic family. She is sent to the capital to try and make a good match. She has a maid at the start of the book called Stelli Zenosgirl (?) but Stelli is a terrible maid and hates Eliste. She gets replaced for someone more accommodating before the trip. This causes problems later. Eliste is friends with Stelli's brother Dref Zenosson. She's maybe a bit more than friends. He wants to go to the city as well. I cannot recall if he has permission to go or if he runs away. Serfdom is a thing and I think he has to hide in the city because he'd be sent back.
At court Eliste's Great Aunt replaces all her country clothes with the latest fashions. Eliste's expensive, unfashionable clothes are given to the maid. Eliste becomes one of the Queen's ladies and has a court-side view of things as they start to fall apart. The ladies always dress beautifully and are referred to as 'Butterflies' by the guards. The book mirrors the events of the Reign of Terror and eventually, the peasants come for them.
The revolutionaries build several machines akin to guillotines, but shaped like huge dogs(?) I believe one of them is referred to as Coquotte. Hundreds of people are fed to them each day.
Eliste manages to escape being purged because her maid takes her place. She watches her friends and family fed to the machines and has to survive on the streets. She runs into Stelli and Dref and Stelli threatens (and maybe does?) give away that Eliste is an aristocrat.
Eventually Eliste re-connects with her uncle, who has a little magic, and discovers some magic of her own. I cannot recall how it ends.