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Paula Volsky

Author of Illusion

14+ Works 2,417 Members 50 Reviews 16 Favorited

About the Author

Born & raised in Fanwood, New Jersey, Paula Volsky majored in English literature at Vassar, then traveled to England to complete an M.A. in Shakespearean studies at the University of Birmingham. She has returned to New Jersey with her collection of Victoriana. (Bowker Author Biography)

Includes the names: Volsky Paula, Paula Brandon

Series

Works by Paula Volsky

Illusion (1991) 664 copies
The Grand Ellipse (2000) 272 copies
The Wolf of Winter (1993) 268 copies
The Luck of Relian Kru (1987) 229 copies
The White Tribunal (1997) 192 copies
The Gates of Twilight (1996) 162 copies
The Curse of the Witch-Queen (1982) 152 copies
The Sorcerer's Lady (1986) 125 copies
The Traitor's Daughter (2011) 116 copies
The Sorcerer's Heir (1988) 99 copies
The Sorcerer's Curse (1989) 81 copies
The Ruined City (2012) 28 copies
The Wanderers (2012) 26 copies

Associated Works

Songs of the Dying Earth (2009) — Contributor — 629 copies
Devils & Demons: A Treasury of Fiendish Tales Old & New (1991) — Contributor — 258 copies
Angels of Darkness: Tales of Troubled and Troubling Women (1995) — Introduction — 27 copies
Sweet Revenge: 10 Plays of Bloody Murder (1992) — Contributor — 23 copies

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Fantasy novel from pre-1994 in Name that Book (February 2017)

Reviews

This book started so well. It had a really engaging hook. The author gets the reader really invested in Eliste, her uncle, and Dref. Then I got past the beginning and the middle dragged, and kept dragging. Nothing interesting is actually happening in the Shereen court because Eliste is not interested in it, even when the revolution is happening. When it switches perspective to the revolutionaries, I had a difficult time caring about their plight. It was at this point that I wondered why this book is written as a fantasy because it is not as if the plot needs magic. This could easily have been historical fiction and it would have made more sense. The world building is confusing if you have any context for the French revolution, but maybe I was overthinking it. I ended up skipping 100 pages and it turns out I didn't miss much, when the author finally gets around to reuniting Eliste with Dref. But at that point, I was disinterested in finishing the book.… (more)
 
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kittyfoyle | 14 other reviews | Mar 15, 2024 |
This was a much better read than Illusion, which I think suffered from the fact that it was just too damn long, and wading through the stuff about the French/Russian revolution was like slogging through Tom Hooper's Les Miserables with less singing. Volsky is a good writer, and clearly puts a lot of thought into her world building. Her weakness is storytelling. And I don't mean plotting. The plot is fine, even though it is a weird mish-mash of Julius Caesar and Beauty and the Beast. She is one of those writers that tells you things about the world that she finds interesting, but doesn't make an effort to make it interesting to the reader. That is probably the weakness of both the Sorcerer's Lady and Illusion; the author isn't very interested in interpersonal drama and character development, and struggles to make the reader care about the political strife that she clearly cares so much about. This book starts with Verran who runs away because she has to be married to a sorcerer, Fal Grizhni against her will, in a city that has canals. Lots of canals. What city in Europe has canals?(I know it is Venice).
Running away isn't something Verran does on the regular because she is characterized as being pretty obedient. So she gives in and gets married to this super powerful sorcerer, who she is more than a little afraid of. So, on paper this should be a pretty straight forward beauty and the beast story, where Verran learns more about her husband, becomes less afraid, and they eventually fall in love with each other. But no. That is not what happens.
What we get instead is the author tells us that this happens off screen somewhere. She tells us this when Verran gets into an argument with another character, that their marriage is not loveless, and that she is pregnant.
Like, why couldn't you show that? Why were there no scenes where there is at least an indication that they are trying to understand each other? You have 250 pages in which to do this. Why do we get chapters about what the villains are doing, whose names I can't for the life of me remember, when we know what they are doing because our protagonists are constantly talking/reacting to it.We know that Grizhni is being scapegoated by a corrupt government, but he is not really a character because we don't know his motivations or what he values with the exception of Verran. He is meant to be this larger than life figure in the politics of this world who is super OP and intimidating, but readers and Verran ( because it is her pov) rarely get glimpses of the man. It is like the romantic plot and the political overarching plot can't exist simultaneously in this book, so the subplot is hand waved away even though it is called the Sorcerer's Lady, so we are supposed to care about this relationship. We know Verran is trying to reach out to her husband. She is trying really hard. The most we get from Grizhni to indicate that he cares about her is that he glares less hard. Hell, I was more invested in the relationship she had with the mute servant, Nyd because it was more dynamic. So, when Fal Grizhni dies I kind of shrugged. He is one of the protagonists, there should be more of a reaction than this.
… (more)
 
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kittyfoyle | 8 other reviews | Mar 15, 2024 |
Not bad for a first novel, and Volsky certainly ticks all the boxes with giants, sorcerers, and a prolonged quest as well as a few novel boxes of her own......homicidal squash?? But it drones on for about 100 pages too many leaving the final series of twists feeling rushed and incomplete.
 
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NurseBob | Aug 19, 2023 |
When I first read this novel, my knowledge of the French Revolution was scant. So, over the years, as I looked inot the French Revolution and The Terror, I have seen just how much Volsky drew from that history.
 
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JDRussell | 14 other reviews | Aug 25, 2022 |

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Works
14
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Rating
½ 3.7
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ISBNs
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