The Gates of Sleep (2002)

I am not so much a fan of this one, although it's probably closer to the traditional Sleeping Beauty story than the previous ones have been to their source material. It's not bad, just terribly unfocused.

The whole series seems to have a pacing problem. We're given fully a third of the book of scene-setting that has, ultimately, nothing at all to do with the main conflict, another third of villainous cackling, and then a lightning-fast resolution with a bonus! romance thrown in with very little development.

These villains are at least a little more believable - they're amoral and are amassing power for its own sake, which isn't terribly nuanced but it's better than Lackey's default "suffering and misery is so much fun to cause!" villain, which she slides back to distressingly often in this series. And the mechanism of their evil is quite clever. Sadly, it doesn't make up for the rest of the book. ( )

Likable gothic tones. If you like Lackey, you like this. As you probably know already. ( )

In this novel as part of her Elemental Masters series, Lackey looks into the Romanticism movement of the late 1800s and then contrasts it with the growing Industrial world. The main character of the story has been raised by an adopted family as her own family fears for her safety and this creates an interesting dynamic as she tries to figure out where she belongs. Is she part of rich society or the more Bohemian lifestyle that she grew up among. This book like Phoenix and Ashes fairly closely follows the fairy tale that it retells, in this case Sleeping Beauty, the plot moves swiftly and effectively. It is one of the stronger entries in the Elemental Masters books because the world building is strong as are the characters. ( )

Interesting characters, plus a good story equals an excellent book.

Entertaining little series, particularly if you like witches. ( )