Elizabeth Willey

This was a favorite book when I was teenager. I loved it because it was just so quirky.... the mix of old medieval, with the randomness of something modern (eg a photograph in a bedroom of a castle). I also like that it hinted at something so much bigger. Just why did Prospero give up his Sorcery. Are these people actually as old as its hinted at?

And on a re-read, it was just as much fun. I also discovered that there was so much that I missed (note, I wasn't a careful reader back in the show more day). The hint of something bigger with minimal explanations was just as mysterious, but the politics made the book a lot deeper.

Highly recommended. show less

This is the second part of the Duology started in "A Sorcerer and a Gentleman".

This is a great book, but I wouldn't suggest starting with it, since it picks up right where the previous book ends. It starts with Dewar frantically copying Prospero's Notes and ends with a war. I especially like how Gaston treated Freia in this book, as someone who is broken and needs to heal, with no hints of what is to come (See a Well-Favored Man).

This isn't an easy book to read - its complicated, nothing show more like the Well-Favored Man, and the writing is very formal. But, on the whole, its an incredibly enjoyable read.

Its too bad the author hasn't continued the series - I would love to read about Freia's and Gaston's Romance and the upbringing of their Twins. show less

I am finally getting around to reviewing this. When I first read this book, years ago, I couldn't get past the first few pages. It was NOT like A Well Favored Man at all. However, on a second attempt, I found it to be so much better - how the different Magical Sources work are expanded on, as well the politics of the family.

This is a much different world than the more gentle Argylle. Freia is a wild thing, but innocent of the larger worlds and brutal customs. Prospero is wild, fierce, show more willing to sacrifice everything to get back at his brother who stole his throne. Than we have Dewar, a Sorcerer with mysterious intentions. These are not the same people in the Well Favored Man, but they have elements of who they will become. show less

Based around the same conceit as Zelazny's better known _Nine Princes in Amber_, this hovers somewhere between being a homage and a piss-take. A delightful, sane, humane story of a large family who dominate a huge sheaf of parallel worlds, much like the 'Amber' model, but with less conflict and wisecracking and more interesting characters. It's combination of familiar fantasy furniture and economics (the author once described it as 'Hamlet goes to business school') calls to mind Charlie show more Stross's later (and less interesting) 'merchant princes' series. show less