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A daughter revisits the home of her occultist parents to learn why they were killed the night they tried to return the old gods to Earth. The house is occupied by new occultists, including one who sends her blood racing. Fortunately, the ghost of her father is around to protect her from him. By the author of The Mists of Avalon.Tags
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Oh does this book stink! It's set in 1995 but all the time I was reading it I felt sure that it must have been written decades earlier - and when a Datsun drove up at the end it pretty much confirmed it. This novel must have been rotting at the bottom of a pile of rejects and only published in the hope that MZB's name could still sell it. The only non putrid part is the truth quotes at the beginning of each chapter. With a protagonist named Truth, which was a constant annoyance added to the no direction at all thrashing that substituted for plot, with everything semi-explained in the penultimate chapters, everything in this book is false, false, false.
I am not sure why I keep rereading this series. I don't even really like it. The main character in Ghostlight, Truth, is one of those irritating people who requires a ridiculous amount of convincing that the it's raining, even when she's getting soaked to the skin. This isn't a fatal flaw in a supporting character, but it drives me a little nuts when I have to hang out in her head for three hundred pages.
That said, I am fascinated by the (comparatively) realistic magic system. The magicians are performing something distinctly related to what actual New Age types do, using the same jargon and systems. I would almost have preferred it with less overt fantasy-style magic and more classic haunted house/psychological effects, but it's a show more decent setup for what I suppose I'd have to call hyper-realistic urban fantasy. show less
That said, I am fascinated by the (comparatively) realistic magic system. The magicians are performing something distinctly related to what actual New Age types do, using the same jargon and systems. I would almost have preferred it with less overt fantasy-style magic and more classic haunted house/psychological effects, but it's a show more decent setup for what I suppose I'd have to call hyper-realistic urban fantasy. show less
I read this years ago, and put it back in the TBR pile after Dagny read it last summer and left it here. It's always interesting to read a book you loved in the past to see if your perceptions or tastes have changed. In this case, I still enjoyed it immensely.
Truth Jourdemayne is the daughter of notorious psychic con-artist Thorne Blackburn, who started an occult movement in the 60s and who killed her mother during one of his rituals, then disappeared.
So she's dedicated her life to showing the truth about such things, scientifically, and put the past, and her father, behind her.
But now she's been asked to write her father's biography, and her aunt Caroline gives her Thorne's grimoire, and Truth decides it's time to go back to Shadow's show more Gate and write the true story.
When she gets there, she discovers a cult trying to recreate her father's work, and everything becomes much more confusing.
I think I liked this so much because I'm a huge sucker for gothics. The creepy old house, the intrepid heroine, the two men--one good, one evil, but you don't find out until the end which is which, and the whole air of mystery.
The twists and turns in this one were both surprising and logical, and I was sucked right in. I really enjoyed Truth--sure she knows what's real, desperate to distance herself from her father, but deep down even more desperate to know her father and for him to be someone she can love and admire. show less
Truth Jourdemayne is the daughter of notorious psychic con-artist Thorne Blackburn, who started an occult movement in the 60s and who killed her mother during one of his rituals, then disappeared.
So she's dedicated her life to showing the truth about such things, scientifically, and put the past, and her father, behind her.
But now she's been asked to write her father's biography, and her aunt Caroline gives her Thorne's grimoire, and Truth decides it's time to go back to Shadow's show more Gate and write the true story.
When she gets there, she discovers a cult trying to recreate her father's work, and everything becomes much more confusing.
I think I liked this so much because I'm a huge sucker for gothics. The creepy old house, the intrepid heroine, the two men--one good, one evil, but you don't find out until the end which is which, and the whole air of mystery.
The twists and turns in this one were both surprising and logical, and I was sucked right in. I really enjoyed Truth--sure she knows what's real, desperate to distance herself from her father, but deep down even more desperate to know her father and for him to be someone she can love and admire. show less
A story of Truth - in more ways than one. Truth is the narrator, truth is the object of her pursuit, and truth is really hard to find. Truth Jourdemayne is a parapsychologist who investigates the science behind paranormal activities. Unfortunately, she is also the daughter of a crackpot psychic who disappeared at the height of a mysterious ritual back in the Sixties.
When she learns that a very rich man has bought her father's old house and is intent on repeating the rituals and "unleashing the powers," she goes to Shadow's Gate to research her father's life, and expose "followers" as fakers or delusional - whichever the truth turns out to be. But Truth uncovers a lot more than Sixties-era mumbo-jumbo. She uncovers family secrets, show more tensions and undercurrents, powers she never suspected, and possibly a threat to her very soul.
While this is not one of my favorite types of story, I hung with it and was amply rewarded. The characters are interesting, the "magik" is riveting, and the denouement quite unexpected. Recommended. show less
When she learns that a very rich man has bought her father's old house and is intent on repeating the rituals and "unleashing the powers," she goes to Shadow's Gate to research her father's life, and expose "followers" as fakers or delusional - whichever the truth turns out to be. But Truth uncovers a lot more than Sixties-era mumbo-jumbo. She uncovers family secrets, show more tensions and undercurrents, powers she never suspected, and possibly a threat to her very soul.
While this is not one of my favorite types of story, I hung with it and was amply rewarded. The characters are interesting, the "magik" is riveting, and the denouement quite unexpected. Recommended. show less
Truth Jourdemayne has always hated her father, although she doesn't remember him. Thorne Blackburn was a celebrated occultist and near-cult leader of the 60's, but one of his rituals ended in the death of Truth's mother, and the disappearance of Thorne himself (one assumes, to escape murder charges). Scandal notwithstanding, Thorne Blackburn, Aleister Crowley-like, still has his followers - who regularly pester Truth for interviews or opinions on her notorious dad. In an effort to stave them off, Truth decides to work on a book on Blackburn, so that she can show him as he really was, in her opinion - a criminal, not a mystical hero. To further her research, she goes to her father's old estate, site of his notorious rituals. The estate show more is now owned by a significantly wealthy and charismatic man - and an odd collection of followers. Truth soon realizes they are Blackburnians, occultists devoted to recreating her father's rituals. But they offer her access to their collection of materials relating to her father... and soon she is drawn into a web of events that could lead to disaster - but which could also cause Truth to re-evaluate her father as a man, and to come to terms with her own emotions.
One of the better books in the 'Light' series, recommended for fans of occult fiction. show less
One of the better books in the 'Light' series, recommended for fans of occult fiction. show less
It is one thing to ask the reader to suspend disbelief to establish an alternate reality; another thing altogether to create a character whose motivations and behavior are so inconsistent, so illogical and so incoherent that the entire structure of the novel collapses. This book is just sad.
Truth Jourdemayne, a parapsychologist and daughter of a vanished occult leader, returns to her family’s estate, Shadow’s Gate. She investigates a disastrous 1960s ritual that killed her mother, uncovering a new group led by Julian Pilgrim preparing to repeat it.
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ThingScore 100
Ghostlight [...] finds veteran novelist Bradley at the top of her form. [...] fans of Bradley's better-known tales of Arthurian lore and high adventure on Darkover should seek out her tales of present-day supernatural affairs. Ghostlight is one of her best-realized works [...]
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Author Information
408+ Works 98,830 Members
Marion Zimmer Bradley is a science-fiction and fantasy writer, novelist, and editor. She was born in Albany, New York on June 3, 1930. Bradley attended the New York State College for Teachers from 1946 to 1948. She earned a B.A. from Hardin Simmons University in 1964. Bradley did graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley from 1965 show more to 1967. Bradley sold her first story to Fantastic Amazing Stories as part of an amateur fiction contest. She sold her first professional story to Vortex Science Fiction in 1952. Her novels include The Sword of Aldones and The Planet Savers. Both novels were set on Darkover, the setting for more than 20 subsequent Bradley novels. Bradley also wrote The Mists of Avalon, a reworking of the King Arthur legend with more emphasis on the female characters. She used the same approach with The Firebrand, which was based on The Iliad. In addition to writing more than 85 books, Bradley was the editor of an annual anthology for DAW Books, as well as the editor of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine. Bradley died in 1999. (Bowker Author Biography) Marion Zimmer Bradley was the bestselling author of "The Mists of Avalon", "Lady of Avalon", "The Forest House", & "The Firebrand", as well as the popular Darkover series of science fiction novels. She died in 1999. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Geestenlicht
- Original title
- Ghostlight
- Alternate titles
- Geestenlicht; Ghostlight
- Original publication date
- 1995-08
- People/Characters
- Thorne Blackburn; Truth Blackburn; Julian Pilgrim
- Epigraph
- Beholding the bright countenance
of truth in the quiet and still
air of delightful studies.
—
John Milton
This is the truth the poet sings,
That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is
remembering happier things.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Truth, poor child, was nobody's daughter
She took off her clothes and jumped in the water
—Dorothy L. Sayers
We owe respect to the living; to the dead we owe only truth.
—Voltaire
Through the unheeding many he did move,
A splendour among the shadows, a bright blot
Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove
For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.
... (show all) —Percy Bysshe Shelley
Most true it is that I have look'd on truth
Askance and strangel; but, by all above,
These blenches gave my heart another youth,
And worse essays prov'd thee my best love.
... (show all); —William Shakespeare
I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.
—Alfred, L... (show all)ord Tennyson
It takes two to speak the truth—one to speak, and another to hear.
—Henry David Thoreau
What should I say,
Since faith is dead,
And Truth away
From you is fled?
—Sir Thomas Wyatt
There is nothing so extravagant and irrational which some philosophers have not maintained for truth.
—Jonathan Swift
This truth within thy mind rehearse,
That in a boundless universe
Is boundless better, boundless worse.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies.
—William Shakespeare
Time's glory is to calm contending kings,
To unask falsehood, and bring truth to light.
—William Shakespeare
Who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?
—
John Milton
Thou that stupendous truth believ'd,
And now the matchless deed's achieve'd,
Determined, dared, and done.
—Christoper Smart - First words
- North of New York City, along the edge of the Hudson River, there is a small estate lying between the railroad tracks of Metro North and the broad expanse of the river.
Prologue: The freak spring storm battered the old house with unceasing ferocity, as if attempting to gain entry to that which went on within. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And she would call it Venus Afflicted.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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