Mélusine

First, an admission. I don't read fantasy as a rule. I have read some. Urban fantasies mostly. This isn't an urban fantasy. And I read it only because I read the author's LiveJournal and I like to read the books of authors I get to know online. And I've been sitting on this book for a week since finishing it, trying to digest it and figure out what to say about it.

See, because I don't read much fantasy, I'm not up on all the tropes of the genre. And that affects how I want to describe what I experienced reading it. I can say this: I devoured this book. And it's sequel, and I'm already reading book 3 of what appears to be a 4-part series.

Plot-wise, there's Felix Harrowgate, a disciple from a young age of an evil wizard. Felix has left show more his gutter life past behind, becoming a powerful and noble wizard of the Mirador in the city of Melusine. But his past won't let him escape, and Malkar, the evil wizard, uses Felix's magic to destroy the Virtu, the huge crystal that channels the magic of the Mirador's wizards. Felix, driven mad by the act, is the one blamed for the destruction.

Then there's Mildmay the Fox, a former kept-thief and assassin now making his living as a cat burglar. And things are not going well. But they get far worse when a crippled wizard's summoning spell snares Mildmay instead of its intended target: Felix.

And here's where I figure some fantasy tropes kick in big time. Felix and Mildmay's lives intersect (and I figured out how, but that might have been standard fantasy fare for all I know) as the two of them, mad Felix and pragmatic Mildmay, wind up on a quest that could doom them both.

I don't want to give anything away. I'm not sure how to review the second book without revealing too much of this one. Suffice it to say Melusine has magic, violence, sensual sex scenes, lush prose, and well drawn characters. I grew quite fond of Felix, but I fell in love with Mildmay. And I've been very happy to spend time in their company. show less

Summary: Mildmay has been many things over his life - orphan, kept thief, assassin - but is currently making his living as a cat burglar in the slums of Mélusine. Felix Harrowgate lives at the other end of the social spectrum, as one of the powerful wizards who live in the Mirador, the city's citadel and hub of its magical powers. Felix also has a dark past, which he had thought he had escaped, until his former master and tutor reappears and ensnares him in his newest web of scheming and violence, leaving him broken in mind and spirit, even as the Virtu - the source of magical power at the heart of the Mirador - is broken. Mildmay, too, is having a difficult time; he's being hunted by some of the worst people in the city's underworld, show more and is barely surviving day to day before he's caught up in a finding charm cast by a magician… a magician who was looking for Felix.

Review: I ultimately wound up enjoying this book, although it took me forever to read, and I really wasn't enjoying the first part of it at all (those last two issues are undoubtedly related). This book is very much character driven, not plot driven, and while that is very much its strength, it is also a weakness, particularly for a reader new to the series who is trying to get herself oriented to the world. There is a fair amount packed in right at the beginning - Malkar's use of Felix in the breaking of the Virtu happens before page 50, before the reader really has a handle on the world, on who these characters are, or for what it all really means. (Also, this book is not shy about a lot of really dark subjects, including one of the most brutal rape scenes I've ever read - and I've read A Song of Ice and Fire - and a lot of this horrible brutality is *also* front-loaded in the book.) So Monette sets her hook early on: what's going to happen to Felix? How does Mildmay fit into the story? However, she then follows it up with almost two hundred pages of very little happening. Felix has gone mad, and Mildmay has gone into hiding, and despite the structure of having brief chapters alternating between their two points of view, their storylines aren't intersecting at all, and this was the part where it really started to drag (especially the descriptions of Felix's madness, which just seemed to go on and on). The good news is that once Felix and Mildmay's stories do start to intersect, things got much more interesting. Their characters are complex and distinct, with very clear individual voices (which admittedly was a positive outcome of the slow first half of the book), and their interactions and growth over the second half of the book were hugely interesting, and what saved the book for me and made me interested in and excited about reading the sequels.

Another thing that I found challenging was Monette's style of worldbuilding. She did an excellent job of staying true to her character's voices, one outcome of which was that they knew a lot about the world that the reader didn't (they live in it, after all), and their narration would mention something - another country, a style of magic, a neighborhood, a slang term - without any explanation, since of course they knew what they meant. On the positive side, this meant that there were none of the flow-breaking infodumps that are common to many fantasy novels, but on the negative side, it meant that it was initially really hard for me to get absorbed in a world that I didn't really understand yet, as I would frequently come across a term or a reference I didn't recognize, and would struggle to figure out if it was something I should recognize but had forgotten, something I should be able to figure out from context, or something that was totally unfamiliar. Even something like a map would have helped me orient myself. I can appreciate the skill it takes to do the worldbuilding in this kind of naturalistic way, and I did have a much better feeling for things by the end of the book, but it made the early parts even more of a challenge to get into and get through.

Monette's writing is lovely; her characterizations are rich and multidimensional and true to their own voices - Felix is more cerebral and poetic; Mildmay's is earthier and more direct and full of gutter cant. (Mildmay's side of things actually reminded me a bit of The Lies of Locke Lamora, although without so much of the humor to lighten things up.) Overall, this is a dense book, but I think it's ultimately successful, and one that I think would actually improve with re-reading, and with the sequels. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: I'm reserving final judgement until I see what Monette does in the sequels with the world and the characters that she so laboriously built in this book. But on this book's merits alone, I'd say it's worth a try for people who are looking for character-driven high fantasy that's not a typical quest, good-vs-evil type plot, and are willing to stick it out for an (ultimately worthwhile) slow burn. show less

Felix is a charismatic wizard living with the fear of his past being discovered. Mildmay is a thief and former assassin living in the belly of Melusine. When a horrendous act against Felix drives him insane it leads to an epic journey which in turn takes him to Mildmay, across a country and into danger he can not hope to survive against.

As with some fantasy there is a lot of lead up in this book although I wouldn't say that this is detrimental. The lead serves to firmly establish the characters of Felix and Mildmay in our minds. The story is told from alternating points of view between the two characters and part of the appeal is the huge difference in views, this due in no small part to the fact that Felix is very, very insane. I show more actually really enjoyed Felix's parts. The author did a superb job of illuminating Felix's waxing and waning mentality both through his own eyes and ultimately through Mildmay's as well.

When reading well written books I often empathize with the character to the point where when they are happy, I smile, when they are distraught, my eyes will well up. It is not often that I care so much for characters that I literally feel enraged at a character for his actions. There is a part where I wanted to hop right into the book and box Felix's ears, even though I like him and felt him to be a very sympathetic character. Mildmay, for his part, surprised me. I remember thinking about halfway through the book, "there is no way this guy could have been an assassin. Can't the author see that!" However, I was surprised when later in the book that it became obvious I didn't know as much about the character as apparently the author did. It was a delightful moment of revelation. One other thing, there is quite a bit of profanity in the book which usually bugs me. In this case it was understandable once you got to know everyone better and eventually Mildmay's favorite saying grew on me to the point I better make sure I don't slip up and say it out loud myself!

Overall I enjoyed this book very much. The characters were wonderful although, like with most fantasy duos, they were much better together than apart and I was a little sad that they were apart for the majority of the story. On the other hand the build up and separation made me much more grateful for the times they were together. I am certainly going out to get the next of the series (probably today) and I look forward to reading more of the adventure. show less

The first book in Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths series, Melusine drops the reader into the middle of a 17th-ish-century Europe-esque fantasy world where those who can wield magic hold political and social power. The story follows two denizens of the city of Melusine--Felix, a wizard with a secret past, and ex-street urchin and thief Mildmay--and switches between their points of view. Within the space of a few pages, both Felix and Mildmay become entangled in the political and magical struggles of the city through seemingly minor missteps of their own which end up utterly altering their lives.

The details of the world Monette has built are rich, fascinating, and immersive, and much of what makes this such a great read comes from show more her ability to wrap the reader up in those details. However, striking the balance between over- and under-explaining in world-building is tricksy, and Monette may have erred a bit on the side of under-explaining here. I really felt dropped into this world, and the lack of any sense of big picture for the world in which the story takes place made the read a little claustrophobic. That effect may have worked well in telling the story, but I think a little bit more catching the reader up wouldn't have gone amiss (the calendar and counting systems still elude me, even after I looked up the author's own explanation of them on her website). Most of the filling-in and figuring-out I had to do while reading added to the experience and helped form the layers of the fantasy world, but some of it was just distracting.

But I was completely caught up in the story throughout, and the novel manages to avoid dragging in the middle (a frequent failure, I find, of fantasy novels). I was also equally invested in both Felix's and Mildmay's stories and points of view, which attests to Monette's ability to create interesting characters and keep the overall story moving despite working with parallel narrative lines. Melusine deals with some dark, dark stuff (abusive mind-games, rape, murder, torture, violence--it hits the hurt/comfort trope hard, mostly on the hurt end of things, at least in this entry in the series), but does so compellingly and without becoming depressing or squicky (for me--YMMV, of course). While the book does not end on a cliff-hanger, it does leave all kinds of plot threads and emotional arcs tantalizingly dangling, and I'm looking forward to getting my paws on the next book. show less

This is a WONDERFUL book. I went into it expecting M/M and it's not... really? I definitely understand why my library labeled it under the science fiction/fantasy/science fantasy section. It's sort of a cross of high fantasy and a dash of dark fantasy, mixed with comedy, plenty of angst, and some M/M elements.

The series is heart-wrenching. A lot of bad things have happened and do happen to the two protagonists. There's also a bit of sweet - a very touching moments - and some humor. It's by no means as funny as, say, one of Steven Brust's "Vlad Taltos" books or T.J. Klune's "Tales From Verania", but it does have some great sarcasm and humor.

I love Felix, but it took some time for me to come around to Mildmay. Once I did, though, ah, I show more adore them both. Usually in books like this, the characters interact or at least their stories cross paths closer than like... the last third of the book, as seems to be the case here. Since I expected this to be M/M, I was surprised to see actually the two characters aren't romancing each other. It's more like two overlapping fantasy novellas that finally cross at that last third. It's a bit of a weird way to write a book, particularly given how powerfully different the two storylines are. Felix is very focused on trauma, torture, a very bad healthcare and justice system, and dealing with mental illness. Mildmay is a thief trying to survive in a world slowly going mad. I can see how that contrast might turn people off. I enjoyed Felix's sections far more than Mildmay's for some time. But the writing is just so good and the worldbuilding so well crafted and the character development is wonderful. That last third where the stories finally interact is also so very, very good.

The world is polished and complex - but not overly so - in a way that not many high fantasy authors can pull off without writing tomes longer than the entire "Harry Potter" series, so that Monette did so in a relatively short novel is quite impressive. It reminds me a lot of Steven Brust's Dragaera books - both writers write complexity that you're not overwhelmed by. Maybe for a couple pages as you adjust, but then you learn to trust that the author will get around to telling you in time.

A few scenes stand out as particularly touching, including one reunion between Felix and another character, and a truly heartbreaking scene Felix has with Gideon by the tower. I've been where Felix was with that mindset in the latter scene and it was so well-written here. If only we all had Gideons like that for those moments. The build-up was excellent, as well. And Mildmay and Felix's relationship is beautifully written. Their interactions are the best. The only character I'm curious about is Vida - she kind of falls off the map without explanation - which is extra confusing because another female character whose name starts with 'V' takes the spotlight - and I'm worried she died off-screen, which sucks. I liked her.

It's really sad that this series is basically out of print. I'm glad my library had copies but it was hard to get some of my own. Looking forward to book 2! show less

This is a fucking dark book. It starts off with one of the two narrators, Felix, being outed as a former prostitute and then raped physically, magically and mentally, and his being framed for a horrible crime. The other narrator is a cat burglar in the rough lower city and we know that he's suffered his own trials. Their stories only barely intersect before the middle of the book, when a magician hires Mildmay to steal Felix from the mental hospital where he's been stuffed until the other magicians can get past his madness to figure out how the crime was committed. We spend a lot of time in Felix's head, he's not an unreliable narrator per se, but his perceptions are definitely skewed and he doesn't understand most of what's going on show more around himself. I didn't particularly like him when we was "himself", but understood Mildmay's frustration as he tried to keep Felix safe, mostly by having to play along with whatever the current delusion was. I liked it enough to request the next book from the library. One line that had me giggling was as Mildmay was working for passage, he's helping out the cook and says something like "When I'm given a potato to peel, I don't fuck around with it." :)
It was worth going to the author's website to see a map of the city and get an explanation of the calendar. She also has an lj at truepenny show less

The Doctrine of Labyrinths is a four-book fantasy series, set in a richly imagined world. The level of worldbuilding is quite impressive, with all manner of intriguing cultural detail surfacing within the story; she uses Latin and Greek and French names to provide flavor to particular cultures, but she’s done a much more thorough job than simply filing the serial numbers off a particular stage of European history. Her viewpoint characters are all quite distinctive, with their own patterns of speech and perspectives, each choosing different idioms to express themselves, and each having their own well-earned psychological triggers while still remaining sympathetic. Unlike most high fantasy, this is not epic fantasy— the story turns on show more human-scale developments that prevent massive battles before anyone even tries to put a grand army together.

The series opens with Mélusine and the viewpoints of Felix Harrowgate, a wizard of the Mirador— housing the court— in the city of Mélusine, and Mildmay the Fox, a cat burglar and former assassin. Their paths would ordinarily have no occasion to cross, save that a foreign wizard arrives in the city with divinations that say the two of them will be necessary for him to gain revenge on a third wizard. The ensuing complications wind up dragging Felix and Mildmay halfway across a continent, and introducing the theme of the labyrinth that winds through all four books. Part of the difficulty in the stories comes from the characters themselves, but Monette always keeps them sympathetic, even though some of their flaws can be exasperating. show less