The Virtu

This sequel to Melusine picks up right were that book left off. It is perhaps not quite as enthralling as the first book, but the characterization that made Melusine so great carries on and there's satisfying plot progression and developments for Felix and Mildmay. We meet a nifty new character named Mehitabel, too, and I really hope she sticks around for book three because she was both awesome and underused in The Virtu. Basically, more of the same and a must-read if you liked book one.

I love this book. I've read it twice now, and I couldn't put it down either time. It's exactly the sort of book I like best: character-based, emotionally charged, and gorgeously written. I could have drowned in it, and I'd have died happy.

The action moves quickly, zipping the reader from scene to scene with the speed of thought. Small details from the first book pay off in a big way. The magical system is inventive and nicely described. The setting is beautifully realized, and Monette shows us how her world works in a logical, organic way that makes sense within the confines of the story. Her grasp of voice, too, is spot-on. The alternating first person points of view continue to work to great effect. As was the case with the first show more volume in the series, the reader can instantly tell whose perspective is in play at any given time.

The book's biggest strength, though, is its characterization. Monette is stunningly good at showing the reader just who these people are. Absolutely everything herein contributes to the characterization. Every scene, every word, deepens the reader's understanding of these two men and their relationship. That, above all else, is what kept me reading. The tension between them, fueled as it is by assumption and mutual reticence, is a think of beauty. I already knew exactly what would happen, and I was still desperate to see where these two characters would end up at the story's end.

As was the case with Melusine, I'm sure the style isn't for everyone. Some readers may find the alternating perspectives off-putting, and the plot is perhaps a little episodic in places. However, I strongly recommend this to those who enjoy character-based stories. Read Melusine first, though, so you know where these people are coming from.

(I've got a much, much longer review available on my blog, Stella Matutina). show less

Same complaints and praise pretty much hold firm in this second installment and yet, what can I say?, I continue to binge. I've ordered the FOURTH book, which I didn't know existed, but yes, being a completist, I have. to. read. it.

On a positive note: I think she renders the love between Felix and Gideon, his lover, and also the emerging love, as brothers, between Felix and Mildmay with skill: how different those loves are! Felix really doesn't know the difference, initially, everything, with him, has a sexual piece and he has to learn to deal with that side of himself. It's excellently done.

One sticklerish beef: A maze is a puzzle, a game, something to figure out - there are dead ends and all kinds of tricksy aspects. A labyrinth show more has a deeper purpose: The walker can't get lost in a labyrinth! . There are no tricks, no dead ends, no nothing. It only goes to one place, the center: the point is to walk it moving in patterns that are meant to awaken or help the walker fall into a meditative state; it is purely a walking meditation. Monette is too smart not to know this and for some reason, she's doesn't care, as if it doesn't matter. But it does, it matters a lot! A person who can get lost in a labyrinth is an idiot! show less

Melusine and the books following are The Doctrine of Labyrinth series, which refers to the labyrinths that play an important part of the magic in her universe as well as important roles in each of the four books in the series. For me, they really are one long book broken into four volumes.

In Melusine, the characters of Felix Harrowgate, a Cabaline wizard, and Mildmay the Fox, a cat burglar, were introduced. Felix was used by his evil mentor, Malkar, a blood wizard, to destroy the Virtu, the globe that channeled the magic powers and spells of the Mirador’s wizards, an act which drove Felix insame. It isn’t giving much away to say that Felix turns out to be the half-brother of Mildmay, a development that even I, an inexperienced show more fantasy reader, figured out early on.

The Virtu picks up almost immediately after the conclusion of Melusine, and details how the half-brothers journey back to the Mirador, in the city of Melusine. Accompanying them on their travels is Mehitabel Farr, an actress with a secret past. Felix is convinced he can fix the Virtu and hopes he will have the chance before tried and executed for its destruction. Back in the Mirador, Mildmay becomes a pawn in Malkar’s plot to ensnare Felix once again.

Upon finishing this, I jumped immediately to the third book, and then the fourth. To do justice to these books without giving much away or without going into details that might spoil the joy of reading these books is darn near impossible. The characters are what makes this series.

Felix and Mildmay, both sold to thief keepers by their prostitute mother, grew up in Melusine’s Lower City, but the paths their lives took were very different. After being a thief, Felix ends up working in a brothel, where he’s found by Malkar and taught how to pass for an aristocrat, which led him to become a wizard of the Mirador.

Mildmay also began as a kept-thief at an early age, but by the time he was 14, had been trained as an assassin, finally breaking away from his keeper and earning a living as a cat burglar and cardsharp. Where Felix is arrogant and vain, the taciturn Mildmay is humble to a fault, living on the edge and old beyond his years. Where Felix is educated, Mildmay is barely able to read. Where Felix has magic, Mildmay has his fists and his tenacity. Their strengths and weaknesses are both complementary and cause for conflict, with each causing the other pain, both intended and not. Entwined in their adventures is the slow progress of their relationship over time as they learn to trust each other and their own feelings. Throw in various forms of magic and magic theory, and the books have a strong foundation.

Told in alternating first person povs, the narratives have distinct voices that will get into your head and stay with you a long time. Because I have a lot of books still waiting to be read, I’ll resist the urge to reread these now. But I doubt I’ll be able to hold out for long. show less

This series is just so goooood. Book 1 was definitely more Mildmay's book, which book 2 is more Felix's book. Ah Felix. You just.... keep digging, don't you? And poor Mildmay. I love him, the wonderful lad. And Mehitabel. Bless.

Great writing, good humor. The magic system is a bit ehhhh at times and I kind of skimmed those portions. I can appreciate that a lot of good thought was put into it, but it's a bit too much for me. Thankfully the character building was given the greater focus, so. The plot is another sort of long journey with the central focus of the story now being Felix and Mildmay's relationship. Which is good. It's fun to read about.

Overall, great book. Already enjoying what I've read of book 3.

I totally failed to love Melusine, but The Virtu was leaps and bounds better. The characters aren't so unrelentingly unlikeable, the situations aren't quite so unbearably awful, and the book ends on a definite up note.

That being said, this is a book with some very strange pacing issues. The travel is richly detailed and occupies the first half of the book - other than the daring prison rescue, which takes up about ten pages. The second half is all careful relationship-building - very well done, but again, the actual major plot point is quickly dealt with and quickly tossed aside. And the final adventure is oddly placed - it isn't even hinted at until the very end of the book, and it becomes clear that it won't be a cliffhanger simply by show more looking at how many pages are remaining, but it seems tacked-on to the overall story.

None of these scenes are bad, they're just handled a little oddly. Overall, The Virtu made me much more excited to finish the series. show less

Although a little slower and more difficult for me to get through I did enjoy this continuing story of the wizard, Felix, and his brother, Mildmay the Fox. In this story Felix has decided to return to Melusine with a purpose that will get him back into the good graces of The Lord Protector, such as they were.

Now that Felix has his sanity back it is quite easy to see his faults and vices for what they are, and they are most definitely not pretty. Somehow despite his selfishness and complete obtuseness to his brother's feelings he manages to keep a toehold on being likable. Occasionally this toehold worked loose and if there was anything more aggravating than Felix at his worst, it was Mildmay's acceptance of it. Now that Mildmay has a show more crippled leg and has lost any hope of regaining his previous vocation of thievery his self-esteem has flown right out the window. Felix is really not very much of a help in this department which causes many moments of wanting to smack him upside the head. Had they not had the good fortune to run into Mehitabel it is hard to say what might have become of Mildmay's character. However, it is precisely the characters’ faults and relationship that kept me interested in the story through the confusing descriptions of wizardry and geography.

Overall I did enjoy the story. I liked Felix for being such an ass (as stupid as that may sound) and Mildmay for being so damnably loyal. Despite the fact that this story seemed to have a finite ending I know that there are at least two more of the series that I will definitely be reading in the future. show less