Ghostlight

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Book Overview

Ghostlight, this wonderful contemporary fantasy by New York Times bestseller Marion Zimmer Bradley was named "Best Fantasy Novel of the Year" by VOYA when it was first published. Thorne Blackburn... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312862180
• ISBN13: 9780312862183
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

still excellent after all these years

I read this years ago, and recently re-read it. 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 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.

I laughed, I cried, I wanted more...

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ghostlight is an excellent book that looks at the world of the Occult through the eyes of a scientist plunged into Magick. Truth Jourdemayne is the daughter of the notorious "occult TV evangelist," Thorne Blackburn, who perforemd bizarre rituals on stage with traveling bands and started an Occult movement back in the 60s.Growing up knowing her father was a lunatic and a scam artist, Truth modeled her life as a skeptic--knowing that the man who took her mother's life during one of his so-called rituals had to be out of his mind and demented. She became a parapsychologist--a scientist who investigates the evidence of paranormal psychological phenomena (ESP, telepathy, etc.).Going back to the place of her childhood, she plans on writing a biography about the real Thorne Blackburn who used people to get money. But what will she believe when she find out that magick really is afoot?The book centers about Truth Jourdemayne and her search for knowledge about her father and the truth behind her mother's death. Along the way, MZB has a cast of characters that she develops into very complicated individuals. The storyline is beautiful, and I love the names she gives her characters. (Like Fiona Cabot, Ellis Gardner, Caradoc Buckland, Hereward Farrar, etc.--all last names of famous witches and Wiccan writers.)I hope the memory of MZB will be engraved into the minds of future generations of readers. Blessed be

a definate page turner

What can I say- I loved this book! It was one of those books I just couldn't put down. Marion Zimmer Bradley's detailed descriptions make you feel that you're really there. The characterizations are so deep and realistic, and the plot is a definite page turner. This was the first Bradley novel I had read and it has inspired me to read many more. Though the events of the story are definitly not the kind of thing that tends to happen every day the book portrays them so realisticly that you almost belive that they could. I would make a definite recommendation of this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy novels or books that are intensly descriptive.

modern occultism portrayed realistically and with brilliance

ghostlight was very intriguing and had me enthralled...i hardly could put it down as the author left me guessing and fearing nonstop as the blackburn legacy unfolded upon non-believing truth jourdemayne...a young parapsychologist visits her famous occultist father's mysterious estate to write a biography on his life only to find it inhabited by a frightening assortment of people and haunting happenings...i found it hard to decide if the humans or the happenings were the greater evil...and i decided it probably was the characters...the strange inhabitants had intents to open an ugly portal that they did not fully understand...you will come to fear "the smoothing of the path"...the last 50 pages are gut-wrenching and so beautiful one aches to see it on film...from a modern day witch's point of view,it is nice to read a novel that is so close to the "truth"

Spiritualism on planet Earth-

I've read everything this wonderful lady has written. OK, I might have missed ONE. Ghostlight is a spiritual adventure involving the gates between worlds - only this time the gate is on Planet Earth! The heroine is unaware of her personal powers until it's almost too late. The path she travels to this realization will keep you in the book and ignoring your chores. Well worth the money even if you're not familiar with her works.