Melusine

by Sarah Monette

Book Overview

M?lusine-a city of secrets and lies, pleasure and pain, magic and corruption, and destinies lost and found... Felix Harrowgate is a dashing, highly respected wizard. But the horrors of his past as an abused slave have returned, and threaten to destroy all he has since become. As a cat burglar, Mildmay the Fox is used to being hunted. But now he has been caught by a wizard. And yet the wizard was looking not for Mildmay, but for Felix Harrowgate.....

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0441012868
• ISBN13: 9780441012862
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Ace Books
• Length: 421 Pages
• Weight: 1.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

I thank the gods for a writer like this

Everything I always hated in books, this book has nullified: 1) POVs: I actually put off reading this book because reviews warned this was a POV style. Let me tell you, these type of POVs can keep on coming. They are like two streams, so different you have to admire the sheer genius of the writing. You can actually feel their different voices. It works. 2) Magic: it's mysterious, elusive and it's keeping me guessing still as I tackle the second book (The Virtu). But what makes this book great is the sheer, awesome power of the word. Sarah Monette CAN write. I read a lot, and because I can't write I have an almost unhealthy respect for someone who can. This lady can take you places. Mildmay may be a favourite (the character is awesome..his languague makes him so), but Felix is no less amazing. I find myself disagreeing with most reveiwers. To me he is the one I symphatize with most. Mildmay's voice is just amazing, but there is something to be said for Felix. Then again, I'm always for the underdog :) I just finished Melusine and tomorrow will dawn and I will open up The Virtu. Life is looking good.

Get lost in Melusine...

I picked this book up on a recommendation from one of my favorite authors - Charlaine Harris - and I wasn't disappointed. Sarah Monette does a marvelous job pulling us into this new world. For instance, if the names she gives to months sound oddly familiar, it's because they are borrowed from the French Revolution's republican calendar system. This deft touch, in addition to many other captivating details, creates an alternate universe with a historical past that is both familiar and exotic. Half the enjoyment of the novel is learning the systems and ideologies that control and inform this world. Better still are the two perspectives of city of Melusine - the view from the top is provided by Felix Harrowgate, a wizard in the upper echelons of the Mirador (the center of power in Melusine). The view from the mean streets is provided by Mildmay the Fox, a former "kept thief" trying to get by in the Lower City. I enjoyed learning about the city through the two protagonist's distinct voices, as they are propelled toward each other through a series of events that will keep you reading long after you should have put the light out and gone to sleep. Within this richly envisioned setting, Monette crafts an original and engaging story of power, betrayal, and unexpected loyalty. I'm reluctant to reveal any plot points (and there is a least one review on this site that gives far too much away), however, I can tell you that there are vicious power struggles in the Mirador, strange and violent rituals in the grave yard, and insidious behavior in the asylum -- enough intrigue and action that kept me reading when I really should have been doing laundry. And though Monette is clearly leaving room for her sequel here, she does resolve enough plot lines to satisfy me. Highlights: Mildmay's colorful use of the Marathine language, and the way in which Monette vividly depicts madness as experienced from the inside.

Respect for the reader

I just finished reading "Melusine" and am in the process of tracking down its sequel, "The Virtu." It is very seriously one of the best books I've read in a long time. From world-building to language-use to characterization to plot, it displays a very high level of authorial skill and was an absolutely compelling read. I've read a number of the other reviews here and must admit to being mystified that so many people find the book so very confusing. Yes, it begins in the middle of the story, which is a pretty common technique used by other authors for hundreds of years. Yes, it has its own slang and an intense inner knowledge of the world given out in little bits throughout the narrative and from two differently educated first-person POVs. Yes, the wizard character is pretty unlikable, but so what? So was Dostoyevsky's Underground Man and nobody denies "Notes From the Underground" was a good book. This book respects the reader and expects the reader to be smart enough to put a grand vision of the world together from the clues they're given. It assumes you have some basic background knowledge of language, so that you'll be able to make the not very hard translation from words like "nelly" to "molly" or notice that many of the terms being thrown up have giant cluephone base words in them so you can clearly tell what the term means within the world of the book despite nobody handing you a travel dictionary. If you want a book where you've seen everything before and everything is spelled out for you in very plain English and don't want to have to think about it, this isn't the book for you. But your expectations as a reader aren't the fault of the book or an indication of poor world-building, language use or confusing plotting as several of the reviewers have implied. "Melusine" requires the same sort of attention as Tolkein, though with far fewer characters, it's less confusing than that. And, like in real life, some characters are important for a short time and then wander off to do their own thing or, as somebody said, "are discarded" by the author. So, do you still know every detail about every person you've ever met in your life? Or do some of them wander in and out of your life at different times? Why would an author who is giving us a first-person story follow minor characters beyond the knowledge of the POV characters? First-person POV is limited POV. It is the style of the narrative. A good author keeps the book knowlege limited to what characters could possibly know. A sloppy author tells the reader all kinds of information the POV character wouldn't have access to. Clearly some reviewers here just wanted to be reading some other kind of book than the one they bought. Again, it's not the fault of the author nor does it indicate lack of skill or a new author's oversight. I'm fairly shocked at several people remarking that they disliked Mildmay as well as Felix. Mildmay is one of the most compelling and likable chara

Intriguing Fantasy--Not What You Expect

Sarah Monette. Remember her name. Now go buy Melusine. Here's why. First, the world of Melusine: there is so much here to like from the varied dark wonders of the eponymous city to the vast suggested (but thankfully never quite exposited) backstory. It's a world bounded by a seemingly medieval political structure but informed by nineteenth-century sensibility and, to a certain extent, technology (Mildmay has a pocket watch). Second, the characters: Mildmay and Felix are whole characters, equally capable of nobility, rank seflishness and bald fear. The ancillary players are delightfully rendered with an economy of exposition and characterization that, frankly, makes me jealous. The book would be worth reading if only for the note-perfect scansion of Mildmay's gutter speech. The ending left me hanging, but Melusine is the first of a pair of pairs. The Virtu apparently completes the tale of Melusine, while The Mirador and Summerdown flesh out a larger tale of this world. I am loath to obligate myself to another fantasy series, but this is just about too much to resist. Highly recommended.

a fabulous debut fantasy novel

Sarah Monette's _Melusine_ is a fabulous debut fantasy novel, about a pair of unlikely heroes in a richly imagined world. Felix Harrowgate is a wizard of the Mirador, powerful and respected until a long-held secret is divulged which drives him back to his evil master, Malkar, and into insanity. Meanwhile, the thief Mildmay the Fox is drawn into intrigue when he meets Ginevra, a beautiful shopgirl who wants him to steal back some items from her former lover. Eventually, the separate stories of Felix and Mildmay combine into one, as they form an unlikely partnership. The real triumph of _Melusine_ is in its language and voice. Monette tells the story in three separate voices -- Felix's haughty sanity, Felix's insane delirium, and Mildmay's slangy thieves' cant -- and she handles them brilliantly, never losing her grasp for an instant or letting the reader be confused about who's narrating. Along with the narrative voices, the language is simply lush and vivid, utterly suitable to the richness of the setting; the city of Melusine is particularly well described in Mildmay's sections of the narrative. As far as the characters go, I preferred Mildmay's narrative to some extent, as he's the more immediately sympathetic character, with unsuspected depths of feeling. Felix falls into madness so quickly that it was a little difficult for me truly to enpathize with the change in his circumstances, as there had been so little time to get to know him before his fall. Still, the vivid, present-tense passages where he's delirious and mad are emotionally compelling, simply for the horror of what he endures. I should say here that I think the publishers of _Melusine_ did the book a terrible disservice by failing to mention anywhere in the book (even on the last page) that it is the first of two books; there is an upcoming sequel, due out next summer, currently titled _The Virtu_. If I hadn't known before I started _Melusine_ that there would be another book, I would have been very disappointed in the lack of any real resolution to the plot. As it is, I was able to revel in the rich setting, languages, and characters, and now I can look forward to rereading _Melusine_ when _The Virtu_ is published.