Sep. 18th, 2006

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Yesterday I read Melusine by Sarah Monette. Fantasy. I was drawn to it because of the title - Melusine was a legendary medieval witch-creature supposed to have been the ancestor of the Plantagenet and the Lusignan families.

This book has nothing to do with that. Melusine is a fictional place, a city-state run by lords and wizards. The story is told by two narrators, who at first seem to be unconnected, contrasts in every way. Lord Felix Harrowgate is a respected magician at court, a tall, beautiful man with long red hair - he is the only redhead in Melusine; his lover, Lord Shannon, is the ruler's heir. They live in the palace. Felix's narrative is told in articulate, gracious language, even when he is raving mad.

Mildmay the Fox is a wiry man with short dark hair and a scar across his face, by profession a cat burglar and occasional murderer-for-hire. He is earthy and practical. His lover, Ginevra, occasionally sells herself to rich men. Mildmay lives in the shabbier sections of lowertown, and writes in snappy slang, cursing a lot.

Felix has a dramatic fall from grace when enemies at court expose his past as an ex-whore from the slums. Enslaved again by Malkar, the evil magician who made him a lord, Felix is raped and used in a magic spell to take down the court, framed for the act, entrapped by spells that silence him and cloud his thought. Even immured in a hospital for the insane, Felix cannot escape the terrifying wizards, ghosts and nightmares in his mind. Nor can he escape the lords of the court, who bring him back for the information he can't give them.

Mildmay has his own assorted problems with both the criminals and the law, and eventually meets up with Felix. By this time, Felix's hair has been shorn and Midlmay's hair-dye is gone, and they look remarkably alike. Coincidence? ExpandDon't bet on it. )
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I read the latest Kinsey Millhone mystery by Sue Grafton, S is for Silence.

Now, one of the things I have always loved about the Kinsey Millhone mysteries was their use of tight first person narrative. As with Philip Marlowe, Spenser, Falco, and Carlotta Carlyle. And just as Linda Barnes did in the latest Carlotta Carlyle novel, Grafton chose this novel to get out of the strict use of the first person narrative, and intersperse the protagonist's story with chapters in the third person. Now, with Heart of the World, she has chapters in the viewpoint of Carlotta's 'little sister' Paolina. Grafton goes a step further and gives us chapters in the point of view of each of the people in Serena Station in 1953, at the time of the crime that Kinsey is investigation.

Or is it a crime? Daisy Sullivan comes to Carlotta to get her to investigate the disappearance of her mother thirty-four years earlier. Most of the town thinks she was murdered by her husband, Daisy's father, a hard-drinking wife-beater, but no one can prove it. So Kinsey comes to look into the case.

I enjoyed seeing the investigation of an incident so long ago. I didn't so much enjoy the scenes set in 1953 - instead of giving more immediacy about the case or illuminating the vivacious woman who was the focus of the story, it made things more confusing, gave us too many characters (past and present) and too many motives. I enjoyed it as I enjoyed all the Grafton novels, but I'd have been happier if we'd only had Kinsey's point of view.

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I found out today that my friend [livejournal.com profile] 2shelties has watched and loved season 1 of Doctor Who, the Christopher Eccleston season. She has good taste, of course. I am tickled - someone else to discuss the show with!

I'm a happy fan.

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