Melusine

[nilchance]

Melusine, Sarah Monette.



I'll admit it. In the last 100 pages, I started a drinking game. Felix cries? Take a shot. Felix weeps? Take a shot. Mildmay weeps? Take a slightly bigger shot. If I wasn't drinking tea, I'd have to get my stomach pumped.

Okay, I loved Companion to Wolves. I did. It had poly, it had wolves, it had beserkers. I figured, hey, magic and manpain! I like manpain! I like brothers with incesty manpain! There's no bad there!

Um, yeah. I think Sam Winchester would break Felix's nose and steal his lunch money. John would be like, dude, drink a beer and let it GO, already. Which may be my impatience with the fact that right off the bat, Felix tries to self-destruct and takes the kingdom's main source of magic with him. You'd think that'd be a painful reminder that he needs to take responsibility for his emo angst and its destructiveness. You would be WRONG. No, Felix continues to be just as self-absorbed and "wah, my angst, let me destruct" and by the end of the book, he was starting to take his brother WITH him, and... no. Just, no. I have ISSUES with that kind of mindless self-destructive pattern, and that's my deal, but I have never wanted to slap a character so badly in my life. And I don't know WHY that bothers me but John "I Self Destruct Twice Before Breakfast" Winchester doesn't, but it does.

Mildmay, though. I like him. He was coarse and hurty and kind of selectively moral, and I love that in a character. (Which made it more frustrating that Felix was obliviously flailing away at his shadows and hurting whoever was closest.) But Mildmay never called Felix on his shit, and THAT made me kinda want to shake them BOTH by the last few pages.

Also, Monette has issues with POV shifting. In that she switches back too often to a character who isn't DOING anything or contributing to the story. (Back to Felix: still crazy? Oh, yes. Okay, with that resolved, back to Mildmay and the PLOT.) Not that the story really had a traditional MEANING in this book, because Monette got to the end and just... stopped. Just stopped. No real resolution. No real promise. Just, eh, I got my 50,000 words and I'm spent.

I've heard the second book is better. I bought it because... well, masochism, generally. So we'll see.

Comments

[apetslife.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd read this before buying the book. I still would've bought it, but I would have been less annoyed by Felix with a little more preparation, I think. I SO VERY MUCH WANTED TO HIT HIM IN THE HEAD. *grin* I loved "Companion to Wolves" too! I haven't read the sequel to Melusine yet, but I've heard universally that it's much better.

[lomer.livejournal.com]

Felix is extremely annoying and self absorbed. My urge to beat him to death with my shoe, only got stronger and stronger with each book... but I adore Mildmay. Mildmay just has all these ISSUES without being obnoxious about them like Felix. And for someone who killed people for a living, he's just this huge hang up on family and finding his brother and wanting his brother to like him. I like how he isn't what he appears to be.

These books are like candy for me. They aren't nessisarily GOOD for you, but somehow by the last quarter of the book I can't put the damn thing down.

[(Anonymous)]

So glad you reviewed this! I'd wondered what the slashy writers thought of that.

I think the series is fun largely because of Mildmay. Great character and I think she does a good job keeping his voice throughout.

FWIW, Melusine and Virtu should be read as one book. I agree that the plot isn't the thing as much as the characters, which is how I like my fiction.

[amalthia]

I tried reading this book but I just couldn't get into it.

[doctor-dorothy.livejournal.com]

Hee! I love your book reviews -- it's like reading, only without the hours of, well, reading. Thanks for posting these!

[bkm5191.livejournal.com]

ahh that is why no one got a resolution? because she got paid for a trilogy, grrrr, even if there are more parts a novel has to have some kind of conclusions.

Otherwise it's a very long poem.

[daybright.livejournal.com]

Felix annoyed the hell out of me, I could not finish the book even after reading of promished incesty manpain to come. Still I have ordered Company to wolfs and I hope it is better because annoying Felix aside I kind of liked the world and Mildmay and decided that the author needed another chance.
Thanks for your reviews I really like them.

[frightened.livejournal.com]

I think Sam Winchester would break Felix's nose and steal his lunch money.

This may be the ultimate description of a character wallowing in his own waaaaaaaaaaaangst. I salute you.