Book 217: The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey
Book 217: The Gates of Sleep (Elemental Masters #3).
Author: Mercedes Lackey, 2002.
Genre: Alternative History. Fantasy. Re-told Fairy Tale.
Other Details: Paperback 448 pages. Unabridged Audiobook (14 hrs, 42mins) Read by Kayla Fell.
The Gates of Sleep is a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty set in Devon and Cornwell around 1912. At the christening ceremony held at Oakhurst Manor for Marina, the infant daughter of Hugh and Alanna Rosewood, a number of fellow Elemental Masters are in attendance to confer magical gifts upon the baby. However, the gathering is interrupted by Arachne, Hugh's long estranged sister, who proceeds to place a curse on the baby that will lead to her death on or before her eighteenth birthday. Arachne then departs dramatically. Luckily, there is a final gift to be bestowed and while Lady Elizabeth Hastings is unable to remove the curse she is able to lessen it so that Mariana will not die if it is activated. However, her parents and their friends decide to send Mariana for her safety to the 'wilds of Cornwall' to be raised by three of the Rosewood's close friends, who are artists as well as Elemental Masters.
So Marina grows up in a rustic, arty setting aware of her magical gifts but unaware of the curse or why her parents have sent her away. When she is seventeen her formal magical training begins. Of course, there wouldn't be a story if Mariana sailed through to her eighteenth birthday and as events unfold Arachne becomes Mariana's legal guardian. Marina is taken her away from the only home she has known and Arachne proceeds to make her life miserable and secretly plots to get her hands on Marina's fortune as well as to activate the curse.
I felt the novel started off with a great deal of promise but then suffered from uneven pacing and minor plot holes. I also did not feel that Lackey was all that comfortable with the Edwardian setting and this was reflected in quite a few reviewers referring to it as Victorian. Of course, the timey-whimey confusion may be theirs. Also, while I am a great admirer of the Pre-Raphaelites, as a student of art history I am well aware that by 1912 that style was out of fashion. Of course, Lackey did say in her introduction to The Serpent's Shadow that as a writer of fantasy she reserves "the right to bend history as well as create magic". I guess she includes art history in that.
However, my biggest issue with the novel was the environment. I did not feel that Lackey had any real appreciation of English weather. We just do not get the kind of winters where the world freezes up and there is snow and ice for months as it does in Canada and parts of the USA. I know she did it for a plot point but it felt a weak ploy. It may seem a small thing to feel bothered about but it annoyed me every time it was mentioned. So while I could forgive her tampering with history, even art history, climate proved a different matter.
In addition, the ending was far too rushed and the love story, which seemed to spring from nowhere, was just not convincing with no chemistry between the characters.
I listened to this audiobook over a number of weeks and in order to keep a sense of the story I read at the end of each week those pages that I had listened to. I did think that the narrator should have not attempted a Devon accent, if that was what she was intending, as it was a little off. Sometimes books are better read in a generic voice.
I plan to continue with the series as in the balance of things there is more positive than negative and I enjoy re-tellings of fairy tales.