Monette, Sarah: Melusine and The Virtu
truepenny's Melusine is an intense fantasy novel with alternate narrators, the victimized and crazy wizard Felix and the cat burglar Mildmay. Felix is magically forced to break a valuable magical artifact, the Virtu; the enchantment he's put under also drives him insane, and no one believes that someone else made him do it. Meanwhile, Mildmay has very entertaining adventures which slowly draw him closer to Felix, until they meet about halfway through.
To get a taste of Mildmay's voice, read the prologue; I vividly recall reading it from coffeeandink's advance copy, in a hot New York cafe, and having to restrain myself from snatching it from her and running away with it. Mildmay speaks in one of the very few slang dialects that is not only not annoying, but a delight to read. He's also one of the more lovable protagonists I've come across in a while; you can call him an anti-hero, but that's only because he's a criminal, and criminality was thrust upon him from birth rather than something he sought after.
Felix, unfortunately, spends about half the novel suffering from repetitive hallucinations while locked up in various institutions, visited only by people who accuse him of crimes in a repetitive manner. His sections don't pick up until he meets Mildmay, at which point I still liked Mildmay much better, but could at least tolerate Felix, since he was interacting with Mildmay.
Though there were large stretches of Melusine that I found fairly dull, the good parts (everything with Mildmay) were so good, and also happened to hit some of my particular buttons so hard, that I re-read them repeatedly. (Everything with Mildmay; the tower; the Kalliphorne.)
I had high hopes for The Virtu, as I figured that Felix would no longer be insane in it, and so would be more interesting. Well... on the positive side, he is much more interesting when he isn't crazy. On the negative, I hate him. He is an abusive asshole. Granted, he is a convincing and well-motivated abusive asshole, but he is edging perilously close to "I can't stand to read about this guy, I hate him so much" territory.
As for Mildmay, I still love him. However, while I obviously don't know what Monette was actually thinking when she wrote the book, by about the two-thirds mark, I couldn't help thinking to her, "I love Mildmay! I sympathize greatly with him! I want to cuddle him and give him a mug of hot cocoa! Your work is done! Now please cut the poor guy a break."
Seriously, I think only one nice thing happens to him in the entire book. Between him getting beaten up physically and emotionally all the time, and Felix being a total dick, I ended up having the exact same reading experience with The Virtu that I did with Melusine, though not for the same reasons: I absolutely loved parts of it (the labyrinth scene was particularly well-written), and there are parts that I will never re-read again.
I did like Mehitobel, and look forward her appearance in the next book. It would also be nice if Felix actually changed a bit rather than occasionally feeling guilty and then doing exactly what he'd have done if he'd never felt guilty at all, and if Mildmay could acquire some self-esteem. And a good physical therapist. And a sympathetic, non-incestuous, non-abusive non-doomed girlfriend. And cake.
To get a taste of Mildmay's voice, read the prologue; I vividly recall reading it from coffeeandink's advance copy, in a hot New York cafe, and having to restrain myself from snatching it from her and running away with it. Mildmay speaks in one of the very few slang dialects that is not only not annoying, but a delight to read. He's also one of the more lovable protagonists I've come across in a while; you can call him an anti-hero, but that's only because he's a criminal, and criminality was thrust upon him from birth rather than something he sought after.
Felix, unfortunately, spends about half the novel suffering from repetitive hallucinations while locked up in various institutions, visited only by people who accuse him of crimes in a repetitive manner. His sections don't pick up until he meets Mildmay, at which point I still liked Mildmay much better, but could at least tolerate Felix, since he was interacting with Mildmay.
Though there were large stretches of Melusine that I found fairly dull, the good parts (everything with Mildmay) were so good, and also happened to hit some of my particular buttons so hard, that I re-read them repeatedly. (Everything with Mildmay; the tower; the Kalliphorne.)
I had high hopes for The Virtu, as I figured that Felix would no longer be insane in it, and so would be more interesting. Well... on the positive side, he is much more interesting when he isn't crazy. On the negative, I hate him. He is an abusive asshole. Granted, he is a convincing and well-motivated abusive asshole, but he is edging perilously close to "I can't stand to read about this guy, I hate him so much" territory.
As for Mildmay, I still love him. However, while I obviously don't know what Monette was actually thinking when she wrote the book, by about the two-thirds mark, I couldn't help thinking to her, "I love Mildmay! I sympathize greatly with him! I want to cuddle him and give him a mug of hot cocoa! Your work is done! Now please cut the poor guy a break."
Seriously, I think only one nice thing happens to him in the entire book. Between him getting beaten up physically and emotionally all the time, and Felix being a total dick, I ended up having the exact same reading experience with The Virtu that I did with Melusine, though not for the same reasons: I absolutely loved parts of it (the labyrinth scene was particularly well-written), and there are parts that I will never re-read again.
I did like Mehitobel, and look forward her appearance in the next book. It would also be nice if Felix actually changed a bit rather than occasionally feeling guilty and then doing exactly what he'd have done if he'd never felt guilty at all, and if Mildmay could acquire some self-esteem. And a good physical therapist. And a sympathetic, non-incestuous, non-abusive non-doomed girlfriend. And cake.