Book Review – Corambis by Sarah Monette

Author: Sarah Monette
Cover Artist: Judy York
Publisher: Ace
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: April 2009

Any reader who encounters this series (started with Melusine, and continued in The Virtu, and The Mirador), could probably easily misinterpret from the cover that these books are some kind of paranormal romance.  If they hadn’t read the jacket text, they would be in for quite a shock.  This book is a compelling fantasy full of dark magics, broken characters, and immense, mysterious machines.  Labyrinths, a college for wizards, and a sinister forest complete the formula for a very interesting book.

I had not read any of the previous volumes, so I started without having been previously introduced to the characters or the world that Monette had crafted.  While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend starting with this volume, it does work as a stand alone book, but I”ll admit that once I was finished, I definitely want to read the other three novels so I get the full story of what happened before.  There are enough recaps to give a general sense of what transpired in earlier books, but they’re vague enough to ensure that the other books wouldn’t be ruined for someone who read the books out of sequence.  New terms, or terms peculiar to the languages in the books are explained well and are incorporated every bit as seamlessly and naturally into the narrative as the recaps, which keeps the reader well informed without making them feel bored or as if something is getting drilled into their heads.

Kay Brightmore, Mildmay  Foxe, and Felix Harrowgate are all men who have been severely damaged by circumstances in their lives.  Foxe and Harrowgate are in exile from Melusine after an act of revenge perpetrated by Felix.  Brightmore, on the other hand, has met with a horrifying incident that left him blind.  The three of them have separate storylines through much of the book, though each of their individual plot threads are connected by coincidences and common settings, it isn’t until most of the way through the book that they all connect  The three men are all prickly and one would be hard pressed to call any of them likable.  They are bad-tempered, foul-mouthed, bitter, and often times highly self-centered.  Despite all their faults (and make no mistake, even though they have good reasons for them, there are many flaws), somehow, each of them manages to be realistic and interesting, and it’s nearly impossible not to care about what happens next.  The characters will grow on you as the story unfolds and you begin to realize that they aren’t the villains here, and truly, it’s more that the reader has met these particular characters in a very strange and particularly harrowing time in their lives.

Readers who cannot  abide scenes of torture or who want books that will make them feel happier are advised to seek out different reading material.  This is a very good book, but it has dark themes-though very few, if any, scenes would really qualify as horror, it is intense.  I’d recommend this book for fantasy fans looking for a complex world with steampunk overtones and rich characters.

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