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A review by cupiscent
Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
4.0
From a slow and somewhat tottering start (for me), this finished strongly. The second half of the book really gets some momentum and complexity going, weaving together all the stuff that was laid on in the first half (I just really wish Ms Brennan had found a better, tighter, snappier way to deliver us that first half). I remain uncertain about aspects of the way it's laid out - the "memory" sections, in particular, are baffling in their placement, which is almost always after you've found out in prose recollection the scenes depicted - but it all came together in a very satisfying way.
I am not especially learned in the area of Elizabethan history, but I have read a good deal about alchemy and John Dee, and I was extremely pleased with the rendition of him and Edward Kelley in this book, and that prompts me to suspect that it's pretty well historically pieced together throughout. And the faerie court is everything beautiful and cruel and whimsical and menacing and it's pretty much damn perfect. I was even pleased with the path of the romantic storyline.
Not to mention that this basically shits all over Mark Chadbourn's The Sword of Albion, containing all the subtlety, intricacy, emotional depth and ambiguity I (loudly) lamented the lack of in that book. And if Ms Brennan's prose doesn't quite resonate with me, it's still eminently serviceable and very graceful.
I am not especially learned in the area of Elizabethan history, but I have read a good deal about alchemy and John Dee, and I was extremely pleased with the rendition of him and Edward Kelley in this book, and that prompts me to suspect that it's pretty well historically pieced together throughout. And the faerie court is everything beautiful and cruel and whimsical and menacing and it's pretty much damn perfect. I was even pleased with the path of the romantic storyline.
Not to mention that this basically shits all over Mark Chadbourn's The Sword of Albion, containing all the subtlety, intricacy, emotional depth and ambiguity I (loudly) lamented the lack of in that book. And if Ms Brennan's prose doesn't quite resonate with me, it's still eminently serviceable and very graceful.