A review by ianbanks
Illusion by Paula Volsky

5.0

Published not long after the bicentenary of the French Revolution this is a very thinly-disguised, still-has-the-serial-numbers-on-it rewriting of it. The essence of it remains: over-taxed serfs - check; oblivious aristocrats - check; Robespierre stand-in - check; vicious method of execution - check; Scarlet Pimpernel-a-like - check. All it lacks is a Tennis Court Oath...

But it is more than just a retelling with magical bits: it's the story of Eliste, a pampered aristocrat who witnesses the revolution on the outskirts and becomes a protagonist in events only near the end. It makes for some clumsy story-telling moments, but on the whole you are immersed in the events even more so as the full impact of them begins to dawn upon her.

Of course, being a fantasy novel there is magic and derring-do, but it's carefully updated to a believable 18th-Century/ Enlightenment milieu, with counterparts from history making an appearance and rendering it a more realistic canvas - when this was published, firearms and steampunkiness were only beginning to make themselves felt in mainstream fantastic literature and the presence of muskets in the same places as spells and enchantments are cleverly mixed together so you barely feel any incongruity.

Finally, Ms Volsky's writing is amazing - she creates believable characters speaking realistic dialogue and behaving like actual human beings. She also doesn't overegg her pudding: the moments of violence and horror that you would get in a revolution are sensitively mixed with scenes where people are having fun or behaving as you might expect them to in this situation - her heart is clearly on the side of the serfs and the downtrodden, but you don't stop wallowing in the sheer fun that Eliste has when she comes to Court or goes shopping. It's all judged and portrayed effectively with little dissonance in the mind of the reader. Brilliant!