Ace, 2005; 477 pages

 

 

All fingers point to Felix Harrowgate, the dashing young wizard strong enough to break the Vitru—unfortunately as a result of the destruction of this sacred magical item, he goes mad. In actuality, the Virtu’s destroyer is Felix’s old master, the man who abused and enslaved him in his childhood. But Felix’s master has left the country, sacrificing Felix to the lords of the Mirador.

 

In the slums of Melusine, a mysterious magician foreign to the city needs Felix’s help, and uses a powerful calling charm, but instead gets Mildmay the Fox—thief and assassin—who is more connected to ‘Lord’ Felix’s story than he would have ever thought possible.

 

Monette’s prose is good, the imagery and voice of the two first-person narrators distinct and engaging. Her characterization is thorough as we watch these two men endure tragedies and hardship and see how they cope with the lot they’re dealt—and eventually they look to each other for redemption. Felix’s story is particularly well handled, as his decent into madness could have been messy or confusing, but it is interesting and, strangely, logical how he deals with his hallucinations.

 

The magic is fascinating, too, although we don't get very detailed information about how it is cast or its origin. In Melusine there are the different philosophies of magic, as though they are some kind of religion, which affects and is influenced by culture and politics, which makes for interesting discussion.

 

Monette’s set-up of the city is interesting, as well as the politics of not only the lords and wizards, but of the criminal element of the city. It is easy to visualize Melusine and the role in plays in the story, as well as its history and peculiarities. The settings outside the city are a little harder to follow, which seems a loss because so much of the novel revolves around the city and building its setting, only to leave it two-thirds of the way through the novel.

 

Unfortunately, there is very little recognizable plot or inter-connected events—the story flows along at a ramble as we’re introduced to people, events happen, and we move on to never see these characters again or understand the point of their existence. This happens throughout the novel and there is no satisfactory conclusion to these events. And even though it’s the first book of a series, there should at least be some connections made between events, otherwise, why have these seemingly random interludes? Does Monette really expect me to remember these events or to give them significance across books in a series? It drained my energy to try to remember these events and then not see a point to them later in the book.

 

There are other annoyances from the book, such as odd dialogue glitches, where the flow of conversation sometimes doesn’t make sense; 'new' words and references we have to learn; and the frequent switching back and forth between the two first-person narrators can sometimes be frustrating just as we get important information for that man’s story.

 

On the whole, I may not read the sequel. By the end I was indifferent to the characters and their plight and I wasn’t sufficiently engaged by the magic and setting to make me want to come back.

 

Melusine is the first book of a series, but is easily read as a standalone.

 

(Warning: This book contains frequent profanity and homosexuality, including a graphic rape.)