Through a Brazen Mirror

by Delia Sherman and Manuel de los Reyes

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1885865244
• ISBN13: 9781885865243
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: Circlet Press
• Length: 100 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

highly original and sad

This is a most wonderful novel: the author based her story on the few remaining fragments of a medieval ballad and builds a complete novel out of her imagination and competence about medieval England. The only flaw I see in it is the use of ancient spellings to render the texts written by the characters: a most unnecessary display of erudition. A woman wronged, an immature but kind young king, an evil sorceress: all these classical ingredients are mixed into a story which mightily differs from a classical fantasy plot. The evil sorceress, who of course is beautiful and pityless, has her good reasons to be such a villain: not that Ms Sherman justify her conduct but she gives us reasons to understand it and even to pity her. The young king is courageous and good natured but he was thrown too early into his responsabilities and through a painful coming of age he has to become wiser and stronger to cope with them; to become a real king he also has to give up his personal hopes of happiness and this, if believable, is nonetheless very hard to stomach. The wronged woman has a strong personality; she can tell right from wrong and act accordingly, but she is not likeable. Even before the evil sorceress wronged her by killing her family and her hopes for a happy life she was hard, determined, even cold. We have to take sides with her without liking her. This is perhaps the reason why an extremely well written novel is so hard to like: the orderly world of fantasy, where black is black and white spotlessly so takes unpleasant shades of grey, different from the usual device of the main hero being a former thief or rascal. I was not able to hate the sorceress, who I looked upon as a wild animal fighting bloodily for her survival; I looked with kind of disgust upon the rise of the woman up the hierarchy of the king's court, at her gaining the king's love without being able to love him at least a little in return. Ms Sherman has chosen the stony path to a good story: the result is bitter but the quality of her writing and the development of her characters are such as not to allow any rating below the five stars. The sexual gender issue and the homosexuality of the king have delivered this valuable novel to a minor queer fiction publisher... A shame such a book is not distributed worldwide as it deserves.

A very special book!!!

When you think about it someways, this book is more historical fiction than fantasy. That is, if the reader can accept a past where vengeful witches release plagues, murderers and assassins. I've read Christopher Marlowe so the king who is not very secure in his heterosexuality is not fantastical. The Elinor/ William character: again not very fantastical, it's what she needed to do, so she did it. I like fantasy, I like historical fiction. What is difficult about this book, is the language. Sherman wanted us to know so much about the medieval setting that she uses medieval vocabulary. For me, who reads voraciously it's not a problem, for my high school students to whom reading is decidedly _not_ a pleasure, it is a barrier to refer to cows as kine and vespers and matins as times of day. I could wish this very good story were more accessible to more readers.Another thing I could wish for: this book is so long out of print and recently re-printed. Why was it re-printed as an expensive trade paperback? This forced me to look for it for years used. (It was well worth the wait...)

Loved it

A friend recommended this book to me and it is now one of my five favorite books. It's a wonderful, interesting read. Delia Sherman makes the Middle Ages come alive. Through telling details and habits of speech, she shows you just exactly who these characters are, and why. And though it's sent in an oppressive era of history, she puts a woman-friendly twinge on events, filling in extant fragments of a ballad to tell of William Flower's arrival at the king's palace, his work as a cook, his ascent through the ranks, and the unexpected circumstances that led to his retirement. But the book is more than that. Much, much more. I absolutely loved it and am recommending it to my book club, and my sister, and my niece, and my mother, and my aunt, and...

Excellent Work!

This is a very strong, unique novel, with some wonderful characters and a realistic setting, ending, and feel throughout the story. The medieval/Renaissance aspect to the novel is perfectly, professionally done. It took me a while to like the heroine of the tale, William/Elinor, but when her frosty, standoffish attitude finally faded into a likeable, strong protagonist, I really began to enjoy and like her character.The young King of the tale is a gem, who starts out as a headstrong, almost ignorant young monarch and blossoms into a truly wonderful, amiable, sympathetic and attractive character. His multidimensional character glows throughout the book. Margaret is the most tragic character of this story, and while she is definitely the villain of the tale, I couldn't help but hope she'd make it out all right. The reader really does feel for her, and sympathises with her (for lack of a better word) plight.This is a wonderful novel with the most unique flavor, and the people who move through the tale, from protagonists to antagonists to supporting players, are all excellently crafted. The queer/gay/transgender slant to this novel is splashed all over the back cover blurbs and Publisher's Notes and Introduction, but reading the book, I didn't once think of it as a queer/gay/transgender work. It's just an excellent story whose emphasis is on the plot and the characters, and to pigeon-hole the thing into a queer work is a shame. The book is a great deal more than just that. All in all, highly recommended!

It's a treasure!

I read this book when it was first released by Ace. It's a shame it hasn't received the attention it merits. Ms. Sherman's writing is beautiful, compelling... she doesn't waste the reader's time, every perfectly chosen word matters. Anyone looking for a GOOD book (including those who don't usually read Fantasy) will not be disappointed.