Customer Reviews

Corambis (Doctrine of Labyrinths)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Let me say about the four-book series: I don't require literature to be cozy. However, almost all the major characters are deeply emotionally and/or physically damaged, and can't get their minds on anything else for almost the entire length of every part of every book they narrate. When they're not narrating, someone else is describing their depression, self-destructiveness, serious physical illness and/or injury, etc. The series would be more effective if the characters got to enjoy themselves once in awhile; rather than the most relief being, currently they don't feel too awful though they know they will soon.

Corambis is apparently supposed to be about emotional healing. However, it's an extended therapy session where the characters are confessing everything readers have already known about for three books, and which these characters have confessed before to other characters. So, I've spent four books thinking, get over it, and get on to _doing_ something. I read this last book in the series in the hope that they would.

Especially, I wanted a happy ending for Felix who, apparently in his early 30s, still thinks and acts like an abused child. He's realized his half-brother Mildmay loves him--which considering how faithful Mildmay's been for four books, took much too long--but Felix wants a lover, a spouse. The author leaves even that question open, with three somewhat possible candidates with whom Felix would have had very different relationships. And really, is Felix going to be happy living a retired country life, considering his few pleasures used to stem from a sophisticated urban and palace environment? What about Mildmay, whose only goal in life has become to follow and support his brother--doesn't he deserve something for himself?

Throughout the series, the author has only been willing to grant happy endings to characters who then vanish from the series, for example the actress Mehitabel. But although I enjoyed the books, I don't want to see a fifth one that gives Felix a happy ending. The material in these four should have been condensed into about three novels of the same size--even with a few upbeat experiences thrown in.

The best thing about this final book in Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths is the brand-new character Kay Brightmore. Given how I felt about the other three books in the series--namely, that they were by far the best thing going in fantasy today--this actually constitutes something of a tragedy. (Mild spoilers follow.)

Gone are the fraught and mysterious magical doings, the unexpected and dangerous situations Mildmay and Felix used to stumble into practically every time they turned a corner, the spiky and fascinating relationship between the half-brothers. In place of these things we get brief and unsatisfying showdowns with a giant stomping robot and a bad-tempered clockwork octopus, and a lot of hand-wringing about Felix's emotional state.

Mildmay's character is flat; whereas he used to have his own side projects, not to mention his own excruciating emotional struggles, he has at this point become something more akin to a traditional (and hence uninteresting) sidekick. One would have thought, as a result of his having recovered from his Strych-induced amnesia at the end of book three, that Mildmay might have had a few issues of his own he'd need to resolve in this volume. Apparently not, as his only role here is to act as a sounding board for Felix and patch up his half-brother's clothes and socks. Felix, for his part, works hard on rehabilitating himself. This is something he certainly needs to do, but the process (which involves a lot of confessionals to other characters, including various recitals of his difficult sexual history) was unconvincing, as it required Felix to abandon his dignity completely and repeatedly.

I have a lot of respect for Ms. Monette's abilities as a writer, but this book just doesn't live up to the rest of the series. Admittedly, she set herself a very high bar with the first three books, which is why I'm giving this novel three stars. It's still a good read, even though it fails with the heart-in-your-throat factor that made the rest of the tale so extraordinary.

Well, it had to happen: the series is officially over. And sad though that may be, the one thing that is not sad is this book. I will not give anything away, just say that for me, most book series endings leave me rather disappointed and often saying "that's it?" But not Corambis; this one left me just saying "AWWWWWWWWW!!!" And yes, sad as it may seem, I gave the book a little hug at the end :p (don't make fun lol)

I loved this book, this series, and the world that Sarah Monette created. She explained everything without being repetitive or formulaic and her characters were rich and complex and had an incredibly expressive personal voice. LOVE this series!!! (If you see any "I Heart Mildmay" T-shirts out there, let me know :D)

Do your selves a favor, read all four books from Melusine and The Virtu, to The Mirador and finally Corambis.

Thank you Ms. Monette! You did fantasy fiction proud!!!

Just as always, Sarah Monette give us a wonderful book. Her characters really deserve a standing ovation!
I'm sad to say goodbye to Mildmay and Felix but they were fantastic friends during my reading!

(ps: sorry for the mistakes of grammar or ortograph I could have done, but I'm french and I don't speak english fluently...)

Exiled from the Melusine for heresy, Calabine wizard Felix and his half-brother journey to the land of Corambis to face a wizard tribunal's judgements. Corambis is riddled with unrest, however - and Felix and Mildmay find themselves embroiled into a mystery thwarting even the must powerful of mages. Can their powers ultimately turn the course of events? A fine fantasy steeped in magic, perfect for fantasy collections.

Exiled in the last (third) book, the wizard Felix and his long-suffering half-brother, former thief and assassin, Mildmay, travel to the distant land of Corambis where Felix must submit himself to the will of a council of wizards. Corambis has been in the midst of a civil war, the abrupt ending of which seems to have heralded the awakening of various strange and deadly mechanisms.

A new character, Kay Brightmore, Margrave of Rothmarlin, was at the center of the fighting for the freedom of his lands from the rule of the Corambins. In an act of desperation, he and the leadership of the rebellion sought to awaken the powers of the mechanism of Summerdown, to disastrous effect.

Corambis is so far from Felix and Mildmay's city of Melusine, that much knowledge has never spanned the distance. Felix has some idea of the powers at work and has the ability to safeguard the world from them, but he's hobbled by the will of the council.

In the meantime, the brothers need to sort out their relationship and see if they will be able to forge a new life in this strange land. They cross paths with Kay and with many other characters along the way.

All the characters are well-drawn and fascinating, and the land of Corambis, with its technology (trains!) and differing views of magic, is also worthy of exploration. This forth and final book in the Doctrine of the Labyrinth series (beginning with _Melusine_--the books are best read in order) makes for a satisfying conclusion.

First, you absolutely cannot read this book without reading the previous books in the series. In fact, even if you've read them, you might want to re-read them first, unless your memory is far better than mine, because the author refers frequently to past events without wasting time retelling them. That being said, Corambis is a great conclusion to an incredible series.

I loved the first two books in this series, and was disappointed in the third book (The Mirador) because of the addition of a third POV character, who I found to be quite boring. In addition, in that book, Felix and Mildmay were both off in separate directions, and so the scenes between the two of them (which really are the heart and soul of the entire series) seemed few and far between. I was worried that Corambis would suffer similarly by the addition of Kay's POV.

I am happy to say that I was wrong. I did not find Kay's chapters nearly as tedious as I found Mehitabl's. And, even better, a greater number of Felix and Mildmay's chapters are spent with the two of them together.

This book is really about healing, and for those of us who have agonized along with Felix and Mildmay, it's about time.

The series really does come full circle. I actually got goosebumps when I read the first line of the epilogue. I won't spoil anything, but it really hits you that this is the end of the tale, and I found tears in my eyes. I will miss these characters, but am so glad that the author made it work so well.

I wanted to add a positive review for this book, my favorite in the Melusine series. Sarah Monette does a great job of painting a brightly realized and believable world. I love how distinct she makes her different settings, and this one, of a country on the edge of modernizing swallowing up its less advanced neighbor is my favorite.

It's interesting to see Felix and Mildmay on their own again, reinventing themselves but not just shedding the past like an old pair of trousers either. Kay is a good addition, and an effective native voice to provide context for the conflict. I liked Kay's stubbornness and somewhat unexpected story arc given that we are introduced to him at what should be the tragic end to his adventures.

But I enjoyed this book most for its moments of wonder. The attack on the train, the trap of the labyrinth, Felix's explanation of magic (actually one of my favorite, ever, and I've read a lot), teaching the students to see noirant energy...

So, some sex, some violence, some violent sex, but overall worth the read.

I've enjoyed this entire series very much. In this book, Felix is exiled, and Monette introduces us to another country, this one as complex as the others, albeit with a bit more of a steampunk vibe. We also meet a new character, the blinded soldier Kay, whom I liked very much. I found his voice especially charming.

In this book, several of the Mildmay's and Felix's conflicts are addressed, which is a good thing. The adventures themselves are a little less hair-raising than their prior ones, with a bit of an anticlimactic-climax. I also wish a few more loose ends had been tied up at the end.

Nonetheless, I really liked this book, in part because Monette writes so vividly. I'm going to miss the characters, however.

After I finished the third book of the series, I was so depressed I swore I'd never touch anything Sarah Monette wrote ever again. Not that her writing wasn't excellent and EXTREMELY addictive--how else could I have gotten through the suffering of her characters through three novels already?--but I just kept waiting and waiting for something good to happen to either of the main characters, Felix or Mildmay, or at least for a little healing from their intense physical and psychological trauma to happen. And it never did.

But I saw _Corambis_ at the library and that druglike compulsion to read Monette's writing kicked in. And I'm glad I did pick it up and read it--some of the other reviewers think this book isn't as good as the others, but I enjoyed its gentler pace and shallower conflict because it was oh, so much less painful, and such a relief to finally have some decent things happening, for Felix and Mildmay both. More for the former--he actually gets a job! but Mildmay too benefits, in the growth and softening of the relationship between the half-brothers.

Monette again switches off narrative between Mildmay and Felix, but she adds a third voice to the mix, of Kay Brightmore, whose own suffering eclipses that of the two half-brothers, so we can still get our dose of Monette pain. I have to say, reading Kay's narrative got me really choked up whenever I read it, it was so good.

There's no fairytale ending to this novel, but it's enough to satisfy the realist in me as well as the part that clamors for happy resolution. I can't say this series overall hit ANY of the archetypes for fantasy that trigger endorphin-rushes for me (no cute talking animals, idealistic heterosexual romances between beautiful people, or acts of unarguable heroism), but the fact that I still found these books utterly compelling I think indicates how good it is.

To be read with some focus (lots of details and an intricately different world built here) and an open mind, but I think anyone who gets through these books to the conclusion will be enriched at least in some way for it.