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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fairly good ending to the series, April 20, 2009
This review is from: Corambis (Hardcover)
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.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Ends with a whimper, April 11, 2009
This review is from: Corambis (Hardcover)
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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Killer closing!!!, October 19, 2009
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!!!
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