Customer Reviews

Gravelight

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

 

 

Morton's Fork, West Virginia is reported to be a hotbed of psychic activity. The rumors draw paranormal researcher Professor Dylan Palmer and his fiancee Truth Jourdemayne to the small town. Truth soon learns that her ancestors Quentin Blackburn and his lover Athanasis Dellon fought to the death over control of the Wellspring gate that takes visitors to a world filled with magic.

Truth and Dylan also learn that the original fight between her great-uncle and his lover on the mortal plane several decades ago continues on the astral plane. However, this time the pair of spirits are using human descendants to fight their eternal battle. Athanasis possesses her own daughter, actress and confused psychic Sinah Dellon to be the tool in her war. Quentin has moved inside the body of rich drunk Wycherly Musgrave to use as his dupe. It is up to Truth to save the pair of pawns and close the gate before disaster strikes the townsfolk and her beloved.

Marion Zimmer Bradley is the mistress of several genres including the supernatural. That reputation is well deserved and her latest novel, GRAVELIGHT, will strengthen her hold on the top rung. The story line is fast-paced, filled with action, and quite entertaining. Truth be told, nobody does it better.

Harriet Klausner

I loved GHOSTLIGHT(1995); I liked WITCHLIGHT (1996) even better, but GRAVLIGHT surely tops both of them ! Her story of an alcoholic, a desperate actress and her two psychic reseachers is a great and compelling story. I could not put it down until I had read the whole book. Be sure not to miss this fantastic novel which tops nearly every novel MZB has written in recent years. And look for the next installment in the series.

When I met Wycherly Musgrave, Winter's brother, in WITCHLIGHT, he seemed like just one more thoroughly unlikeable member of a unlikeable and dysfunctional family. In GRAVELIGHT I learned that he's probably the only other member of the family who's worthwhile. Unlike his sister's adventure of the mind, we don't have to wait three-quarters of the book to find out what he's running from. Yes, he has good reason for hating himself. It was interesting to find out what happened to the Musgraves. Too bad that Wycherly is the only other sibling to break away. Will he find the truth and shall it set him free? GRAVELIGHT starts out with a chapter that sets us up for what is to come. Quentin Blackburn certainly misjudged the will of his lover, Athanais Dellon. Unfortunately, Attie didn't succeed in wiping out his evil influence. Unlike the first two books, this one changes viewpoint from character to character before tying everything together. This enabled the author to accomplish more than she could have by sticking with any one character. I enjoyed learning about Athanais and present-day Melusine ("Sinah") Dellon's self-serving ancestress and the origin of the Dark Brooding Evil Menace in Morton's Fork [great name!]. I enjoyed seeing Truth Jourdemayne and Dylan Palmer again, although the reversal of their believer-skeptic roles made me worry that they wouldn't be together by the end. I think Ms. Bradley chose wisely in the manner in which she resolved the problem. However I didn't understand why there should be any trouble between Truth and another character in GHOSTLIGHT who makes an appearance here and I still don't. Little nugget of information: according to one of the many catalogs that clutter up my mailbox, those little bricks of Fels-Naptha that Truth wonders about in chapter five are heavy-duty laundry soap. Just as I found the climax of GRAVELIGHT more powerful and satisfying than that of its predecessors, I think this book has the most powerful and evocative cover. With the other two, I don't think it would matter much if the paperback cover doesn't include the entire wraparound design of the hardcover's dustjacket, but in this case it would. I love the glimpse of the ruined sanatorium with the light streaming through and around it!

Bradley is undeniably one of the great craftspeople of fantastic settings; and her strong female characters are always a refereshing change from the status quo.

I would not, however, consider Gravelight to be one of her more stellar achievements. Although the story line is engrossing, the characters are just a little too stereotypical and the theology/magic system a tad too clichéd. The ending, likewise, is somewhat predictable and pat.

Were it most other author, this book would have received 3 stars. Nevertheless, the Bradley touches (particularly the emphasisi on the female characters) are sufficient to make this a respectable read for anyone who enjoys the genre. As always, Bradley manages to make you want to read to the end; even if you are pretty what that will be.

winter musgrave's free-drinking brother makes his entrance driving as fast as he can from his dysfunctional family ,fears of a deceased girlfriend and his own guilty conscience...but he cannot escape the past or himself...he finds himself in a sinister small town living in the home of the local deceased witch,and is believed to be a "conjureman"...nearby a ruined sanitorium lures him to a legacy of evil...and he comes to face with an equally tormented actress who is in town to try to find her roots,which is difficult for her since the town is shunning her...was her family so evil??...the actress is also frightened by her own natural telepathic abilities...is this why her family was so hated no one will speak to her?...was her mother like this too???....anything you guess comes nowhere close to the frightening truth that awaits her and wycherly at the sanitorium...and truth jourdemayne and dylan palmer are in for it too as they take a couple of young psychics to the small town to investigate the large number of disappearances that seem to be centered around the crumbling sanitorium!...lots of chills await the reader with every turn of the "wheel"...awesome reading for a stormy night....enjoy!!!

For some reason, all the MZB books I choose end up having the same plot: there's some dark underground sacrificial alter where dark forces are summoned & it's cramping the style of our heroines. Nevertheless I didn't mind as much this time because the main character's struggle with alcoholism and indulgent self-hatred was so brilliantly drawn. In fact, all of the characters and the way they related when they met were totally captivating. But like I've said before--oh no, not that whole lame devil worship plot again! This book would have deserved five stars had the supernatural possession happened more originally.

Marion Zimmer Bradley (MISTS OF AVALON) has continued her occult saga surrounding Truth Jourdemayne and her colleague at the Bidney Institute that begin with GHOSTLIGHT. The second volume focused on Winter Musgrave, a wealthy young woman who was being haunted by her past, including her dysfunctional family. GRAVELIGHT concerns Wycherly Musgrave, Winter's alcoholic youngest brother and an even greater disappointment to the aristocratic Musgrave family than Winter. Wycherly was fleeing from yet another rehab program. He totaled the car he was driving, leaving him stranded in backwoods, mountain hamlet of Morton's Grove. Wycherly decided that this was as good a place to hide from his family and problems as any and so decided to stay for the time being anyway.

There is another refugee from the outside world who has also recently decided that Morton's Forge is a good place to hide. Soon to be famous actress Sinah Dellon had gone to the town looking for her past. Her mother had lived there, and died there giving birth to Sinah. Sinah had been sent away to be raised by a foster family but now she had returned looking for answers.

The final group of summer visitors to the remote town was Truth Jourdemayne, her fiance and collegue Dylan and two graduate students on a research project, investigating the cluster of disappearances and other odd occurrences that center around the town. It was just a coincidence that these three groups all happen to be at this place at this time...or is it? Perhaps this meeting had been arranged many years before.

These three books are a continuation of the same story, much as Bradley's Avalon and Atlantis series had been. In order to fully enjoy, or even to understand this story arc the reader needs to begin at the first novel, GHOSTLIGHT and proceed in order. Even so fans of MISTS OF AVALON will probably be disappointed in this series.

Don't expect anything original or unpredictable in Marion Zimmer Bradley's occult fantasy "Gravelight." It's strictly by-the-numbers, slow to action, repetitive and brimming over with characters either unsympathic or simply annoying. Sure she can turn a phrase, but she didn't stop turning.

Promising actress/telepath Sinah Dellon came to the tiny hick town of Morton's Fork looking for info on her birth mother. Not only does nobody want to admit her mother lived there, but Sinah becomes the local pariah. Elsewhere, rich-boy alcoholic Wycherly Musgrave crashes his car, and takes up temporary residence in Morton's Fork. The residents think he's a magical "conjureman," but all he wants to do is be left alone with his booze and nightmares.

Meanwhile, Truth Jourdemayne, her fiancee and a pair of psychics are coming to Morton's Fork, and Truth is getting a bad feeling about something to come. Sinah and Wycherly meet and explore a sanatorium that burned down in the early 1900s -- which is somehow connected to Sinah's ancestors. The problem is, sinister powers are starting to hijack their thoughts.

Bradley took a sloppy mishmash of occultism, mythology (such as her hideous misuse of "sidhe" mythos), and the a few of the flashier New Age trappings, and cooked them together into a half-baked fantasy novel. It's pretty much by-the-numbers -- here's the Mysterious Ancestry! The Hidden Chambers! The Magical Bloodline! The Sinister Cult! The Voices In Their Heads! The Evil Magic! The Good Magic! Even a quickie on an evil altar!

In "Gravelight," it feels like Bradley didn't have the slightest idea how to fill in the middle of the book. The character spend too much time wondering if they're crazy (or in Wycherly's case, thinking about booze). Bradley has a lovely writing style, but it becomes repetitive. For example, Wycherly has a recurring dream about the woman he accidently killed dragging him into the river. The first time, it's powerful. But she keeps reusing the dream so often that it loses its power.

And the characters aren't much better than the writing. Either they're good and dull (Sinah and Truth) or they are jerks (Wycherly) with no redeeming features. The Morton's Fork residents are portrayed as inbred rednecks, and Truth's coworkers have no personalities. It's hard to tell why we're supposed to care about any of these people.

"Gravelight" is a plodding, staggering piece of cliched occult fantasy. Like a balloon with a tear, it deflates as soon as it puffs itself up.