Customer Reviews

Heart of Light (Magical British Empire)

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

 

 

It was the cover that drew me to this book. A woman in Victorian dress standing on the dessert sands at sunset looking at what is apparently Buckingham palace flying overhead on a magic carpet. Then the premis drew me in: a world where magic is in the place of technology but that magic was bound to the ruing class by using a ruby ages ago and now queen Victoria wants the other ruby (named the heart of light) to perform this act again and basically take magic away from all others in the world so they can continue to be subjugated.

To this end she sends Nigel Oldhall and his new bride Emily to Africa on their honeymoon to find the ancient jewel rumored to have-with its long lost twin-bound the universe in one to keep parallel planes from splitting off and confusing things. But of course things get in the way of Nigel's quest. Everyone who was to help him is dead and the small but fierce African resistance to the great jewel plot, the hyena men, set binds which could kill or enslave upon Nigel and Emily. Luckily an old friend of Nigel's just happens to be in town-or is it? Because as helpful as Peter is, everywhere he is there are reports of were-dragons (yup, just like werewolves, only dragon style.)

This is complicated fantasy with a lot of different things to keep in mind but it's not overwhelming. The basis is good, the world is great and the plot is pretty solid. But the romance aspect? Sadly this book suffers from the common aliment of Love at First Sight. Or rather, love for no reasonable basis but mutual physical attraction. And not with who'd you think either. Also way too much of the quest aspect is just laid of for our heroes by wise people and various gods/goddess they meet along the way. Annoying. They never seem to figure anything out on their own. Anything important anyway.

All in all though it's a good novel for the first in a trilogy. Flying carpets instead of cruise boats, trains powered by magic, guns which shoot magical energy, mind melds and al kinds of were-creatures...it's a fantasy lover's dream world to pay around in. I'm looking forward to the other two.

Three point five stars.

A friend of mine read this book and gave it a five star review. Generally, I trust her judgement and love the books she recommends.

This one? Not so much.

I must admit: I never saw the movie Pearl Harbor with Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale and....whoever the other guy was. Maybe Josh Hartnet? It wasn't personal, it just didn't look all that interesting from the previews. What I did see was Roger Ebert's review of Pearl Harbor, and his summation was "The Japanese declare war on an American love triangle." That sentence has always stuck with me, because I thought it was extremely funny. (The review, not the event. And to be completely clear, I have seen many fascinating documentaries on Pearl Harbor. The movie just looked too teen romancey for me.).

And that's EXACTLY what I think of this book:
African independence and a magical British empire interrupts the love triangle from HELL. OMG. I wanted to slap nearly everybody in the book before it was over. Not that the story ended. The book ran out of pages. It just stopped. The quest wasn't over (but God willing, the love triangle(s) is/are.). If one person thought "Oh, that person's complete silence in the dead of night must mean that person doesn't love me and can never love me and is really secretly in love with someone else and everyone in my entire life has lied to me about everything of importance and now I must make my way by myself (on this STUPID UNCOMMUNICATED JOURNEY. Sorry, that was my addition.) and life as I know it will be forever changed but I must go on and live a life in which I can never be loved and my magic must not be nearly as powerful as that other person's magic even though everyone says it is but we have almost no demonstrations of magic on which to do a comparison....", EVEYRONE THOUGHT IT. Even the characters that were allegedly natives of Africa. I have such fond hopes for other cultures, that they don't have the same stupid societal rules that a lot of Western cultures have....and I would be sorely disappointed. According to Ms. Hoyt, not a single person in England or in Africa or in the ENTIRE BRITISH BLOODY EMPIRE has ever had an original thought.

It's astonishing.

The only reason I'm not giving this one star is that all the five star reviews seem to be coming down hard on the one star review (and I'm not here to discuss whether or not that review has merit), and because I can't give it a negative star. I really can't decide whether to read the rest of the series or not.

I mean, I will readily admit to being a squeamish person, so I try to avoid true crime books (or any kind of crime books, unless they're like Donald Westlake's Dortmunder capers) because I know I won't like some of the content, especially as it pertains to parts of the human body.
So I was shocked when (**SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT**) one of the characters CUT OUT HIS OWN EYE for this STUPID MISSION. GAG!!! (If I could do a bold 42 point font here, that "gag" would be in it.).

This book had such a promising start: Magical planet, magical empire, Queen Victoria, flying carpets, dragons, and....love triangle. About 5 people I pretty much hated by the end of the journey. Which wasn't the end of the journey.

**SECOND SPOILER SECOND SPOILER SECOND SPOILER** If you didn't love the last Harry Potter book because the content was mostly two people camping out and arguing, you're not going to love this book either. If I want to see people fight on an overly-prolonged trip, I'll drive somewhere with my grandparents. I don't care to read about it in my fantasy books.

If anyone has ANY kind of insight about the remaining books, and whether or not I should read them, please leave me a comment. I'd be willing to try them, just so I didn't waste all this time in the desert with these morons.

OH, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the alternate victorian universe - magic in such a staid world is a great contrast. Victorians were, in their way, more staidly scientific than we are! But this contrast, starting with a honeymoon cruise that occurs on a Hotel on a Flying Carpet, is quite well done.

The characters are pretty well drawn, with many facets and challenges to them throughout the story. The plot is not hugely intricate, but because it is told from many points of view, the hero/good guy POV is not overtly apparent from the beginning. This makes for a more interesting read than the usual fantaasy.

I believe this kind of fantasy is an acquired taste, but for those who like this AU magic kind of stuff, it's a good story. My biggest complaint is that it is the first of 2 books, and this is not at all clear upon reading the jacket of the book. I do not like being thusly sucker punched.

(*)>

Once again Hoyt has managed to build a world that is exciting and believable. She has created an alternate history of Colonial Africa that blends all the strengths and weaknesses of that era with magic and shapeshifters. This is a page turner that not only delivers a fun, exciting story but that leaves the reader waiting anxiously for the next installment in the series.

Ms. Hoyt's strengths as a storyteller revolve around her ability to set vivid scenes where the reader can see the scene in his/her mind, and in character development. The reader cares about what happens to the characters, cheering for the good guys and booing the bad. More importantly, her characters grow and aren't one dimensional charactures.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, romance or just a ripping good yarn.

Any time I read a review that gives one star to a book that is receiving three, four and five stars from other reviewers, I wonder about the agenda of the reviewer.

Is this a disgruntled former fan that feels slighted by an author?

Or is this someone who has decided to pan the author without even reading the book?

What I like best about Sarah A. Hoyt's characters is their believability. Ms. Hoyt gives her readers a glimpse into the mind of her characters almost as if each character were whispering their story into the author's or reader's ear.

In Heart of Light, the "Magical British Empire" may be fantasy, but the characters are as real as they come. Ms. Hoyt is a consummate historian and strives to get just the right feel for characters, period and society. Politically correct? I wonder if the reviewer even *read* the same book as the rest of us. Perhaps, to be generous, the reader may be forgetting that what may seem like political correctness in the 21st century was heresy in the Victorian age. Nevertheless, a quick glimpse at Ms. Hoyt's other books and short stories would reveal otherwise.

As for me, I intend to keep reading books and stories by Sarah A. Hoyt and recommending to my friends.

This was a very enjoyable book in that it was unclear, the whole way through reading it, what was going to happen at the end. So many books are very predictable that to find one that took the reader on a voyage of discovery and surprise was a real treat.

As the book opens we travel with Nigel Oldhall and his new wife Emily as they travel by flying carpet to Egypt for their supposed Honeymoon. However Nigel actually has an additional important reason for the trip - he's been sent on a mission to find a magical ruby which will ensure Queen Victoria's hold on India forever. Unfortunately things start to go wrong from the very beginning; Nigel and Emily's honeymoon doesn't really get off the ground before Nigel discovers his contacts in Cairo have been killed. The shadowy group known as the Hyena Men are apparently also after the ruby and when Emily does something to get her dragged into the quest things get even worse.

The majority of this book takes place as Nigel, Emily and a friend of Nigel's named Peter Farewell travel through the African landscape in their search for the ruby. They are accompanied by many native bearers including the enigmatic Kitwana and the Masai woman Nassira. The point of view of the story changes chapter by chapter as we follow events through the eyes of Emily, Nigel, Kitwana and Nassira. There are some surprises unveiled but much of the action is in people's minds as they begin to understand what the quest is about. The British attitude towards the native is well portrayed throughout the book and is toe-curlingly embarrassing, especially as it seems historically accurate. I felt the book lost its way in the middle a little as Nigel and Emily kept suspecting each other of various things on the slimmest of evidence. However, overall it was a good read with an interesting magical element and a surprising resolution in terms of the relationships between the main characters.

The book doesn't end at a particularly clear point and there is a follow-up book to be published which continues the story. However it's a good enough read in its own right and the African setting certainly gives it more punch than a traditional Victorian novel.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

In an alternate world, Queen Victoria rules the British Empire; she and all the descendents of Charlemagne have magic since he stole the ruby Soul of Fire from an African tribe. The magic is diffused throughout the empire with the commoners having very little and the aristocrats being powerful mages. The anarchists are starting to rebel as they demand freedom and magic.

To quell the trouble, the Queen sends Nigel Oldhall to Africa to find the matching ruby Heart of Light so that Her Highness can bind all the magic in the world to her and her descendants. Nigel brings his new bride Emily with him for trip on the Carpetship. She thinks they are going on a honeymoon as Nigel failed to enlighten her that he is on a mission for the queen. Also seeking the Heart of Light is the Hyena Men, rebels who want to bind the ruby to African control. When Emily learns what her spouse kept from her, she is furious and turns to two other men for comfort. She is unaware that someone else, whom Nigel knows all too well, tracks them as he plans to obtain the ruby for his personal control of magic.

Sarah A. Hoyt provides a great historical fantasy that looks deep into how people feel under outside rule as Victoria rules the continent while the Africans loath the invaders' domination of their land; thus readers have a scathing social commentary on colonization and occupying armies interwoven into the plot. Emily, Nigel, their companion Peter, and their guide Kitwanna are all characters made better by the quest for the ruby. There are many shocking revelations throughout the exhilarating story line; so much so that the audience will be tempted to read the five hundred plus pages in one sitting.

Harriet Klausner

As I read the reviews (after reading the book first), looking to see what other's may have gleaned from the book. I was struck by the single One Star review that mentioned the "incessant PCness" of the book/protagonists/author.
Wrong.
What the reviewer sees as "modern political correctness" is not what is in the book I read. Evil Brits? Well, d'uh! At that time, from non Brit cultures, the Brits were the archetypical villain. One wonders if the reviewer has any knowledge of history. Read some Kipling (no, not Jungle Book..the poetry). The Brits Had An Empire and woe betide ANY resistance. Being shot out of canons comes to mind in 1859 with the 'mutineers' of the Sepoy Rebellion being stuffed and shot out of the seige guns. Is this just modern 'anti-imperialism PC?' I think not. More like standard tactics of the day. The British were not well liked, nor their British East Indies Company. So, explain how it is PC for the villains to be the evil Brits and not just historical fact?
Then the complaint about the hero being, 'of course', a Brit... Um... Lawrence of Arabia anyone? Richard Francis Burton anyone? Kipling? The hundreds (if not thousands) of examples of British officers going native? Ring any bells?
Strange.
I wonder if the book was even read by this reviewer, maybe the back cover blurb sufficed...
I loved the book! Very well researched, tons of fun too!

Ugh. I just can't seem to get through this book. And I ALWAYS finish a book through to the end. But at 350-odd pages in, it's just so annoying. It's like bad High School with the mistaken ideas about people and the she loves him but he loves someone else junk.

Example:
Mr. thinks Mrs. is cheating. So Mr. starts fawning over an African woman. Said African woman is attracted to another African man. But the African man is drawn to the Mrs. The Mrs. thinks Mr. is cheating with the African woman and so decides to try to seduce Mr's friend. Meanwhile, nobody talks about ANY of their mistaken impressions AT ALL.

SO ANNOYING.

The book is SUPPOSED to be about a harrowing trip through Africa to find this magical gem. But the trip is the barest of window dressing for chapter after chapter of this aggravating romance tragedy.

The concept and the world is interesting but not enough to hold my interest nor keep me from rolling my eyes in sheer annoyance at the story itself.

While the story started out extremely well, and all the characters seemed believable, about half-way through the plot became awkward, and the ending was very strange. The characters became fairly shallow in motivation, and their final fate was unreasonable given the beginning few chapters. I was very disappointed.