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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
zzzzz......, July 10, 2002
This review is from: Leopard In Exile: Carolus Rex, Book II (Mass Market Paperback)
Is it a bad sign that I just finished this book the night before last, and now I'm hard-pressed to remember much of the plot? This book's predecessor, _Shadow of Albion_, was fun in a light sort of way, with the promise of sequels that would delve deeper into the faery magic at which it hints. I should have gotten my first clue about _Leopard in Exile_ when I looked at the cover art. Thomas Canty's drawings are lovely as always, but this illustration looks like it's supposed to be a rough preliminary sketch, compared to the sublime cover of _Albion_. Even the typefaces are clunkier. But I tried not to judge the book by its cover. Inside, though, I found little of interest. I had hoped that the characters, who were kind of cardboard in _Albion_, would get fleshed out now that we're getting to know them better. Nope, still cardboard. It's even worse in this one because people are going around moping about how much they love their husband/wife and yet the relationship has not been developed in the story. Why do they love each other? Because the authors say so, I guess. And to add more frustration, the authors seem to be under the impression that a good plot can be obtained simply by continually landing the characters in danger. (It reminds me of a 70s bodice-ripper I read years ago, in which the heroine got raped, then shipwrecked on a tropical island, THEN kidnapped by pirates, THEN trapped in an opium den... You get the idea.) Dropping the characters into one problem after another works pretty well if we KNOW the characters and CARE what happens to them, but since they're still 2-D, the constant action keeps us from learning any more about them. It's just crisis after crisis after crisis, and seldom a conversation. Not to mention, the magic doesn't get explained! Sarah went to the New World to fulfill a promise to the Fair Folk, but then they were absent for the first nine-tenths of the book, then showed up just long enough to give Sarah some vague aid against the villain, then disappeared again, without any explanation. I don't know if I'll read the third Carolus Rex book. I know both Norton and Edghill are capable of better books than this. Let's hope they remember that.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant alternate history fantasy, February 17, 2001
Duchess Sarah crossed the dimensional barrier from our world (nineteenth century England) to another realm. Though similarities abound such as Napoleon wanting to rule the globe, major differences exist as the Stuarts still rule and magic is an acceptable force. While Britain honors the Ancient Ones and tries to keep the war on the mundane plane, the megalomaniac French emperor employs the Marquis de Sade to use his arcane talents to insure his success. De Sade journeys to Nouvelle Orleans to ostensibly serve as the French governor of the territory. However, he actually seeks the Holy Grail to insure Napoleon cannot lose on the battlefield regardless of the odds and for diabolical reasons of his own. Counterforces try to prevent this travesty of the ancient relic from being misused. The Dauphin is missing and an angel visits his wife Meriel to say he is fine and she must obtain the Holy Grail before de Sade finds and gives it to his master Satan. Sarah travels to aid her friend Meriel. Sarah's husband, an aristocratic spymaster, follows her with his plan to assassinate de Sade and begin a revolt in Nouvelle Orleans. The action and adventure has just begun. Andre Norton and Rosemary Edghill have cleverly created a series that cleverly combines intrigue, adventure, magic, and political machinations into a fabulous epic fantasy. The key to this alternate history novel is that the New World seems real even with the influx of paranormal events. The romance between Sarah and her Duke helps the audience understand the characters as both have hardships to overcome in their relationship. LEOPARD IN EXILE is storytelling at its best. Harriet Klausner
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Wessexes go to the New World, August 16, 2003
This review is from: Leopard In Exile: Carolus Rex, Book II (Mass Market Paperback)
This sequel to The Shadow of Albion (Carolus Rex, Book 1), as I had hoped it would, begins to somewhat flesh out the world where the Stuarts kept the British throne. We learn (to my surprise) that the Tudors (from whom the Stuarts descend) used "dark forces" to sweep the Plantagenets aside, that the French are prone to enslaving and exploiting the native peoples (in our reality, as any historian knows, they had excellent relations with most of the tribes, and it was the Spanish who were heavily into enslavement and tyranny), and that magic seems to be the prerogative of the nobility. We find out how a Canadian tribe (the Cree) happened to have a presence in the wilderness outside Baltimore, and meet the Mandan, who even in our own Universe were something of an enigma (here they speak a debased Latin, practise a blurred copy of the High Mass, and guard a treasure that includes the Holy Grail). Contemporary Americans like Jefferson, Burr, and Andrew Jackson are briefly introduced, and Charles Corday--"Gambit," the French agent who attempted an assassination at a Mooncoign masquerade party in the first book--is reintroduced and becomes a full-blown and pivotal character. Jean Lafitte, the gentleman pirate-slaver of the Louisiana coast, is here too, along with all the major characters from "Albion": Rupert, Earl of Wessex, and his lady, the former Sarah Cunningham, who was plucked magically from our Universe to take the place of her counterpart, the Marchioness of Roxbury; Louis, the Lost Dauphin, and his bride Meriel; Illya Kosciusko, Wessex's charming Polish partner-in-espionage. And the source of Sarah's dreams of "the Beast" is revealed as we learn the true depths of depravity to which the Marquis deSade is willing to sink.
Much of the story occurs in New Albion (the 13 Colonies of our world) and Nouvelle-Orleans (our New Orleans), to which first Sarah (frantically summoned by Meriel after Louis goes missing) and then Rupert travel. The storyline owes something to "The Last of the Mohicans," with characters at cross-purposes, captures and escapes, and the looming threat of torture and sacrifice. True, some of deSade's scenes are not for the tender of stomach, but then anyone who's heard of him knows not to expect a "nice man." Also true, the authors seem a bit confused about their characters' ages: in "Albion" it was established, or at least strongly suggested, that Rupert and Sarah were 32 and 23; now, two years later, it's suggested that *Rupert* is 23! (Proofreader asleep at the switch?) But there's more magic here than in the first book, suggesting that they intend to amplify still further on that aspect of their world when (as I presume they plan to do) they set their noble pair against the "atheist" Napoleon, who is now deprived of his most puissant sorcerer-supporter. The question that arises next is, Have they done enough to keep their world from turning into a copy of ours? And can they, and the Grand Alliance (now including Denmark, since England's Prince Jamie has finally wed its Princess Stephanie), roll Napoleon back from his hoped-for conquest of the world?
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