Customer Reviews

Night S Daughter a

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This book is so full of symbols. It is a wonderful book, but aht else can you expect from the great Marion Zimmer Bradley? True, it is not completely like Mozart's wonderful opera, but then who says it should be? I wish it was back in print!

Years ago I somehow forced myself to slog through The Mists of Avalon, and, not having enjoyed it, swore an oath never to read a novel by this author. A colleague working on a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute with me gave me a copy of Night's Daughter, Bradley's novelization of this terrifically weird and breathtaking opera. Being fascinated by takes on the opera, I made an exception to my anti-Bradley rule; yet I have emerged only with further disdain for Bradley. These characters are ciphers; this prose is trite; this novel has no structure. Granted, people have said the same things of the opera. But the ritual of participating in a theatrical event, and of listening to beloved music, achieve the effect Bradley (in her author's note) hoped to achieve in fantasy literature: of illuminating the spectator's inner life with powerful archetypes, of causing each of us to go on a journey and emerge a greater person. A good performance of the opera will accomplish this magic. Bradley's novel, sadly, accomplishes nothing; truly, hers is the empty bluster of the Queen of the Night.