Progeny [Paperback]

Becky Meadows (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2001

Deceit. Treachery. A life-altering secret comes to life. And a mind struggles against bonds promised by the heart long ago.... Nineteen-year-old Christian de Chagny knows where he gets some of his physical characteristics--from his mother, Christine Daae de Chagny. But where does his musical genius come from, when his father, Count Raoul de Chagny, can barely hum a tune? From the moment Christian questions his mother and she nearly faints to the novel's heartrending conclusion, Progeny is a breathless winding trek through the lives of Christian, Christine, Raoul, and the masked Master of Music--the man at the center of all of their lives--Erik, the Phantom of the Opera.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Becky L. Meadows is working toward an M.A. in English from the University of Louisville. She also is a talented singer and actress, having performed in many musical theatre productions including Eva Peron in EVITA, and is looking to make her debut in country music in the spring of 2001. Still, writing is an integral part of her life. Her first Phantom novel, Progeny, has sold hundreds of copies via the web, and her second Phantom novel, Phantasy, is now available as well. She has also written three other romance novels. She lives in Carrollton, Ky., with her husband, Larry, and her stepson, Michael.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (March 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595176208
• ISBN-13: 978-0595176205
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,362,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Novice writing, February 20, 2005

By 

celtic19 (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Progeny (Paperback)

It is admirable that Meadows took the time and effort to publish her phan fiction as a book. It shows a great passion for the Phantom mythology.

Having said that, this book was in desperate need of a proofreader and an editor.

The main downfall of Progeny is the narrative style. The author uses first person narrative (I said this...I said that) but keeps switching the speaker between Christine, Erik, and their son Christian. The only real indication of who is speaking comes from the Part titles (i.e. Christine). That's it. Meadows never gives the characters their own distinctive voices so we can identify them. Every word of prose and dialog in this book is written in the exact same tone and voice, namely the author's. The book is so flat and so monotone, that you can't even say that characters are one-dimentional. They have no dimention at all.

Meadows assumes that the reader's familiarity with the Gaston Leroux novel and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical will be enough to understand Christine and Erik. The problem is Meadows doesn't really continue with the tone of those works. In her hands, these interesting characters do nothing more than go to and from Erik's house and cry a lot. What little plot exists is hidden under this painful novice writing style.

I really wanted to like this book. I've been very impressed with some of the phan fiction available on the Internet. But this book is not a good example of it. Save your money and forget Progeny.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad, but not the worst, October 24, 2005

By 

Narya (of Middle Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Progeny (Paperback)

Many people are constantly dissing this saying that it is the worst Phantom of the Opera published fan fiction they have ever read, or either the best one they have ever read. I am sort of on middle grounds. Progeny by all means is not the worst, but nowhere near the best (the worst being Phantom Manhattan, and Phantasy. The best being Phantom by Susan Kay).

Starting from the begining, this book is writeen in 1st person point of view which switches from person to person: Christian, Erik, and Christine and an original character (for the epilouge). There really is no definate difference between the character's points of view. All just seem to see the same series of events in the exact same way save for one difference which is their feelings towards Raoul (obviously). Christian is somewhat bland and nearly a direct copy of Erik with no distingushing personality for himself save for the fact that he dose not share his father's face. He is sappy and somewhat over emotional at times, and at others he is a hard ball normal teenager. There is no real consistancy in his character. Christine vexed me to no end, especially just after she and Erik were first reunited. She breaks out crying at regualar intervals and faints at the most random of moments. Eventaully she is just air headed and becomes in lamest terms: a bad mother who whorse herself out and thinks not with her head but other parts of her body. Granted I am all for Erik and Christine (seeing as how I despise Raoul), but eventually it gets ridduculous and out of control in this.

Raoul is portrayed as just some stupid idiot who blindly accepts Christine's (poorly thought out) lies. He remains that way for the first half of the novel, and then for the second half he goes nuts, beating Christine and going after Erik in an uncharacteristic rage of jealousy, planning to shoot Erik in his sleep. It just get so outragous and over blow and over dramatic. It makes me want to just smack some sense into every character in that book.

Erik loses nearly every once of what makes him the Phantom. Meadows interpertaion of Erik really got on my nerves and he becomes nothing but a love-sick puppy. He too, like Christine (though not as bad as her), is not even remotely ruled by his head and instead his genitles. Most of the book he just shows up at random intervals threatening to Christine and Christian how he wants to kill Raoul, but then dissapearing back into the shadows.

Then there is the mary-sue aspect of this story. It will drive any experience Phantom fan-fiction reader off the wall, and especially the most stero-typical mary sue I have read. ever. Madeline is just the typical blonde haired, blue-eyed, pouty lipped, downtrodden and beaten mary-sue who doesn't have an ounce of common sense. By the end I was screaming for someone to shut her up.


I also think Meadows had no idea what the word 'thesaures' meant because she uses the words 'soul', 'agony', 'stark', and 'torment' too many times. She practicly writes the entire book using only those 4 words.


If you want some good fanfiction, I highly suggest you just go to a large mainstream fanfiction website and you can read all the fanfiction you want for free. It is much better written, more developed, and generally just has a better story plot. But if you insist on buying a POTO fanfiction novel my suggestion is "Phantom" by Susan Kay. It is being republished and the only fan written novel that dose not completely butcher the story plot of either Gaston Leroux or Andrew Lyod Webber.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Progeny... Why do people like this for some reason?, October 3, 2005

By 

Ethernaut (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Progeny (Paperback)

Now...

I can see why some could like this novel, and I can see why some can hate it. I, fortunately, are among the many, not a lot, but many who dissaprove of this book.

Once again, this comes before Phantasy. And this will be a three part series, so do beware when "Prophecy" makes it debut. This story is not as bad as Phantasy was, but it still sucks.

Christian, if anyone, is the ONLY person whom you can possibly not hate. It's just the fact that he has a STUPID mother (Christine) and a love-sick father (Erik). Yeah, Erik and Christine had done the ol' "in and out" and they have Christian who is a twenty year old AMAZING pianist, and has his father's complete looks, talk, nature, everything... right down to his morality.

Christine is a whiny brat. All she wants to do is step on anyone and anything in her way until she gets what she wants. And when she does "get what she wants", she doesn't know what to do with it, or herself for that matter. I honestly hated her portayal in this book, and I am VERY pleased on how it ended.

Erik I wanted to smack half the time. Once again, she decides to mix Michael Crawford and Kay's Erik in a blender then add in her own similies and metaphors, and vola--instant, yet annoying, Erik. Erik is a terrible love sick idiot who most of the time rants/breaks things/has sex/does whatever his character did not normally do...

Now, I respect both sides of the love triangle, R/C and E/C. This was totally "lets bash the crap out of Raoul, I'm a E/C-shipper". You know, she could have strayed TOTALLY away from all that and concentrated on the plot then bashing Raoul and making him some drunk bastard whom just hit Christine half the time or "kissed her".

It's perhaps best that if you were to pick up any three of Becky Meadow's books that you would perhaps pick this one up, and ONLY this one up. I am basing my assumptions on "Prophecy", but I am sure that will be a real downer. But honestly, over all, this book was terrible.

I finished it because I can say that I have read most of the Fan-Fiction published pieces out there. But, alas, my misfortune was-

hating the book, hating the author, hating the characters I have known to love, and most of all, loosing I.Q. points.

The grammar is dreadful, there is too much "scene" repitition and too much "word" repitition.

This book is worth only as Fan-Fiction online, but if you actually buy this book, I have no words. Just, may God have mercy on your soul.

I would not have given this book any credit (not even one star).