9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Queen's Necklace, August 13, 2001
Make a pot of herb tea. Find a comfy armchair. Sit back, relax, and enjoy your visit to Teresa Edgerton's world. "The Queen's Necklace" is a rich, intriguing tale full of complex individuals and spectacular settings. It has as many plot twists as a spy thriller, that is, if spies could weave spells in jewelry and mirrors. The world resembles Europe at the time of the French Revolution. There is a plethora of corsets and puffy dresses, and men in powdered wigs and long coats, rendered in such detail as to make you think the author has the whole cast's wardrobe tucked away in her closet. Each city is a character in itself, and the author illustrates them in glorious panorama. No detail is overlooked, from tea, toast and chocolates, to the frightening beauty of the crystal heart on the enchanted necklace. She skillfully weaves the history of a whole world into a handful of pages. The sexual tension between the two main characters has an interesting twist: they're already married. But although they love each other, they have trouble showing it. He's a bit of a scalawag, and also a competent swashbuckling captain of the guard. She's secretly training in the magic arts and is not afraid to go into the dark alleys on the wrong side of town. They're both trying to save the world, but it's harder when they don't cooperate and confide in each other. Five thousand years before, Goblins were the dominant race. There are layers of Goblin cities in ruins beneath the human architecture, and remnants of enchanted "machinery" that the humans use but don't fully understand. Goblins come in all shapes and sizes. The Padfoots and the Wrynecks are easily spotted in a crowd, but some are as handsome or beautiful as humans. They move among the people as evil undetected, like Dracula in a tuxedo. If you've read Teresa Edgerton's other books, then you'll enjoy this one. "The Queen's Necklace" is a masterpiece of story-telling craftsmanship.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantasy of Manners is back, July 4, 2001
By A Customer
Fantasy of Manners returns to the bookstore with this long-awaited new work by Teresa Edgerton. The world is one of courts and courtiers, a patchwork of minor kingdoms, each with its own secret device, the magical key to its prosperity. Each kingdom guards its own secret jealously from the others, but while human spies infest the courts, an older menace plots to win a greater prize: the restoration of the ancient empire of the Maglore goblins, who once ruled them all.
This book has it all: intrigue, derring-do, mystery and romance. A delight.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasant but Quite Standard, November 20, 2001
Back when I was a lad, the release of a new fantasy novel would be greeted with an excited (if unimaginative) yelp of, "Oh, boy, a new fantasy novel!" Now, given the glut of works on the fantasy market, a new release only merits a yawn and a disinterested, "Oh, boy, a new fantasy novel." (Sadly, my way with words has not improved with the years.) This book is, unfortunately, not the one to inspire me with renewed enthusiasm.
It breaks away from the Dark Ages/valiant Celts and medieval England/oppressive church settings that have been so popular in recent years, I'll give it that much. Its particular milieu of stable and prosperous duchies and principalities is equivalent to, say, our own mid to late 1700s in terms of technology. There are guns and clocks and operas and newspapers and the like. There's also a small degree of swashing and buckling and scattered bits of magic, the latter mainly in the form of relics from the vanquished Goblin Empire of 1,500 years ago.
The plot centers on the attempts of the long-thought-dead Maglore elite to overthrow the human interlopers and resurrect their lost empire. To this end, they begin to pilfer the hidden Goblin Jewels that are magically supporting each of the hundred or so human kingdoms, while simultaneously insinuating one of their own as the consort of a vulnerable human king. Standing against this conspiracy are the usual valiant stalwarts, primarily an estranged husband and wife, the one a guardsman and the latter a magician. For the most part, though, the defenders of goodness are a drab lot, with the exception of Raith.
The villains are scarcely better, since they tend to explode in fiery ruin if someone looks cross-wise at them. Since Goblins instantaneously ignite if the slightest spark alights upon them, and they also shrivel up like slugs if they're exposed to salt, it's hard to take them seriously as foes. They're also self-indulgent and by their own admission lack all ability to plan much further into the future than the next morning, so they tend to be dumber than tree shrews. (Which poses the interesting question of how they ever devised the magnificent and intricate machinery of the Goblin Jewels in the first place.)
The author skips back and forth between some half dozen storylines that are separated in both space and time, gradually drawing them together into one neat whole. This bouncing around at least guarantees the reader a chance to move onwards to a new section if one has bogged down with dull characters or a bland sub-plot.
Now, I make this book sound atrociously bad. It's not really all that awful; but it's also not really all that good. It's simply chock full of undeniable "thereness".
The finale is open-ended enough that another volume might be forthcoming, although this one is self-contained and complete in itself, if completely unexceptional.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
