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43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A tasty brew of history, fantasy, and romance, October 29, 2007
This review is from: The Red Queen's Daughter (Hardcover)
I don't buy hardbacks all that often, but as soon as I saw that it was about Mary Seymour, and included magic to boot, I knew I had to have this book.
Mary Seymour is, historically, a question mark. The daughter of former queen Catherine Parr and her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, Mary was orphaned and taken in by the Duchess of Suffolk. There are no records of Mary's existence after the age of about two. Most historians believe she died in infancy, though rumors to the contrary have circulated.
Here, Jacqueline Kolosov envisions a happier fate for Mary. When the Duchess dies, Mary goes to live with the enigmatic Lady Strange, who gives her an education both in the ordinary disciplines and in the arts of magic. Mary, like her late mother, becomes unusually learned for a woman of her time. This preparation eventually leads her to a career in Elizabeth I's court, ostensibly as a lady-in-waiting, secretly as a magician charged with protecting the queen. At court, Mary must navigate the complexities of intrigue. Most dangerously, she has her cousin Edmund Seymour to contend with: rogue, seducer, politician, and practitioner of the dark arts. Mary finds herself strangely attracted to Edmund even as she plots to thwart his political and amorous designs.
This novel deals a lot with an issue that was at the forefront of many people's minds during the Virgin Queen's reign, and which still has relevance today: is it possible for a woman to surrender to romantic love without losing her autonomy? Mary is determined to resist all romantic emotions in order to avoid falling into the mistakes made by her parents. Coming to terms with the legacy of Catherine Parr, and of Thomas Seymour, takes her on a difficult coming-of-age journey.
This story is engrossing, suspenseful, and touching. I also found it to be quite sensual, even without having so much as a single phrase that could be rated above PG-13.
I very much liked the magic in this story. Powerful spells can be constructed from simple, everyday objects, but only if the magician has the knowledge and intuition to see many layers of meaning at once and understand the symbolism of every ingredient.
Mary's dogs are wonderful; it's obvious that the author is a dog lover.
The novel gives the reader an ending that is satisfactory yet leaves room for a sequel, which I definitely hope Kolosov decides to write.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Rubbish!, August 11, 2008
This review is from: The Red Queen's Daughter (Hardcover)
The historical aspect of this book was certainly interesting for me at first. Take a character from history, one who was believed dead by the age of two, and give her a new destiny. Yeah, seemed like a good premise. Loving history and Queen Elizabeth I, this book seemed like a good read. And it was, until Mary became a character I despised.
The idea of having Mary live up to the feminist examples of her own mother, a former queen, as well as the current queen Elizabeth, I just couldn't come to terms with Mary's behavior when she gets to court. One of the first ladies-in-waiting she meets confides in her that she was raped three times by Mary's own cousin. The same cousin she goes to court to stop. Her way of helping this poor girl was to cast a spell to make the woman forget. This rubbed me the wrong way. For a strong female character to cover up a rape with a spell, and then trick the girl's true love into marrying her without knowing the truth, did not seem like some thing Mary should have done. In fact, the whole way Mary chose to handle the situation seemed amoral to me. Seems the author is saying that to rape a woman is ok. Just throw the dirt under the carpet, make people forget, and no harm no foul. I understand in that period of history, women did not have many options, but sending this message was the wrong decision.
To add insult to injury, Mary KNOWS how evil her cousin is. She repeats in the book over and over how horrible Edmund is. Then, to help catch him and put an end to his treachery, she has to pretend to care for him for a whole week. Big deal, right? Mary seems to be capable of pretending. Then just like that they are in love? What was going on here? There was no chemistry between the characters. Also, Edmund's sudden change in personality was unbelievable. He loves Mary so much he completely changes his colors? I couldn't buy that plot twist. Just wasn't convincing. Knowing what Mary does about how Edmund treats women, I just couldn't believe that she could fall in love with him so easily.
I just could not admire Mary as a lead character. Her choices were illogical and her version of helping people was really suspect. Mary was supposed to be a strong woman, but she came off like a dishonest, inexperienced juvenile. Just because she could do magic did not give her the moral right to change people's perceptions of the truth.
If anyone is interested in reading this book, just don't get your hopes up to see a strong, moral character. Or even a memorable one.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A good idea, but..., April 15, 2008
I thought this was an intriguing idea. I'm a fan of fantasy, of young adult fiction, of Elizabeth I and her reign, and I figured that, given that, I should get along with this book just fine.
I'm afraid I was rather disappointed in the execution of the concept, however.
Mary Seymour, our protagonist, is a rather Mary Sue-ish character. The forgotten, orphaned child of the beautiful, wise, magnanimous Katherine Parr, she is taken in by Lady Strange, a beautiful, wise, wholesome white magician who teaches Mary her ways. Mary grows up to be just as beautiful and intelligent as her mother, which people feel the need to tell her over and over again. She's faultlessly good, cries prettily, and is beloved by all who meet her, especially Queen Elizabeth. She has a magic dog that she communicates with telepathically, an enemy in the form of a vicious, ugly, petty blond woman, and she turns the heart of a handsome but embittered black magician. There are no shades of gray to her to make her anything interesting. You always know she's going to do what's right, and her only "flaw" is her hardheartedness toward love, which isn't presented as a flaw so much as feministic empowerment. And her only "mistake" is to love someone she shouldn't.
I was hoping that the introduction of the handsome black magician, Edmund, would spice things up. After all, Mary is supposed to be drawn to him despite herself, and I love a good villain. But Edmund takes his dear old time showing up, and we don't spend near enough time with him to see anything past the usual stereotype popular in so many grocery store paperbacks and fanfictions. Edmund is beautiful, alluring, desired and powerful, but once Mary trots in, he has eyes only for her and his wicked, wicked plans are turned aside in favor of whispering sweet nothings in her ear. And, of course, he has a horrible childhood to excuse things away.
Now I'm all for strong females, and I have a particular affinity for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, but I had a problem with the way the story approached some of its key females, setting all of them up as beautiful saints. Now Mary's main enemy IS female (and ugly, by the way), but apart from her the conniving and scheming is relegated to the world of men. The women we are given to admire are all beautiful and learned and strong - Elizabeth and Katherine Parr are practically held at a status of holiness. And I'm a HUGE proponent of intelligent female characters, but I prefer them to have a humanistic quality that is simply not present here. Mary, Lady Strange, Elizabeth, Katherine Parr, Alice - they're all far too perfect to be believed.
The writing style tells far more than it shows. The dialogue is expository, and the first-person thoughts of our protagonist tend to info-dump in irritating ways. Plus, Mary has the ability to see auras, which means the reader gets a rundown over and over again about what the colors mean about each person. Which, honestly, takes all of the fun out of a court situation. Mary (Sue) doesn't have to guess at who's good and who's evil - it's all right out there for her to tell us again and again and again. And if it's not auras, it's the gemstones that people wear and how they do or do not reflect that person's personality. I felt like I was being manhandled and told what to think of everyone instead of getting to figure it out for myself. It's not that fun, and it's terribly predictable.
The plotline felt rather incomplete - I would not be at all surprised if there was a sequel planned. The door is certainly wide open for one. The romance between Mary and Edmund was underdeveloped. She spends a little while thinking he's a major hottie, then we're told that several days have passed, and she's in love with the guy. Edmund, for his part, somehow falls in love with her and begins to turn from his dreadfully evil ways well before she even feigns to reciprocate. For a black magician, that's not very smart.
The ideas were there, but the execution was disappointing. If you're going to write about magic and intrigues and the court, then you're going to have to use more colors than just black and white.
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