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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A perfect little tale for those who love ballet -- and cats., November 15, 2007
This review is from: Reserved for the Cat (Elemental Masters, Book 5) (Hardcover)
This time, however, there's quite a bit of a twist to the tale of someone being born with magical talents. What if you were born into a magical family, but didn't have any magic of your own? That is precisely the problem that Ninette Dupond finds herself in. That is, if she doesn't starve to death first.
She's an aspiring young dancer at the Paris Opera when the story opens, hoping that some rich old man will be smitten with her, and turn her into a mistress, complete with her own apartment, money and security for the future. It's a cold-blooded way to look at romance, but Ninette has seen life as a child being raised on the uglier side of Paris. When a leading ballerina is upstaged by Ninette and Ninette suddenly finds herself out of a job, and no where to go.
That is, until Thomas shows up. Thomas is a somewhat bedraggled cat -- that speaks -- and he says that he's been 'watching' over Ninette for years. He assures her that all she has to do is trust him and let him guide her, and he will see to it that she will not just prosper but more...
Which means England. Ninette tries to impersonate an Russian dancer in the town of Blackpool, but she doesn't speak the language, and she knows no one there at all. Then she is taken in hand by two music hall composers, Nigel -- an Air Master, and Arthur, who is no mean magician himself, and their talking Grey African parrot, Wolf. The trio have been putting out shows in the music halls of England, and they need something new -- and the _new_ is Ninette. When they 'rescue' Ninette, her story provides just what they need to create a smash. And it also allows Ninette to meed Jonathan, a dashing Fire Master who may be love of her life -- if she can trust him that far.
But not everything is rosy, especially when the _real_ Nina Tchereslavsky shows up and evil of a particularly nasty sort is about to be unleashed...
I have to say that I was very much influenced by the title -- after all, my passion for felines is such that I'll watch or read nearly anything that involves a cat in it. Thomas is the essence of cat-dom. He's slightly aloof, tends to be a know-it-all, but in his own way is valiant, and a close confidant. The relationships between him and the other characters ring very true, and if he has somewhat shaky morals, well, he's just being a cat -- famous for their own self-interest when it is convenient.
The other characters are not quite as well-rounded, especially Nigel and Arthur, and Jonathan is very much a hero, but also fits into the stereotype of 'dashing-mysterious-hero,' without giving any hint of why he's attracted to Ninette. Of all the characters, the most interesting is Wolf, the parrot, which for fans of classical music, there is a surprise in store.
To balance all of that, there is Lackey's use of modern and classical dance, the world of the music hall, the peculiarities of cats and parrots, and the use of known pieces of ballet and classical music. That's where I started to have fun with the novel, picking out the little jokes and snippets that made the background right, and so the novel much more believable. It's the little touches like this that help to move this up and out of the standard transcribed fairy tale that is a common device for fantasy writers.
Four stars. Recommended.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Reserved for Mediocrity, February 9, 2008
This review is from: Reserved for the Cat (Elemental Masters, Book 5) (Hardcover)
I've been a fan of the Elemental Masters series since The Serpent's Shadow. I've always thought Ms. Lackey does a good job of blending the fairy tale elements cleverly with her own world-building. Unfortunately, she seems to be slipping of late. Her villains are invariably older women, cruel and cold, and the troll in this book is no different. In fact, if you were to transplant any one of the villains from the other books into this one you would probably not even notice. The stories which started off so fresh and clever are starting to feel redundant and stilted.
The backstage bits in this one are the best part, and there are too few of them. Ninette's ballet performance is enjoyable but is over far too quickly, and the reader does not get anymore. Jonathon's magic show is likewise a tantalizing tease and a clever idea(a real master making his living as a stage illusionist!) that never comes to fruition or takes center stage. This story feels underdevelopped and poorly executed.
There were also numerous typos and plot holes throughout the work that left me wondering if Mercedes Lackey is too famous now to even have a copy-editor make sure she hasn't missed some typos. The consistency of her elemental masters world is also compromised, systems, modes and laws that have been established in previous books seem to have magically changed between the other books and this one.
The romance in the book is such a non-event it barely needs a mention, and several plot threads that she takes pages and pages to set-up never go any further, leaving the reader wondering: why is this part in the book at all?
A moment of startling repuganance to me comes at the end where Ninette, after rescuing herself, pretends to be a weak and defenseless female so she can eventually "get the guy". Are we back in the 1950s now? I had much rather a heroine be her own courageous and clever self and have the guy love and respect her for who she is- rather than have her pretend to be something else so he won't feel threatened. Are men such frail creatures as all that they can't take a strong woman? I think not. Not the ones worth having anyway.
The book is a light read, by turns enjoyable and irritating. If you haven't read any of the other Elemental Masters series don't start with this one! Try Serpent's Shadow as it is a far superior book and a better read.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mercedes, why the decline?, February 29, 2008
This review is from: Reserved for the Cat (Elemental Masters, Book 5) (Hardcover)
I agree with the previous reviewer that Lackey's lost her touch in recent books. I LOVED reading her work years ago, especially my favorite, The Black Swan, but I quit reading her newer books several years ago because they was becoming tedious to read, and that is never a good sign for fantasy novels. I was in the library last week, craving something reliably in the realm of fantasy to read, so I decided to give her latest book a try because it was about cats and ballet (two things I am fond of). Of course, I found myself disappointed, par the course for Lackey's current writing.
The comments about the cardboard villain are spot on. I actually found myself skipping paragraphs and paragraphs whenever the villainess Nina was in the narrative because she was SO blah, so predictable, so cliche. I've seen the same woman in so many of Lackey's other books I literally no longer have to read to know what they'll do. Sad. Lackey could have done more with her, being a rare specimen of her magical type.
As opposed to the other books in the Elemental series, the British magical community now does not seem to have much organization- Lackey limps around and around the search for an earth master, and finally brings in an intended deus ex machina of an air master to find the Villainess near the end that turns out to be a limp red herring, whom we hear nothing of afterwards. Poor kid. Oh, and Arthur! He disappears for chapters and chapters and was never developed past "orchestral prodigy and elemental mage." Pooh.
The only redeeming things about Reserved for the Cat were: Wolfgang Amadeus the Parrot, Ailse the Maid, Thomas the Cat, Johnathon the Illusionist, and the narratives of Ninette's flight to England and interactions with Ailse, Johnathon, and the destruction of the Villainess- which was well done, thank goodness... (though unfortunately Ninette decided to hide the fact she was the real destroyer to avoid wounding male pride... )
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