Customer Reviews

Walking the Labryinth

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is what one of my writing instructors would label a plot-driven novel. It tells a story in which the protagonist, Molly Travers, orphaned at the age of three and raised by her great-aunt, gradually discovers the history of her extended family and meets relatives that she never knew that she had. In the process she learns about herself and about ways in which people in family and romantic relationships can use and misuse power over each other. She finds that her family traces its roots to an illicit union in Victorian England between a lower-class girl with a magical Gift and a gentleman with an interest in the occult, and she eventually learns how and why the family emigrated to the United States, of the life they led as vaudeville performers (illusionists who could perform tricks that baffled other magicians), of family conflicts that isolated her branch of the family from the rest, and of the family's connection with the secret Order of the Labyrinth. Information is revealed at a pace that adds steadily to the reader's knowledge while sustaining enough of the mystery to make each chapter a pleasure to read. The metaphor of the Labyrinth ties a genuine physical labyrinth in the story to the process of learning that goes on through life. I suppose this is not earth-shakingly original. Still, since I experienced a few frustrating setbacks in my own life while reading this book, it was actually very helpful to hear in my mind the echo of the question that characters in the book are asked when they experience such a turning of the labyrinth: "What have you learned?"

I picked up Lisa Goldstein's _Walking the Labyrinth_ unsure of what to expect. But I was both surprised and disappointed. The story is certainly original with some delightful twists in the plot, but much of the story is lacking in depth and style. Many of the explanations concerning the "magick" surrounding the characters were far too superficial or even at times nonexistent. The ending was just too simple for what was at times a complex plot. Furthermore, I was completely indifferent toward the protagonist. Goldstein gives the reader very little to like about her. In short, I couldn't recommend this book.

This short book fails in almost every way imaginable. The characters are shallow and two-dimensional, the story is disjointed and filled with hard to believe coincidence, the "mystery" elements of the book are alternately predictable then completely out of left field, the prose is flat,uninspired and so simplistic that I wonder if the book was intended as a young adult novel, and the long stretches of the book that are written as journal entries from the late 19th century are written in exactly the same tone and diction as the rest of the novel.

Perhaps it suffers from the fact that the modern fantasy authors I've been reading are so good in comparison - Tim Powers, Neil Gaiman, James Blaylock, Charles de Lint, W.K. Jeter - but this novel left me with nothing positive to say at all. And I'm the sort of reader that falls in love with almost every book to come across my desk.

After reading her book "Dark Cities Underground" I ordered this book and the "Red Magician." I thoroughly enjoyed both books. I think anyone who likes urban fantasy or magical stories would like her writing. It is good to see solid women writers in this genre.

Great book! I couldn't put it down. Lisa fascinated me with the descriptions of the family, their performances and everyday life. She also rode that mystery until the very end of the story.