Customer Reviews

Witchlight

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

although some of those reviewing this book did not seem to appreciate it,i feel this stems from a lack of understanding or interest in the occult...i found it brilliant...once again bradley portrays this modern day story of magick as it truly is, and i can appreciate it being a "witch" myself...winter musgrave is released from a mental hospital with a bad case of amnesia...she seems incapable of remembering even why she was admitted there...what she is aware of is that strange things are happening to her...small animals are found mutilated upon her doorstep, windows and doors have a way of being opened when she remembers locking them, and all manner of strange things happen when she becomes upset or angry...she has given up her wall street high-paying job to rent an old house called grey angels...the incidents are getting worse...instead of getting the peace of mind she seeks, she finds herself spiraling toward oblivion...is she doing the bad things and forgetting them or is she being stalked by something more horrible than her nightmares???...an act of desperation lands her at a college that has its own parapsychology team...can truth jourdemayne help winter fight off this evil???...challenging enough without having to convince winter of her sanity first...gradually throughout this exciting book winter is regaining her memory and realizing that she might would have preferred the lack of it to the truth...her revelations put her on a road trip across the country trying to figure out what happened to the missing piece of her life's puzzle...and the answers are so unpredictable that you will be gasping until the very end when you learn that love conquers all...thank you marion zimmer bradley!!!!!

I've never been more tempted to put a book down after the first fifty pages as I was when I began reading this book. Bradley is one of my favorite authors and the biggest draw about her novels is their remarkable ability to keep you engrossed in the text. The beginning of this book, however is a completely different story. You go through the motions along with the main character, winding your way through the broken and patchy memories of an inconsistant past. Who wants to go through that? Even though you might be tempted to give up and move on to something else, stick with it. The end result will please you. As the memories slowly begin their emergence, the novel becomes more and more inticing, with the whispers of forgotten friends calling through the haze to reach you. Anyone who is a fan of Bradley's gothic storytelling will not be sorry that they read this. I know your not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but don't judge this one by the first fifty pages or so.

Winter Musgrave loves her work as a high-powered trader on Wall Street. The only problem is, she can't seem to remember her life before her job. And then, when animals drained of their blood start showing up in her path, she believes that she is losing her mind.
After a psychiatric clinic fails to help her, she turns to the Bidney Institute, a resource center for parapsychology. Despite her disbelief, she begins to trust in the researchers. They find that Winter's problems are stemming from what they call a "magickal child," and believe that she must recreate a Blackburn circle that she was a part of in college in order to rid herself of the unwanted occurrences.
I found the plot of this book to be intruiging and fast-moving - probably the best in Bradley's *Light series. At points my lack of knowledge of occult or parapsychological phenomena hindered my understanding, however that is not a fault of the author but of my limited knowledge. I'd recommend this book to anyone with an interest in parapsychological phenomena.

THis novel continues the **Light series. As with Ghostlight, the fictional magickal system is quite realistice, though with certain leaps of imagination that might be occultically impossible. I say "might" because that phrase is itself a troubling one. Can we really say that a magickal childe cannot form its own consciousness and go beyond it's creator's intnet intent? In any case, the diversions from acccepted theory help keep the general reader from getting bogged down in explinations of magick that can't possibly be all that intersting to those interested in the mystery of an occult novel, not its minute acuracies or innacuracies. The storyline is more intimate than Ghostlight. We learn more about Winter's family, and more about Truth Jourdemain, than the above novel allowed for. Those concerned about occult accuracy, which overall is quite present in this novel, should pardon leaps of imagination. It is, when all is said and done, a FANTASY. Don't take it so bloody seriously.

Recommended.

Winter Musgrave suffers from a problem that is much deeper than a mid-life crisis. She awakens one day with just a few minor threads of memory from her three plus decades of life. To make matters worse, strange phenomena seem to occur whenever she is in the area. When she walks, nearby objects enigmatically shatter. When she sleeps, locked doors and shuttered windows mysteriously open by themselves. Mutilated dead animals inexplicably begin to appear on the doorstep of her upstate New York cabin. Winter fears that she is either going insane or is demonically possessed. Desperate, Winter visits a psychic research clinic where she becomes a patient of Truth Jourdemayne.

Working as a team, the duo begins to recover segments of Winter's lost memory. The most significant information to surface is that Winter was once a member of a magic-practicing coven. This and other recovered threads make Winter realize that she must confront a horrible evil presence. To survive and hopefully win her epic psychic battle with that ghastly malfeasance, Winter travels around the country trying to locate and enlist the help of her former coven mates.

Due to its great heroine, Witchlight is a fabulous New Age novel that is as good as its predecessor, Ghostlight. Characters from the first novel add a feel of homecoming to this complex, relationship-driven tale. Still, though the tale is very good and Ms. Bradley demonstrates that she remains a top gun though this book is not on the same level of Darkover.

I haven't hit the MZB "scene" yet, so I thought I'd give her a try with this book. I know she is a prolific writer, and I can only hope that her other works are better. This must have been written in a bad period in her life.

The plot was compelling, and I had to finish the book to see what would happen. If this is the ultimate end of a book, then MZB and her publishers have succeeded.

Unfortunately, this book is cliche-ridden, factually inaccurate and unbelievable. I do have a familiarity and a sensitivy to the occult and its issues, so this is not the reason for my low rating. My main problem was with the main character, Winter, who failed to evoke even a strand of empathy from me to the point at which I was pleased whenever anything bad happened to her.

Citing an example from one of the many annoyances in the book, when Winter first meets the two parapsychologists who eventually aid her, she rants, raves, and yells at them, convincing them that she might be crazy. Many chapters later, one of the parapsychologists looks back and remembers the Winter from their first meeting as an "ice princess." I'd hardly describe a raving lunatic as someone who would be remembered as an "ice princess." This is just one example of many quirks and discrepancies that distracts the reader from the story.

Why did I finish reading it? As I said earlier, the plot was interesting, and I had to find out what happened. The ending was not what I expected, which pleased me. However, making my way through the book was such an annoying and frustrating journey that on the very day I finished it, I put the book in a box with all the other stuff I'm putting together for a garage sale that I'm having next week.

Winter Musgrave is a very disturbed woman. In addition to Poltergeist-like phenomena, she seems to be the focus for a get-together of dead animals. Looking up her old college friends with whom she dabbled in various magical rites, Musgrave discovers that her ex-lover's idea of a phone call is to send an elemental bent on a killing spree.

Ever since Marion Zimmer Bradley took to regurgitating myths, her writing has, in this reviewer's humble opinion, deteriorated to the point of being intolerable. Where are the intricately portrayed societies, such as the one she created under the Bloody Sun? Where are the protagonists who live and breathe, who were painted with bold strokes? All that "Witchlight" offers are pale cardboard figures, lacking lustre, acting out their pathetic lives in front of a shabby backdrop.

The other matter that seems to have deteriorated rapidly over the past years is Zimmer Bradley's judgement. A novel revolving around touchy-feely New Age drivel? This horse has been beaten to death so long ago that it stinks.

Thirty-something Winter Musgrave awakens one morning possessing only ragged shreds of memory about her very identity. Even more scary are the mutilated animals she keeps finding in the yard, and the creepy way in which things keep flying off shelves. Hysterical, Winter seeks the assistance of a team of parapsychologists, and by following their advice, she begins to recover bits and pieces of her past. She also discovers that she has some formidable psychic abilities.

Witchlight cannot hold even a guttering candle to author Bradley's acclaimed The Mists of Avalon. While Mists drew its readers into a rich, credible fantasy world, Witchlight reads like soap opera. As a character, Winter, described as a Wall Street trader, is remarkably overwrought and helpless. I kept thinking that a mild tranquilizer would go a long way toward helping her to get a grip. The plot revolves around a place called "Nuclear Lake" (really!), where as college students, Winter and her friends dabbled in black magic. Something happened that prompted Winter to leave school only weeks from graduation. Though she lost touch with her clique, it is now imperative that she reconnect with each of them.

Bradley wraps things up with a melodramatic scene in which Winter reunites with her (now dead) former boyfriend. The final pages are trite and treacly. Give this one a miss; Bradley can do much better.

...but not her worst, either. I haven't read any of the other titles in this series, so I didn't know what to expect. MZB's output has varied wildly in quality from brilliant to disastrous, and I was ready for this to go either way. For me, this sat smack in the middle.

I wasn't overwhelmed by the characters. Perhaps it is that our main character, Winter Musgrave, is part-amnesiac and terrified through the first third of the book, but it was very difficult to get comfortable with her. Once we have some idea what is happening to her it is easier to dig in. I think that MZB has an interesting premise with this one, and I think the "why" of the mystery is well thought out. However, (note: I am trying to avoid any spoilers, otherwise this might be more coherent) I think Winter's eventual visit to her family serves only to introduce characters for another novel and doesn't seem structurally significant, and the ending did not satisfy.

This review refers to the audiobook version, and I am half tempted to read the print book, just to see how much of a negative impact the guy reading it on tape has on the story, except that I don't really want to spend the money. The person reading the book on tape tends to over-emote and has a grating voice. In his defense, the overemoting may be because the words themselves are rather flat and bland. Transitions are too abrupt, especially scene changes - Winter Musgrave's elemental sets fire to her car early in the story, so I often found myself trying to figure out how she got from one place to the other. Winter is an annoying and unsympathetic person, and I could not work up much interest in her (except that I kept hoping her elemental would just drop something on her head and put US out of her misery). The reactions of the characters were mostly either flat or inappropriately violent. I'm curious now about the other books in the "-light" series, and the occult aspect is interesting, but overall this book was disappointing, especially with so much potential. (And yes I read Mists of Avalon, but so long ago that I don't remember much of it. So for me this book doesn't really suck IN COMPARISON to Mists, it sucks in it's own right.)