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Through a Brazen Mirror (The Ultra Violet Library , No 3) [Paperback]

Delia Sherman (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £8.63 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Circlet Press (1 Oct 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1885865244
  • ISBN-13: 978-1885865243
  • Product Dimensions: 2 x 12.6 x 18.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,503,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

From the Publisher

"Brazen Mirror" is fantasy at its finest
THROUGH A BRAZEN MIRROR has just shipped from our warehouse on June 1, 1999 and we here at Circlet Press are very excited to bring this book back into print. When it first appeared in 1989, in mass market from Ace, the world just wasn't ready for a historically accurate fantasy where gender-crossing and queerness interact subtly with the milieu. Let me quote from the introduction by Ellen Kushner (author of Swordspoint, and Thomas The Rhymer):

"Here was a medieval country, not quite 13th century England, but dense with the sensual textures of the past: sweeping cloaks, the smell of herbs crushed underfoot, the fire glowing in the hearth at midnight... and here were all the ingredients of a great romance: honest, hard-won love, a gentle knight, a woman wronged, an enchantress who wreaks a terrible vengeance, and a heroic young king...

And nothing was quite like what we'd been led to expect from all those other books with similar ingredients. The woman was not beautiful. She valued usefulness over heroism, knowledge over power. And the young king's love was given to other men.

...the best fantasy gets to the bottom of reality in ways no contemporary tale of suburban angst ever can. Queer readers know this, and always have....

So take this "fantasy" and honor it as a great Queer novel about transgression, about reversal, about painful families and untold secrets... and the triumphant transformation that can come with giving it all a big kiss on the mouth."

This is a finely crafted novel, great writing, wonderful characters, intense magic. I hope you enjoy it. -- Cecilia Tan, publisher

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisitely beautiful and painful 29 Oct 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a beautifully written book - the first fantasy I have read by an American author who really understands the language and manners of medieval England (instead of churning out sub-Tolkienesque cliches). Even the "queer" content is handled with a delicacy that doesn't clash with medieval morality; a "Twelfth Night" for the 20th century. My only, petty, quibble is that the ending is _so_ downbeat - it's realistic, but boy is it depressing! The tragic villainess dominates the plot a little too much, leaving the protagonists as impotent pawns of fate. I don't expect a Disney-style candy-coated happy-ever-after - the protagonists' emotional wounds are too deep for that - but some kind of cathartic confrontation would have been more satisfying. But flawed or not, it is the best fantasy I have read in a long time.

Oh, and in medieval England witches were hanged, not burned (a fate reserved for heretics) - but that would have robbed the story of the nearest it gets to a dramatic climax...

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings... 13 Feb 2003
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I had high hopes for this book and in almost every way they were delivered. However, after a thoroughly interesting, well-written and enjoyable read, I found the ending a complete let down. I didn't feel that the character of Margaret deserved her fate - it felt far too extreme (the spiritual 'aftermath' to her physical fate, if you know what I mean - without wanting to give anything away for those who haven't read it), when her actions throughout had been understandable if not condonable. I also felt that Lionel's ending was *extremely* depressing and a very bad 'message' to be promoting. It would have been nice to have had *some* sort of optimism, at least! I agree with the reviewer from Cambridge that, indeed, it is the most realistic of conclusions but I found it very emotionally unsatisfactory. Such a shame when otherwise a very good book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling mixture of history and magic in the ballad frame 10 Aug 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I can't really find anything bad to say about this book! The ballad that provides its story-line has always been a favorite of mine, and has all the elements you'd expect from such a thing -- tragedy, perseverance, mystery, magic, revenge, love... and Delia Sherman makes use of all of these, sometimes in unexpected ways. The historical details are flawless (as you would expect when the author has a PhD in Renaissance Studies), and even the magic has the feeling of alchemy and medieval grimoires and herbals, rather than the overly simplified or overly cutesey styles so prevalent in the fantasy genre. And I appreciated the author's courage in devising an ending that was not the conventional happily-ever-after scenario.

My only complaint is about the introduction to the Circlet Press edition. Don't get me wrong -- I am all for queer-themed fantasy and SF, and in fact the description in the introduction was one of the things that led me to buy the book -- but it telegraphed a bit too much about the story! I think I would have liked the introduction to be a little more vague so that I wouldn't have had the expectations about the king, and made some premature assumptions that diminished the impact of what should have been a dramatic revelation.

Other than that, I have no complaints, and I plan on loaning this book to four or five friends, by which time someone will have kept it and I'll need to buy another copy. So please, Circlet, keep it in print!

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