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2.0étoiles sur 5
Fine ideas; poor writing., Jui 8 2004
The Moon and the Sun begins with the compelling premise of a sea monster brought to Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV. Yet Ms. McIntyre neither takes the plot anywhere of real interest, nor infuses her characters with anything more than stereotypical personalities. The novel's heroine, Marie-Josephe St. Croix, is a stark anachronism at the court of Versailles. Although Marie-Josephe's ideas and worldview are undeniably sympathetic, she epitomizes a thoroughly contemporary ideal -- her views on slavery, education, religion, and the rights of women are all modern ideas -- and, as such, she fails to be a believable character. Moreover, the other characters of the novel fall into predictable roles and never surprise the reader with any of their actions. Ms. McIntyre wrote The Moon and the Sun as an alternate history (with only the one, central fantasy element), but it seems unlikely that this novel would not have garnered praise had it been written for another genre. That fantasy readers reward such mediocre novels with their highest awards reflects tellingly on the sci-fi/fantasy genre as a whole -- and that reflection is decidedly negative.
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3.0étoiles sur 5
entertaining, Fév 17 2004
Par Un client
This book was recommended in the "Book Lovers Calendar" a year or so ago. It had much more detail about life in the Louis XIV court than I expected, but that turned out to be very interesting. I felt the story left out a lot of background that is needed that we end up having to piece together throughout the story -- it initially doesn't explain much about Marie-Josephe's background (how did she get to Versailles from Martinique, and what was her life like before she got to France?). That would have helped to explain her character, her relationship with her brother and with the church, much better than having to divine all that as I was trying to keep track of all the different courtiers. (I recommend reviewing the list of characters at the beginning to keep this straight.) By not supplying more about her background, and maybe more about her struggles before Versailles, it seems a bit contrived when she suddenly demonstrates aptitude for everything (science, drawing, riding, AND composing). But I liked the whole sea monster aspect of the story, which got a little lost in court politics at times. Overall worth reading.
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3.0étoiles sur 5
More psychological than adventurous, Aoû 12 2003
Marie-Josephe, after living in a convent, finds herself at the court of Louis XIV. Her brother, Yves, has found a sea monster and has brought it back to his majesty - who believes that the sea monster is the key to his immortality. However, Marie-Josephe can understand and communicate with the creature, and she comes to realize she's not as much a monster, as she is human.I loved all the research that went into writing this book. The court of Louis XIV was amazingly well recreated. I also liked the love-story that was woven in to the plot. The last hundred pages or so were my favorite. Unfortunately, the plot was very slow at times. This isn't a book about great adventures, epic battles and heroes and heroines in the typical sense. Most of the "action" revolves around Marie-Josephe's struggles - both internal, and external while trying to deal with life at court. Just a note of caution: the writing style was extremely descriptive. McIntyre uses a lot of unfamiliar, long words to get her point across. I had to have a dictionary beside me at all times while reading this book. Also, the book dealt a lot with Christianity at the time. Struggles to save one's eternal soul, struggles to discover immortality, and the immoral way most people at court behaved despite Christianity's role in their lives was explored at length. Overall, I would only recommend it to fans of the period, or fans of fantasy novels that are more psychological than adventurous.
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de Michael Chabon
