The Mirador

by Sarah Monette

Ace Hardback $24.95

This is the third book in what Sarah Monette calls The Doctrine of Labyrinths series (her publisher didn’t like it). With this book, we add a third viewpoint character to the established ones of Felix and Mildmay; Mehitabel, an actress running from an oppressive government. This book finds the brothers settling into life at the Mirador, the governmental center of the city-state of Marathat and its capitol, Melusine. Now that the Virtu has been repaired and Felix has his sanity back, along with his status as a wizard of the Mirador, it’s back to politics as usual. Stephen, the Lord Protector, needs to take a wife, but which family will he honor? The Bastion has not stood still; they still want to take down the Mirador and all its wizards so what are their plans? And how does Mehitabel Parr fit in? This book, while a satisfying read on its own, does tie much more closely to its sequel Corambis in some ways than the Melusine was tied to The Virtu. Monette has referred to this series as a diptych of duologies rather than a simple four-book sequence and it’s easy to understand why. I would not recommend reading this without reading the other two - the book is certainly readable as a stand-alone, but without seeing the beginnings of Felix and Mildmay’s relationship, I don’t think the book would be as interesting. Also, it helps to have an understanding of the politics and beliefs in the book, or some of the plot will go over your head. That said, this series is well-worth reading. Her fiction is grounded in a sense of place not common to many fantasy writers. While she doesn’t go in for pages of description, I still have a very clear sense of what Melusine and the Mirador are like as places. What really makes the book are her characters. Lots of writers switch between viewpoint characters, most of them are not very good at it. Monette is. Felix and Mildmay are damaged people with lots of baggage, wildly differing views on most things, and brothers only incidentally; but each of them is so fully drawn and so much a whole person that to have only one narrator would ruin the books. I was very interested to see how the addition of a third character would go, if it would work, if I would be impatient with it, and since we see Mehitabel only for a short time at the end of The Virtu, how could she become as fleshed out as Felix and Mildmay. However, she made it work. Mehitabel’s motivations, her feelings, what she does and with whom all really flesh out the plot and add even more layers to Felix and Mildmay’s characters. Monette’s prose is really lovely too, not lush but descriptive and her dialogue is spot on. The book does contain explicit sex both hetro-and homosexual-not much and it is all relevant and easy to skip over if you don’t like reading it, but it is there. This is one of the most interesting and enjoyable fantasy series of the past several years. It is a real relief to see epic fantasy done without a quest structure - yay for no plot coupons - and with some refreshingly real characters. - Nadine Armstrong