Finished Melusine by Sarah Monette. This is the first book in her epic fantasy series about the wizard Felix and thief/assassin Mildmay. Note: This post contains some spoilers.

This book has an interesting set-up. It’s told in first person and the point of view alternates between that of Felix, a powerful court wizard in the city of Melusine, and Mildmay the Fox, a thief/assassin. Slowly, through a series of events, the two very different characters are drawn together after Felix’s former lover/master uses Felix’s magic to break the Virtu, a magical sphere that helps protect Melusine from invaders/outsiders. Felix has been driven mad by his magic, and Mildmay is determined to take Felix to some healers on the other side of the world who may be able to help him. Along the way, they run into all sorts of characters — living and dead — and face one obstacle after another …

I”d seen a lot of good reviews for this book so I thought I’d give it a try. Also, for some strange reason, I thought that it was a young adult book. It is not. Hoo boy, is it not a YA book.

Let me say up front that I had a lot of problems with this book — a lot of problems — and most of them had to do with Felix. In the beginning, we’re told how powerful Felix is, but after a humiliation at court, he immediately falls back into his old bad habits again — such as taking up with his cruel former lover/master — despite the fact that he knows better. Then, a few pages later, Felix is raped by his former lover — that’s how his magic is used against his will to break the Virtu in the first place. And, if that’s not bad enough, his master lays a compulsion of Felix so he can’t tell anyone what happened — and the compulsion drives him insane.

What follows from there is just one hurt and humiliation after another heaped on Felix, who goes to an insane asylum, then back to court, then out to the countryside and beyond. And, since we’re in Felix’s head for half the book, most of this time is spent reading Felix’s insane ramblings. For example, he sees other people around him as though they have animal and bird heads. Seriously, we spend several hundred pages inside an insane person’s head. It made for a very weird (and slow) reading experience. I don’t mind characters who get put through the wringer, but a lot of the violence that was done to Felix just seemed gratuitous to me. After a while, it was just mind-numbing.

Then, there’s the end of the book. After Felix gets his master’s compulsion removed and his own magic restored, he reverts to how he was at the beginning of the book at court — pompous and arrogant. He didn’t really seem to be humbled at all by what he had gone through. I know part of that was just him projecting that he was strong and well again, but still, he didn’t come off as very likable.

In contrast, Mildmay is a great character — cold and practical, but with a soft streak. He knows he’s from the gutter, and it doesn’t bother him. All he wants is a little spending money, a warm bed at night, and maybe a nice girl to share it with. But, of course, that doesn’t happen. But no matter how bad things get, Mildmay never gives up. If the book had just been told from his POV, I would have liked it a lot more.

Also, I just didn’t understand the world building. Felix breaking the Virtu is the focus of the book, but what the Virtu is/does isn’t explained all that well. Monette mentions other places/cities as well, but there’s no world map to show the reader where everything is. This is quickly becoming a pet peeve of mine in epic fantasy books. Other people/cultures are mentioned too, but again, there’s no glossary to explain how everyone relates to everyone else, and it was difficult for me to pick it up since half of the book if Felix’s ramblings.

For all those reasons, I’m going thumbs down on this one.

Up next: Virgin River by Robyn Carr.

Books in my TBR pile: About 20.