Product Description

Isabelle Benson has learned that an Elemental Master is behind the attempts on her students' lives-and the would-be murderer is someone very close to her former flame, "The Wizard of London."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #200581 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Booklist
Lackey's latest Elemental Masters novel is set in Victorian England. The Harton School for Boys and Girls, run by Isabelle and Frederick Harton, is one of the few schools that takes students whose magic doesn't pertain to the elements, and who are, therefore, frequently ignored by the Elemental Masters. Such unheeded gifts include clairvoyance, telepathy, and the very rare ability to truly communicate with the dead. Sarah Jane's parents, missionary healers in Africa, send the 12-year-old to Harton, and she is happy there, especially after she befriends Nan, a street urchin. After an attempt is made on Sarah and Nan's lives, it is clear that a powerful Elemental Master wants one or both girls dead. Isabelle Harton must seek the aid of the Elemental Masters of London, though the Masters' Circle is led by Lord Alderscroft, who once cruelly jilted her. Interestingly drawn characters hold our attention to the end, even if the good ones are very, very good, and the bad are full-blown villains. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Lame Ending
Terrific set-up for a climatic battle between Elemental Masters, Warriors of Light and assorted ancient spiritual figures, and then it peters out, completely. But up until the last three pages it was a pretty good story.

Not so great...
I enjoy the world of the Elemental Masters, but this book is the weakest of the series so far. The first part of the book is more like a series of short stories, where the first part of each chapter rehashes information you already have.
Also, the students with animal companions overcoming the bad guy who is trying to live forever is a plot sequence that I'm getting a bit tired of in Lackey's work.
The editing perhaps needs a little work as well -- there were several bits where character gender changed, and some of the grammar was bad (repeated words in the same sentence, etc). Those are minor points, of course.

Decent Piece of Historical Fantasy
I was partially on a quest when I started this book: I wanted to appreciate genre fiction, this coming from a self-proclaimed literary geek, who despised popular fiction; but one has to widen his/her horizons now and again. So I picked up Mercedes Lackey's fourth book in Elemental Masters series. The main plot line as advertised follows the adventures of two girls in their adventures in a boarding school for the "talented." However, at the same time, the highlight of the book is in the character Isabelle "Memsa'b" Harton, the head mistress of the boarding school, and the problems she runs into while protecting these two new children from unknown sources, which are linked to her ex-lover, a man known as the Wizard of London and his tutor, Cordelia.

What stands out about Lackey's series here is that it is not your classical high fantasy a la Tolkien. Instead, it can be termed "historical fantasy," in that she takes a historical period and tells a story of that time, yet she adds fantastical elements, such as magic. What we get in this combination is an interesting mix. We get characters who are psychics, wizards, as well as "elemental masters" or Lackey's London, those who can control the elements. Fantasy is all about world building, and the author takes a twist, by adopting a world we already know and changing it. For the most part Lackey does a believable job, terming the magicians, wizards, and elemental masters as a hidden part of society and at the same time very human. We see a woman who reminisces about the past and wonder if she regrets anything; on the other hand, there's a man haunted by his past, seeing everything as a mistake despite his success; and there's a woman who will do anything for power, that precious thing that had been denied to her due to her sex (indeed, we see many feminist themes). The characters are life like and are people we can relate to, either directly or as figures we've seen in past books and stories, such as "The Snow Queen" which is the basis of this novel.

The weak points, however, are the parts when the book leaves the road of reality and enters a fantasy that is too outrageous to believe. For example, we see Shakespeare's Puck as an important character, who out of anything Lackey could have done, this was perhaps second to worst. The worst is perhaps the quick ending (I will not spoil it here) which simply leaves the audience hanging: at the end, the author wraps everything up quickly to the typical "happily ever after" ending, but seemingly her characters feel forced into this ending. Lackey could have done with extending the story a bit more, not just simply give us the ending. This, however, is a disappointment.

On the bright side, my first experience with fantasy (besides Tolkien's novels) is a decent one. I plan to read more by Lackey for her characters, for the themes she develop, for that Lambda Literary Award she won, and for the cover: it's a really beautiful cover!