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Maiden in Light
When Laurel Windswift enters an apprenticeship under her uncle, the great wizard Lord Redmantyl, she sees only the delights that her magic can bring. But her desire for more knowledge brings her too soon into the dark secrets that all magicians of power share, and forces her to take up a wizard's duties of night vigils against monstrous and inhuman forces before she is ready. When Laurel returns to her home city to investigate a small magical anomaly for her uncle, this maiden of light meets a child of darkness, and must undertake a task too terrible to perform.
On an alternate earth filled with wonder and danger, the wizard's niece must make a decision that will affect the rest of her life. As she struggles with the unbearable obligations of a magician, she also faces the ostracism of the merchant families who cast her out as a child, her aunt's matchmaking efforts, and finding an unexpected love.
On an alternate earth filled with wonder and danger, the wizard's niece must make a decision that will affect the rest of her life. As she struggles with the unbearable obligations of a magician, she also faces the ostracism of the merchant families who cast her out as a child, her aunt's matchmaking efforts, and finding an unexpected love.
- GenresFantasy
308 pages, Paperback
First published November 4, 2010
107 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 29, 2011
Jane Austen and H P Lovecraft may once have been strange bedfellows, but the recent trend of re-imagining 19th-century romances as vampire and zombie tales renders this marriage made in hell less surprising. Kathryn Ramage dedicates Maiden in Light to these two authors, though the resulting novel is not the undead romcom that you might otherwise expect. Instead we have here an engaging novel mixing social observation, convincing character development and palpable suspense, all set in an alternate world consistent within its constructed parameters.
Laurel is a fish out of water in the 20th-century yet medieval town that is New York, stuck in a family intent on matching daughters with appropriate suitors while discovering herself a tomboy with burgeoning magical abilities. She is summoned to her uncle's castle of Wizardes Cliff at the eastern end of Long Island where she quickly comes into her own as a sorcerer's apprentice, before her curiosity causes her to stumble on the dread secrets that form all wizards' responsibilities, the stuff of her nightmares.
Maiden in Light is not so much a sequel to The Wizard's Son as a parallel tale, overlapping the times and events of Kathryn Ramage's earlier novel. In some ways the plot is similar: protagonist becomes magical apprentice, gets sidetracked when on an errand away from the wizard's stronghold, is tempted to stray from the chaste requirements of a mage and is tested when Lovecraftian entities from another dimension threaten the world of mortals. In other ways this for me is a more satisfying instalment, in that Laurel is a more sympathetic figure than Orlan (the latter a rather dandified and seemingly weak-willed, vacillating character) and in having the Bennet-like family episodes (where bourgeois manners are lovingly pilloried) balancing the darker sequences involving Laurel's recurring nightmare and the enigma that is her nemesis Alys. But it's unfair to judge one novel against another when it's clear that together they enrich our view of the alternate world of Ramage's Northlands.
Maiden in Light is beautifully written, vivid descriptive passages alternating with well-paced action, poetry intermingling with natural dialogue. Laurel herself is a likeable heroine, strong yet with understandable human failings, impulsive yet given to procrastination, and playful while capable of being ruthless; her story is reminiscent of the Romantic literary legend of Lorelei, a nymph inhabiting a rock above the river Rhine, who siren-like attracts the attention of would-be lovers, though her fate is somewhat different from Laurel's. How the youngster gets to grips with the distractions that life throws at her while attempting to be single-minded about her calling and its associated responsibilities makes for engrossing reading, repaying the investment the reader pays in empathising with her character.
Laurel is a fish out of water in the 20th-century yet medieval town that is New York, stuck in a family intent on matching daughters with appropriate suitors while discovering herself a tomboy with burgeoning magical abilities. She is summoned to her uncle's castle of Wizardes Cliff at the eastern end of Long Island where she quickly comes into her own as a sorcerer's apprentice, before her curiosity causes her to stumble on the dread secrets that form all wizards' responsibilities, the stuff of her nightmares.
Maiden in Light is not so much a sequel to The Wizard's Son as a parallel tale, overlapping the times and events of Kathryn Ramage's earlier novel. In some ways the plot is similar: protagonist becomes magical apprentice, gets sidetracked when on an errand away from the wizard's stronghold, is tempted to stray from the chaste requirements of a mage and is tested when Lovecraftian entities from another dimension threaten the world of mortals. In other ways this for me is a more satisfying instalment, in that Laurel is a more sympathetic figure than Orlan (the latter a rather dandified and seemingly weak-willed, vacillating character) and in having the Bennet-like family episodes (where bourgeois manners are lovingly pilloried) balancing the darker sequences involving Laurel's recurring nightmare and the enigma that is her nemesis Alys. But it's unfair to judge one novel against another when it's clear that together they enrich our view of the alternate world of Ramage's Northlands.
Maiden in Light is beautifully written, vivid descriptive passages alternating with well-paced action, poetry intermingling with natural dialogue. Laurel herself is a likeable heroine, strong yet with understandable human failings, impulsive yet given to procrastination, and playful while capable of being ruthless; her story is reminiscent of the Romantic literary legend of Lorelei, a nymph inhabiting a rock above the river Rhine, who siren-like attracts the attention of would-be lovers, though her fate is somewhat different from Laurel's. How the youngster gets to grips with the distractions that life throws at her while attempting to be single-minded about her calling and its associated responsibilities makes for engrossing reading, repaying the investment the reader pays in empathising with her character.
May 27, 2011
Laurel doesn’t fit with her New York family. The child of a guardswoman and an unknown father, she’s never fit with anyone least of all when she loses her temper and accidentally unleashes her magic. So, she’s shipped off to her uncle the lord Redmantyl to learn to control her power. She digs through his libraries in search of knowledge until he’s forced to take her as an apprentice for her own good. And then the thespers arrived.
I’m having a bit of a hard time thinking of what to say about Maiden in Light. It felt like the author, Katheryn Ramage, had several stories that she wanted to tell but wasn’t quite sure how to put them together. From the blurb, as I read it on Goodreads, I expected to be dropped straight into the action. I expected to start off with Laurel becoming her uncle’s apprentice, then a few chapters of that, then going off to search out the bad thing. Instead the first half or so of the book is taken up with a rambling account of what was apparently four years of Laurel’s life starting with her journey to Wizardes Cliff. This includes setting up several characters to be far more important than they were, events that had no bearing on the plot, and some fairly minimal characterization that could have been better taken care of with more show and less tell. The second half of the book introduces the plot that was promised in the blurb only to instead jump into excruciating detail regarding Laurel’s aunt’s matchmaking and setting up for a conflict that never really happened.
I’m going to get a bit more nitpicky here than usual, Maiden in Light had potential but that got buried in problems that really shouldn’t be ignored. The pacing was really bad, the first half of the book could have covered a few months, a few weeks, or a few years. I really couldn’t tell how much time was passing until someone mentioned someone else’s age for a comparison. There were two chapters back to back that detailed visits from traveling performers, known in the book as thespers, but there was no real indication that they hadn’t done anything more than leave the gate and then come right back in.
The book also tended to get dragged down in telling about a character rather than showing them. The readers keeps hearing about how brave and smart and dedicated to her magic Laurel is, but when the chips are down all we get to see is a fragile little girl who doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be doing or how to go about it. The reader is told how horrible the merchant class kids are to Laurel, but we only see one scene of them being snarky and a bit stupid before they are set aside for the rest of the book. I feel that I should also note that Laurel is a bit of a flat earth atheist, this may not bother anyone, but it was one of the tell instead of show things that seemed to come up way more than was necessary.
The plot doesn’t start until the book is more than half over, and then it’s padded so heavily with the aunt trying to get her daughters married off that it gets lost. Then Laurel suffers the kind of character derailment that makes me just want to stop reading, throws everything we’ve been told about her out the window with what might have been a clumsy attempt at symbolism and proceeds to ignore any previous characterization.
The reader also gets treated to fanciful changes of spelling for names and places and changes of name for various holidays. This doesn’t lend to the world building but instead adds to the confusion regarding time passage and who’s who and from where. An alternate history does not necessarily lead to changes that radical in language, nor should it if only for the reader’s sake. I could let this slide if the world wasn’t supposed to be earth with a different history but it just reads wrong as is.
This leads me to the final part of this review. With all the problems I had with the writing and the story itself, I wouldn’t read anything else by Ramage. Maiden in Light had potential, but it squandered that with blocks of purple tinted prose, tons of characters who came to nothing, and too much tell but no show. I give Maiden in Light a one out of five.
I’m having a bit of a hard time thinking of what to say about Maiden in Light. It felt like the author, Katheryn Ramage, had several stories that she wanted to tell but wasn’t quite sure how to put them together. From the blurb, as I read it on Goodreads, I expected to be dropped straight into the action. I expected to start off with Laurel becoming her uncle’s apprentice, then a few chapters of that, then going off to search out the bad thing. Instead the first half or so of the book is taken up with a rambling account of what was apparently four years of Laurel’s life starting with her journey to Wizardes Cliff. This includes setting up several characters to be far more important than they were, events that had no bearing on the plot, and some fairly minimal characterization that could have been better taken care of with more show and less tell. The second half of the book introduces the plot that was promised in the blurb only to instead jump into excruciating detail regarding Laurel’s aunt’s matchmaking and setting up for a conflict that never really happened.
I’m going to get a bit more nitpicky here than usual, Maiden in Light had potential but that got buried in problems that really shouldn’t be ignored. The pacing was really bad, the first half of the book could have covered a few months, a few weeks, or a few years. I really couldn’t tell how much time was passing until someone mentioned someone else’s age for a comparison. There were two chapters back to back that detailed visits from traveling performers, known in the book as thespers, but there was no real indication that they hadn’t done anything more than leave the gate and then come right back in.
The book also tended to get dragged down in telling about a character rather than showing them. The readers keeps hearing about how brave and smart and dedicated to her magic Laurel is, but when the chips are down all we get to see is a fragile little girl who doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be doing or how to go about it. The reader is told how horrible the merchant class kids are to Laurel, but we only see one scene of them being snarky and a bit stupid before they are set aside for the rest of the book. I feel that I should also note that Laurel is a bit of a flat earth atheist, this may not bother anyone, but it was one of the tell instead of show things that seemed to come up way more than was necessary.
The plot doesn’t start until the book is more than half over, and then it’s padded so heavily with the aunt trying to get her daughters married off that it gets lost. Then Laurel suffers the kind of character derailment that makes me just want to stop reading, throws everything we’ve been told about her out the window with what might have been a clumsy attempt at symbolism and proceeds to ignore any previous characterization.
The reader also gets treated to fanciful changes of spelling for names and places and changes of name for various holidays. This doesn’t lend to the world building but instead adds to the confusion regarding time passage and who’s who and from where. An alternate history does not necessarily lead to changes that radical in language, nor should it if only for the reader’s sake. I could let this slide if the world wasn’t supposed to be earth with a different history but it just reads wrong as is.
This leads me to the final part of this review. With all the problems I had with the writing and the story itself, I wouldn’t read anything else by Ramage. Maiden in Light had potential, but it squandered that with blocks of purple tinted prose, tons of characters who came to nothing, and too much tell but no show. I give Maiden in Light a one out of five.
May 31, 2011
Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
My Summary: Laurel Windswift has always been an outcast - with her eerie silvery hair and tendency to produce flames when she's angry, she's always been in an outsider in her town. Not only that - Laurel has also been an outsider in her own family. Raised by her mother's first cousin (whom she calls her aunt), Laurel has never truly felt at home.
But then Laurel is sent to live with her uncle - the most powerful wizard in the world - and she discovers that she belongs with him in the world of wizardry and spellcraft. Gifted beyond measure, she quickly becomes his apprentice, learning everything she will need to become his successor in the magical world.
But then Laurel is sent back to her aunt's by her uncle in order to pursue a lead - there is an evil presence nearby, and Laurel's uncle has entrusted her with the care of the city. To be allowed to return home, she must first identify and defeat the evil that haunts her town. But will she be able to do it after discovering how horrible the nature of her task is?
My Thoughts: I loved this book! It combined all my favourite fictional elements: a historical era, magic and wizardry, and romance. Written in an older style, Maiden in Light is definitely not like the books we've all been reading lately. I loved the author's use of an alternate reality - still a lot like our own, but different at the same time. I'm a sucker for a good paranormal-history blend, and Maiden in Light didn't disappoint.
Laurel was a great main character - she was strong and powerful and courageous, and you could really see her grow throughout the novel. She starts off as a scared little girl, but soon grows into her powers and discovers just how strong she really is. I liked the fact that she was very focused on her magic and accepted what she knew she had to do. Also, I loved the fact that the book wasn't 100% centered on the romance element - when an entire novel is written about nothing but how hot the male lead is, it tends to throw me off a bit.
Like I mentioned before, the author utilized an older style of writing that we don't see a lot today; she was able to pull it off, though, making the world she created come alive through her awesome descriptions and use of imagery. I felt like I was right there with Laurel, which definitely added to the experience.
Final Thoughts: Maiden in Light is definitely something I'd recommend to people who enjoy paranormal-history novels (or just paranormal), and especially to people who want to read about a strong female protagonist. Check it out!
My Summary: Laurel Windswift has always been an outcast - with her eerie silvery hair and tendency to produce flames when she's angry, she's always been in an outsider in her town. Not only that - Laurel has also been an outsider in her own family. Raised by her mother's first cousin (whom she calls her aunt), Laurel has never truly felt at home.
But then Laurel is sent to live with her uncle - the most powerful wizard in the world - and she discovers that she belongs with him in the world of wizardry and spellcraft. Gifted beyond measure, she quickly becomes his apprentice, learning everything she will need to become his successor in the magical world.
But then Laurel is sent back to her aunt's by her uncle in order to pursue a lead - there is an evil presence nearby, and Laurel's uncle has entrusted her with the care of the city. To be allowed to return home, she must first identify and defeat the evil that haunts her town. But will she be able to do it after discovering how horrible the nature of her task is?
My Thoughts: I loved this book! It combined all my favourite fictional elements: a historical era, magic and wizardry, and romance. Written in an older style, Maiden in Light is definitely not like the books we've all been reading lately. I loved the author's use of an alternate reality - still a lot like our own, but different at the same time. I'm a sucker for a good paranormal-history blend, and Maiden in Light didn't disappoint.
Laurel was a great main character - she was strong and powerful and courageous, and you could really see her grow throughout the novel. She starts off as a scared little girl, but soon grows into her powers and discovers just how strong she really is. I liked the fact that she was very focused on her magic and accepted what she knew she had to do. Also, I loved the fact that the book wasn't 100% centered on the romance element - when an entire novel is written about nothing but how hot the male lead is, it tends to throw me off a bit.
Like I mentioned before, the author utilized an older style of writing that we don't see a lot today; she was able to pull it off, though, making the world she created come alive through her awesome descriptions and use of imagery. I felt like I was right there with Laurel, which definitely added to the experience.
Final Thoughts: Maiden in Light is definitely something I'd recommend to people who enjoy paranormal-history novels (or just paranormal), and especially to people who want to read about a strong female protagonist. Check it out!
June 28, 2011
This book took me a while to get into. In fact, I pushed myself to get to page 29, where I stayed for a month and a half before picked it back up. Once I started it back, though, I finished it one day. I'm not sure if it's something about the book itself that didn't hold my interest or if I had just OD'ed on fantasy books before I started this one.
At first, I liked Laurel and was on her side against her controlling, social-climbing aunt, but by the end of the book, I didn't like her much.
I didn't find out until I'd finished this book that it's the second in a series. The first book,
is about Laurel's cousin Orlan. If you've read any of my reviews, you know that I hate to read books out of order. In this case, though, I won't be bothering to read The Wizard's Son. Maiden in Light just didn't draw me in enough. The middle of the story was great, but instead of taking either of the expected directions for the story, the author takes an unexpected third and the story goes off on a tangent from there. I don't like to post spoilers, but I don't think this is a spoiler; more of a correction. The blurb on the back of the book makes it sound like this is a bit of a romance, but it's really not.
The author may have plans for the next book that make sense of the choices in this one, but this reader won't bother to find out.
I received this book for free in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
At first, I liked Laurel and was on her side against her controlling, social-climbing aunt, but by the end of the book, I didn't like her much.
I didn't find out until I'd finished this book that it's the second in a series. The first book,
is about Laurel's cousin Orlan. If you've read any of my reviews, you know that I hate to read books out of order. In this case, though, I won't be bothering to read The Wizard's Son. Maiden in Light just didn't draw me in enough. The middle of the story was great, but instead of taking either of the expected directions for the story, the author takes an unexpected third and the story goes off on a tangent from there. I don't like to post spoilers, but I don't think this is a spoiler; more of a correction. The blurb on the back of the book makes it sound like this is a bit of a romance, but it's really not.The author may have plans for the next book that make sense of the choices in this one, but this reader won't bother to find out.
I received this book for free in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
July 6, 2011
Maiden in Light by Kathryn L. Ramage is a book that has a lot of potential, but some of it goes unrealized. Laurel is a girl who really doesn't know very much about her roots. She has been raised by her Aunt in New York who fears her because of her magical ability. One day Laurel loses control of her magic and starts a fire which causes her aunt to send her to live with her uncle who is the strongest wizard alive. Once there Laurel begins to realize her potential as an apprentice wizard and become dedicated to becoming the best. When her uncle sends her back to New York to investigate a disturbance he feels she goes back to life she thought was left behind.
This book was well written and it is obvious that Kathryn has a very real talent for writing. The story just developed very slowly for my taste and I was a bit disappointed by where the story ended up. Although this story was not really to my taste I still believe in the author enough to check out her other works.
Review copy provided by publisher.
This book was well written and it is obvious that Kathryn has a very real talent for writing. The story just developed very slowly for my taste and I was a bit disappointed by where the story ended up. Although this story was not really to my taste I still believe in the author enough to check out her other works.
Review copy provided by publisher.
April 16, 2011
Written in the style of an earlier era, Kathryn Ramage clearly demonstrates her degrees in English literature. Unfortunately, this is not a style that is very popular at this time. While the premise and world are well thought out, unfortunately due to the sheer amount of time and material involved for this tale, it appeared to lack depth. Young people on the verge of adulthood feel things very intensly and this seemed to be something that the author was uncomfortable dealing with. I really think, that if the book had been split into 2 or even 3 books and done with more with the characters this could have been an excellent series.
Received this book to do a review on, and, unfortunately, will not be keeping it for a later read.
Received this book to do a review on, and, unfortunately, will not be keeping it for a later read.
June 6, 2011
I found this to be a very interesting book. It is a fantasy book about Laurel, who is a magician in training. It details what she goes through in her training and the rest of her life. I would recommend this to those who like the Harry Potter books.
March 25, 2011
I loved it!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews