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Chrysanthe #1
Chrysanthe
Christine, the princess and heir to the real world of Chrysanthe, is kidnapped as a small child by a powerful magician and exiled in a Made World that is a version of our present reality. In exile, supervised by her strict "uncle"(actually a wizard in disguise), she undergoes bogus memory recovery therapy, through which she is forced to remember childhood rape and abuse by her parents and others. She is terribly stunted emotionally by this terrifying plot, but at seventeen discovers it is all a lie. Christine escapes with a rescuer, Sir Quentin, a knight from Chrysanthe, in a thrilling chase across realities.
Once home, the magical standoff caused by her exile is broken, and a war begins, in spite of the best efforts of her father, the king, and his wizard, Melogian. And that war, which takes up nearly the last third of the work, is a marvel of magical invention and terror, a battle between good and evil forces that resounds with echoes of the great battles of fantasy literature.
Once home, the magical standoff caused by her exile is broken, and a war begins, in spite of the best efforts of her father, the king, and his wizard, Melogian. And that war, which takes up nearly the last third of the work, is a marvel of magical invention and terror, a battle between good and evil forces that resounds with echoes of the great battles of fantasy literature.
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2012
2 people are currently reading
239 people want to read
About the author
Yves Meynard
42 books12 followers Yves Meynard est né le 13 juin 1964 à Québec, mais la ville de Longueuil est son lieu de résidence depuis de nombreuses années. Auteur de plusieurs livres, dont neuf romans pour la jeunesse, tant sous son nom que, en collaboration avec Jean-Louis Trudel, sous celui de Laurent McAllister, Yves Meynard a publié depuis 1986 une cinquantaine de nouvelles tant en anglais qu'en français puisqu'il maîtrise parfaitement les deux langues. La qualité de sa production lui a mérité quatre prix Aurora, trois prix Boréal et le Grand Prix 1994 de la science-fiction et du fantastique québécois. Directeur littéraire de la revue Solaris de 1994 à 2002, il a été co-anthologiste du cinquième volume de la série Tesseracts. Yves Meynard détient un doctorat en informatique de l'Université de Montréal.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
March 28, 2012
I spent two weeks trying to read Chrysanthe without hitting the halfway point. It's that experience where the bookmark never seems to move; whenever I sat down to read, I couldn't get far before my mind started to wander. With roughly three hundred pages left to go, I've decided to cut my losses.
It starts promisingly enough. Yves Meynard introduces us to a little girl, Christine, who lives with her unpleasant uncle in a world similar to our own present day, but has vague memories of a very different life -- a life in a castle, where she wore beautiful gowns and was surrounded by people who loved her. What Meynard does really well here is capture that time in childhood where memory is muddled, where you can never be quite sure if you're remembering an incident you really witnessed or one you've been told about so often that you just think you were there, or maybe one from a story or movie.
As Christine grows older, her uncle (who is not really her uncle) sends her to a therapist, Dr. Almand. With Dr. Almand's coaxing, Christine "remembers" a series of horrific sexual abuses. This section sits uneasily with me. It feels a bit off, reading this disturbing content while knowing from reading the back blurb that it's not "real," though I feel silly saying that when the book itself is fiction either way. And I know sexual abuse really happens, and that false repressed memories really happen too and that these false memories have become a hot issue in recent years. But in this case, the story almost seems to trivialize the real thing. We are asked to read these upsetting scenes even while knowing they're just a ruse.
Later still, Christine learns the truth about the purported abuse -- and also about herself. It turns out that she is the princess of a land called Chrysanthe, and that the "real world" in which she lives is actually an invented construct, a "made world," in which she has been imprisoned. Sir Quentin, a knight from Chrysanthe, spirits her away and takes her on a road trip through the made worlds and back to Chrysanthe, where she is reunited with her father (though still traumatized by her false memories of him) and restored to her throne. From there, the politics of the realm become the central plot.
The plot moves extremely slowly. Meynard has a tendency to get bogged down in explanations of the made worlds and how they work, and of other aspects of Chrysanthe's magic. It feels more like a philosophical treatise on the nature of reality than a story. In between these, we get a lot of mundane details of daily life that also drag at the pace. Meynard's prose itself is striking and there are occasional moments that are exquisite, such as Christine's musings on the blue stones of Testenel and how she imagined pictures in their irregularities as a child, a treasured memory that she now learns is real. But overall, Chrysanthe is sluggish, lacking forward momentum.
It doesn't help that the characters are, for the most part, bloodless. Christine is afraid of her own shadow and doesn't drive the plot much. It makes sense that her upbringing at the hands of her "uncle" might produce a timid mouse, but timid mice do not make the best fantasy protagonists. Quentin is mostly bland, and then one of the moments of depth he does get makes him perhaps more interesting, but less sympathetic. It involves his past affair with an exoticized woman from a made world, whom he left without a word; he tries to assuage his guilt with the thought that she wasn't real. It's another aspect of the book that sits uneasily with me. Christine's father, King Edisthen, doesn't really come to life in three dimensions. It turns out that he sprung up fully-grown because he was needed to depose a bad king, rather than being born and growing up in the usual way, and the trouble is that most of the characters in Chrysanthe have this feel despite not having a backstory like Edisthen's. It feels like they are there because a typical fantasy novel needs people to fill those roles (wizard, pretender to the throne, etc.), rather than because they're people living out their lives while we just happen to be peering in. One can never lose sight of the fact that these characters are made of letters typed on a page. Before giving up on the novel, I only encountered one character I truly found intriguing: the widow of the previous king. And at the time of my capitulation, she had only appeared on two pages.
If this were a shorter book, I might have edon, but Chrysanthe is quite long and continuing to read it felt like throwing good time after bad. I would consider reading other work by Meynard, as his actual prose writing is very good, but Chrysanthe is a bust for me.
It starts promisingly enough. Yves Meynard introduces us to a little girl, Christine, who lives with her unpleasant uncle in a world similar to our own present day, but has vague memories of a very different life -- a life in a castle, where she wore beautiful gowns and was surrounded by people who loved her. What Meynard does really well here is capture that time in childhood where memory is muddled, where you can never be quite sure if you're remembering an incident you really witnessed or one you've been told about so often that you just think you were there, or maybe one from a story or movie.
As Christine grows older, her uncle (who is not really her uncle) sends her to a therapist, Dr. Almand. With Dr. Almand's coaxing, Christine "remembers" a series of horrific sexual abuses. This section sits uneasily with me. It feels a bit off, reading this disturbing content while knowing from reading the back blurb that it's not "real," though I feel silly saying that when the book itself is fiction either way. And I know sexual abuse really happens, and that false repressed memories really happen too and that these false memories have become a hot issue in recent years. But in this case, the story almost seems to trivialize the real thing. We are asked to read these upsetting scenes even while knowing they're just a ruse.
Later still, Christine learns the truth about the purported abuse -- and also about herself. It turns out that she is the princess of a land called Chrysanthe, and that the "real world" in which she lives is actually an invented construct, a "made world," in which she has been imprisoned. Sir Quentin, a knight from Chrysanthe, spirits her away and takes her on a road trip through the made worlds and back to Chrysanthe, where she is reunited with her father (though still traumatized by her false memories of him) and restored to her throne. From there, the politics of the realm become the central plot.
The plot moves extremely slowly. Meynard has a tendency to get bogged down in explanations of the made worlds and how they work, and of other aspects of Chrysanthe's magic. It feels more like a philosophical treatise on the nature of reality than a story. In between these, we get a lot of mundane details of daily life that also drag at the pace. Meynard's prose itself is striking and there are occasional moments that are exquisite, such as Christine's musings on the blue stones of Testenel and how she imagined pictures in their irregularities as a child, a treasured memory that she now learns is real. But overall, Chrysanthe is sluggish, lacking forward momentum.
It doesn't help that the characters are, for the most part, bloodless. Christine is afraid of her own shadow and doesn't drive the plot much. It makes sense that her upbringing at the hands of her "uncle" might produce a timid mouse, but timid mice do not make the best fantasy protagonists. Quentin is mostly bland, and then one of the moments of depth he does get makes him perhaps more interesting, but less sympathetic. It involves his past affair with an exoticized woman from a made world, whom he left without a word; he tries to assuage his guilt with the thought that she wasn't real. It's another aspect of the book that sits uneasily with me. Christine's father, King Edisthen, doesn't really come to life in three dimensions. It turns out that he sprung up fully-grown because he was needed to depose a bad king, rather than being born and growing up in the usual way, and the trouble is that most of the characters in Chrysanthe have this feel despite not having a backstory like Edisthen's. It feels like they are there because a typical fantasy novel needs people to fill those roles (wizard, pretender to the throne, etc.), rather than because they're people living out their lives while we just happen to be peering in. One can never lose sight of the fact that these characters are made of letters typed on a page. Before giving up on the novel, I only encountered one character I truly found intriguing: the widow of the previous king. And at the time of my capitulation, she had only appeared on two pages.
If this were a shorter book, I might have edon, but Chrysanthe is quite long and continuing to read it felt like throwing good time after bad. I would consider reading other work by Meynard, as his actual prose writing is very good, but Chrysanthe is a bust for me.
May 8, 2016
I know I should be raving about the lyrical prose and masterful use of the language, and yes, Meynard writes most excellently. However, the result is hollow, a shell, something that feels as lacking in substance and depth as one of the made worlds described within the novel.
I think part of my problem is that the novel is one of those so-called 'literary fantasy' novels, of which more and more seem to be appearing these past few years. The fantasy genre has always been looked down upon as nothing more than fluff and light entertainment. While it's true that a great many fantasy novels, past and present, fit this description, there are also a great many fantasy novels which deal with deeper themes, concepts and issues as complex and disturbing as those found in traditional literary novels. Yet because they are fantasy novels, they are brushed off and demeaned for the fantastical setting in which these themes are played out. Now, though, in order to appeal to literary snobs, who have a very narrow view of what "quality" writing is, traditionally literary authors who want to try their hands at writing fantasy are making sure to litter their novels with dark and depressing issues, only this time dressed up in gossamer dust and pixie wings. Because of this, they miss the point entirely; the works lack the joy, the wonder inherent in fantasy. Instead, those "serious" issues take center stage, wearing the fantasy setting as a child would wear a costume for Halloween, giving the novels an equally false feeling. The authors are so focused on pounding home the seriousness of the novel, in order to make sure it's known that even though the author has given the novel a fantasy setting, their book is literature and not fluff, whatever wonder the original fantasy might have held gets lost. How dreary. And how lacking. And how aptly this describes Chrysanthe.
We are shown the made worlds, a labyrinth of parallel realities which are infinite and can range from the mundane to complete insanity, depending upon how far down into the labyrinth one travels. However, these worlds are used as a prison for Christine, so right away, they lose some of their wonder (though never their surreal quality) and instead come off as multiple examples of the author boasting, "See how original and inventive I can be?" When we finally meet the reality of the novel, the world of Chrysanthe, a realm of magic and castles and kings and wizards, it feels not only dreary but bland as well. As I read descriptions of Chrysanthe and the characters' actions within, I couldn't feel it. I couldn't see the land or get a sense of the place. As with everything else, it felt hollow.
The other issue I have with the novel is that I can find no character with whom I can identify or even like. Christine, our protagonist, goes through some horrific trauma early in the novel, reminiscent of the repressed memory craze and mad Satanists hidden in our midst frenzy of the 1980's. However, despite this trauma and Christine's subsequent redemption, I can't like or admire her. In fact, I quite often despise her for being weak and whiny. I'm willing to admit that it could be my fault; after all, I can't abide weak, whiny MCs. I can empathize with the horror Christine suffered through, I can feel anger at the treatment she received. Just don't be a whimpering baby. Get angry, lash out, but stop being a victim.
I'll be honest, I don't know if Christine managed to grow a spine later on because I stopped reading the book. I know I should've pressed on, done my duty and finished the novel, but I just couldn't force myself. I couldn't connect with the characters, the story, or any of the motivations. The more I read, the more empty the story felt and the more unfulfilled I became as a participant in the novel until I couldn't stand it any more. I wanted to like the book, I really did, but beyond the skill of Meynard's writing--which is evocative without being flowery or obscure (mostly)--there was nothing for me to like.
I think part of my problem is that the novel is one of those so-called 'literary fantasy' novels, of which more and more seem to be appearing these past few years. The fantasy genre has always been looked down upon as nothing more than fluff and light entertainment. While it's true that a great many fantasy novels, past and present, fit this description, there are also a great many fantasy novels which deal with deeper themes, concepts and issues as complex and disturbing as those found in traditional literary novels. Yet because they are fantasy novels, they are brushed off and demeaned for the fantastical setting in which these themes are played out. Now, though, in order to appeal to literary snobs, who have a very narrow view of what "quality" writing is, traditionally literary authors who want to try their hands at writing fantasy are making sure to litter their novels with dark and depressing issues, only this time dressed up in gossamer dust and pixie wings. Because of this, they miss the point entirely; the works lack the joy, the wonder inherent in fantasy. Instead, those "serious" issues take center stage, wearing the fantasy setting as a child would wear a costume for Halloween, giving the novels an equally false feeling. The authors are so focused on pounding home the seriousness of the novel, in order to make sure it's known that even though the author has given the novel a fantasy setting, their book is literature and not fluff, whatever wonder the original fantasy might have held gets lost. How dreary. And how lacking. And how aptly this describes Chrysanthe.
We are shown the made worlds, a labyrinth of parallel realities which are infinite and can range from the mundane to complete insanity, depending upon how far down into the labyrinth one travels. However, these worlds are used as a prison for Christine, so right away, they lose some of their wonder (though never their surreal quality) and instead come off as multiple examples of the author boasting, "See how original and inventive I can be?" When we finally meet the reality of the novel, the world of Chrysanthe, a realm of magic and castles and kings and wizards, it feels not only dreary but bland as well. As I read descriptions of Chrysanthe and the characters' actions within, I couldn't feel it. I couldn't see the land or get a sense of the place. As with everything else, it felt hollow.
The other issue I have with the novel is that I can find no character with whom I can identify or even like. Christine, our protagonist, goes through some horrific trauma early in the novel, reminiscent of the repressed memory craze and mad Satanists hidden in our midst frenzy of the 1980's. However, despite this trauma and Christine's subsequent redemption, I can't like or admire her. In fact, I quite often despise her for being weak and whiny. I'm willing to admit that it could be my fault; after all, I can't abide weak, whiny MCs. I can empathize with the horror Christine suffered through, I can feel anger at the treatment she received. Just don't be a whimpering baby. Get angry, lash out, but stop being a victim.
I'll be honest, I don't know if Christine managed to grow a spine later on because I stopped reading the book. I know I should've pressed on, done my duty and finished the novel, but I just couldn't force myself. I couldn't connect with the characters, the story, or any of the motivations. The more I read, the more empty the story felt and the more unfulfilled I became as a participant in the novel until I couldn't stand it any more. I wanted to like the book, I really did, but beyond the skill of Meynard's writing--which is evocative without being flowery or obscure (mostly)--there was nothing for me to like.
July 11, 2014
o.o
Look I really enjoy books in which we find out the main character is a royal in hiding. Joyce Ballou Gregorian's Tredana trilogy and Paul Park's Roumania Sequence, not to mention Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy and Frank Beddor's Looking Glass Wars trilogy , are ALL based around this concept. And I *adore* those series. And to be truthful CHRYSANTHE sounded exactly like something I would love. Plus from a publisher I almost always enjoy (Tor) I thought this was a shoo-in for at least a 3 star rating. I was leery of the fact that a large piece of the story seemed to center on Christine's 'childhood trauma' (or perceived trauma, let's just say she takes a unique approach to finding out the truth).
But as I read more and more of the book (its over 500pages) I became less and less happy. I couldn't put my finger on it. I really couldn't. The book wasn't written badly--its blunt and a bit unsettling at first, but it had a certain....voice to it that I wasn't adverse to. Christine is hard to relate with at first, what she suffers at the hands of her therapist (and 'Uncle') are difficult to read. Though the tension and unsettling nature of those experiences are lessened because the reader already knows its all fake.
Its not until I put down the book and thought about it that I realized why I wasn't happy or satisfied.
I hated this book. I mean, full on hated it. Its been so long since I've hated a book with every fiber of my bookish being that I didn't understand the emotion. (for the curious the last book was BREAKING DAWN) Most books something interests me--like Andrea Cremer's books, I thoroughly disliked the choices made, the development of characters and ending, but I really found the concept fascinating. And Calla wasn't horrible, just made stupid decisions a lot--but by the end of CHYSANTHE? I couldn't recall a single instance, character or concept I wanted to know more about.
Even as I'm sitting here I can't recall anything to like. I have a vague feeling of disquiet and uncomfortableness with the book actually, and gave away my ARC edition as fast as possible.
Look I really enjoy books in which we find out the main character is a royal in hiding. Joyce Ballou Gregorian's Tredana trilogy and Paul Park's Roumania Sequence, not to mention Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy and Frank Beddor's Looking Glass Wars trilogy , are ALL based around this concept. And I *adore* those series. And to be truthful CHRYSANTHE sounded exactly like something I would love. Plus from a publisher I almost always enjoy (Tor) I thought this was a shoo-in for at least a 3 star rating. I was leery of the fact that a large piece of the story seemed to center on Christine's 'childhood trauma' (or perceived trauma, let's just say she takes a unique approach to finding out the truth).
But as I read more and more of the book (its over 500pages) I became less and less happy. I couldn't put my finger on it. I really couldn't. The book wasn't written badly--its blunt and a bit unsettling at first, but it had a certain....voice to it that I wasn't adverse to. Christine is hard to relate with at first, what she suffers at the hands of her therapist (and 'Uncle') are difficult to read. Though the tension and unsettling nature of those experiences are lessened because the reader already knows its all fake.
Its not until I put down the book and thought about it that I realized why I wasn't happy or satisfied.
I hated this book. I mean, full on hated it. Its been so long since I've hated a book with every fiber of my bookish being that I didn't understand the emotion. (for the curious the last book was BREAKING DAWN) Most books something interests me--like Andrea Cremer's books, I thoroughly disliked the choices made, the development of characters and ending, but I really found the concept fascinating. And Calla wasn't horrible, just made stupid decisions a lot--but by the end of CHYSANTHE? I couldn't recall a single instance, character or concept I wanted to know more about.
Even as I'm sitting here I can't recall anything to like. I have a vague feeling of disquiet and uncomfortableness with the book actually, and gave away my ARC edition as fast as possible.
November 14, 2012
Apparently I'm in the minority here, but I burned a pan in the kitchen and put off important work because of being engrossed in reading this book. And this despite initial grave doubts about the whole secretly-a-princess plot (which had been rather overdone, don't you think?).
I found the world-building fascinating - so similar to Zelazny's Amber universe, but also distinctly its own - and the tactic of having Christine hidden in a world that's almost-but-definitely-not our own makes her permanent relocation from it easier to take than might otherwise have been the case (clever, I think).
The semi-omniscient viewpoint was not a problem for me, and using it enabled the author to present scenes out of strict sequence that made a lot of things clear to the reader, even though many of the characters never actually knew the details (or in one case, refused to acknowledge them). This is overall one of those books that's as much about the world as about the characters, and it hit the right balance between those for me ... although it did hold off on explaining exactly what Heroes are for long enough to make me impatient.
While most of the villains were a bit over the top (Casimir is clearly a sociopath, while Evered is merely scenery-chewing irrational) I thought the character of Mathellin added an important note of complexity to the villains' side - and in fact, even the villains were presented as having limits to their villainy. Or at least faint twinges of guilt.
The good guys have the damaged Christine and the knight Quentin (who's the only slightly tarnished other side of Mathellin's coin, actually), plus the sorceress Melogian and, for a time, King Edisthen. Although the latter did not hold the point of view very much, those were key scenes and added an unexpected layer of pathos to the story.
The plot, of course, starts with setting the scene in the place Christine has been hidden, and then lurches abruptly into a lengthy chase across the multiverse featuring only Christine, Quentin, and Mathellin. When they finally reach Chrysanthe, everything slows down again, naturally. Christine and Quentin (who's been away for nine years) are trying to settle in. The rest of the cast have to be introduced and the war plot set in motion (rebellion against Edisthen by the sons of the previous king and one of three duchies). Melogian spends a fair amount of time explaining the world to Christine and we also learn further key information about how the world works from backstory scenes about her. This is probably the part that most frustrated some other readers, but I enjoyed the elaboration of the characters and the world as an alternate form of plot; and it was also the only way to eventually make everything make sense.
I was very impressed by Meynard's solution to the problem of Edisthen's [spoiler], the seeds of which had been present all along; likewise, the climax of the story - with the rebellious forces at the very gates of the castle - had obvious elements but also unexpected ones. Perfect.
I still don't know if the pan I burned is going to be salvageable, but I'm quite sure (I checked) that Casimir raised seven demons, not the six that appeared for the war. I don't know if that portends a sequel, or is just an error ... nor am I sure that I'd enjoy a second book about Chrysanthe as much as I did the first, since most of this world's secrets have been revealed. But we'll see, perhaps.
I found the world-building fascinating - so similar to Zelazny's Amber universe, but also distinctly its own - and the tactic of having Christine hidden in a world that's almost-but-definitely-not our own makes her permanent relocation from it easier to take than might otherwise have been the case (clever, I think).
The semi-omniscient viewpoint was not a problem for me, and using it enabled the author to present scenes out of strict sequence that made a lot of things clear to the reader, even though many of the characters never actually knew the details (or in one case, refused to acknowledge them). This is overall one of those books that's as much about the world as about the characters, and it hit the right balance between those for me ... although it did hold off on explaining exactly what Heroes are for long enough to make me impatient.
While most of the villains were a bit over the top (Casimir is clearly a sociopath, while Evered is merely scenery-chewing irrational) I thought the character of Mathellin added an important note of complexity to the villains' side - and in fact, even the villains were presented as having limits to their villainy. Or at least faint twinges of guilt.
The good guys have the damaged Christine and the knight Quentin (who's the only slightly tarnished other side of Mathellin's coin, actually), plus the sorceress Melogian and, for a time, King Edisthen. Although the latter did not hold the point of view very much, those were key scenes and added an unexpected layer of pathos to the story.
The plot, of course, starts with setting the scene in the place Christine has been hidden, and then lurches abruptly into a lengthy chase across the multiverse featuring only Christine, Quentin, and Mathellin. When they finally reach Chrysanthe, everything slows down again, naturally. Christine and Quentin (who's been away for nine years) are trying to settle in. The rest of the cast have to be introduced and the war plot set in motion (rebellion against Edisthen by the sons of the previous king and one of three duchies). Melogian spends a fair amount of time explaining the world to Christine and we also learn further key information about how the world works from backstory scenes about her. This is probably the part that most frustrated some other readers, but I enjoyed the elaboration of the characters and the world as an alternate form of plot; and it was also the only way to eventually make everything make sense.
I was very impressed by Meynard's solution to the problem of Edisthen's [spoiler], the seeds of which had been present all along; likewise, the climax of the story - with the rebellious forces at the very gates of the castle - had obvious elements but also unexpected ones. Perfect.
I still don't know if the pan I burned is going to be salvageable, but I'm quite sure (I checked) that Casimir raised seven demons, not the six that appeared for the war. I don't know if that portends a sequel, or is just an error ... nor am I sure that I'd enjoy a second book about Chrysanthe as much as I did the first, since most of this world's secrets have been revealed. But we'll see, perhaps.
March 30, 2012
I really wanted to like this one, guys – the blurb sounded fascinating, and TOR kindly sent me a review copy so I could read it.
But sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. It was well-translated – but that was about the only thing it had going for it. While the prose Meynard writes at first weaves a spell much like the old time fairy tales do, it turned into more telling than showing. And when he wasn’t telling, his showing was so slow that it felt like I was stuck in a bog – unable to move, and there were some pretty horrible things that were happening in front of me.
If you’ve been reading the blog for awhile, you know that I don’t shy away from…well, to use the best word for it, “controversial” content in my books. In fact, I try to actively seek them out – I like authors that challenge the status quo in any fashion because they’re brave enough to.
However, there are exceptions to that desire of mine for controversial content. And Crysanthe is one of those exceptions.
The content in Meynard’s book, with how Christine is tortured by her therapist/the Snake was just a little too hard for me to read. And this is coming from someone who can read or watch just about anything terrible while eating pizza – I’m pretty numb when it comes to stuff like this. But the almost-graphic scenes of child rape were just way too much for me to handle – to the point where I found myself running for the bathroom and for the next half hour after that, on my knees dryheaving and violently nauseous.
I wish I could say I was being dramatic, but I still have a fair amount of bile in my throat.
While I commend Reynard on giving it the old collage try, it seems like a fair amount of reviewers agree – there could have been some other way to “cover up” Christine’s memories of her true life in Chrysanthe without the fake child rape involved. It’s not actually addressing the problem of pedophilia and child rape, and if anything, is almost mocking a very real problem. It felt like it was used as a convienent yet controversial and eye-grabbing way to twist the fantasy genre to his making. But news flash, guys: when you use an issue in that way, you’re exploiting the subjects of that issue. Namely, in this one, victims of pedophilia. I am not one of them, but I do have a few friends that have been, so this one struck a little too close to home than I would have liked.
So, I couldn’t finish it. Not while trying not to vomit. Even though the descriptions weren’t out-and-out graphic, they were still explicit enough to sicken me. They show up in Chrysanthe itself with the Snake talking about how it was a way to hurt the future Queen of Crysanthe in this other parallel world, and it’s a major plot point. I just couldn’t get past that.
I wish I could have, but I couldn’t. However, these are just my feelings about it – the omnibus of the complete “Chrysanthe” story are now out in North America through Tor Books. If you have a stronger stomach than I do, you might be able to tough out that plot point and make it further to the end than I did.
(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com)
But sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. It was well-translated – but that was about the only thing it had going for it. While the prose Meynard writes at first weaves a spell much like the old time fairy tales do, it turned into more telling than showing. And when he wasn’t telling, his showing was so slow that it felt like I was stuck in a bog – unable to move, and there were some pretty horrible things that were happening in front of me.
If you’ve been reading the blog for awhile, you know that I don’t shy away from…well, to use the best word for it, “controversial” content in my books. In fact, I try to actively seek them out – I like authors that challenge the status quo in any fashion because they’re brave enough to.
However, there are exceptions to that desire of mine for controversial content. And Crysanthe is one of those exceptions.
The content in Meynard’s book, with how Christine is tortured by her therapist/the Snake was just a little too hard for me to read. And this is coming from someone who can read or watch just about anything terrible while eating pizza – I’m pretty numb when it comes to stuff like this. But the almost-graphic scenes of child rape were just way too much for me to handle – to the point where I found myself running for the bathroom and for the next half hour after that, on my knees dryheaving and violently nauseous.
I wish I could say I was being dramatic, but I still have a fair amount of bile in my throat.
While I commend Reynard on giving it the old collage try, it seems like a fair amount of reviewers agree – there could have been some other way to “cover up” Christine’s memories of her true life in Chrysanthe without the fake child rape involved. It’s not actually addressing the problem of pedophilia and child rape, and if anything, is almost mocking a very real problem. It felt like it was used as a convienent yet controversial and eye-grabbing way to twist the fantasy genre to his making. But news flash, guys: when you use an issue in that way, you’re exploiting the subjects of that issue. Namely, in this one, victims of pedophilia. I am not one of them, but I do have a few friends that have been, so this one struck a little too close to home than I would have liked.
So, I couldn’t finish it. Not while trying not to vomit. Even though the descriptions weren’t out-and-out graphic, they were still explicit enough to sicken me. They show up in Chrysanthe itself with the Snake talking about how it was a way to hurt the future Queen of Crysanthe in this other parallel world, and it’s a major plot point. I just couldn’t get past that.
I wish I could have, but I couldn’t. However, these are just my feelings about it – the omnibus of the complete “Chrysanthe” story are now out in North America through Tor Books. If you have a stronger stomach than I do, you might be able to tough out that plot point and make it further to the end than I did.
(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com)
September 30, 2016
I have very mixed feelings about this book. First, I should probably explain how I read it, it give some context. While it is just one book, it is divided into three sections, and in some places you may find it offered as a trilogy, rather than a single book. This is how I found it, and I got access to the first book far earlier than the last two. I was faced with the choice of if I even wanted to read the book under those circumstances. In the end, I decided to just read the first 'book' and then see if I felt like continuing.
I actually really liked the first book. I really liked the imagination of the made worlds and the world-building. I enjoyed Christine as a character, and I was simultaneously intrigued and horrified by the psychological torture that she experiences. When she was offered a way out of her world, I liked her reaction - her confusion, her disbelief, and yet her desperate will to embrace something completely different from what she had experienced before. Throughout the books, Christine remained my favorite character by far, even though she was often paralyzed by circumstance.
The second book was much slower, which was really counter-intuitive for me. In the second book, Christine has finally reached her destination and is learning about Chrysanthe, and yet, it was probably the least eventful of the books. There were a lot of info dumps used to teach Christine about Chrysanthe, and while it was absolutely fascinating world-building, there just wasn't much else to it.
The final book was the worst for me, and I think that was mostly an aura problem. The final book is very bleak. Not many good things happen, and a great deal of bad things happen. For a long time, there is not a lot of hope for the heroes of the story, and it was pretty exhausting to read. Especially because, again, not a lot happened for much of the book.
I did enjoy the ending of the book. By that time, some of the other characters had finally grown on me (yes, it did take that long), and I finally was able to get invested in how things were going to turn out. However, it was too little, too late. The pacing was just incredibly slow for more than half of the book. It could have easily been half its length, and it probably would have been a better book at that point. Chrysanthe is ultimately just too long for the story that it tells, and it suffers greatly from that problem. I thought that the world-building was impressive, but ultimately, I can't really recommend this book. The only reason I am rating it three stars rather than two is because I really did enjoy the first book quite a bit. It's too bad that the latter two-thirds of the book didn't live up to the enjoyment I received from that first part.
I actually really liked the first book. I really liked the imagination of the made worlds and the world-building. I enjoyed Christine as a character, and I was simultaneously intrigued and horrified by the psychological torture that she experiences. When she was offered a way out of her world, I liked her reaction - her confusion, her disbelief, and yet her desperate will to embrace something completely different from what she had experienced before. Throughout the books, Christine remained my favorite character by far, even though she was often paralyzed by circumstance.
The second book was much slower, which was really counter-intuitive for me. In the second book, Christine has finally reached her destination and is learning about Chrysanthe, and yet, it was probably the least eventful of the books. There were a lot of info dumps used to teach Christine about Chrysanthe, and while it was absolutely fascinating world-building, there just wasn't much else to it.
The final book was the worst for me, and I think that was mostly an aura problem. The final book is very bleak. Not many good things happen, and a great deal of bad things happen. For a long time, there is not a lot of hope for the heroes of the story, and it was pretty exhausting to read. Especially because, again, not a lot happened for much of the book.
I did enjoy the ending of the book. By that time, some of the other characters had finally grown on me (yes, it did take that long), and I finally was able to get invested in how things were going to turn out. However, it was too little, too late. The pacing was just incredibly slow for more than half of the book. It could have easily been half its length, and it probably would have been a better book at that point. Chrysanthe is ultimately just too long for the story that it tells, and it suffers greatly from that problem. I thought that the world-building was impressive, but ultimately, I can't really recommend this book. The only reason I am rating it three stars rather than two is because I really did enjoy the first book quite a bit. It's too bad that the latter two-thirds of the book didn't live up to the enjoyment I received from that first part.
July 10, 2012
You know, for such an incredibly long book CHRYSANTHE was so unbelievably forgettable. Just a note on the sheer length: my copy is roughly 500 pages with microscopic font and margins that are maybe 3/4 of an inch. Look -
The majority of the books I read are half that, usually creating a longer than required book but it reads quickly. Except this book wasn't shortened by it's tiny writing. Extend it out to regular reading font and margins and you're looking at something that could possibly be broaching a 700 page book with no page breaks for chapters. They start a couple of lines down from the end of the former chapter. Only "book breaks" are allotted and there are seven "books" within this one. If CHRYSANTHE were actually parsed out into seven bound books it 1) wouldn't have taken me a month to read because 2) I wouldn't have read past the first book.
As it stands CHRYSANTHE is a strange one for me. I had neither the desire to stop reading nor continue. I wasn't engrossed with the story and the characters were wafer thing with Christine barely developing beyond the first few pages. Forget about Quentin. That boy's a lost cause. So I have no idea what compelled me to actually finish this title. It goes against all of the logic of my prior DNFs as it rightly should have been one.
In all honesty I do think it was the world. If nothing else the world was a pretty solid one and I found Quentin's and Christine's travels through the worlds to be fascinating and the concept that they're not even real once you leave them pretty intriguing. It kind of bodes for the whole "tree falls in the forest" thing. If no one's there to experience it does it exist after all? I wasn't too fond of the whole Hero concept in that if there's an incompetent ass on the throne then the Book (read: bible) will spit out a Hero to depose the crappy ruler and not much can be done because the Law (basically an intangible governing entity enforced by some kind of higher power) will kill you dead if you even so much as flick a royal's nose and mean the harm it causes. For instance Christine, at around 10 years old, got into a fight with a schoolmate in the made world where she was trapped and the girl kicked her in the shin. Because the Law followed Christine and applied in the made world the girl died a horrible death (which varies from death to death on the method). Neat concept, kind of crappy attribution. There are a lot of flaws in the world's logic but it painted a nice picture regardless.
Except for the poop. There's a lot of it. Literally. The author had an unhealthy obsession of demonstrating a character's ability to provide a BM. I have no idea why. But there was a lot of gut rumbling and voiding of bowels going on. Is this an aspect of fantasy I just wasn't aware of?
CHRYSANTHE was one of the few books where I read reviews as I was reading it simply because I wanted to know why it kept getting such low star ratings. Having read it I can understand. You're pretty much only going to tolerate it if you're a world whore like I am, and even that's a stretch. Reading it you're pretty much skating on the surface, reading a text book account of what's going on in these people's lives. There's very little by the way of character development and I believe only Christine does any developing at all. Barely. Having such vicious false memories implanted can have one hell of an effect on a person's psyche and if I said Christine didn't grow at all as a character I'd be lying but she doesn't grow much. She is rather stunted in the maturity department and she does end up with a lot shoved into her lap and I do believe she reacts accordingly. But since everything else around her is stagnant and the time elapsed is only a matter of weeks it doesn't help her. I think she's come a long way in a short amount of time, all things considered, but it's contextual.
I feel like reading something so incredibly dense I should have taken more away from it but it's fluid; it just runs from my mind. There isn't much that's all that memorable about CHRYSANTHE but it's not inherently bad either. I think if the author had a bit more focus and honed in on a single character or two instead of resorting to the third person omniscient voice I think more could have been done in terms of character development, especially for Christine. It's supposed to be mostly her story but once she gets to Chrysanthe she'd abandoned for other corners of the world most of the time. It's unfortunate.
I think the premise was fantastic and it had potential but the execution was lackluster at best. I really wanted to like CHRYSANTHE but it just fell flat.
The majority of the books I read are half that, usually creating a longer than required book but it reads quickly. Except this book wasn't shortened by it's tiny writing. Extend it out to regular reading font and margins and you're looking at something that could possibly be broaching a 700 page book with no page breaks for chapters. They start a couple of lines down from the end of the former chapter. Only "book breaks" are allotted and there are seven "books" within this one. If CHRYSANTHE were actually parsed out into seven bound books it 1) wouldn't have taken me a month to read because 2) I wouldn't have read past the first book.
As it stands CHRYSANTHE is a strange one for me. I had neither the desire to stop reading nor continue. I wasn't engrossed with the story and the characters were wafer thing with Christine barely developing beyond the first few pages. Forget about Quentin. That boy's a lost cause. So I have no idea what compelled me to actually finish this title. It goes against all of the logic of my prior DNFs as it rightly should have been one.
In all honesty I do think it was the world. If nothing else the world was a pretty solid one and I found Quentin's and Christine's travels through the worlds to be fascinating and the concept that they're not even real once you leave them pretty intriguing. It kind of bodes for the whole "tree falls in the forest" thing. If no one's there to experience it does it exist after all? I wasn't too fond of the whole Hero concept in that if there's an incompetent ass on the throne then the Book (read: bible) will spit out a Hero to depose the crappy ruler and not much can be done because the Law (basically an intangible governing entity enforced by some kind of higher power) will kill you dead if you even so much as flick a royal's nose and mean the harm it causes. For instance Christine, at around 10 years old, got into a fight with a schoolmate in the made world where she was trapped and the girl kicked her in the shin. Because the Law followed Christine and applied in the made world the girl died a horrible death (which varies from death to death on the method). Neat concept, kind of crappy attribution. There are a lot of flaws in the world's logic but it painted a nice picture regardless.
Except for the poop. There's a lot of it. Literally. The author had an unhealthy obsession of demonstrating a character's ability to provide a BM. I have no idea why. But there was a lot of gut rumbling and voiding of bowels going on. Is this an aspect of fantasy I just wasn't aware of?
CHRYSANTHE was one of the few books where I read reviews as I was reading it simply because I wanted to know why it kept getting such low star ratings. Having read it I can understand. You're pretty much only going to tolerate it if you're a world whore like I am, and even that's a stretch. Reading it you're pretty much skating on the surface, reading a text book account of what's going on in these people's lives. There's very little by the way of character development and I believe only Christine does any developing at all. Barely. Having such vicious false memories implanted can have one hell of an effect on a person's psyche and if I said Christine didn't grow at all as a character I'd be lying but she doesn't grow much. She is rather stunted in the maturity department and she does end up with a lot shoved into her lap and I do believe she reacts accordingly. But since everything else around her is stagnant and the time elapsed is only a matter of weeks it doesn't help her. I think she's come a long way in a short amount of time, all things considered, but it's contextual.
I feel like reading something so incredibly dense I should have taken more away from it but it's fluid; it just runs from my mind. There isn't much that's all that memorable about CHRYSANTHE but it's not inherently bad either. I think if the author had a bit more focus and honed in on a single character or two instead of resorting to the third person omniscient voice I think more could have been done in terms of character development, especially for Christine. It's supposed to be mostly her story but once she gets to Chrysanthe she'd abandoned for other corners of the world most of the time. It's unfortunate.
I think the premise was fantastic and it had potential but the execution was lackluster at best. I really wanted to like CHRYSANTHE but it just fell flat.
September 27, 2024
Strange, didn't enjoy thoroughly but overall I liked SOME of the unique ideas presented. It took me a long while to read but I did finish it.
April 8, 2012
Not bad, but I'm not finding myself staying up nights wondering, "what happens next," either.
Our protagonist has been raised in near-isolation since early childhood by an uncle. Her therapist, with the aid of recovered-memory therapy, has convinced her that she was a victim of long-term sexual abuse at the hands of her father, which was why she was taken away from her family.
Then - a handsome young man appears. He tells her that he is a knight, who has been seeking her for years, and that all she has known is a lie. In actuality, she is the princess of the one true realm, kidnapped from her loving father and hidden in an artificial 'made world.'
Running off and questing ensues. The princess is returned to her home, but not all is happy ever after, since she's got major mental issues, and enemies of the realm are still at large. More running about and questing.
The whole thing with the therapy sounds a bit cheesy, but I actually thought it was handled well, and convincingly.
The weak point in the book is the characterization. Characters tend to be either good or evil, not very complex, and rather flat.
The most interesting aspect of the book, I thought, was the whole 'made worlds' concept. According to the theory, the 'real world' is stultifyingly tiny. It's a physically small, homogenous, quite boring speck without much history - or anything. In contrast, the 'made worlds' are infinite, diverse, and encompass literally everything that could be imagined - universes and dimensions. They include places much like our own world. But they are - supposedly - not real. It's a fascinating reversal of expectations - but it's really quite an unpleasant and disturbing concept on a very deep level, and I suspect that it is why many people have reacted in a negative and emotional way to this book.
The concept also isn't fully explored - instead, much of the plot is taken up with typical-fantasy sorcerous battles and such. I assume sequels are taking it somewhere... but I'm not sure I loved it enough to follow them.
Our protagonist has been raised in near-isolation since early childhood by an uncle. Her therapist, with the aid of recovered-memory therapy, has convinced her that she was a victim of long-term sexual abuse at the hands of her father, which was why she was taken away from her family.
Then - a handsome young man appears. He tells her that he is a knight, who has been seeking her for years, and that all she has known is a lie. In actuality, she is the princess of the one true realm, kidnapped from her loving father and hidden in an artificial 'made world.'
Running off and questing ensues. The princess is returned to her home, but not all is happy ever after, since she's got major mental issues, and enemies of the realm are still at large. More running about and questing.
The whole thing with the therapy sounds a bit cheesy, but I actually thought it was handled well, and convincingly.
The weak point in the book is the characterization. Characters tend to be either good or evil, not very complex, and rather flat.
The most interesting aspect of the book, I thought, was the whole 'made worlds' concept. According to the theory, the 'real world' is stultifyingly tiny. It's a physically small, homogenous, quite boring speck without much history - or anything. In contrast, the 'made worlds' are infinite, diverse, and encompass literally everything that could be imagined - universes and dimensions. They include places much like our own world. But they are - supposedly - not real. It's a fascinating reversal of expectations - but it's really quite an unpleasant and disturbing concept on a very deep level, and I suspect that it is why many people have reacted in a negative and emotional way to this book.
The concept also isn't fully explored - instead, much of the plot is taken up with typical-fantasy sorcerous battles and such. I assume sequels are taking it somewhere... but I'm not sure I loved it enough to follow them.
April 21, 2012
Unfortunately, this author set out to tell a brilliant idea with the wrong lead character. Meynard chose the Princess because it allowed the author to explore the made worlds and the real world through the eyes of a newcomer, but an info dump is an info dump is an info dump. It took four hundred pages of info dumping, to get to Melogian and Casimir, the heart and horror of this story.
I'd recommend skipping all the way to Part VI, read the exciting bits, and thank me for the time I saved you. Then if your interested in the myths of the Law and the birth of Heroes, treat the beginning as an appendix you can skip through at will and a lesson in how not to do world building in a novel.
I'd recommend skipping all the way to Part VI, read the exciting bits, and thank me for the time I saved you. Then if your interested in the myths of the Law and the birth of Heroes, treat the beginning as an appendix you can skip through at will and a lesson in how not to do world building in a novel.
Read
December 16, 2023The idea of the worlds is interesting, but this book was a slog to get through.
What the protagonist is going through is quite needlessly unpleasant, and I wish we could have gotten to the cool stuff much earlier :P
The characters feel hollow, and I question the need to get bogged in so much psychological detail of horrors that are not even supposed to be real.
It feels pretty pointless voyeuristic, while the blurb sold me on an interestingly structured multi-verse, which we only get to see a bit in the latter part of the book.
What the protagonist is going through is quite needlessly unpleasant, and I wish we could have gotten to the cool stuff much earlier :P
The characters feel hollow, and I question the need to get bogged in so much psychological detail of horrors that are not even supposed to be real.
It feels pretty pointless voyeuristic, while the blurb sold me on an interestingly structured multi-verse, which we only get to see a bit in the latter part of the book.
July 24, 2012
Christine is a princess of the magical world of Chrysanthe, but at the age of four was kidnapped and taken where she couldn't be found. With no real memory of her former life, she's dismayed at the appearance of Quentin, a knight of Chrysanthe come to take her home. Should she trust this man with a familiar voice? Because her "guardian" will not let her go easily...
The prose in CHRYSANTHE has a lyrical quality with some lovely imagery, and Yves Meynard clearly wanted to write the best he knows how. Every word, sentence, and image is carefully crafted. He creates setting elements with imagination, taking old cliches and breathing new life into them. Meynard is very precise in the forward movement of plot and storytelling, placing foreshadowing with subtlety.
Unfortunately, he could have chosen a more interesting story to tell.
Christine is a likable enough character, with Quentin as her knight in shining armor. As the story progresses we meet her father, the court sorceress Melogian, various soldiers, sailors, dukes, servants, and the typical villains...and experience most of their PoVs. After seeing her and Quentin almost exclusively for the first quarter of the book, their story fades to allow others into the foreground. As a result of the frequent PoV switches and distant narration of all their back stories, character progression grinds to a halt and never recovers.
A lot of detail, more than was necessary, is spent on the escape of Christine and Quentin from her prison in the "made world" (this over-sharing becomes a theme throughout the book). At first the escape has some interesting action and scenery, but the plot moves forward slowly, becoming predictable and cliche. The interactions between characters is awkward with pages and pages of almost maid-and-butler dialogue. The middle half I don't think I can easily label other than a meandering flow of character movement and the set-up for: the last quarter of the book, which is a tedious and distanced war until the last, exciting 50 pages.
I was confused. Isn't Christine the main character? Then why is she almost absent for the last half of the book? Why does she spend all her time holed up in her palace bedroom reading and taking baths? Why isn't she more involved in the crescendoing plot? Why do we visit these other people in so much boring detail?
All the character PoV switches makes the plot lop-sided. Instead of forwarding the story, character back story is more important to establishing the details necessary to work out a tidily executed climax. In the book it's explained to us that a wizard's magic is created with arcane words, movements, and magical items, all in a complex ritual where every little detail must coalesce for the magic to work. That's how the climax felt to me: Meyard spends so much time and pointless detail just to make the climax work (sure it's cool, but that's beside the point). Wizards are no match for a good editor.
CHRYSANTHE feels like it should be a YA book, the way Meynard writes it from teenage Christine's PoV. Except for the sexual content. Christine has been living with her "uncle" since she was taken from her father for suspected abuse, and is forced to endure memory recovery therapy at the hands of a quack where she "remembers" sexual abuse by her father and others. Clear to the end of CHRYSANTHE it still felt like if Meynard had taken out the sex and the profanity it could easily have been marketed to a YA audience (and not necessarily in spite of the themes of abuse). And he really should have because this kind of story would feel new and fresh to young readers, whereas more widely read SF readers will see it for the re-hash that it is.
Meynard introduces us to some interesting ideas of magic and law and heroes, what's real and what's not, and how magic works. But ultimately CHRYSANTHE is overwrought and cumbersome, and doesn't have a lot to separate it from other fantasy worlds out there.
Recommended Age: 17+
Language: A handful or two
Violence: War-related blood and gore but the narration style gives it distance
Sex: Frequent references to rape, some of which have detail; consensual encounters with brief detail
**See this and other reviews on Elitist Book Reviews***
The prose in CHRYSANTHE has a lyrical quality with some lovely imagery, and Yves Meynard clearly wanted to write the best he knows how. Every word, sentence, and image is carefully crafted. He creates setting elements with imagination, taking old cliches and breathing new life into them. Meynard is very precise in the forward movement of plot and storytelling, placing foreshadowing with subtlety.
Unfortunately, he could have chosen a more interesting story to tell.
Christine is a likable enough character, with Quentin as her knight in shining armor. As the story progresses we meet her father, the court sorceress Melogian, various soldiers, sailors, dukes, servants, and the typical villains...and experience most of their PoVs. After seeing her and Quentin almost exclusively for the first quarter of the book, their story fades to allow others into the foreground. As a result of the frequent PoV switches and distant narration of all their back stories, character progression grinds to a halt and never recovers.
A lot of detail, more than was necessary, is spent on the escape of Christine and Quentin from her prison in the "made world" (this over-sharing becomes a theme throughout the book). At first the escape has some interesting action and scenery, but the plot moves forward slowly, becoming predictable and cliche. The interactions between characters is awkward with pages and pages of almost maid-and-butler dialogue. The middle half I don't think I can easily label other than a meandering flow of character movement and the set-up for: the last quarter of the book, which is a tedious and distanced war until the last, exciting 50 pages.
I was confused. Isn't Christine the main character? Then why is she almost absent for the last half of the book? Why does she spend all her time holed up in her palace bedroom reading and taking baths? Why isn't she more involved in the crescendoing plot? Why do we visit these other people in so much boring detail?
All the character PoV switches makes the plot lop-sided. Instead of forwarding the story, character back story is more important to establishing the details necessary to work out a tidily executed climax. In the book it's explained to us that a wizard's magic is created with arcane words, movements, and magical items, all in a complex ritual where every little detail must coalesce for the magic to work. That's how the climax felt to me: Meyard spends so much time and pointless detail just to make the climax work (sure it's cool, but that's beside the point). Wizards are no match for a good editor.
CHRYSANTHE feels like it should be a YA book, the way Meynard writes it from teenage Christine's PoV. Except for the sexual content. Christine has been living with her "uncle" since she was taken from her father for suspected abuse, and is forced to endure memory recovery therapy at the hands of a quack where she "remembers" sexual abuse by her father and others. Clear to the end of CHRYSANTHE it still felt like if Meynard had taken out the sex and the profanity it could easily have been marketed to a YA audience (and not necessarily in spite of the themes of abuse). And he really should have because this kind of story would feel new and fresh to young readers, whereas more widely read SF readers will see it for the re-hash that it is.
Meynard introduces us to some interesting ideas of magic and law and heroes, what's real and what's not, and how magic works. But ultimately CHRYSANTHE is overwrought and cumbersome, and doesn't have a lot to separate it from other fantasy worlds out there.
Recommended Age: 17+
Language: A handful or two
Violence: War-related blood and gore but the narration style gives it distance
Sex: Frequent references to rape, some of which have detail; consensual encounters with brief detail
**See this and other reviews on Elitist Book Reviews***
October 16, 2015
Standard fantasy fare with some twists and holes.
Chrysanthe has a number of standard fantasy features. A lost princess. A young knight in search of her. An evil lord who wants her crown. A perilous journey. Magicans, monsters, mayhem and war. On these standards it delivers.
There are a few different wrinkles. The made worlds. The Book. The Law.
Chrysanthe is the real world. All others were made by wizards many years ago, but not too many. Chrysanthe is only 6,098 years old. Obviously the author ran with the time frame proposed by Creationists on how old the Earth is. There are other religious references as well, though they are simply back story and not really pertinent to the main one. The Book is not an actual book. It is something from which God creates things. The Law is God's law. One of its rules is that no harm may befall the ruler of Chrysanthe or his descendants in line for the throne. There are Heroes in Chrysanthe who are created from the Book.
The story plods along slowly, too slow for my liking, to the eventual 'battle royale' with the good guys winning.
About a third of the way into the book the author forgot who the main protagonists were - Christine and Quentin. Quite simply, the parts they play throughout the balance are almost non-existent. Instead a new character, Melogian, a female wizard, takes center stage. Even some of the sidekicks like Captain Veraless get a lot more play than our original two heroes. When you invest the reader in two characters and then drop them like hot potatoes, you drop the attachment.
What is also frustrating is the plot holes.
Reading from here contains spoilers.
The made worlds are limited in number, yet limitless. It seems that when wizards, or those empowered by wizards, travel from Chrysanthe into the made worlds the move down a gradient whereby the made world deviates constantly. The best analogy would be a multiverse where things are not quite the same in each copy. It's made clear only wizards or those empowered can travel the gradient. The heroine Christine, daughter of Edisthen, the king of Chrysanthe, cannot travel the gradient. She is trapped in a made world and it takes a knight, Sir Quentin, who is empowered by the magic of Orion, to save her and do so. Her father, the king, gets trapped in a made world and dies traversing down the gradient. Wait a second. Only wizards and those they empower can do so. How did that happen? A lot of people liked the made worlds. I just found them confusing.
The Book is the only place Heroes can come from. Only God controls the Book. Hold on now. Melogian, a wizard, through a spell creates not one, but six heroes.
The Law, as in God's law, will strike down anyone who harms royalty. The story goes how Edisthen replaced Vaurd as king as ordained by the Law. At the point Vaurd dies, his children are no longer in line for the throne. Yet, behold, the Law still applies to them for some unknown reason. Why? They have no right to the throne. No title. If a usurper is protected by the Law, then everyone in Chrysanthe should be protected because everyone could possibly be a usurper.
Then there's the demons. Trapped below the earth for millenia by the best wizards of all time because they could not be killed, all get killed! Seriously.
There are other irritating tidbits like how God is a female for most of the book, but in the middle he's male. Someone missed that. Or how Duke Corlin gets captured, then is dead, then, oh, he was only captured after all. Who's editing this thing? There's more, but I digress.
All in all, I was disappointed, both in the story and in the plot holes. The only character I felt any empathy for was an evil wizard, Mathellin. His story delved into him.
I picked up this book at my local book store for only $5.00. As a fan of epic fantasy I figured it was worth a shot. There is a glowing tribute by Ursula K. LeGuin on a previous work by the author. Next time I'll make sure the review is for the book in question.
Chrysanthe has a number of standard fantasy features. A lost princess. A young knight in search of her. An evil lord who wants her crown. A perilous journey. Magicans, monsters, mayhem and war. On these standards it delivers.
There are a few different wrinkles. The made worlds. The Book. The Law.
Chrysanthe is the real world. All others were made by wizards many years ago, but not too many. Chrysanthe is only 6,098 years old. Obviously the author ran with the time frame proposed by Creationists on how old the Earth is. There are other religious references as well, though they are simply back story and not really pertinent to the main one. The Book is not an actual book. It is something from which God creates things. The Law is God's law. One of its rules is that no harm may befall the ruler of Chrysanthe or his descendants in line for the throne. There are Heroes in Chrysanthe who are created from the Book.
The story plods along slowly, too slow for my liking, to the eventual 'battle royale' with the good guys winning.
About a third of the way into the book the author forgot who the main protagonists were - Christine and Quentin. Quite simply, the parts they play throughout the balance are almost non-existent. Instead a new character, Melogian, a female wizard, takes center stage. Even some of the sidekicks like Captain Veraless get a lot more play than our original two heroes. When you invest the reader in two characters and then drop them like hot potatoes, you drop the attachment.
What is also frustrating is the plot holes.
Reading from here contains spoilers.
The made worlds are limited in number, yet limitless. It seems that when wizards, or those empowered by wizards, travel from Chrysanthe into the made worlds the move down a gradient whereby the made world deviates constantly. The best analogy would be a multiverse where things are not quite the same in each copy. It's made clear only wizards or those empowered can travel the gradient. The heroine Christine, daughter of Edisthen, the king of Chrysanthe, cannot travel the gradient. She is trapped in a made world and it takes a knight, Sir Quentin, who is empowered by the magic of Orion, to save her and do so. Her father, the king, gets trapped in a made world and dies traversing down the gradient. Wait a second. Only wizards and those they empower can do so. How did that happen? A lot of people liked the made worlds. I just found them confusing.
The Book is the only place Heroes can come from. Only God controls the Book. Hold on now. Melogian, a wizard, through a spell creates not one, but six heroes.
The Law, as in God's law, will strike down anyone who harms royalty. The story goes how Edisthen replaced Vaurd as king as ordained by the Law. At the point Vaurd dies, his children are no longer in line for the throne. Yet, behold, the Law still applies to them for some unknown reason. Why? They have no right to the throne. No title. If a usurper is protected by the Law, then everyone in Chrysanthe should be protected because everyone could possibly be a usurper.
Then there's the demons. Trapped below the earth for millenia by the best wizards of all time because they could not be killed, all get killed! Seriously.
There are other irritating tidbits like how God is a female for most of the book, but in the middle he's male. Someone missed that. Or how Duke Corlin gets captured, then is dead, then, oh, he was only captured after all. Who's editing this thing? There's more, but I digress.
All in all, I was disappointed, both in the story and in the plot holes. The only character I felt any empathy for was an evil wizard, Mathellin. His story delved into him.
I picked up this book at my local book store for only $5.00. As a fan of epic fantasy I figured it was worth a shot. There is a glowing tribute by Ursula K. LeGuin on a previous work by the author. Next time I'll make sure the review is for the book in question.
March 28, 2013
Chrysanthe
By
Yves Meynard
My "in a nutshell" summary...
A very big amazing book about a kidnapped princess who is the heiress to the world of Chrysanthe.
My thoughts after reading this book...
Ok...here we go...little Christine has no mother. She has sort of hazy dark memories of another happy world and a lovely happy life but that's not where she is right now. She has an imaginary rabbity buddy named Tap Fullmoon...who may not even be that imaginary...and now lives with the mean uncle/wizard who put her in this place in the first place.
Ok...apparently a "doctor" in this alternate world Christine is in convinces her that she has been raped and brutally assaulted over one hundred times! Ick!
Not quite where I thought this was going...Ick...
After not believing and then finally sort of believing a story about her past life from Quentin...a knight who has come to rescue her...she escapes with him. But the wizard knows she escapes and everyone is after her...Quentin can change the way the world looks but it doesn't seem to help that much.
There is lots of magic and excitement and weirdness as Quentin and Christine make their way out of this world and back to the one where they really belong. Wallets with tons of money that really is just an illusion, demons, weird magic hedges, sky ships, and more and then they are back in the kingdom...sigh!
The rest of the story is weird and complex...old grievances surface...wars...more weird magic...and a quite amazing ending...
What I loved about this book...
I enjoyed the author's writing and I loved the idea of this story. I enjoyed the adventure and the quest!
What I did not love...
Oh my...I wanted to love this book but I did not. I couldn't connect with the characters. I couldn't imagine this world and I really wanted to!
Final thoughts...
I think that readers who loved adult fantasy...if that is even a genre...will really enjoy this book...but for me there was just something missing. It is well written. There is not one thing that is really wrong with Chrysanthe...it just was not a good fit for me.
By
Yves Meynard
My "in a nutshell" summary...
A very big amazing book about a kidnapped princess who is the heiress to the world of Chrysanthe.
My thoughts after reading this book...
Ok...here we go...little Christine has no mother. She has sort of hazy dark memories of another happy world and a lovely happy life but that's not where she is right now. She has an imaginary rabbity buddy named Tap Fullmoon...who may not even be that imaginary...and now lives with the mean uncle/wizard who put her in this place in the first place.
Ok...apparently a "doctor" in this alternate world Christine is in convinces her that she has been raped and brutally assaulted over one hundred times! Ick!
Not quite where I thought this was going...Ick...
After not believing and then finally sort of believing a story about her past life from Quentin...a knight who has come to rescue her...she escapes with him. But the wizard knows she escapes and everyone is after her...Quentin can change the way the world looks but it doesn't seem to help that much.
There is lots of magic and excitement and weirdness as Quentin and Christine make their way out of this world and back to the one where they really belong. Wallets with tons of money that really is just an illusion, demons, weird magic hedges, sky ships, and more and then they are back in the kingdom...sigh!
The rest of the story is weird and complex...old grievances surface...wars...more weird magic...and a quite amazing ending...
What I loved about this book...
I enjoyed the author's writing and I loved the idea of this story. I enjoyed the adventure and the quest!
What I did not love...
Oh my...I wanted to love this book but I did not. I couldn't connect with the characters. I couldn't imagine this world and I really wanted to!
Final thoughts...
I think that readers who loved adult fantasy...if that is even a genre...will really enjoy this book...but for me there was just something missing. It is well written. There is not one thing that is really wrong with Chrysanthe...it just was not a good fit for me.
May 18, 2013
Yves Meynard and Tor make it clear from the title – “Chrysanthe: The Complete Saga” (Tor, $15.99, 496 pages) – that readers won’t have to invest in three or six or 13 books to get to the conclusion of this story about a young girl who really is a princess hidden in a “normal” life on a very Earth-like world.
Meynard takes this familiar childhood fantasy and works out the details, which don’t turn out quite as putative young princesses might expect. All of a sudden Christine, a teen-ager who’s led a secluded life, is tossed into the middle of a strange world with a strange geography and a strange social structure, and expected to assume the role of princess.
Unfortunately, at least for my taste, Meynard immediately ups the ante, and Christine is caught in a world-threatening crisis and has to deal with demons, war and court politics. Meynard also uses the abuses of modern Western psychology to make life even more difficult for Christine, and in the end, his obvious negativity toward that profession turns into an unfortunate digression.
“Chrysanthe: The Complete Saga” is also one of those books where things just keep going wrong, and there’s never a letup in the cascade of woe and disaster until the final few pages. That kind of pacing always annoys me, and even more so, as in this case, when the conclusion is more a deus ex machina than a natural outgrowth of what’s gone before.
Meynard takes this familiar childhood fantasy and works out the details, which don’t turn out quite as putative young princesses might expect. All of a sudden Christine, a teen-ager who’s led a secluded life, is tossed into the middle of a strange world with a strange geography and a strange social structure, and expected to assume the role of princess.
Unfortunately, at least for my taste, Meynard immediately ups the ante, and Christine is caught in a world-threatening crisis and has to deal with demons, war and court politics. Meynard also uses the abuses of modern Western psychology to make life even more difficult for Christine, and in the end, his obvious negativity toward that profession turns into an unfortunate digression.
“Chrysanthe: The Complete Saga” is also one of those books where things just keep going wrong, and there’s never a letup in the cascade of woe and disaster until the final few pages. That kind of pacing always annoys me, and even more so, as in this case, when the conclusion is more a deus ex machina than a natural outgrowth of what’s gone before.
January 2, 2017
This would probably fall more into a 3.5 stars category for me and I wavered back and forth between 3 and 4 stars, but went with the lower because there were just too many times I was left wondering what the story really WAS here.
The first 126 pages were brilliant: a nail-biter of a chase, the development of a fascinating "real world" (and the novel concept that what we all live in is actually made up), and some incredible potential between the male and female leads in regards to their developing relationship. And then it just ground to a halt. While the reader probably DID need a breather after that intense escape at the beginning, Meynard seemed to discard the best part of the story at that point and flipped to completely different characters who quite frankly weren't nearly as interesting.
I also found the number of "bad guys" and demons to be too many - it seemed even the author got tired of talking about them all - and the story would have been just as potent with about half the characters on that side.
The action sequences were still well-written throughout and I love the descriptions of the world(s), but I think Meynard missed the strongest story in this novel by trying to include too much.
The first 126 pages were brilliant: a nail-biter of a chase, the development of a fascinating "real world" (and the novel concept that what we all live in is actually made up), and some incredible potential between the male and female leads in regards to their developing relationship. And then it just ground to a halt. While the reader probably DID need a breather after that intense escape at the beginning, Meynard seemed to discard the best part of the story at that point and flipped to completely different characters who quite frankly weren't nearly as interesting.
I also found the number of "bad guys" and demons to be too many - it seemed even the author got tired of talking about them all - and the story would have been just as potent with about half the characters on that side.
The action sequences were still well-written throughout and I love the descriptions of the world(s), but I think Meynard missed the strongest story in this novel by trying to include too much.
October 25, 2023
I really hated it. I hardly ever say that.
The voices felt flat and two-dimensional (Christine especially felt stereotypical), and all of the relationships were a painfully long string of dramatics. The large cast of characters are "stage" managed poorly, and you can't seem to truly get invested in any of them.
It crawls along ridiculously slowly, which didn't at all suit the fast pace of the events being described. Many of the plot devices and twists were weird rather than innovative, which is what Meynard seemed to be going for, but failed. He bit off far too much, and the dynamics mortally suffered for it.
The premise was intriguing, but the book proved entirely dissatisfying in its execution. I really tried to hang in there, but I couldn't finish it.
The voices felt flat and two-dimensional (Christine especially felt stereotypical), and all of the relationships were a painfully long string of dramatics. The large cast of characters are "stage" managed poorly, and you can't seem to truly get invested in any of them.
It crawls along ridiculously slowly, which didn't at all suit the fast pace of the events being described. Many of the plot devices and twists were weird rather than innovative, which is what Meynard seemed to be going for, but failed. He bit off far too much, and the dynamics mortally suffered for it.
The premise was intriguing, but the book proved entirely dissatisfying in its execution. I really tried to hang in there, but I couldn't finish it.
March 26, 2013
Could not get into this book though I finally managed to slog through it. Some interesting concepts involved but could not connect to the main character: difficult to read when you don't care! And the constant harping on the faked/forced memories! Going through the fantastical experiences of changing worlds, battling demons, etc. would surely have knocked some of that garbage out of Christine's head!!
September 16, 2012
**I received my copy through Goodreads First Reads.**
Being an uncommon reader in High Fantasy, I decided to give this one a try. I had hoped it would be along the lines of Marion Zimmer Bradley or George R.R. Martin - meaning dense, but awesomely detailed. Unfortunately it stops short at dense, and Meynard spends too much time on worldbuilding to create compelling characters.
Being an uncommon reader in High Fantasy, I decided to give this one a try. I had hoped it would be along the lines of Marion Zimmer Bradley or George R.R. Martin - meaning dense, but awesomely detailed. Unfortunately it stops short at dense, and Meynard spends too much time on worldbuilding to create compelling characters.
May 9, 2012
The writing is crystallinely beautiful, and he did some clever things with vocabulary that were always a delight to recognise. But that very beauty and cleverness have a distancing effect, so it ends up being a very clever, very well written meditation on fictionality, identity and the fantasy genre that I had immense trouble caring about.
March 28, 2013
Pleasantly surprised after reading other reviews. He has a great imagination and I enjoyed the background and history of Chrysanthe as much as the actual story. Not an involved plot but well written and interesting. If you like Guy Gavriel Kay, you may enjoy this.
May 14, 2012
Yuck. Never could finish it.
May 7, 2012
Not as bad as the reviews it has been getting, but still kind of a mess of a book. Neat ideas, good writing, but a flawed execution.
June 14, 2012
A very old-fashioned sort of fantasy, weird and wonderful.
August 18, 2012
My Functional Nerds Review:
http://functionalnerds.com/2012/07/bo...
http://functionalnerds.com/2012/07/bo...
August 18, 2012
I can't finish this - I think it is possible there is a good book in here, but the style of writing is just not to my taste.
September 24, 2013
I quit!
January 27, 2015
The long-reaching consequences of implanting false memories of abuse were dealt with plausibly.
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