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Night's Masque #2
The Merchant of Dreams
Exiled from the court of Queen Elizabeth for accusing a powerful nobleman of treason, swordsman-turned-spy Mal Catlyn has been living in France with his young valet Coby Hendricks for the past year.
But Mal harbours a darker secret: he and his twin brother share a soul that once belonged to a skrayling, one of the mystical creatures from the New World.
When Mal’s dream about a skrayling shipwreck in the Mediterranean proves reality, it sets him on a path to the beautiful, treacherous city of Venice – and a conflict of loyalties that will place him and his friends in greater danger than ever.
But Mal harbours a darker secret: he and his twin brother share a soul that once belonged to a skrayling, one of the mystical creatures from the New World.
When Mal’s dream about a skrayling shipwreck in the Mediterranean proves reality, it sets him on a path to the beautiful, treacherous city of Venice – and a conflict of loyalties that will place him and his friends in greater danger than ever.
528 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 18, 2012
13 people are currently reading
1156 people want to read
About the author
Anne Lyle
9 books154 followersAnne Lyle grew up a longbow-shot from Sherwood Forest, and has been obsessed by history, folklore, and swashbuckling heroes ever since. Apart from her first love, fantasy, she also enjoys historical fiction and mysteries, so it was inevitable that her own books would combine all three. They also feature LGBTQ characters, strong language, slow burn romance and rogues with a heart of gold—or at least tarnished silver.
She does most of her writing in a small home office crammed with books, fountain pens, abandoned cups of tea, tarot decks, candles and all the electronic impedimenta of the modern fantasy author. Her hobbies include watercolour painting, gardening, and trying to teach her cats to communicate using talking buttons. She's rather glad she didn't live hundreds of years ago, as she would probably have been burned as a witch by now!
She does most of her writing in a small home office crammed with books, fountain pens, abandoned cups of tea, tarot decks, candles and all the electronic impedimenta of the modern fantasy author. Her hobbies include watercolour painting, gardening, and trying to teach her cats to communicate using talking buttons. She's rather glad she didn't live hundreds of years ago, as she would probably have been burned as a witch by now!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
September 5, 2014
I was disappointed with this sequel to the enjoyable The Alchemist of Souls. The world building and the Venice setting was good. Unfortunately the plot failed to live up to the setting. The characters, who were so likable in the first book, seemed to be competing to see who could win the prize of most unlikable character in the book! I was very disappointed by the actions of Mal, Sandy, and Kiiren over the course of the story.
I think it likely that my changing perception of the Skraylings is another reason why I enjoyed The Merchant of Dreams less than The Alchemist of Souls. In the first book the Skraylings seemed like a peaceful and likable race of creatures. Their magic and secrets making them intriguing and interesting. Now that we have learned more about the true nature of their magic and got to know the Skrayling characters a bit better I find I'm not liking them at all.
Of the characters only Ned and Gabriel can be proud of how they conducted themselves in this book.
I'm quite disappointed and hope that the third book sees the important characters like Mal and Coby acting more honorably.
Rating: 3 stars.
I think it likely that my changing perception of the Skraylings is another reason why I enjoyed The Merchant of Dreams less than The Alchemist of Souls. In the first book the Skraylings seemed like a peaceful and likable race of creatures. Their magic and secrets making them intriguing and interesting. Now that we have learned more about the true nature of their magic and got to know the Skrayling characters a bit better I find I'm not liking them at all.
Of the characters only Ned and Gabriel can be proud of how they conducted themselves in this book.
I'm quite disappointed and hope that the third book sees the important characters like Mal and Coby acting more honorably.
Rating: 3 stars.
August 31, 2014
The second installment in the Night Masque series was as good as the first but sadly in suffered from the same lack of an exciting ending.
The story took us through England and France to Venice, where the intrigue and mystery were deliciously wound and unwound. Though there were no great shocks or surprises, the book was a very entertaining and fast read. Maybe I'm not in awe as some of the happenings seemed contrived and most of the problems that arose were resolved far too quickly, long before any suspense was created on their account.
There was a kind of a building up of tension and a climax but the part that followed after that was too long and I totally lost interest in the final couple of events though they clearly were preparation for the plot of the next book.
Otherwise, I was happy to read about the familiar band of characters. The new additions were interesting, including the mysterious Olivia and the vile Skrayling captain.
One thing I greatly appreciated was the vivid depiction of Venice of the time. I loved the atmosphere that Lyle created and it was very interesting to learn more about life in Venice in the 1600s.
Another plus of the book was the wonderful narration performed by Michael Page.
Having in mind I couldn't put the book down, I could say it was a worthy read despite the slightly anticlimactic ending.
Rating: 4 stars.
The story took us through England and France to Venice, where the intrigue and mystery were deliciously wound and unwound. Though there were no great shocks or surprises, the book was a very entertaining and fast read. Maybe I'm not in awe as some of the happenings seemed contrived and most of the problems that arose were resolved far too quickly, long before any suspense was created on their account.
There was a kind of a building up of tension and a climax but the part that followed after that was too long and I totally lost interest in the final couple of events though they clearly were preparation for the plot of the next book.
Otherwise, I was happy to read about the familiar band of characters. The new additions were interesting, including the mysterious Olivia and the vile Skrayling captain.
One thing I greatly appreciated was the vivid depiction of Venice of the time. I loved the atmosphere that Lyle created and it was very interesting to learn more about life in Venice in the 1600s.
Another plus of the book was the wonderful narration performed by Michael Page.
Having in mind I couldn't put the book down, I could say it was a worthy read despite the slightly anticlimactic ending.
Rating: 4 stars.
December 19, 2012
Impressed with the first installment of the series, I picked up The Merchant of Dreams with high hopes and was a bit disappointed. Though Anne Lyle captured Venice with stellar description and feeling, the plot and main relationship and character development fell to the wayside—for me, at least.
The Merchant of Dreams picks up a year after The Alchemist of Souls, with Mal and Coby following his dream of a skrayling shipwreck, only for them to discover a massacre of skraylings. They sail to Kiiren and Sandy to drop off the lone survivor and fruitlessly discern what happened before they return to England with Sandy in tow. Due to a declining presence of skraylings in England and the alarming, possible trade agreement between the skraylings and Italy, they then sail to Venice—separately.
After living together in Provence, France, for a year, Mal and Coby's relationship is no closer than what it was in The Alchemist of Souls, and, though I'm glad it shows they don't "need" each other to grow, there was very little of them together in The Merchant of Dreams. The ending might justify the separation, but their words were empty and their actions unbelievable, especially after Mal's relationship with a certain courtesan. How can his sexual encounters not affect any of his relationships?
Similar to the previous book, I found Mal the weakest character and link in the entire story. He never seems to learn anything or suffer the consequences, and once again, I feel he's lucky—he's saved by his friends and acquaintances. Confusing and inconsistent, he lacks conviction and any moral standard. I'll take a ruthless and self-righteous villain over an indecisive, float-along hero any day.
I can't even consider Mal the hero. If anyone was, it was Ned, for he learns how to fight and, ultimately, pays a huge price. He really grows and redeems himself after his cowardice and betrayal in The Alchemist of Souls. I also enjoyed Coby's transition into a woman, Gabriel's inner strength and warmth, Sandy's willfulness. Even Charles Catyln, the long-lost older brother—his selfishness made him stronger as a character.
Gabriel's love for Ned was heartwarming. The warring emotions between Ned and Mal were palpable. Even Mal's relationship with the courtesan was understandable, though I didn't like the use of "prick" in the sex scene—it was completely jarring and off-putting. Most of the relationships were lovely, actually. They simply overshadowed Mal and Coby's.
There are so many things to like about the book: the use of more historical figures, the guiser from book one making an appearance, how another guiser was introduced in this installment, Walsingham, the Queen spymaster's, daughter had a unique role and history that connected the two books, the correlation between Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and this book. So many wonderful details but that are never followed through or expanded upon. Even the major events don't join as seamlessly as they do in the first book. The plot and series's arc felt unresolved and disjointed because of the ... clutter.
Anne Lyle paints a vivid picture and creates some great characters—so much so that I might pick up the next book, but only with the hope that she focuses a bit more on strengthening the main character and relationship while wrapping up the little plots.
eARC provided by Angry Robot via NetGalley in exchange for review.
Review also posted on The LUV'NV blog.
The Merchant of Dreams picks up a year after The Alchemist of Souls, with Mal and Coby following his dream of a skrayling shipwreck, only for them to discover a massacre of skraylings. They sail to Kiiren and Sandy to drop off the lone survivor and fruitlessly discern what happened before they return to England with Sandy in tow. Due to a declining presence of skraylings in England and the alarming, possible trade agreement between the skraylings and Italy, they then sail to Venice—separately.
After living together in Provence, France, for a year, Mal and Coby's relationship is no closer than what it was in The Alchemist of Souls, and, though I'm glad it shows they don't "need" each other to grow, there was very little of them together in The Merchant of Dreams. The ending might justify the separation, but their words were empty and their actions unbelievable, especially after Mal's relationship with a certain courtesan. How can his sexual encounters not affect any of his relationships?
Similar to the previous book, I found Mal the weakest character and link in the entire story. He never seems to learn anything or suffer the consequences, and once again, I feel he's lucky—he's saved by his friends and acquaintances. Confusing and inconsistent, he lacks conviction and any moral standard. I'll take a ruthless and self-righteous villain over an indecisive, float-along hero any day.
I can't even consider Mal the hero. If anyone was, it was Ned, for he learns how to fight and, ultimately, pays a huge price. He really grows and redeems himself after his cowardice and betrayal in The Alchemist of Souls. I also enjoyed Coby's transition into a woman, Gabriel's inner strength and warmth, Sandy's willfulness. Even Charles Catyln, the long-lost older brother—his selfishness made him stronger as a character.
Gabriel's love for Ned was heartwarming. The warring emotions between Ned and Mal were palpable. Even Mal's relationship with the courtesan was understandable, though I didn't like the use of "prick" in the sex scene—it was completely jarring and off-putting. Most of the relationships were lovely, actually. They simply overshadowed Mal and Coby's.
There are so many things to like about the book: the use of more historical figures, the guiser from book one making an appearance, how another guiser was introduced in this installment, Walsingham, the Queen spymaster's, daughter had a unique role and history that connected the two books, the correlation between Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and this book. So many wonderful details but that are never followed through or expanded upon. Even the major events don't join as seamlessly as they do in the first book. The plot and series's arc felt unresolved and disjointed because of the ... clutter.
Anne Lyle paints a vivid picture and creates some great characters—so much so that I might pick up the next book, but only with the hope that she focuses a bit more on strengthening the main character and relationship while wrapping up the little plots.
eARC provided by Angry Robot via NetGalley in exchange for review.
Review also posted on The LUV'NV blog.
December 29, 2012
The Merchant of Dreams is the second book of The Night's Masque. Lyle's debut
The Alchemist of Souls
is one of my top ten debuts of 2012, so I was very excited to be able to crack open or rather tap open my eARC of The Merchant of Dreams to return to her alternate Tudor England and see how the story would continue. In The Merchant of Dreams Lyle deepens her world, allows us to travel to foreign parts, and develops her characters further in unexpected but wonderful ways.
We rejoin Mal and Coby as they travel by ship to Corsica to find a ship-wrecked skrayling vessel that has been haunting Mal's dreams and to rescue its crew. From this point in the Mediterranean we travel back to London, to Skrayling-held Sark, and to Venice and follow on several sea voyages. So Lyle very much broadens the stage on which her story unfolds. The one thing that confused me was the deeding of Sark to the Skraylings as that was something that must have happened between the first book and this one, but to me it came rather out of the blue. However, it is a rather clever substitution of the historical Seigneur who was given the island in fief at much the same conditions as the Skraylings were, that also gave them somewhat of a power base in the regions, which could have interesting consequences in the rest of the series.
This novel's greatest draw for me location-wise was Venice. I always love novels set there, or in cities inspired by Venice, and Lyle does the city justice. She evokes a glittering city, which on closer inspection turns out to be rather tawdry and worn. She also manages to make it feel rather claustrophobic, emphasising its disorientating street plan, its covered alleyways, the waterways, and the cramped conditions on the street in most places other than the large waterways and the piazza's. It felt like Lyle did lots of research and just made tiny little tweaks to what she found to make the city fit in her alternate universe. So much so, that if and when I do visit Venice, I might be surprised that I won't find certain places she described.
The Merchant of Dreams also reunites us with most of the cast of The Alchemist of Souls. Not only do Mal and Coby return, but Ned, Gabriel, Mal's twin Sandy, and the Skrayling ambassador Kiiren all play parts in the novel. We really get to know Sandy and Gabriel in this book, which was both interesting and entertaining. We also meet the twins' elder brother Charles, who was a surprise and not at all how I expected him to be. My favourite part of this book was Coby's development. In The Alchemist of Souls, she was very much all about surviving and hiding her true gender. In this book however, Lyle plays around with the need for Coby to drop her boy's guise and resume feminine dress, not because she needs to conform, but because it's necessary to accomplish her and Mal's assignment from Walsingham. This changing back to a girl entails far more than just dropping her disguise and it isn't an easy decision for Coby to make. Lyle explores the pursuant emotions and trepidations with a deft and gentle hand and creates a story line for Coby that I found riveting and compelling. I adored that Coby didn't make this shift to please Mal or make it possible for her to be his openly, but only out of necessity and because she wants to make that decision. She has developed in a strong, well-rounded female lead character, and even though I really enjoy Mal and the others as well, Coby is hands down my favourite character in The Night's Masque series.
Lyle also shows us more of the Skrayling culture and magic. We find out about guisers, Skrayling reborn as humans, often by accident, like Erishen, but at times by design, such as Jathekkil in the last book. We learn that this is anathema to the Skrayling and that they'd rather die a true death than be reborn human and that this is also why they wear their spirit-guards. When Mal meets and befriends an accidental guiser in Venice, we are given a character that rather reminded me of Melisande Shahrizai, from the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey. She possesses the same attraction and the same danger and unpredictability as Melisande has and I'm looking forward to what will happen with her in the next book. In any case, she teaches Mal how to control the Skrayling magic he possesses, which rather surprised me, as I hadn't expected Mal to want to learn as he seemed to rather ignore that part of himself as much as he could. Still, through these lessons we learn more of the Skrayling magic and I found it really interesting.
With the plot of The Merchant of Dreams setting up rather interesting possible avenues Lyle might pursue, while still wrapping up most of the Venetian plotlines, the wait for The Prince of Lies is going to be rather hard. I really want to know what happens now! The Merchant of Dreams is a fantastic sequel to The Alchemist of Souls, though it is less self-contained, leaving more open endings than its predecessor. Lyle is a master of blending historical fact and fantastic fiction and she's only gotten better with her second book. Go read The Merchant of Dreams if you've read the first book, if not, go read The Alchemist of Souls and then read The Merchant of Dreams. You'll be glad you did.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
We rejoin Mal and Coby as they travel by ship to Corsica to find a ship-wrecked skrayling vessel that has been haunting Mal's dreams and to rescue its crew. From this point in the Mediterranean we travel back to London, to Skrayling-held Sark, and to Venice and follow on several sea voyages. So Lyle very much broadens the stage on which her story unfolds. The one thing that confused me was the deeding of Sark to the Skraylings as that was something that must have happened between the first book and this one, but to me it came rather out of the blue. However, it is a rather clever substitution of the historical Seigneur who was given the island in fief at much the same conditions as the Skraylings were, that also gave them somewhat of a power base in the regions, which could have interesting consequences in the rest of the series.
This novel's greatest draw for me location-wise was Venice. I always love novels set there, or in cities inspired by Venice, and Lyle does the city justice. She evokes a glittering city, which on closer inspection turns out to be rather tawdry and worn. She also manages to make it feel rather claustrophobic, emphasising its disorientating street plan, its covered alleyways, the waterways, and the cramped conditions on the street in most places other than the large waterways and the piazza's. It felt like Lyle did lots of research and just made tiny little tweaks to what she found to make the city fit in her alternate universe. So much so, that if and when I do visit Venice, I might be surprised that I won't find certain places she described.
The Merchant of Dreams also reunites us with most of the cast of The Alchemist of Souls. Not only do Mal and Coby return, but Ned, Gabriel, Mal's twin Sandy, and the Skrayling ambassador Kiiren all play parts in the novel. We really get to know Sandy and Gabriel in this book, which was both interesting and entertaining. We also meet the twins' elder brother Charles, who was a surprise and not at all how I expected him to be. My favourite part of this book was Coby's development. In The Alchemist of Souls, she was very much all about surviving and hiding her true gender. In this book however, Lyle plays around with the need for Coby to drop her boy's guise and resume feminine dress, not because she needs to conform, but because it's necessary to accomplish her and Mal's assignment from Walsingham. This changing back to a girl entails far more than just dropping her disguise and it isn't an easy decision for Coby to make. Lyle explores the pursuant emotions and trepidations with a deft and gentle hand and creates a story line for Coby that I found riveting and compelling. I adored that Coby didn't make this shift to please Mal or make it possible for her to be his openly, but only out of necessity and because she wants to make that decision. She has developed in a strong, well-rounded female lead character, and even though I really enjoy Mal and the others as well, Coby is hands down my favourite character in The Night's Masque series.
Lyle also shows us more of the Skrayling culture and magic. We find out about guisers, Skrayling reborn as humans, often by accident, like Erishen, but at times by design, such as Jathekkil in the last book. We learn that this is anathema to the Skrayling and that they'd rather die a true death than be reborn human and that this is also why they wear their spirit-guards. When Mal meets and befriends an accidental guiser in Venice, we are given a character that rather reminded me of Melisande Shahrizai, from the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey. She possesses the same attraction and the same danger and unpredictability as Melisande has and I'm looking forward to what will happen with her in the next book. In any case, she teaches Mal how to control the Skrayling magic he possesses, which rather surprised me, as I hadn't expected Mal to want to learn as he seemed to rather ignore that part of himself as much as he could. Still, through these lessons we learn more of the Skrayling magic and I found it really interesting.
With the plot of The Merchant of Dreams setting up rather interesting possible avenues Lyle might pursue, while still wrapping up most of the Venetian plotlines, the wait for The Prince of Lies is going to be rather hard. I really want to know what happens now! The Merchant of Dreams is a fantastic sequel to The Alchemist of Souls, though it is less self-contained, leaving more open endings than its predecessor. Lyle is a master of blending historical fact and fantastic fiction and she's only gotten better with her second book. Go read The Merchant of Dreams if you've read the first book, if not, go read The Alchemist of Souls and then read The Merchant of Dreams. You'll be glad you did.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
July 3, 2017
You can find the full review over at my blog:
https://shadowhawksshade.wordpress.co...
Shadowhawk reviews the second entry in the Night’s Masque historical fantasy series by new author Anne Lyle.
“Full of vitality and some spectacular sequences, Merchant of Dreams is simply fantastic.“ ~The Founding Fields
When I reviewed Anne’s first novel in this series, Alchemist of Souls, I said at the end that it was a fantastic novel and that I hoped she would deliver on the sequel just as well as she did with her debut. That was expectation going into Merchant of Dreams and I must say that I really had a grand old time with it. It was a ton of fun to get back into her alternate Shakespearen England setting with the protagonists Mal Catlyn and Coby. Their adventures start off in England all right, but this time the shift is to the city of Venice however as the two agents of the English intelligencery (I probably made that word up) are sent on a mission to the floating city and fall afoul of events beyond their ken and control.
Anne’s characterisation is still incredible and pretty much flawless, in the sense that I really cannot find any fault with it. Mal is still the charming rogue and peerless swordsman I remember, and Coby is still the outspoken and highly intelligent and capable woman that I met in Alchemist of Souls. There are changes in the personalities for both characters, as they’ve grown quite a bit since their last outing.
Mal has taken to his new life as an agent of the Empire in Provence, although he still grumbles about it now and then. His relationship with his brother Sandy, formerly a mental patient of sorts but now quite lucid following the closing events of Alchemist of Souls, is also much different than before. Mal still dotes somewhat on Sandy, but the two have also grown apart and Mal has had to live with the changes in his brother, changes that he most definitely does not approve of at all.
Coby was the real surprise here. Before, she was someone who had to conceal her gender from everyone since she was a woman who worked in a man’s world (and all women actors were forbidden under English law, which did not make it easier for her as someone who worked in an acting company, Suffolk’s Men). A lot of her mental processes were taken up with this effort at concealment, and while we still get a lot of that in Merchant of Dreams, since she and Mal carry on the pretense that she is his male assistant, we also get to see the truly feminine side of her. She has to confront her suspicions and fear of how she has to act and “perform” as a woman, not a man, after years of doing the former. How she goes about doing that is a lot of fun to read and I have to say that her scenes were definitely among the best in the novel by a mile.
We also return to characters such as Ned Faulkner (Mal’s best friend and also somewhat of a former flame), Gabriel Parrish (one of the actors who was formerly part of Suffolk’s Men and is Ned’s lover), and Ambassador Kiiren (the Skrayling head-honcho in Europe and a friend to both Mal and Sandy). Also, Sandy of course. Seeing all these characters setting out together on an adventure of sorts to Venice is one of the highlights of the novel. Where in Alchemist of Souls the primary focus was on Mal and Coby, in Merchant of Dreams we see a lot more of the secondary characters, which serves to build up the world quite nicely. Ned and Gabriel are excellent vehicles for exploring how the people of the times viewed homosexuality. As with the previous book, the issue is handled with maturity and there are some love scenes between some of the characters, or “almost” love scenes, and it reinforces the fact that while homosexuality was a criminal offense in those times, it was also quite widespread regardless. Ned and Gabriel aren’t just agents for this aspect of the world however, they get to do a lot more than just have fun with each other, particularly Ned as he gets a very good outing with Mal in some of the best action scenes in the novel. Gabriel also serves as Coby’s tutor of sorts in that he “reminds” her how to be a woman since he was one of the most accomplished of Suffolk’s Men’s “women actors”. It is quite an interesting dynamic I have to say.
http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2012...
https://shadowhawksshade.wordpress.co...
Shadowhawk reviews the second entry in the Night’s Masque historical fantasy series by new author Anne Lyle.
“Full of vitality and some spectacular sequences, Merchant of Dreams is simply fantastic.“ ~The Founding Fields
When I reviewed Anne’s first novel in this series, Alchemist of Souls, I said at the end that it was a fantastic novel and that I hoped she would deliver on the sequel just as well as she did with her debut. That was expectation going into Merchant of Dreams and I must say that I really had a grand old time with it. It was a ton of fun to get back into her alternate Shakespearen England setting with the protagonists Mal Catlyn and Coby. Their adventures start off in England all right, but this time the shift is to the city of Venice however as the two agents of the English intelligencery (I probably made that word up) are sent on a mission to the floating city and fall afoul of events beyond their ken and control.
Anne’s characterisation is still incredible and pretty much flawless, in the sense that I really cannot find any fault with it. Mal is still the charming rogue and peerless swordsman I remember, and Coby is still the outspoken and highly intelligent and capable woman that I met in Alchemist of Souls. There are changes in the personalities for both characters, as they’ve grown quite a bit since their last outing.
Mal has taken to his new life as an agent of the Empire in Provence, although he still grumbles about it now and then. His relationship with his brother Sandy, formerly a mental patient of sorts but now quite lucid following the closing events of Alchemist of Souls, is also much different than before. Mal still dotes somewhat on Sandy, but the two have also grown apart and Mal has had to live with the changes in his brother, changes that he most definitely does not approve of at all.
Coby was the real surprise here. Before, she was someone who had to conceal her gender from everyone since she was a woman who worked in a man’s world (and all women actors were forbidden under English law, which did not make it easier for her as someone who worked in an acting company, Suffolk’s Men). A lot of her mental processes were taken up with this effort at concealment, and while we still get a lot of that in Merchant of Dreams, since she and Mal carry on the pretense that she is his male assistant, we also get to see the truly feminine side of her. She has to confront her suspicions and fear of how she has to act and “perform” as a woman, not a man, after years of doing the former. How she goes about doing that is a lot of fun to read and I have to say that her scenes were definitely among the best in the novel by a mile.
We also return to characters such as Ned Faulkner (Mal’s best friend and also somewhat of a former flame), Gabriel Parrish (one of the actors who was formerly part of Suffolk’s Men and is Ned’s lover), and Ambassador Kiiren (the Skrayling head-honcho in Europe and a friend to both Mal and Sandy). Also, Sandy of course. Seeing all these characters setting out together on an adventure of sorts to Venice is one of the highlights of the novel. Where in Alchemist of Souls the primary focus was on Mal and Coby, in Merchant of Dreams we see a lot more of the secondary characters, which serves to build up the world quite nicely. Ned and Gabriel are excellent vehicles for exploring how the people of the times viewed homosexuality. As with the previous book, the issue is handled with maturity and there are some love scenes between some of the characters, or “almost” love scenes, and it reinforces the fact that while homosexuality was a criminal offense in those times, it was also quite widespread regardless. Ned and Gabriel aren’t just agents for this aspect of the world however, they get to do a lot more than just have fun with each other, particularly Ned as he gets a very good outing with Mal in some of the best action scenes in the novel. Gabriel also serves as Coby’s tutor of sorts in that he “reminds” her how to be a woman since he was one of the most accomplished of Suffolk’s Men’s “women actors”. It is quite an interesting dynamic I have to say.
http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2012...
November 19, 2012
First published on Radiant Attack - read as an ARC copy
The Merchant of Dreams is the second book in the Night's Masque series by Anne Lyle. While I didn't read the first novel, I though the premise sounded interesting. Set in Elizabethan times, a group of spies investigate a skrayling delegation to Venice. The skraylings are the native people of Vinland, who have a mysterious spiritual connection between the dream world and reality. Not quite human, they are continuously reincarnated on death. The problem comes when some of these skraylings are reincarnated in human form, taking on the role of guisers, who can walk between dreams and reality.
The story takes a little bit to get into. A great chunk could easily have been cut out of the first act, enabling the characters to get to Venice much quicker. It's in Venice where the plot takes off, with a great setting for a fantasy novel. Anne Lyle does a good job of recreating historical Venice, with the canals and different locations across town. The floating city is full of enigmatic alleyways ripe for hidden assassins and secret business transactions. If you've ever been to Venice, you'd know how much of a labyrinth it is. Without a map, it is so easy to get terribly lost crossing canal upon canal.
In Venice, Mal and co investigate the possibility of a trade agreement between the skraylings and the Venetians, which is not in the best interests of the English. Along the way he is drawn into the back door politics of the city, through a courtesan who is also a guiser. In a city ruled by men wearing masks, it's hard to uncover secrets.
Mal, Coby, Ned and Gabriel are the main characters within the series. I found Mal to be a confusing hero. One minute he's sea sick, the next he's fighting a rapier battle against corsairs on the high seas. Although Mal is intentionally bisexual, he's not exactly monogamous. What's even more confusing is that none of his sexual encounters ever really affect the relationships he has with these people. What happened to no sex please, we're British?
The side characters are actually more interesting than the main ones. I was drawn to Youssef, the middle-eastern merchant/man of dubious trade connections, who sails across the Mediterranean. Now there would be an interesting spin-off tale. The book is peppered with real people from the era - Sir Walter Raleigh lends a hand to the spies and they receive their orders from Francis Walsingham. Mal is also drawn from an obscure historical figure and filled out with creative detail.
There weren't enough moments in the story where I felt the characters truly in danger. Only towards the end are we given creatures of the dark imagination, and even then they are thinly sketched. There's a point where the author indicates they look like horses, but then apparently they can open doors? I'm just trying to figure out how horses can open heavy church doors... I wish the characters and monsters were given the same level of detail as Lyle gives to the city itself.
The most intriguing parts are where Mal falls prey to the guards of Venice, finally at the mercy of someone else's power. I would have liked to see more of these threats, where he is a fugitive in the city, but somehow the threats didn't seem very real. I never doubted that the heroes would get away with their plot. Partly due to the lack of consequences for their actions. Which brings me to...
Of course, I have no problem with the anti-hero, or even a likeable villain. I think the problem arises when there is no internal consistency about the motivations of these characters. Mal is not strong enough in his beliefs to have a decisive moral code. For Mal to participate in these morally grey actions it requires a certain level of conviction. Is he after power or self-preservation? Or go the opposite way: is he so blinded by the desire to do good that he eventually releases evil?
If you enjoy historical fantasy, you might want to check out the Night's Masque series. I would recommend reading the first book before The Merchant of Dreams so you can fill in all the details about the characters. Anne Lyle is a clear writer, but the story runs into issues whenever it delves into relationships rather than sticking people with a sharp pointy object. I mean a rapier. Not that kind of sharp pointy object... ugh. You're so dirty.
The Merchant of Dreams is the second book in the Night's Masque series by Anne Lyle. While I didn't read the first novel, I though the premise sounded interesting. Set in Elizabethan times, a group of spies investigate a skrayling delegation to Venice. The skraylings are the native people of Vinland, who have a mysterious spiritual connection between the dream world and reality. Not quite human, they are continuously reincarnated on death. The problem comes when some of these skraylings are reincarnated in human form, taking on the role of guisers, who can walk between dreams and reality.
The story takes a little bit to get into. A great chunk could easily have been cut out of the first act, enabling the characters to get to Venice much quicker. It's in Venice where the plot takes off, with a great setting for a fantasy novel. Anne Lyle does a good job of recreating historical Venice, with the canals and different locations across town. The floating city is full of enigmatic alleyways ripe for hidden assassins and secret business transactions. If you've ever been to Venice, you'd know how much of a labyrinth it is. Without a map, it is so easy to get terribly lost crossing canal upon canal.
In Venice, Mal and co investigate the possibility of a trade agreement between the skraylings and the Venetians, which is not in the best interests of the English. Along the way he is drawn into the back door politics of the city, through a courtesan who is also a guiser. In a city ruled by men wearing masks, it's hard to uncover secrets.
Mal, Coby, Ned and Gabriel are the main characters within the series. I found Mal to be a confusing hero. One minute he's sea sick, the next he's fighting a rapier battle against corsairs on the high seas. Although Mal is intentionally bisexual, he's not exactly monogamous. What's even more confusing is that none of his sexual encounters ever really affect the relationships he has with these people. What happened to no sex please, we're British?
The side characters are actually more interesting than the main ones. I was drawn to Youssef, the middle-eastern merchant/man of dubious trade connections, who sails across the Mediterranean. Now there would be an interesting spin-off tale. The book is peppered with real people from the era - Sir Walter Raleigh lends a hand to the spies and they receive their orders from Francis Walsingham. Mal is also drawn from an obscure historical figure and filled out with creative detail.
There weren't enough moments in the story where I felt the characters truly in danger. Only towards the end are we given creatures of the dark imagination, and even then they are thinly sketched. There's a point where the author indicates they look like horses, but then apparently they can open doors? I'm just trying to figure out how horses can open heavy church doors... I wish the characters and monsters were given the same level of detail as Lyle gives to the city itself.
The most intriguing parts are where Mal falls prey to the guards of Venice, finally at the mercy of someone else's power. I would have liked to see more of these threats, where he is a fugitive in the city, but somehow the threats didn't seem very real. I never doubted that the heroes would get away with their plot. Partly due to the lack of consequences for their actions. Which brings me to...
Of course, I have no problem with the anti-hero, or even a likeable villain. I think the problem arises when there is no internal consistency about the motivations of these characters. Mal is not strong enough in his beliefs to have a decisive moral code. For Mal to participate in these morally grey actions it requires a certain level of conviction. Is he after power or self-preservation? Or go the opposite way: is he so blinded by the desire to do good that he eventually releases evil?
If you enjoy historical fantasy, you might want to check out the Night's Masque series. I would recommend reading the first book before The Merchant of Dreams so you can fill in all the details about the characters. Anne Lyle is a clear writer, but the story runs into issues whenever it delves into relationships rather than sticking people with a sharp pointy object. I mean a rapier. Not that kind of sharp pointy object... ugh. You're so dirty.
Want to read
July 25, 2017Started to read but was obviously a sequel requiring knowledge of the first book, so have put on hold until I read the first book.
July 26, 2016
I enjoyed the first book of this series, despite it's flaws, mostly because I liked the characters - even if they were sketched a bit thin. I was hoping that this second book would develop them a bit more but, instead, it's the character stuff - especially the relationship between Mal and Coby - which mostly knocked this down to a 2-star.
That's not the only issue. There's also the fact that it's kinda slow to get started, and there seems to be a lot going on, especially in the middle, that I'm not sure really needs to be there. Like,
I'm also not exactly impressed with Mal's spying ability. I mean, he's sent to Venice to find out what he can about a possible agreement between Venice and some skralings - but his entire plan seems to be to find a way to talk to Kiiren. He does kind of fall into other connections - rather quickly and easily, and I guess it's just lucky that he's a young and strapping dude (?) - but, I don't know, he just never seems to have to work for anything. Even when things go bad and things get quickly handled and we move along.
I think, maybe, part of it is the whole "telling vs showing" chestnut. We're told how Mal feels, and that he has nightmares, and this that and the other thing - but I don't feel like we're ever really immersed in his situation.
And that goes for everyone, really.
As to Ned - I thought it might be interesting (though annoying) to see Mal and Ned on an adventure and Coby and Parrish stuck with Sandy - but while Gabriel sort of shone through, I didn't feel like Ned contributed much to the story.
I sort of feel like him and Coby are in similar positions - a lot of their story is about their feelings for Mal, and their feelings about themselves, but a) these things aren't really developed/handled very well and b) they don't often add much of substance to the larger story (though I will say Coby seems to fair better in this last regard than poor Ned).
And, finally, there's the relationship with Coby and Mal. As I said, for much of the story they're apart and missing each other - but I felt like, once again, almost all of Coby's thought and feelings are about a) Mal and b) whether to give up her guise and wear female clothing. (There's this whole thing about how once she goes respectable and dresses like a girl apparently she can never disguise herself as a boy again.)
(Oh, I will say - in the pro column - they dealt with the issue of her monthlies a lot better this time, by
But, anyway, my real issues start once the two parties converge - and I can't really get into it without ranting and getting spoilery, so you've been warned:
I just... ugh... This whole thing just pissed me off so much. Nothing about their interactions and everything that happens between them at the end had a shred of emotional resonance.
And I coulda smacked someone for the whole comment.
So, yeah - until that last bit I probably would've still rated the book 2.5 stars for slowness and general "what's the point of this plot" stuff, but I would've bumped it up to three for enjoyable readability. But that last part just left me so flabbergasted with WTFness that I had to bump it down.
That said - I'm still gonna read the last book in the trilogy, but I'm gonna pray real hard beforehand that I don't end up wanting to burn the whole set by the end.
That's not the only issue. There's also the fact that it's kinda slow to get started, and there seems to be a lot going on, especially in the middle, that I'm not sure really needs to be there. Like,
I'm also not exactly impressed with Mal's spying ability. I mean, he's sent to Venice to find out what he can about a possible agreement between Venice and some skralings - but his entire plan seems to be to find a way to talk to Kiiren. He does kind of fall into other connections - rather quickly and easily, and I guess it's just lucky that he's a young and strapping dude (?) - but, I don't know, he just never seems to have to work for anything. Even when things go bad and things get quickly handled and we move along.
I think, maybe, part of it is the whole "telling vs showing" chestnut. We're told how Mal feels, and that he has nightmares, and this that and the other thing - but I don't feel like we're ever really immersed in his situation.
And that goes for everyone, really.
As to Ned - I thought it might be interesting (though annoying) to see Mal and Ned on an adventure and Coby and Parrish stuck with Sandy - but while Gabriel sort of shone through, I didn't feel like Ned contributed much to the story.
I sort of feel like him and Coby are in similar positions - a lot of their story is about their feelings for Mal, and their feelings about themselves, but a) these things aren't really developed/handled very well and b) they don't often add much of substance to the larger story (though I will say Coby seems to fair better in this last regard than poor Ned).
And, finally, there's the relationship with Coby and Mal. As I said, for much of the story they're apart and missing each other - but I felt like, once again, almost all of Coby's thought and feelings are about a) Mal and b) whether to give up her guise and wear female clothing. (There's this whole thing about how once she goes respectable and dresses like a girl apparently she can never disguise herself as a boy again.)
(Oh, I will say - in the pro column - they dealt with the issue of her monthlies a lot better this time, by
But, anyway, my real issues start once the two parties converge - and I can't really get into it without ranting and getting spoilery, so you've been warned:
I just... ugh... This whole thing just pissed me off so much. Nothing about their interactions and everything that happens between them at the end had a shred of emotional resonance.
And I coulda smacked someone for the whole comment.
So, yeah - until that last bit I probably would've still rated the book 2.5 stars for slowness and general "what's the point of this plot" stuff, but I would've bumped it up to three for enjoyable readability. But that last part just left me so flabbergasted with WTFness that I had to bump it down.
That said - I'm still gonna read the last book in the trilogy, but I'm gonna pray real hard beforehand that I don't end up wanting to burn the whole set by the end.
February 1, 2013
I'm perhaps half way through this but all the things that I had disliked about the first book had faded by this point, but not in this. The plot continues a couple of years after the first one, with Mal and Coby living in France. He's having dreams about the Skyralings. All good.
Except for the choppiness. In the first one, characters would just randomly do something, and it would lead to something else, also rather random, and that is still going on. One character, a minor one, says something, and Mal considers a duel, without any real reason, that i could see, for why those words were so offensive. His twin has a book that he shoildn't, there's a tiny argument, and the next thing you know, Coby, Sandy and Gabriel are running off for France. It happens too fast. It happens without emotion. Without reason. There are attacks, randomly. Mal goes outside, two drunks approach him, almost a fight, then it's over. Again, no emotion. Just randomness. No one seems to feel anything, and when it's sad that they're upset, or worried, it doesn't seem believable, because there ar eno thoughts attatched to it.
There's also a level of stupidity to it. Mal asks Ned whether he has seen any Skyralings. Ned says no, and then alittle more about what htey could do next, and Mal hits him. Don't talk about it in public. Well don'ty bring up the subject, Mal! If it's so important you are discreet, don't bring it up at all!
And then there's the sex. Ned doesn't like thinking about the people who slept with his boyfriend. But hes happy to try it on with Mal. Mal, who came across as only sleepinbg with Ned in the first one whebn lonely, now seems very up for it, even though he's in love with Coby. i don't mind sex in books. I don't mind gayness (actually i seek it out) but all the references, and hypocrisy regarding it. It makes it hard to care about the characters feelings if their own feelings are so thin for each other.
I enjoyed the first one a lot. The choppiness, the rush, faded after a while. But as i said, half way through and it's still going on. The plot, well, I'm indifferent to it, because everything is so fast, so quick and i'm finding that rather annoying. It's ok to read, but bnot a patch on the first. I'm disappointed. :(
EDIT. im bored with it. I might actually quit. the charactyers are annoying me beyond belief. The sex is everywhere, everyone fancies everyone and that seems to be the ONLY thing that's happening.
Except for the choppiness. In the first one, characters would just randomly do something, and it would lead to something else, also rather random, and that is still going on. One character, a minor one, says something, and Mal considers a duel, without any real reason, that i could see, for why those words were so offensive. His twin has a book that he shoildn't, there's a tiny argument, and the next thing you know, Coby, Sandy and Gabriel are running off for France. It happens too fast. It happens without emotion. Without reason. There are attacks, randomly. Mal goes outside, two drunks approach him, almost a fight, then it's over. Again, no emotion. Just randomness. No one seems to feel anything, and when it's sad that they're upset, or worried, it doesn't seem believable, because there ar eno thoughts attatched to it.
There's also a level of stupidity to it. Mal asks Ned whether he has seen any Skyralings. Ned says no, and then alittle more about what htey could do next, and Mal hits him. Don't talk about it in public. Well don'ty bring up the subject, Mal! If it's so important you are discreet, don't bring it up at all!
And then there's the sex. Ned doesn't like thinking about the people who slept with his boyfriend. But hes happy to try it on with Mal. Mal, who came across as only sleepinbg with Ned in the first one whebn lonely, now seems very up for it, even though he's in love with Coby. i don't mind sex in books. I don't mind gayness (actually i seek it out) but all the references, and hypocrisy regarding it. It makes it hard to care about the characters feelings if their own feelings are so thin for each other.
I enjoyed the first one a lot. The choppiness, the rush, faded after a while. But as i said, half way through and it's still going on. The plot, well, I'm indifferent to it, because everything is so fast, so quick and i'm finding that rather annoying. It's ok to read, but bnot a patch on the first. I'm disappointed. :(
EDIT. im bored with it. I might actually quit. the charactyers are annoying me beyond belief. The sex is everywhere, everyone fancies everyone and that seems to be the ONLY thing that's happening.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2012
“This may be one of the best historical fiction/fantasy novels of 2012. Venice, Pirates, Skraylings, politics and some epic action scenes in sixteenth century Europe make sure that The Merchant of Dreams is a worthy successor to The Alchemist of Souls.” ~The Founding Fields
When I read The Alchemist of Souls earlier this year, by Anne Lyle –I was thoroughly impressed, and was left wondering how she would top that jaw-dropping first instalment. Well, as it turns out, The Merchant of Dreams is not just better than The Alchemist of Souls; it’s also probably my favourite pick for the best historical fiction/fantasy novel of 2012, matching, and in some cases outclassing competition from Hereward: The Devil’s Army by James Wilde and The Sword and the Scimitar by Simon Scarrow. So, what does Lyle bring to the table to make The Merchant of Dreams fresh, enjoyable and exciting? Well, quite a lot, as it turns out.
Exiled from the court of Queen Elizabeth for accusing a powerful nobleman of treason, swordsman-turned-spy Mal Catlyn has been living in France with his young valet Coby Hendricks for the past year.
But Mal harbours a darker secret: he and his twin brother share a soul that once belonged to a skrayling, one of the mystical creatures from the New World.
When Mal’s dream about a skrayling shipwreck in the Mediterranean proves reality, it sets him on a path to the beautiful, treacherous city of Venice – and a conflict of loyalties that will place him and his friends in greater danger than ever.
I was a bit anxious before going into this novel with fears that the second novel might not be as good as the first, because from past experience, second novels in Trilogies are normally not as enjoyable as the predecessor. But Anne Lyle has proved to be more than just a one-trick pony with The Merchant of Dreams, and manages to balance both the pacing and the storytelling out equally, so there are not many parts where we’re left thinking that this is perhaps a bit too slow for what we’ve come to expect.
Read the rest of the review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/11/....
When I read The Alchemist of Souls earlier this year, by Anne Lyle –I was thoroughly impressed, and was left wondering how she would top that jaw-dropping first instalment. Well, as it turns out, The Merchant of Dreams is not just better than The Alchemist of Souls; it’s also probably my favourite pick for the best historical fiction/fantasy novel of 2012, matching, and in some cases outclassing competition from Hereward: The Devil’s Army by James Wilde and The Sword and the Scimitar by Simon Scarrow. So, what does Lyle bring to the table to make The Merchant of Dreams fresh, enjoyable and exciting? Well, quite a lot, as it turns out.
Exiled from the court of Queen Elizabeth for accusing a powerful nobleman of treason, swordsman-turned-spy Mal Catlyn has been living in France with his young valet Coby Hendricks for the past year.
But Mal harbours a darker secret: he and his twin brother share a soul that once belonged to a skrayling, one of the mystical creatures from the New World.
When Mal’s dream about a skrayling shipwreck in the Mediterranean proves reality, it sets him on a path to the beautiful, treacherous city of Venice – and a conflict of loyalties that will place him and his friends in greater danger than ever.
I was a bit anxious before going into this novel with fears that the second novel might not be as good as the first, because from past experience, second novels in Trilogies are normally not as enjoyable as the predecessor. But Anne Lyle has proved to be more than just a one-trick pony with The Merchant of Dreams, and manages to balance both the pacing and the storytelling out equally, so there are not many parts where we’re left thinking that this is perhaps a bit too slow for what we’ve come to expect.
Read the rest of the review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/11/....
November 29, 2012
amazing!
bouncing between 4 and 5 stars in fact...
Lye has to my delight managed to not only deliver on my hopes for this book but has exceeded them!
The world building is absolutely flawless just like in the first book, and the characters are even better.
There are many subtle nuances and depths that have been added to the characters we got to meet in the alchemist of souls. In fact while I love the world building I adore the characters she created. I really care for them and wanna know what will happen in the next book!
Great series!
bouncing between 4 and 5 stars in fact...
Lye has to my delight managed to not only deliver on my hopes for this book but has exceeded them!
The world building is absolutely flawless just like in the first book, and the characters are even better.
There are many subtle nuances and depths that have been added to the characters we got to meet in the alchemist of souls. In fact while I love the world building I adore the characters she created. I really care for them and wanna know what will happen in the next book!
Great series!
May 17, 2013
AWESOME. IM GLAD TO SEE ITS OUT BECAUSE IM GOING BUY IT NEXT WEEKEND. CANT WAIT TO FINISH THIS STORY. ANd I see you are no longer writing anymore for now of this series. Well i sure hope it doesnt leave you hanging too much. Will definitely check out Prince of Lies as well. If its anywhere close to as good as this series , Im sure I will enjoy it as well. Would love to get an autographed copy of this one but ah well.
May 20, 2012
I beta-read an early draft of this. Fans of the first will definitely not be disappointed! It's a rollicking good ride, and 16th century Venice comes alive in Anne's alternate historic world.
September 5, 2013
As with the first book, this is absolutely excellent. Well paced and with brilliant levels of detail. Different setting but mostly the same core characters as book one. Cannot wait to read more!
July 31, 2018
So the adventures continue for Mal, the swordsman/bodyguard/spy, and his valet Coby. This time they're joined by Ned and Gabriel from the now defunct theatre company of book one. Maybe it was that I read the first book back in February of 2015 and didn't remember as much as I should have, but I found this second volume of the series to be a bit disjointed and at times to be going around in circles, plot-wise.
I wanted to know more about the skraylings and felt rather short-changed in that respect. Then there was the whole thing with the spying that Mal was supposed to be doing for Walsingham that quickly became a more personal thing as he explored the part of him that holds part of the skrayling Erishen and his relationship with the Venetian guiser he hooks up with.
I'm not so invested in the 'love story' between Mal and Coby and the whole deal with her growing into her adult feminine self and losing much of her disguise as a boy. At least it was because she wanted to and not because Mal wanted her to.
I don't know... I liked my read but it left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied. It won't stop me from reading the next one though. This time, I'll try not to wait over 3 years to do it! *LOL*
I wanted to know more about the skraylings and felt rather short-changed in that respect. Then there was the whole thing with the spying that Mal was supposed to be doing for Walsingham that quickly became a more personal thing as he explored the part of him that holds part of the skrayling Erishen and his relationship with the Venetian guiser he hooks up with.
I'm not so invested in the 'love story' between Mal and Coby and the whole deal with her growing into her adult feminine self and losing much of her disguise as a boy. At least it was because she wanted to and not because Mal wanted her to.
I don't know... I liked my read but it left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied. It won't stop me from reading the next one though. This time, I'll try not to wait over 3 years to do it! *LOL*
January 15, 2014
I had little but praise for
The Alchemist of Souls
, the first adventure of Mal Catlyn and Coby Hendricks in an alternative Elizabethan England. Anne Lyle had a keen eye for characterization and an ability to weave a tight, dramatic story that held my attention and left me wanting more. So more’s the pity that The Merchant of Dreams was quite a different experience!
This sequel picks up a little while after the first book, with Mal and Coby living in France while the fallout from their actions in England dissipates. When they learn that the skraylings are going to Venice to seek an alliance with this republic, they return to England to inform Walsingham. Naturally, they get tasked with going to Venice and learning as much as possible about this potential alliance and how it will affect England. Meanwhile, Mal continues to grapple with what it means that he and his twin brother, Sandy, share the soul of a departed skrayling named Erishen. And Coby, who has lived most of her life in the guise of a boy, starts wondering what it would be like to don dresses again and become Mal’s wife.
My disappointment is easily explained through the book’s title. The Merchant of Dreams is a character who shows up in Venice. He’s a shady dealer whom Mal encounters as he begins to send out feelers into the Venetian underworld. And then he dies.
For a book to be named after a character, that character usually has a big role to play. Certainly they are so important, so pivotal, that they don’t die so soon after being introduced (unless their death is itself the event that changes everything, which it doesn’t here). We don’t learn that much about the Merchant of Dreams, beyond the fact that he is a scheming traitor. Mal and friends have very little interaction with him; they don’t cross paths more than once or twice, and they don’t really butt heads.
And this seems to be the issue with the book as a whole: I never really had a clear idea of what story it was trying to tell. Mal’s mission to Venice is vague. He’s "gathering intelligence", and his goal for accomplishing this seems to involve gaining admittance into the skrayling quarters in Venice and talking to his buddy Ambassador Kiiren. Lyle pads out the book with a series of comical and serious mishaps and misadventures. While these are, in their own way, delightful, they also muddle and mask the true nature of the plot, and I confess that by the end of the book, I wasn’t really sure what England had lost or gained. Whereas, in the first book, the stakes were clear and quite dangerous, the stakes here seem … tepid at best.
Mal and Coby’s relationship becomes strained as the question of a marriage looms over them. To achieve this, Coby would have to give up living as a boy, losing the freedom such a disguise allows her. Her insecurities about living as a woman, and her love for Mal, are all natural and touching. Lyle once again does an excellent job of portraying differences that gender make in the power dynamics of 16th-century Europe. Yet the actual will-they-or-won’t-they subplot, complete with flashes of comical indignance from each character, is tired and boring.
Then there is a wholly different subplot involving Mal and Sandy’s older brother, Charles, who has apparently gone to ground in Venice (what a coincidence!). A Huntsman, Charles was initiated into a secret society devoted to wiping out the supernatural (including the skraylings). Or something. Anyway, he blathers on about how there are more frightening threats than the skraylings to human society, and one of these threats just happens to materialize at the climax. So it goes.
The Alchemist of Souls was electrifying in the conflict it presented and the way the characters had to handle it. With each chapter, Lyle left me wanting more. The Merchant of Dreams is the opposite. With each chapter, I was left scratching my head and wondering how these events would all come together. In the end, as the characters converged and the conflict intensified, I began to entertain a glimmer of hope. Alas, that’s all it remained: a glimmer. Although Lyle produced a great standalone story in the first book, this second book has not resulted in the ignition of a brilliant new series. I find myself most apathetic towards all the elements of the world here: I don’t really know or remember who the Huntsmen are, and I don’t really care about that. I’m somewhat vague on the whole skrayling reincarnation process, and this doesn’t bother me. A great series embeds this information in a memorable but subtle way within the stories themselves, and it does so in a way that makes me care.
I still find this universe an intriguing one, with all the deviations from established history that Lyle has carefully made. I’ll happily pick up the next book when it arrives and give this series another shot—no author can get it right a hundred per cent of the time. And I still recommend The Alchemist of Souls for those who have yet to meet Mal Catlyn. I just wish this book had lived up to the high expectations established by the first.
My reviews of the Night’s Masque series:
← The Alchemist of Souls | The Prince of Lies →
This sequel picks up a little while after the first book, with Mal and Coby living in France while the fallout from their actions in England dissipates. When they learn that the skraylings are going to Venice to seek an alliance with this republic, they return to England to inform Walsingham. Naturally, they get tasked with going to Venice and learning as much as possible about this potential alliance and how it will affect England. Meanwhile, Mal continues to grapple with what it means that he and his twin brother, Sandy, share the soul of a departed skrayling named Erishen. And Coby, who has lived most of her life in the guise of a boy, starts wondering what it would be like to don dresses again and become Mal’s wife.
My disappointment is easily explained through the book’s title. The Merchant of Dreams is a character who shows up in Venice. He’s a shady dealer whom Mal encounters as he begins to send out feelers into the Venetian underworld. And then he dies.
For a book to be named after a character, that character usually has a big role to play. Certainly they are so important, so pivotal, that they don’t die so soon after being introduced (unless their death is itself the event that changes everything, which it doesn’t here). We don’t learn that much about the Merchant of Dreams, beyond the fact that he is a scheming traitor. Mal and friends have very little interaction with him; they don’t cross paths more than once or twice, and they don’t really butt heads.
And this seems to be the issue with the book as a whole: I never really had a clear idea of what story it was trying to tell. Mal’s mission to Venice is vague. He’s "gathering intelligence", and his goal for accomplishing this seems to involve gaining admittance into the skrayling quarters in Venice and talking to his buddy Ambassador Kiiren. Lyle pads out the book with a series of comical and serious mishaps and misadventures. While these are, in their own way, delightful, they also muddle and mask the true nature of the plot, and I confess that by the end of the book, I wasn’t really sure what England had lost or gained. Whereas, in the first book, the stakes were clear and quite dangerous, the stakes here seem … tepid at best.
Mal and Coby’s relationship becomes strained as the question of a marriage looms over them. To achieve this, Coby would have to give up living as a boy, losing the freedom such a disguise allows her. Her insecurities about living as a woman, and her love for Mal, are all natural and touching. Lyle once again does an excellent job of portraying differences that gender make in the power dynamics of 16th-century Europe. Yet the actual will-they-or-won’t-they subplot, complete with flashes of comical indignance from each character, is tired and boring.
Then there is a wholly different subplot involving Mal and Sandy’s older brother, Charles, who has apparently gone to ground in Venice (what a coincidence!). A Huntsman, Charles was initiated into a secret society devoted to wiping out the supernatural (including the skraylings). Or something. Anyway, he blathers on about how there are more frightening threats than the skraylings to human society, and one of these threats just happens to materialize at the climax. So it goes.
The Alchemist of Souls was electrifying in the conflict it presented and the way the characters had to handle it. With each chapter, Lyle left me wanting more. The Merchant of Dreams is the opposite. With each chapter, I was left scratching my head and wondering how these events would all come together. In the end, as the characters converged and the conflict intensified, I began to entertain a glimmer of hope. Alas, that’s all it remained: a glimmer. Although Lyle produced a great standalone story in the first book, this second book has not resulted in the ignition of a brilliant new series. I find myself most apathetic towards all the elements of the world here: I don’t really know or remember who the Huntsmen are, and I don’t really care about that. I’m somewhat vague on the whole skrayling reincarnation process, and this doesn’t bother me. A great series embeds this information in a memorable but subtle way within the stories themselves, and it does so in a way that makes me care.
I still find this universe an intriguing one, with all the deviations from established history that Lyle has carefully made. I’ll happily pick up the next book when it arrives and give this series another shot—no author can get it right a hundred per cent of the time. And I still recommend The Alchemist of Souls for those who have yet to meet Mal Catlyn. I just wish this book had lived up to the high expectations established by the first.
My reviews of the Night’s Masque series:
← The Alchemist of Souls | The Prince of Lies →
May 27, 2017
This instalment picks up Mal and Coby sailing abroad on the Queen's business and again includes Sandy/Erishen, Kiiren, Ned and Gabriel. Finding themselves in Venice they uncover more Skrayling intrigue and must fight both the local hierarchy and the monsters from Mal's dark dreams. I enjoyed this book (despite some typos, inexcusable) although it as much as the first and I felt that Mal was taken in by Olivia far too easily - and am looking forward to the next.
February 5, 2018
Got halfway through and realised i didn't know what was going on and didn't care. Didn't like Mal suddenyl falling for Coby.
June 19, 2018
Things get more complicated as the story goes on.
March 22, 2019
This is such a terrible book I just needed to know how it ended but it wasn’t worth finishing.
January 13, 2013
3 1/2 Stars. This beautifully written story, the second in the series, was ultimately very frustrating for me to read, mostly due to the fact that I did not read The Alchemist of Souls first. I did not realize this was a second book when I requested it from NetGalley, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have asked for it (and that is entirely my fault, I did not read the description carefully enough – lesson learned!). While it has vivid historical details and an abundance of atmosphere, it was hard for me to stay engaged with the characters and the story. Throughout the book are references to things that happened in the first book, events that aren’t explained and went right over my head. As much as I tried to understand these references from the context of the story, I failed miserably and skimmed over the parts that were confusing, which added to the overall confusion, I’m afraid!
When the story begins, we are thrust into the lives of Mal Catlyn and his valet Coby Hendricks, who have discovered that the skraylings, mystical beings who now live among humans and are reincarnated over and over when they die, may have struck up an alliance with the city of Venice. This necessitates a journey to the famous city to try to fix the problem, which is where the story really became interesting for me. Lyle’s setting is an alternate history Tudor England, complete with references to Shakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh, among others. (Clearly, the title is a nod to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.) It’s familiar enough for history buffs to recognize the time period, but with the addition of skraylings into the mix the story becomes a slightly off-kilter reconstruction of that era. Mal and his brother Sandy are interesting characters because a skrayling has been reborn and shares their bodies. (This is one of those story points that I’m still having a hard time grasping, but which I’m sure the first book explains.)
The story is filled with a fair amount of gender-bending and sexual ambiguity. Mal’s valet Coby is actually a young woman who has been dressing as a boy in order to travel safely with Mal. But from what I can gather, Mal and Coby fell in love during The Alchemist of Souls and still have feelings for each other, albeit unresolved ones. Coby’s disguise makes it nearly impossible for them to acknowledge their feelings in public or risk ridicule, or worse, prison. Then we have Ned, one of my favorite characters, who is Mal’s staunch friend but is in love with him as well. Mal and Ned have been lovers in the past, which makes their present relationship even more confusing. Later when the characters arrive in Venice, yet another character is added to this odd mix, a skrayling named Olivia who represents a serious threat and must be dealt with, despite Mal being extremely attracted to her. It’s interesting to see how all these relationships work themselves out, and Lyle takes her time resolving things, keeping the reader in suspense through most of the story. I found the author's inclusion of complicated relationships very Shakespearean, and I felt they added a sense of intrigue that felt just right.
The setting of Venice where much of the action takes place was gorgeously descriptive and I felt myself completely immersed in the Venetian culture that the author brings to life. Lyle describes the city as a contradiction, where the elite and wealthy live in splendor and attend masked parties, but around every corner is terrible squalor that is simply a part of everyday life. Men of all social standings urinate on the street, and even the women must find “piss pots” when they need to relieve themselves. I loved some of the historical details that the author sprinkled into her story, such as the invention of the wrist watch and the newfangled “post office” that had recently sprung up in Venice. I also loved the sea journey to Venice, a tense and exciting part of the story where there are dangers aplenty, including pirates.
The fantasy elements were subtle, and for me, my least favorite parts of the book, probably because of the confusion I admitted to earlier. I much preferred the wonderfully detailed history lesson that Lyle provided, and the intrigue among the characters, especially when they arrived in Venice. I would highly recommend this book for history buffs that would enjoy a fantasy element that doesn’t overpower the story. Lyle’s use of period-correct dialog, while a bit hard to read and understand at first, lent authenticity to the story.
The bottom line is this: read The Alchemist of Souls first. While this book is well-written and held many positives for me, my enjoyment was hindered by the fact that I felt like I was going in blind. With the back story of Book One firmly in place, The Merchant of Dreams will most likely enthrall any reader who loves history.
Many thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy.
When the story begins, we are thrust into the lives of Mal Catlyn and his valet Coby Hendricks, who have discovered that the skraylings, mystical beings who now live among humans and are reincarnated over and over when they die, may have struck up an alliance with the city of Venice. This necessitates a journey to the famous city to try to fix the problem, which is where the story really became interesting for me. Lyle’s setting is an alternate history Tudor England, complete with references to Shakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh, among others. (Clearly, the title is a nod to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.) It’s familiar enough for history buffs to recognize the time period, but with the addition of skraylings into the mix the story becomes a slightly off-kilter reconstruction of that era. Mal and his brother Sandy are interesting characters because a skrayling has been reborn and shares their bodies. (This is one of those story points that I’m still having a hard time grasping, but which I’m sure the first book explains.)
The story is filled with a fair amount of gender-bending and sexual ambiguity. Mal’s valet Coby is actually a young woman who has been dressing as a boy in order to travel safely with Mal. But from what I can gather, Mal and Coby fell in love during The Alchemist of Souls and still have feelings for each other, albeit unresolved ones. Coby’s disguise makes it nearly impossible for them to acknowledge their feelings in public or risk ridicule, or worse, prison. Then we have Ned, one of my favorite characters, who is Mal’s staunch friend but is in love with him as well. Mal and Ned have been lovers in the past, which makes their present relationship even more confusing. Later when the characters arrive in Venice, yet another character is added to this odd mix, a skrayling named Olivia who represents a serious threat and must be dealt with, despite Mal being extremely attracted to her. It’s interesting to see how all these relationships work themselves out, and Lyle takes her time resolving things, keeping the reader in suspense through most of the story. I found the author's inclusion of complicated relationships very Shakespearean, and I felt they added a sense of intrigue that felt just right.
The setting of Venice where much of the action takes place was gorgeously descriptive and I felt myself completely immersed in the Venetian culture that the author brings to life. Lyle describes the city as a contradiction, where the elite and wealthy live in splendor and attend masked parties, but around every corner is terrible squalor that is simply a part of everyday life. Men of all social standings urinate on the street, and even the women must find “piss pots” when they need to relieve themselves. I loved some of the historical details that the author sprinkled into her story, such as the invention of the wrist watch and the newfangled “post office” that had recently sprung up in Venice. I also loved the sea journey to Venice, a tense and exciting part of the story where there are dangers aplenty, including pirates.
The fantasy elements were subtle, and for me, my least favorite parts of the book, probably because of the confusion I admitted to earlier. I much preferred the wonderfully detailed history lesson that Lyle provided, and the intrigue among the characters, especially when they arrived in Venice. I would highly recommend this book for history buffs that would enjoy a fantasy element that doesn’t overpower the story. Lyle’s use of period-correct dialog, while a bit hard to read and understand at first, lent authenticity to the story.
The bottom line is this: read The Alchemist of Souls first. While this book is well-written and held many positives for me, my enjoyment was hindered by the fact that I felt like I was going in blind. With the back story of Book One firmly in place, The Merchant of Dreams will most likely enthrall any reader who loves history.
Many thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy.
May 27, 2014
The Merchant of Dreams is the second book in Anne Lyle’s Night’s Masque series, continuing on the adventures of Mal, Coby, Ned, and Gabriel. The book picks up soon after where the other one ended: Mal is still working for Walshingham and Coby is by his side, posing as his manservant. Ned and Gabriel have joined them in the spymaster’s service, getting steadily more and more tangled up in the intrigues of court and the skraylings. They now also have to look after Sandy, Mal’s twin, as his skrayling side struggles to blend with the humans around him.
The relations between the skraylings and England are deteriorating, and fast. Worried about the possible repercussions, Walshingham sends Mal to spy on them in Venice. Taking Ned with him for the journey, Mal leaves Coby and Gabriel to look after his brother, which only causes trouble when Sandy, as Erishen, decides to seek out Lord Grey and the skrayling journal that his father had. Forced to flee to protect Sandy, Coby and Gabriel set off after Mal and Ned on a skrayling ship.
But not all is at it seems, neither in Venice nor on the skrayling ship, and there is more than one party out to get Mal and his friends. With old skrayling grudges surfacing, ancient skrayling souls roaming the streets of Venice, and tangled human politics, Mal and his companions have a lot to deal with. With Mal and Ned travelling together, the past can’t help with resurface and old attractions battle with new ones.
The sexual tension is as real as it gets, with every look, every touch threatening more than what they intended, and, as much as Ned is more than open to a little fun on the side whilst he has to be away from Gabriel, Mal isn’t so willing to betray Coby’s trust. Ned’s advances are only cut short by the obvious dislike Raileigh’s sailors take to him due to his preferences. Meanwhile, miles away from them, Coby can only think of Mal, an ache made all the worse by his identical twin’s presence at her side.
Sandy acts as the most mysterious of the characters. Not quite human anymore, but neither fully skrayling, he is caught in between both worlds and struggling with his very nature. As Erishen seeks answers, and a way to avoid having to return home in his current situation and without his amayi, he embarks himself, Coby, and Gabriel on a dangerous journey that almost sees them all taken back to the skrayling homeland. Their arrival in Venice turns out to be the one thing Mal needed to solve half of his problems which come in the form of an ancient skrayling soul that has been reincarnating endlessly around Venice. After an unexpected encounter with Charles, the brother Mal was using as a cover for his trip to Venice, Mal has to face a past he would have rather left behind. But with skrayling magic threatening the safety of all, Charles and his past as a Hunter may well be the only hope they have of saving the Serene Republic.
Lyle’s prose is as elegant as ever, mixing effortless storytelling with beautifully sweeping descriptions. She takes the reader on a magical journey from London to Venice, mixing the achingly familiar elements of history with the new and often surprising magic of the skraylings. The characterisation is excellent, and Lyle brings to life her characters effortlessly: they are imperfect and flawed, but all the more wonderful for it. She also presents us with the ever absent bisexual character. Mal’s sexuality is fluid and his attraction with Ned is obvious, so is their past together. But Mal is also in love with Coby, whether she is disguised as his manservant or wearing a gown. Mal is a refreshing character who demonstrates that as much as people don’t have to be good or evil, their sexuality doesn’t have to be one way or the other.
With Venice as the set for most of the book, Lyle has the perfect backdrop to her book, with a set that lands itself so perfectly to intrigue, mystery, and adventures. Lyle describes the city beautifully, bringing its many canals and small, narrow streets to life, leading the reader through a fast paced adventure with many twists and turns. The pace picks up more and more until it reaches its climax and a very fast paced ending. The Merchant of Dreams is a worthy sequel to The Alchemist of Souls, packed with intrigue, surprises, adventures, and loveable characters.
The relations between the skraylings and England are deteriorating, and fast. Worried about the possible repercussions, Walshingham sends Mal to spy on them in Venice. Taking Ned with him for the journey, Mal leaves Coby and Gabriel to look after his brother, which only causes trouble when Sandy, as Erishen, decides to seek out Lord Grey and the skrayling journal that his father had. Forced to flee to protect Sandy, Coby and Gabriel set off after Mal and Ned on a skrayling ship.
But not all is at it seems, neither in Venice nor on the skrayling ship, and there is more than one party out to get Mal and his friends. With old skrayling grudges surfacing, ancient skrayling souls roaming the streets of Venice, and tangled human politics, Mal and his companions have a lot to deal with. With Mal and Ned travelling together, the past can’t help with resurface and old attractions battle with new ones.
The sexual tension is as real as it gets, with every look, every touch threatening more than what they intended, and, as much as Ned is more than open to a little fun on the side whilst he has to be away from Gabriel, Mal isn’t so willing to betray Coby’s trust. Ned’s advances are only cut short by the obvious dislike Raileigh’s sailors take to him due to his preferences. Meanwhile, miles away from them, Coby can only think of Mal, an ache made all the worse by his identical twin’s presence at her side.
Sandy acts as the most mysterious of the characters. Not quite human anymore, but neither fully skrayling, he is caught in between both worlds and struggling with his very nature. As Erishen seeks answers, and a way to avoid having to return home in his current situation and without his amayi, he embarks himself, Coby, and Gabriel on a dangerous journey that almost sees them all taken back to the skrayling homeland. Their arrival in Venice turns out to be the one thing Mal needed to solve half of his problems which come in the form of an ancient skrayling soul that has been reincarnating endlessly around Venice. After an unexpected encounter with Charles, the brother Mal was using as a cover for his trip to Venice, Mal has to face a past he would have rather left behind. But with skrayling magic threatening the safety of all, Charles and his past as a Hunter may well be the only hope they have of saving the Serene Republic.
Lyle’s prose is as elegant as ever, mixing effortless storytelling with beautifully sweeping descriptions. She takes the reader on a magical journey from London to Venice, mixing the achingly familiar elements of history with the new and often surprising magic of the skraylings. The characterisation is excellent, and Lyle brings to life her characters effortlessly: they are imperfect and flawed, but all the more wonderful for it. She also presents us with the ever absent bisexual character. Mal’s sexuality is fluid and his attraction with Ned is obvious, so is their past together. But Mal is also in love with Coby, whether she is disguised as his manservant or wearing a gown. Mal is a refreshing character who demonstrates that as much as people don’t have to be good or evil, their sexuality doesn’t have to be one way or the other.
With Venice as the set for most of the book, Lyle has the perfect backdrop to her book, with a set that lands itself so perfectly to intrigue, mystery, and adventures. Lyle describes the city beautifully, bringing its many canals and small, narrow streets to life, leading the reader through a fast paced adventure with many twists and turns. The pace picks up more and more until it reaches its climax and a very fast paced ending. The Merchant of Dreams is a worthy sequel to The Alchemist of Souls, packed with intrigue, surprises, adventures, and loveable characters.
February 5, 2013
“The Alchemist of Souls” was one of my favourite reads last year, and “The Merchant of Dreams” is the not-very-long awaited follow-up, the middle volume of a trilogy due to end with “The Prince of Lies” in November this year.
Mal and Coby have fled to Mal’s estates in France, but Mal is haunted by dreams and visions from the fragment of skrayling soul trapped within him. The skraylings, creatures from the New World, can re-incarnate into different bodies. But the soul that has re-incarnated into Mal has been severed, split between him and his twin brother, Sandy. The dreams that Erishen has sent him lead Mal and Coby on a spying mission to Venice, to a city where even the supposedly respectable hide their faces, and where a dark figure has been brooding for many centuries.
Mal and Coby, along with Mal’s long-suffering former lover Ned, make a wonderful team, augmented this time by actor and would-be playwright Ned Parrish and Mal’s brother Sandy, often more skrayling than human. Coby in particular really shines in this book, daring to shed her male disguise for the first time and emerging as a competent, quick-thinking heroine whose love for Mal doesn’t turn her brain to custard. It’s also refreshing to see a woman on the front cover of a fantasy novel who doesn’t look like she’s going to need chiropractic assistance in the near future…
The canals and streets of Venice are wonderfully creepy and dilapidated, a thin veneer of respectability and opulence covering the dark heart of the city like a close-fitting mask. London is a sprawling, noisy mess, but Venice holds her cards close to her chest, the perfect city for spies and intrigue.
The action dips a little when the characters are at sea, shuttling between France, London, Venice, and the skrayling enclave on the island of Sark, and the whole book does have that “middle of a trilogy” feel – things set up in the first book are largely ignored, while new threads are weaved and then left undone, presumably to be picked up in the last book of the series. Having said that, there is progression here – Mal and Coby’s relationship takes a surprising turn, while Ned grows into his character and reveals previously unexpected talents, but it does rather feel like the book is marking time until the climax.
“The Alchemist of Souls” was brilliant, and if you enjoyed it “The Merchant of Dreams” comes highly recommended, but I have the feeling “The Prince of Lies” is going to blow them both out of the water. Roll on November!
Mal and Coby have fled to Mal’s estates in France, but Mal is haunted by dreams and visions from the fragment of skrayling soul trapped within him. The skraylings, creatures from the New World, can re-incarnate into different bodies. But the soul that has re-incarnated into Mal has been severed, split between him and his twin brother, Sandy. The dreams that Erishen has sent him lead Mal and Coby on a spying mission to Venice, to a city where even the supposedly respectable hide their faces, and where a dark figure has been brooding for many centuries.
Mal and Coby, along with Mal’s long-suffering former lover Ned, make a wonderful team, augmented this time by actor and would-be playwright Ned Parrish and Mal’s brother Sandy, often more skrayling than human. Coby in particular really shines in this book, daring to shed her male disguise for the first time and emerging as a competent, quick-thinking heroine whose love for Mal doesn’t turn her brain to custard. It’s also refreshing to see a woman on the front cover of a fantasy novel who doesn’t look like she’s going to need chiropractic assistance in the near future…
The canals and streets of Venice are wonderfully creepy and dilapidated, a thin veneer of respectability and opulence covering the dark heart of the city like a close-fitting mask. London is a sprawling, noisy mess, but Venice holds her cards close to her chest, the perfect city for spies and intrigue.
The action dips a little when the characters are at sea, shuttling between France, London, Venice, and the skrayling enclave on the island of Sark, and the whole book does have that “middle of a trilogy” feel – things set up in the first book are largely ignored, while new threads are weaved and then left undone, presumably to be picked up in the last book of the series. Having said that, there is progression here – Mal and Coby’s relationship takes a surprising turn, while Ned grows into his character and reveals previously unexpected talents, but it does rather feel like the book is marking time until the climax.
“The Alchemist of Souls” was brilliant, and if you enjoyed it “The Merchant of Dreams” comes highly recommended, but I have the feeling “The Prince of Lies” is going to blow them both out of the water. Roll on November!
March 21, 2014
I’ve been mulling over this review for a while now, and I’m still a bit stumped and unsure how to keep it from being really short.
Let’s get the basics out of the way: I liked it, though not quite as much as I liked the first book in this trilogy. It was well-written, it read smoothly and there was not a moment where I felt bored and thought ‘yeah yeah, just get on with it already’.
The plot is a bit convoluted. We learned in the first book (spoilers!) that the mysterious beings called skraylings have souls that move to a nearby unborn infant when they die. Since they come from the New World and they often die far away from any other skraylings in England, this means that many of them have ‘reincarnated’ into human bodies, even though the very act of doing so is anathema to the skraylings. Our hero Maliverny Catlyn and his twin brother Sandy share one such soul between them, though Sandy got the larger part. Through this soul they are both able to perform certain skrayling magics, and because of this Mal learns of a party of skraylings who were on their way to establish a treaty with the republic of Venice.
The book covers a number of other characters apart from Mal, such as Mal’s girl-disguised-as-boy manservant Coby, Mal’s friend Ned and Ned’s lover Gabriel. Initially they’re more or less all over the place, but the plot eventually converges in Venice with a suitably exciting grand finale.
Where the book loses a few half stars is in both the characterisation and the sometimes all too convenient coincidences that hold the plot together. (Mal’s elder brother Charles is a known drunk and gambler, yet he waited 25+ years to sell a necklace in Venice just so our heroes can then retrieve it? I don’t quite buy that.) Ned seemed a bit nastier than in the last book, Mal a bit more petulant here and there, a little too fixed on his own wants rather than on what would be the smart thing to do. Certain events that happen are barely explained afterwards, or explained too late, even though the characters ought to be wondering how on earth that just happened.
Still, overall it was an enjoyable read, and a book which kept me effortlessly entertained from start to finish, and which made me go straight into the third book of this trilogy. 3.5 stars, rounded up to four.
More reviews on Silk Screen Views.
Let’s get the basics out of the way: I liked it, though not quite as much as I liked the first book in this trilogy. It was well-written, it read smoothly and there was not a moment where I felt bored and thought ‘yeah yeah, just get on with it already’.
The plot is a bit convoluted. We learned in the first book (spoilers!) that the mysterious beings called skraylings have souls that move to a nearby unborn infant when they die. Since they come from the New World and they often die far away from any other skraylings in England, this means that many of them have ‘reincarnated’ into human bodies, even though the very act of doing so is anathema to the skraylings. Our hero Maliverny Catlyn and his twin brother Sandy share one such soul between them, though Sandy got the larger part. Through this soul they are both able to perform certain skrayling magics, and because of this Mal learns of a party of skraylings who were on their way to establish a treaty with the republic of Venice.
The book covers a number of other characters apart from Mal, such as Mal’s girl-disguised-as-boy manservant Coby, Mal’s friend Ned and Ned’s lover Gabriel. Initially they’re more or less all over the place, but the plot eventually converges in Venice with a suitably exciting grand finale.
Where the book loses a few half stars is in both the characterisation and the sometimes all too convenient coincidences that hold the plot together. (Mal’s elder brother Charles is a known drunk and gambler, yet he waited 25+ years to sell a necklace in Venice just so our heroes can then retrieve it? I don’t quite buy that.) Ned seemed a bit nastier than in the last book, Mal a bit more petulant here and there, a little too fixed on his own wants rather than on what would be the smart thing to do. Certain events that happen are barely explained afterwards, or explained too late, even though the characters ought to be wondering how on earth that just happened.
Still, overall it was an enjoyable read, and a book which kept me effortlessly entertained from start to finish, and which made me go straight into the third book of this trilogy. 3.5 stars, rounded up to four.
More reviews on Silk Screen Views.
April 4, 2014
I'm in the middle of writing at the moment, which generally means my own reading suffers as I can't comfortably read fiction when I'm writing different fiction, however a trip to London and back gave me eight hours as a pasenger in the car and I'm afraid I was antisocial enough to seize on the opportunity to read The Merchant of Dreams.
The second installment of Mal Catlyn's adventures, beginning about a year after the events in Alchemist of Souls. Mal finds a party of skraylings in the Mediterranean, shipwrecked, captured by the locals and now dead by their own hand. When Kiiren is called away from the skrayling haven on Sark to replace the dead ambassador on a mission to Venice, Mal's brother, Sandy, sometimes all brother, sometimes all skrayling, is released into Mal's care. Sandy is much improved, but he'll never be the brother Mal wants him to be.
Mal, in the meantime has been, at Walsingham's command, settling in to his new estates in France where he's an English ear at the French court. His 'manservant', Coby is more than she seems and there's a huge attraction between her and Mal, but she won't give up her male guise and he won't take her as a lover until she does since the punishment for homosexual love is death. (Not that this seems to worry Mal's friend, Ned, and his lover Gabriel.)
When Mal is sent to Venice by Walsingham to spy on the Kiiren's trade mission, he takes Ned, leaving Coby to look after Sandy, but Sandy soon puts himself (and Coby and Gabriel) in desperate danger. Fleeing London, heading for Mal's estates in France, they get kidnapped and the tangled knots begin to tighten.
The plot is satisfyingly convoluted with Mal, Coby, Sandy, Ned and Gabriel eventually coming together again in time for the major events to unfold, and there's a nice payoff.
Second books can be difficult, but this is handled deftly and the story expands beyond London to a well-researched, late sixteenth century Venice. I like that Mal doesn't always make good decisions, but one decision here seems out of character. I'll wait to see how that resolves in the third book because bad decisions can make for good stories.
Highly recommended.
The second installment of Mal Catlyn's adventures, beginning about a year after the events in Alchemist of Souls. Mal finds a party of skraylings in the Mediterranean, shipwrecked, captured by the locals and now dead by their own hand. When Kiiren is called away from the skrayling haven on Sark to replace the dead ambassador on a mission to Venice, Mal's brother, Sandy, sometimes all brother, sometimes all skrayling, is released into Mal's care. Sandy is much improved, but he'll never be the brother Mal wants him to be.
Mal, in the meantime has been, at Walsingham's command, settling in to his new estates in France where he's an English ear at the French court. His 'manservant', Coby is more than she seems and there's a huge attraction between her and Mal, but she won't give up her male guise and he won't take her as a lover until she does since the punishment for homosexual love is death. (Not that this seems to worry Mal's friend, Ned, and his lover Gabriel.)
When Mal is sent to Venice by Walsingham to spy on the Kiiren's trade mission, he takes Ned, leaving Coby to look after Sandy, but Sandy soon puts himself (and Coby and Gabriel) in desperate danger. Fleeing London, heading for Mal's estates in France, they get kidnapped and the tangled knots begin to tighten.
The plot is satisfyingly convoluted with Mal, Coby, Sandy, Ned and Gabriel eventually coming together again in time for the major events to unfold, and there's a nice payoff.
Second books can be difficult, but this is handled deftly and the story expands beyond London to a well-researched, late sixteenth century Venice. I like that Mal doesn't always make good decisions, but one decision here seems out of character. I'll wait to see how that resolves in the third book because bad decisions can make for good stories.
Highly recommended.
December 21, 2016
This follow-up to The Alchemist of Souls has many of the same high points that led me to regard the first book so highly. The characters are interesting and their motivations realistically complex yet understandable. The setting is uniquely creative in its use of the New World skraylings as a kind of fairy-folk and the supernatural dream world they have access to, but also surprisingly down to earth in its realistic depiction of Europe in Elizabethan times. This aspect is, if anything, more apparent in this volume, where Lyle's knowledge and research are clearly extensive. In addition to the seemingly intimate knowledge of both London and Venice, there are endless details of numerous aspects of life in that time and place, from food, lodging and other domestic affairs to sailing, navigation, court intrigue, international trade and spycraft, all with terminology that seems to effortlessly ring true to the reader.
Having said all that, I have to admit that I found the reading of this book a bit tedious at times - in spite of the numerous positive qualities mentioned above, I rarely felt truly engaged or drawn to the events of the story. Not sure what to blame this on exactly. Maybe the machinations of the Catlyns and other characters were just too subtle and intricate to hold my interest? Maybe the book was a bit overlong and could have benefited from some trimming to tighten it up and heighten the pace?
Also in case Lyle or the editorial staff is reading this, I should mention that I was sad to see the word "prevarication" used to mean "hesitation" (p. 129) - as much as it may seem like it should mean that! A trivial thing, I know, but jarring in the context of the otherwise impeccable use of language.
Anyway, not a bad read by any means, with many positive attributes.
Having said all that, I have to admit that I found the reading of this book a bit tedious at times - in spite of the numerous positive qualities mentioned above, I rarely felt truly engaged or drawn to the events of the story. Not sure what to blame this on exactly. Maybe the machinations of the Catlyns and other characters were just too subtle and intricate to hold my interest? Maybe the book was a bit overlong and could have benefited from some trimming to tighten it up and heighten the pace?
Also in case Lyle or the editorial staff is reading this, I should mention that I was sad to see the word "prevarication" used to mean "hesitation" (p. 129) - as much as it may seem like it should mean that! A trivial thing, I know, but jarring in the context of the otherwise impeccable use of language.
Anyway, not a bad read by any means, with many positive attributes.
December 24, 2012
The Merchant of Dreams starts out with a scene that could have come from one of the best thriller movies - all haunting atmosphere and trepidation - and digs its hooks in deep. Set a year or two after the events of The Alchemist of Souls, this second book in the Night’s Masque series is a worthy successor to it. At over 500 pages, I still managed to finish the book roughly three days after I started it.
Court intrigue and battles abound as Mal Catlyn and his page - the cross-dressing (by necessity) Coby come upon a chance rumor that the Skraylings from the new world are interested in an alliance with the Venetian Republic. Sent there by the dying Sir Francis Walsingham, Mal takes ship with Ned Faulkner on The Falcon, captained by no less a seafarer than Sir Walter Raleigh himself.
Mal’s twin Sandy becomes a real character in this book, with Erishen taking the lead in injecting a personality into the man he possesses. Nearly as forceful as Mal, Sandy leads Coby astray from her orders to watch out for him and through a series of misadventures they - with the actor Gabriel Parrish - make their own way to Venice to meet up with Mal and Ned.
Venice, with its canals and twisted streets, is as convoluted as the English Court, and more surprises abound, not the least coming from the Skraylings themselves. Mal learns how to do some of the things that his brother, having more of the soul of Erishen than he, can do from a hidden Guiser. This training leads both to disaster and deliverance for Mal and his friends.
Anne Lyle neatly ties up a few open threads from the first book, and the ending was perfect. I suspect many fans of the Night’s Masque series will cheer at the resolution, and I particularly enjoyed the reminding touch of Coby’s dab hand with mechanicals. It also sets up the concluding volume of the series, which I, for one, am looking forward to.
Court intrigue and battles abound as Mal Catlyn and his page - the cross-dressing (by necessity) Coby come upon a chance rumor that the Skraylings from the new world are interested in an alliance with the Venetian Republic. Sent there by the dying Sir Francis Walsingham, Mal takes ship with Ned Faulkner on The Falcon, captained by no less a seafarer than Sir Walter Raleigh himself.
Mal’s twin Sandy becomes a real character in this book, with Erishen taking the lead in injecting a personality into the man he possesses. Nearly as forceful as Mal, Sandy leads Coby astray from her orders to watch out for him and through a series of misadventures they - with the actor Gabriel Parrish - make their own way to Venice to meet up with Mal and Ned.
Venice, with its canals and twisted streets, is as convoluted as the English Court, and more surprises abound, not the least coming from the Skraylings themselves. Mal learns how to do some of the things that his brother, having more of the soul of Erishen than he, can do from a hidden Guiser. This training leads both to disaster and deliverance for Mal and his friends.
Anne Lyle neatly ties up a few open threads from the first book, and the ending was perfect. I suspect many fans of the Night’s Masque series will cheer at the resolution, and I particularly enjoyed the reminding touch of Coby’s dab hand with mechanicals. It also sets up the concluding volume of the series, which I, for one, am looking forward to.
November 6, 2012
Pre-release/ARC review.
Quote:
“You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?”
“No,” Ned replied, glancing around the kitchen in the hope of spotting a handy weapon. The carving knife was still on the table, and the fire irons out of reach on the hearth.
“Yes you are.”
“All right, yes, dammit.” Ned straightened up, putting as much distance between them as he could without actually retreating. “Now say what you have to say and be done with it.”
“Good. We understand one another. So understand this.” Sandy leant closer, fixing Ned with his dark eyes that were so like Mal’s–and yet unlike. “If you ever betray my brother again, I will come for you.”
Ned swallowed, unable to tear his gaze away.
“In the night, whilst you sleep,” Sandy went on. “And if you are very lucky, I will only kill you.”
After reading the first in the series, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book, and I wasn’t disappointed. Our intrepid heroes travel from Provence, to Catalan, to London, and on to Venice, with a few detours throughout. The Skrayling presence in London has diminished since the events of the first book, and the English court is worried. When Mal learns the skraylings are courting an alliance with Venice, he’s assigned to discover what it entails and how soon it will go into effect. He leaves for Venice after arranging for his brother, who is also the skrayling Erishen (it’s quite convoluted, but consistent within the plot), to be taken to Provence where he’ll be safe. Of course, he isn’t, and doesn’t make it there. Instead, Sandy/Erishen, Jacob/Jacomina, Gabriel and Ned all end up in Venice with Mal where they have adventures. The emotional impact is a bit deeper with this book, as we get to know the characters better, and the consequences of their actions are both personal and profound. I’m definitely looking forward to book 3.
Quote:
“You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?”
“No,” Ned replied, glancing around the kitchen in the hope of spotting a handy weapon. The carving knife was still on the table, and the fire irons out of reach on the hearth.
“Yes you are.”
“All right, yes, dammit.” Ned straightened up, putting as much distance between them as he could without actually retreating. “Now say what you have to say and be done with it.”
“Good. We understand one another. So understand this.” Sandy leant closer, fixing Ned with his dark eyes that were so like Mal’s–and yet unlike. “If you ever betray my brother again, I will come for you.”
Ned swallowed, unable to tear his gaze away.
“In the night, whilst you sleep,” Sandy went on. “And if you are very lucky, I will only kill you.”
After reading the first in the series, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book, and I wasn’t disappointed. Our intrepid heroes travel from Provence, to Catalan, to London, and on to Venice, with a few detours throughout. The Skrayling presence in London has diminished since the events of the first book, and the English court is worried. When Mal learns the skraylings are courting an alliance with Venice, he’s assigned to discover what it entails and how soon it will go into effect. He leaves for Venice after arranging for his brother, who is also the skrayling Erishen (it’s quite convoluted, but consistent within the plot), to be taken to Provence where he’ll be safe. Of course, he isn’t, and doesn’t make it there. Instead, Sandy/Erishen, Jacob/Jacomina, Gabriel and Ned all end up in Venice with Mal where they have adventures. The emotional impact is a bit deeper with this book, as we get to know the characters better, and the consequences of their actions are both personal and profound. I’m definitely looking forward to book 3.
February 7, 2013
There has been a rift with the skraylings over the presence of renegade skraylings who have deliberately reincarnated in humans in England. Rumour has it that skrayling vessels have been spotted in the eastern Mediterranean in increasing numbers, fuelling suspicions of dealings with Venice. Mal is instructed to travel to Venice forthwith to find out if these suspicions are true and, if they are, to break up this new alliance by any means necessary...
Review"Whether you like action, magic, romance or mystery there is something for you here. I never had a reason to put the book down. I am very eager to read the third book in the series."
- Mazarkis Williams, author of the Tower & Knife series
Anne Lyle was born in what is known to the tourist industry as "Robin Hood Country", and grew up fascinated by English history, folklore, and swashbuckling heroes. Unfortunately there was little demand in 1970s Nottingham for diminutive female swordswomen, so she studied sensible subjects like science and languages instead. It appears that although you can take the girl out of Sherwood Forest, you can't take Sherwood Forest out of the girl. She now spends every spare hour writing (or at least planning) fantasy fiction about spies, actors, outlaws and other folk on the fringes of society. Her Night's Masque series is set in an alternate history Elizabethan England, where the Virgin Queen married and had children while fanged and tattooed creatures from the New World walk the streets of London. Anne lives in Cambridge, a city full of medieval and Tudor buildings where cattle graze on the common land much as they did in Shakespeare's London.
March 10, 2013
I read the Alchemist of Souls around Christmastime, so I was glad I didn't have to wait long for the sequel. There were a few surprises with regards to the timing, as it didn't take up immediately after the first one left off, but it worked well for me. I'll try to do this without spoilers, so the review will be a bit more general.
The only real complaint I had about it was that the start was, perhaps, a bit slow. I was all right with this, because it added some details re characterization and world building that I found interesting and enjoyable. I found myself a bit annoyed with Mal (he's a bit sexist has that sense of male entitlement) and Coby (a bit too pious/prudish) in a couple of places, but I had to remind myself that one constraint of writing a novel (even a fantasy) in a historic setting is finding that balance between making characters sympathetic/relatable to modern readers and making them believable in the context of their world. Overall, though, I enjoyed both characters. I was glad to see more of Ned as a character and was glad to see him coming into his own. I'm still trying to make my mind up about Sandy, but he is certainly fascinating.
I thought the author did a wonderful job of bringing the setting to life. I really "felt" Venice, and I thought the action scenes were done well. Once I got over the slower hump at the beginning it kept me up past my bedtime, turning the pages on my e-reader. I look forward to the last installment.
The only real complaint I had about it was that the start was, perhaps, a bit slow. I was all right with this, because it added some details re characterization and world building that I found interesting and enjoyable. I found myself a bit annoyed with Mal (he's a bit sexist has that sense of male entitlement) and Coby (a bit too pious/prudish) in a couple of places, but I had to remind myself that one constraint of writing a novel (even a fantasy) in a historic setting is finding that balance between making characters sympathetic/relatable to modern readers and making them believable in the context of their world. Overall, though, I enjoyed both characters. I was glad to see more of Ned as a character and was glad to see him coming into his own. I'm still trying to make my mind up about Sandy, but he is certainly fascinating.
I thought the author did a wonderful job of bringing the setting to life. I really "felt" Venice, and I thought the action scenes were done well. Once I got over the slower hump at the beginning it kept me up past my bedtime, turning the pages on my e-reader. I look forward to the last installment.
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