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Aetherial Tales #2
Midsummer Night
A sensuous, suspenseful modern fantasy of love, betrayal, and redemption
Decades ago, in a place where the veil between our world and the world of the Aetherials—the fair folk—is too easily breached, three young people tricked their uncle by dressing as the fey. But their joke took a deadly turn when true Aetherials crossed into our world, took one of the pranksters, and literally scared their uncle to death.
Many years later, at the place of this capture lies a vast country estate that holds a renowned art facility owned by a visionary sculptor. One day, during a violent storm, a young woman studying art at the estate stumbles upon a portal to the Otherworld. A handsome young man comes through the portal and seeks shelter with her. Though he can tell her nothing of his past, his innocence and charm capture her heart. But he becomes the focus of increasingly violent arguments among the residents of the estate. Is he as innocent as he seems? Or is he hiding his true identity so that he can seek some terrible vengeance, bringing death and heartbreak to this place that stands between two worlds? Who is this young man?
The forces of magic and the power of love contend for the soul of this man, in this magical romantic story of loss and redemption.
Decades ago, in a place where the veil between our world and the world of the Aetherials—the fair folk—is too easily breached, three young people tricked their uncle by dressing as the fey. But their joke took a deadly turn when true Aetherials crossed into our world, took one of the pranksters, and literally scared their uncle to death.
Many years later, at the place of this capture lies a vast country estate that holds a renowned art facility owned by a visionary sculptor. One day, during a violent storm, a young woman studying art at the estate stumbles upon a portal to the Otherworld. A handsome young man comes through the portal and seeks shelter with her. Though he can tell her nothing of his past, his innocence and charm capture her heart. But he becomes the focus of increasingly violent arguments among the residents of the estate. Is he as innocent as he seems? Or is he hiding his true identity so that he can seek some terrible vengeance, bringing death and heartbreak to this place that stands between two worlds? Who is this young man?
The forces of magic and the power of love contend for the soul of this man, in this magical romantic story of loss and redemption.
412 pages, Hardcover
First published November 13, 2010
8 people are currently reading
703 people want to read
About the author
Freda Warrington
52 books326 followersFreda Warrington is an award-winning British author, known for her epic fantasy, vampire and supernatural novels.
“The Blood Wine books are addictive, thrilling reads that are impossible to put down and they definitely deserve more attention” – Worldhopping.net
Her earliest novels, the Blackbird series, were written and published in the 1980s. In the intervening years she has seen numerous novels of epic fantasy, supernatural and contemporary fantasy, vampires, dark romance, horror and alternative history published.
Her novel ELFLAND won the Romantic Times BEST FANTASY NOVEL Award in 2009, while her 1997 Dracula sequel DRACULA THE UNDEAD won the Dracula Society's BEST GOTHIC NOVEL Award.
Four of her novels (Dark Cathedral, Pagan Moon, Dracula the Undead, and The Amber Citadel) have been nominated or shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society's Best Novel award. The American Library Association placed MIDSUMMER NIGHT in its Top Ten for 2010.
Recently Titan Book reissued her popular romantic-gothic Blood Wine vampire series set in the 1920s - A Taste of Blood Wine, A Dance in Blood Velvet and The Dark Blood of Poppies - along with a brand new novel, The Dark Arts of Blood. In 2017, Telos Publishing will publish her first short story collection, NIGHTS OF BLOOD WINE, featuring fifteen lush dark tales - ten set in her Blood Wine world, and five others of gothic weirdness.
In 2003, Simon & Schuster published The Court of the Midnight King, an alternative history/ fantasy retelling of the story of King Richard III. To celebrate all the events surrounding the discovery of Richard III's remains in Leicester, The Court of the Midnight King is now available on Kindle and in paperback format. Most of her backlist titles, including the Blackbird series, Dracula the Undead, Dark Cathedral and Pagan Moon, can already be found on Kindle or will be available in the next few months.
Warrington has also seen numerous short stories published in anthologies and magazines. For further information, visit her website Freda Warrington
Born in Leicester, Warrington grew up in the Charnwood Forest area of Leicestershire. After completing high school, she trained at Loughborough College of Art and Design and worked in medical illustration and graphic design for some years. She eventually moved to full-time writing, and also still enjoys design, photography, art, jewellery-making and other crafts, travelling and conventions.
Series:
* Jewelfire
* Dark Cathedral
* Aetherial Tales
* Blackbird
“The Blood Wine books are addictive, thrilling reads that are impossible to put down and they definitely deserve more attention” – Worldhopping.net
Her earliest novels, the Blackbird series, were written and published in the 1980s. In the intervening years she has seen numerous novels of epic fantasy, supernatural and contemporary fantasy, vampires, dark romance, horror and alternative history published.
Her novel ELFLAND won the Romantic Times BEST FANTASY NOVEL Award in 2009, while her 1997 Dracula sequel DRACULA THE UNDEAD won the Dracula Society's BEST GOTHIC NOVEL Award.
Four of her novels (Dark Cathedral, Pagan Moon, Dracula the Undead, and The Amber Citadel) have been nominated or shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society's Best Novel award. The American Library Association placed MIDSUMMER NIGHT in its Top Ten for 2010.
Recently Titan Book reissued her popular romantic-gothic Blood Wine vampire series set in the 1920s - A Taste of Blood Wine, A Dance in Blood Velvet and The Dark Blood of Poppies - along with a brand new novel, The Dark Arts of Blood. In 2017, Telos Publishing will publish her first short story collection, NIGHTS OF BLOOD WINE, featuring fifteen lush dark tales - ten set in her Blood Wine world, and five others of gothic weirdness.
In 2003, Simon & Schuster published The Court of the Midnight King, an alternative history/ fantasy retelling of the story of King Richard III. To celebrate all the events surrounding the discovery of Richard III's remains in Leicester, The Court of the Midnight King is now available on Kindle and in paperback format. Most of her backlist titles, including the Blackbird series, Dracula the Undead, Dark Cathedral and Pagan Moon, can already be found on Kindle or will be available in the next few months.
Warrington has also seen numerous short stories published in anthologies and magazines. For further information, visit her website Freda Warrington
Born in Leicester, Warrington grew up in the Charnwood Forest area of Leicestershire. After completing high school, she trained at Loughborough College of Art and Design and worked in medical illustration and graphic design for some years. She eventually moved to full-time writing, and also still enjoys design, photography, art, jewellery-making and other crafts, travelling and conventions.
Series:
* Jewelfire
* Dark Cathedral
* Aetherial Tales
* Blackbird
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
November 15, 2010
When you love a book as much as I do Freda Warrington’s Elfland, there’s always a little bit of fear mixed in with the anticipation for its sequel. Finding a book that resonates with you on many levels at once is like falling under a spell. What if the second book isn’t as good; what if it breaks the spell? Now that I’ve read Midsummer Night, though, I can report that I’m still happily ensorcelled. Midsummer Night lives up to the quality of Elfland and is a terrific novel in its own right.
If Elfland was about love and being oneself, Midsummer Night deals with themes of guilt vs. redemption, loss vs. healing, and the intersection of art and magic. The two point-of-view characters are Gill Sharma, a former world-class runner who has just lost everything she thought defined her; and Dame Juliana Flagg, an imperious sculptor whose perfectionism hides a tangle of guilt and fear. Wanting to get away from everyone and everything, Gill moves into a cottage on Juliana’s remote property of Cairndonan. Before long, Gill finds a hidden path in the forest that leads to a place that simply shouldn’t be there, and when she returns to Cairndonan, a frightened young man follows her.
This young man, called Leith, sets Juliana’s household into an uproar. He might be a shell-shocked WWI soldier who vanished from the estate in 1919; he might be a child who was lost more recently, now grown to manhood; and he might be mentally ill and in need of help. A charismatic man claiming to be Leith’s brother comes looking for him, raising the question of whom to trust. Gill, Juliana, and a vivid cast of secondary characters are swept into an Aetherial power struggle and a mystery that has haunted Cairndonan for generations.
Midsummer Night is beautifully written and gives the reader the sense that Warrington’s world is hiding just one wrong turn away from ours. Gill and Juliana and Cairndonan felt more real than reality for the several days it took me to read the book, and for days afterward I caught myself glancing at trees and old houses and just wondering. There is yet again cause to rejoice that Warrington left some of the Otherworld to our imaginations in Elfland; this means that we have new places to explore through Gill’s and Juliana’s eyes that we haven’t already seen through Rosie’s and Sam’s.
Like Elfland, Midsummer Night makes use of some “family saga” plot elements such as adultery and secret parentage. Unlike in Elfland, many of these elements are set in the novel’s past rather than its present, though their fallout is still being felt. Midsummer Night has a sort of “sadder and wiser” feel compared to Elfland, and the book is not as romantic per se. Yet it’s not without hope, and I really liked the way the character arcs developed.
This book has everything: a big complex plot, emotionally compelling characters, evocative writing, gorgeous settings, a sense of wonder, a bit of humor, great use of tiny little details that might not seem important at first, and a few scenes that will scare your socks off! It shares a cosmology (and a secondary character or two) with Elfland, but can stand alone. You’ll want to read Elfland anyway though, as it’s wonderful; the AETHERIAL TALES are some of the most enchanting fantasies I’ve read in years and I highly recommend them. Review originally published at Fantasy Literature's Freda Warrington page.
If Elfland was about love and being oneself, Midsummer Night deals with themes of guilt vs. redemption, loss vs. healing, and the intersection of art and magic. The two point-of-view characters are Gill Sharma, a former world-class runner who has just lost everything she thought defined her; and Dame Juliana Flagg, an imperious sculptor whose perfectionism hides a tangle of guilt and fear. Wanting to get away from everyone and everything, Gill moves into a cottage on Juliana’s remote property of Cairndonan. Before long, Gill finds a hidden path in the forest that leads to a place that simply shouldn’t be there, and when she returns to Cairndonan, a frightened young man follows her.
This young man, called Leith, sets Juliana’s household into an uproar. He might be a shell-shocked WWI soldier who vanished from the estate in 1919; he might be a child who was lost more recently, now grown to manhood; and he might be mentally ill and in need of help. A charismatic man claiming to be Leith’s brother comes looking for him, raising the question of whom to trust. Gill, Juliana, and a vivid cast of secondary characters are swept into an Aetherial power struggle and a mystery that has haunted Cairndonan for generations.
Midsummer Night is beautifully written and gives the reader the sense that Warrington’s world is hiding just one wrong turn away from ours. Gill and Juliana and Cairndonan felt more real than reality for the several days it took me to read the book, and for days afterward I caught myself glancing at trees and old houses and just wondering. There is yet again cause to rejoice that Warrington left some of the Otherworld to our imaginations in Elfland; this means that we have new places to explore through Gill’s and Juliana’s eyes that we haven’t already seen through Rosie’s and Sam’s.
Like Elfland, Midsummer Night makes use of some “family saga” plot elements such as adultery and secret parentage. Unlike in Elfland, many of these elements are set in the novel’s past rather than its present, though their fallout is still being felt. Midsummer Night has a sort of “sadder and wiser” feel compared to Elfland, and the book is not as romantic per se. Yet it’s not without hope, and I really liked the way the character arcs developed.
This book has everything: a big complex plot, emotionally compelling characters, evocative writing, gorgeous settings, a sense of wonder, a bit of humor, great use of tiny little details that might not seem important at first, and a few scenes that will scare your socks off! It shares a cosmology (and a secondary character or two) with Elfland, but can stand alone. You’ll want to read Elfland anyway though, as it’s wonderful; the AETHERIAL TALES are some of the most enchanting fantasies I’ve read in years and I highly recommend them. Review originally published at Fantasy Literature's Freda Warrington page.
March 2, 2013
I had a great time with Elfland, and while I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much, it’s still a pleasant, engaging and mostly well-written novel.
Midsummer Night is a standalone fantasy loosely related to Elfland, but you could easily read this one first. It is set on an old estate along the modern-day Scottish coast, which has been troubled by meddlesome faerie folk. The story centers on three women: Gill Sharma, who comes to the estate to recover after an accident puts an end to her athletic career; Peta Lyon, an art teacher; and Dame Juliana Flagg, an enigmatic 60-something sculptor and owner of the estate.
I was surprised to find how different this book is from Elfland, although both have engaging plots and characters, similar pacing and lovely imagery. While Elfland is a family drama-cum-romance starring the faerie folk, Midsummer Night is the almost creepy story of its primarily human protagonists’ encounters with the faerie world, containing fewer family bonds and no star-crossed lovers. (While I loved the romance in Elfland, this book didn’t need one, and I admire Warrington for not shoehorning one in anyway.) There are also fewer melodramatic elements, although there are some hidden affairs and mysterious parentages in the story's past.
Like Elfland, this one is a bit of a slow starter, and it wasn’t until Chapter 3 that I was convinced I’d like the book. But the plot soon becomes exciting and immersive, the writing and dialogue are good, and the imagery and atmosphere excellent. The characters are interesting and I mostly liked them, but wasn’t quite as convinced as I was in Elfland. There, I was impressed by Warrington’s ability to create in Rosie a character who’s warm, sensitive and communicative, and yet feels real and unidealized. Here, I got the impression that Rosie is the type of protagonist that comes most naturally to the author, and was less than completely convinced by the brusque and reserved Dame J. Along the same line, there are moments when the villains are much more transparent than I was willing to credit.
Overall, though, this is an enjoyable and satisfying book, and if you like fairy tales grounded in the modern world, you will probably like Midsummer Night. I certainly plan to read the third book in this trilogy once it is released.
Midsummer Night is a standalone fantasy loosely related to Elfland, but you could easily read this one first. It is set on an old estate along the modern-day Scottish coast, which has been troubled by meddlesome faerie folk. The story centers on three women: Gill Sharma, who comes to the estate to recover after an accident puts an end to her athletic career; Peta Lyon, an art teacher; and Dame Juliana Flagg, an enigmatic 60-something sculptor and owner of the estate.
I was surprised to find how different this book is from Elfland, although both have engaging plots and characters, similar pacing and lovely imagery. While Elfland is a family drama-cum-romance starring the faerie folk, Midsummer Night is the almost creepy story of its primarily human protagonists’ encounters with the faerie world, containing fewer family bonds and no star-crossed lovers. (While I loved the romance in Elfland, this book didn’t need one, and I admire Warrington for not shoehorning one in anyway.) There are also fewer melodramatic elements, although there are some hidden affairs and mysterious parentages in the story's past.
Like Elfland, this one is a bit of a slow starter, and it wasn’t until Chapter 3 that I was convinced I’d like the book. But the plot soon becomes exciting and immersive, the writing and dialogue are good, and the imagery and atmosphere excellent. The characters are interesting and I mostly liked them, but wasn’t quite as convinced as I was in Elfland. There, I was impressed by Warrington’s ability to create in Rosie a character who’s warm, sensitive and communicative, and yet feels real and unidealized. Here, I got the impression that Rosie is the type of protagonist that comes most naturally to the author, and was less than completely convinced by the brusque and reserved Dame J. Along the same line, there are moments when the villains are much more transparent than I was willing to credit.
Overall, though, this is an enjoyable and satisfying book, and if you like fairy tales grounded in the modern world, you will probably like Midsummer Night. I certainly plan to read the third book in this trilogy once it is released.
April 16, 2021
Me: I have a weakness or anything involving fairies, but if I read one more book were the fairy aspect of the book is reduced to "magic makes the male lead super hot and unknowable except for the part where he has a weakness for the MC" I will light myself on fire so help me.
This book: *shows up*
I haven't read the first book in this trilogy, but this book is totally fine as a stand-alone. At no point did I feel like I was missing a crucial slice of information. The book more of less revolves around a messed-up family whose guilt and trauma (sometimes caused by the Otherworld, sometimes not) ends up setting off a chain of events that disrupts both the tangible and Supernatural worlds.
This did so many things right that most books do wrong. Prickly female characters that didn't come across as pointlessly mean or rude. Artist characters that weren't "cute quirky". Genuine tragedy, both of the emotional and supernatural kind. A mystery that, depending on the outcome, would benefit different parties.
Things don't really pick up until chapter four, but when they do, they really do. The book is a character study just as much as it is a fantasy, with an exploration of characters that honestly mess up, make mistakes, and just do bad things because they can. Yet, you still want them to win, because the alternative is far worse. The closest book series I can think of is O.R Melling's Chronicles of Faerie, so if you enjoyed that, this is the adult version.
This book: *shows up*
I haven't read the first book in this trilogy, but this book is totally fine as a stand-alone. At no point did I feel like I was missing a crucial slice of information. The book more of less revolves around a messed-up family whose guilt and trauma (sometimes caused by the Otherworld, sometimes not) ends up setting off a chain of events that disrupts both the tangible and Supernatural worlds.
This did so many things right that most books do wrong. Prickly female characters that didn't come across as pointlessly mean or rude. Artist characters that weren't "cute quirky". Genuine tragedy, both of the emotional and supernatural kind. A mystery that, depending on the outcome, would benefit different parties.
Things don't really pick up until chapter four, but when they do, they really do. The book is a character study just as much as it is a fantasy, with an exploration of characters that honestly mess up, make mistakes, and just do bad things because they can. Yet, you still want them to win, because the alternative is far worse. The closest book series I can think of is O.R Melling's Chronicles of Faerie, so if you enjoyed that, this is the adult version.
July 23, 2013
I mostly enjoyed this book. It was entertaining enough, at least. It did drag at points, and some of the characters were annoying (I kind of wanted to punch Peta in the face a lot), and some of the plot twists bordered on completely ridiculous (was the whole point of Gill's mother turning out to be adopted so that Gill could have guilt-free sex with suddenly-not-blood-related!Adam?). But overall it was an enjoyable read. If I come across more of Freda Warrington's books in the library I might pick them up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2014
I finished the arc of Midsummer Night by Freda Warrington set in her Elfland universe and while not a sequel, it has some references to the first book - takes place 16 years later and some minor characters reappear. This one a bit unexpectedly blew me away - I loved Elfland but had some issues with the soap aspect (brothers, sisters, marriages, love stories...) and the world building which was a bit sketchy and unconvincing.
Here no such issues - there is family drama, hidden identities and the like galore but they are not "soapy", while the familiarity with the Elfland world building made the additions here give more depth. And of course the superb writing style of the author makes me highly, highly recommend this one.
A++ and a top fantasy of 2010
FBc review below:
INTRODUCTION: I mentioned in my review of Elfland that I opened that novel in a bookstore "just to do my duty in checking any new sff release I know nothing about" fully expecting to put it down after a page or two and forget about it. Instead I was hooked from the first page, so I bought the novel the same day and read it immediately. Given that, of course I wanted to read "Midsummer Night" asap and I asked for an arc though I was a little apprehensive if the same "magic" will happen again - the "curse" of high expectations versus no expectations that often determines how one feels about a book.
Here is the Publisher's Weekly blurb which is very incomplete and somewhat misleading, but considerably better than the "official blurb" you can find say on Goodreads which has some wrong information and it is even more misleading.
"In this moody and spine-shivering sequel to 2009's Elfland, Warrington takes readers deeper into the workings of the Aetherials, the magical beings who live in the Spiral, and the Vaethyr, who flit between the Spiral and Earth. World-famous sculptor Dame Juliana Flagg lives in Cairndonan, a dilapidated mansion in the highlands of northwest Scotland. Dame J can barely afford to care for herself, much less the mansion and grounds, but she can't tear herself away from the haunting, haunted place. Her uncle mysteriously disappeared from Cairndonan just after WWI, never to be seen again. Sometimes Dame J makes eerie sculptures that she can't bear to show or sell. Is the magic of Cairndonan connected to the malevolent, quasi-mythical Dunkelman? Warrington doesn't miss a beat with this sinister, ghostly tale of some of the darker aspects of the Aetherial world and its denizens' dealings with humanity."
FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: "Midsummer Night" stands at about 415 pages divided into 23 named chapters with an epilogue and a prologue. While a standalone with a definite storyline and ending, "Midsummer Night" is loosely connected with Elfland with some minor characters from there becoming more important ones here, while the action takes place about 16 years later.
The story lines in Elfland and Midsummer Night are also quite different and while in this novel some events from Elfland are alluded to, they are neither crucial nor really spoil that one, though familiarity with the Elfland world building adds depth to Midsummer Night.
"Midsummer Night" is contemporary fantasy at its best and I sure want more Aetherials' tales.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: For the reasons given at the end of the Introduction, I will start with a short overview and then discuss why "Midsummer Night" is the best contemporary fantasy I have read in a while and a top ten fantasy of mine in 2010.
There is indeed the remote estate, the famous sculptor Dame Juliana Flagg who is one of the main two POV's and characters of the novel and her entourage - the red-haired assistant director of her summer class Peta, Colin her young disciple who is infatuated with Dame J., the seemingly sinister Ned, her decades long groundskeeper and his wife Flora who serves as Dame J.'s secretary and housekeeper.
But the main POV of the novel at least for the most part and the person whose eyes we see the action through is a young woman, Gill Sharma, seemingly unconnected to both Dame J. and the art world. As the novel starts, Gill has just arrived from London on a retreat to the estate, to nurse her recent bad accident injuries in solitude and peace - to pay the bills, Dame J. takes lodgers over the summer and teaches art courses also.
Of course Gill is dismayed to find out about the summer camp that Dame J. is conducting and for reasons that are slowly revealed she is quite scared of strangers, especially men, but soon Gill makes friends with the exuberant and irrepressible Peta and together they start exploring the grounds despite Ned's muttered warnings. And so it starts...
Though it should be obvious, I would add that nothing is as it seems, everyone has secrets and ulterior motives for their actions and that is a huge part of the novel's enjoyment. And not to speak of the Aetherials, their appearance and involvement with the estate inhabitants which ultimately power the novel's main thread.
Now let's see why I found "Midsummer Night" so impressive. On opening the novel, the superb writing style of the author just hooked me and the book was one of those "read me now" ones that you cannot leave until you finish. You may have to put the book down to do other stuff, but you are not going to want to read any other novel until you are done here, maybe reread it at least once to get all its nuances that may escape on a first reading, or to just simply enjoy the tale at leisure once you know where it all goes.
The plotting of the novel is superb with all the aforementioned secrets slowly revealed and putting a different complexion on many things, while the main story progresses unabated too. This seamless integration of "character back story" and forward action is another major strength and "Midsummer Night" just flows with no narrative walls, while looking back one is astounded by how much happens, how many things from the recent or distant past are revealed, all integrated in a tapestry.
The world building - both the Scottish remote estate atmosphere with the strange sculptures Dame J. would not part even as she teeters close to bankruptcy and the Aetherial world where a lot of the "physical" action happens - is excellent too and some of the things that somewhat baffled me in Elfland regarding the latter make more sense here.
Despite being the main POV for most of the novel and for good reasons as we find out, Gill soon is shadowed by the larger than life Dame J. around whom everything revolves. From the Aetherial world, the handsome but - as we pretty much guess on the spot - sinister Rufus is the only one that matches Dame J. in presence and all his apparitions are highlights of the novel.
The memory-less stranger mentioned in the official blurb is indeed one of the motivators of the main thread, but he is more an "object" than a person, more a something than a someone quite a few people want for their own reasons. Add to this the superb cast of secondary characters, Colin, Peta, Ned, Flora and some Aetherials all with their own agenda and secrets and you see why Midsummer Night shines here too.
There is a lot of action too including a dramatic rescue on the slopes of a sort-of volcano (evidently not in Scotland), fights with and without "magic" and more. As contemporary fantasy set at the intersection of our world and the weird Aetherial one, Midsummer Night (A++) is the complete package and as good as such gets.
Here no such issues - there is family drama, hidden identities and the like galore but they are not "soapy", while the familiarity with the Elfland world building made the additions here give more depth. And of course the superb writing style of the author makes me highly, highly recommend this one.
A++ and a top fantasy of 2010
FBc review below:
INTRODUCTION: I mentioned in my review of Elfland that I opened that novel in a bookstore "just to do my duty in checking any new sff release I know nothing about" fully expecting to put it down after a page or two and forget about it. Instead I was hooked from the first page, so I bought the novel the same day and read it immediately. Given that, of course I wanted to read "Midsummer Night" asap and I asked for an arc though I was a little apprehensive if the same "magic" will happen again - the "curse" of high expectations versus no expectations that often determines how one feels about a book.
Here is the Publisher's Weekly blurb which is very incomplete and somewhat misleading, but considerably better than the "official blurb" you can find say on Goodreads which has some wrong information and it is even more misleading.
"In this moody and spine-shivering sequel to 2009's Elfland, Warrington takes readers deeper into the workings of the Aetherials, the magical beings who live in the Spiral, and the Vaethyr, who flit between the Spiral and Earth. World-famous sculptor Dame Juliana Flagg lives in Cairndonan, a dilapidated mansion in the highlands of northwest Scotland. Dame J can barely afford to care for herself, much less the mansion and grounds, but she can't tear herself away from the haunting, haunted place. Her uncle mysteriously disappeared from Cairndonan just after WWI, never to be seen again. Sometimes Dame J makes eerie sculptures that she can't bear to show or sell. Is the magic of Cairndonan connected to the malevolent, quasi-mythical Dunkelman? Warrington doesn't miss a beat with this sinister, ghostly tale of some of the darker aspects of the Aetherial world and its denizens' dealings with humanity."
FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: "Midsummer Night" stands at about 415 pages divided into 23 named chapters with an epilogue and a prologue. While a standalone with a definite storyline and ending, "Midsummer Night" is loosely connected with Elfland with some minor characters from there becoming more important ones here, while the action takes place about 16 years later.
The story lines in Elfland and Midsummer Night are also quite different and while in this novel some events from Elfland are alluded to, they are neither crucial nor really spoil that one, though familiarity with the Elfland world building adds depth to Midsummer Night.
"Midsummer Night" is contemporary fantasy at its best and I sure want more Aetherials' tales.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: For the reasons given at the end of the Introduction, I will start with a short overview and then discuss why "Midsummer Night" is the best contemporary fantasy I have read in a while and a top ten fantasy of mine in 2010.
There is indeed the remote estate, the famous sculptor Dame Juliana Flagg who is one of the main two POV's and characters of the novel and her entourage - the red-haired assistant director of her summer class Peta, Colin her young disciple who is infatuated with Dame J., the seemingly sinister Ned, her decades long groundskeeper and his wife Flora who serves as Dame J.'s secretary and housekeeper.
But the main POV of the novel at least for the most part and the person whose eyes we see the action through is a young woman, Gill Sharma, seemingly unconnected to both Dame J. and the art world. As the novel starts, Gill has just arrived from London on a retreat to the estate, to nurse her recent bad accident injuries in solitude and peace - to pay the bills, Dame J. takes lodgers over the summer and teaches art courses also.
Of course Gill is dismayed to find out about the summer camp that Dame J. is conducting and for reasons that are slowly revealed she is quite scared of strangers, especially men, but soon Gill makes friends with the exuberant and irrepressible Peta and together they start exploring the grounds despite Ned's muttered warnings. And so it starts...
Though it should be obvious, I would add that nothing is as it seems, everyone has secrets and ulterior motives for their actions and that is a huge part of the novel's enjoyment. And not to speak of the Aetherials, their appearance and involvement with the estate inhabitants which ultimately power the novel's main thread.
Now let's see why I found "Midsummer Night" so impressive. On opening the novel, the superb writing style of the author just hooked me and the book was one of those "read me now" ones that you cannot leave until you finish. You may have to put the book down to do other stuff, but you are not going to want to read any other novel until you are done here, maybe reread it at least once to get all its nuances that may escape on a first reading, or to just simply enjoy the tale at leisure once you know where it all goes.
The plotting of the novel is superb with all the aforementioned secrets slowly revealed and putting a different complexion on many things, while the main story progresses unabated too. This seamless integration of "character back story" and forward action is another major strength and "Midsummer Night" just flows with no narrative walls, while looking back one is astounded by how much happens, how many things from the recent or distant past are revealed, all integrated in a tapestry.
The world building - both the Scottish remote estate atmosphere with the strange sculptures Dame J. would not part even as she teeters close to bankruptcy and the Aetherial world where a lot of the "physical" action happens - is excellent too and some of the things that somewhat baffled me in Elfland regarding the latter make more sense here.
Despite being the main POV for most of the novel and for good reasons as we find out, Gill soon is shadowed by the larger than life Dame J. around whom everything revolves. From the Aetherial world, the handsome but - as we pretty much guess on the spot - sinister Rufus is the only one that matches Dame J. in presence and all his apparitions are highlights of the novel.
The memory-less stranger mentioned in the official blurb is indeed one of the motivators of the main thread, but he is more an "object" than a person, more a something than a someone quite a few people want for their own reasons. Add to this the superb cast of secondary characters, Colin, Peta, Ned, Flora and some Aetherials all with their own agenda and secrets and you see why Midsummer Night shines here too.
There is a lot of action too including a dramatic rescue on the slopes of a sort-of volcano (evidently not in Scotland), fights with and without "magic" and more. As contemporary fantasy set at the intersection of our world and the weird Aetherial one, Midsummer Night (A++) is the complete package and as good as such gets.
June 8, 2011
I wanted so badly to like this book. For one thing, the cover is SO pretty. :-)
Seriously though, I love fantasy, but aside from the fact that some of the characters are otherworldly beings called "Aetherials", the whole thing read more like a soap opera. Impossibly talented and beautiful people in an impossibly beautiful setting surrounded by more worldly (and otherworldly) wealth and talent, hooking up, uncovering old secrets, facing down an amoral Villain who cares only about his own wants and needs and the rest of the world can take its chances...
Yep. Sounds like a soap opera to me.
None of the perils are convincingly perilous, and the courtroom scene in which the Good Guys let the Bad Guy go with simply a promise to go out and be good from now on... Um, no. Just no.
And then, if that isn't enough, in the epilogue a plot twist develops that turns the whole story upside-down and completely obliterates any sense of closure.
I think I smell a sequel coming on...
Still, it was entertaining in its own way. Perhaps I expected too much. That cover art really is gorgeous.
Seriously though, I love fantasy, but aside from the fact that some of the characters are otherworldly beings called "Aetherials", the whole thing read more like a soap opera. Impossibly talented and beautiful people in an impossibly beautiful setting surrounded by more worldly (and otherworldly) wealth and talent, hooking up, uncovering old secrets, facing down an amoral Villain who cares only about his own wants and needs and the rest of the world can take its chances...
Yep. Sounds like a soap opera to me.
None of the perils are convincingly perilous, and the courtroom scene in which the Good Guys let the Bad Guy go with simply a promise to go out and be good from now on... Um, no. Just no.
And then, if that isn't enough, in the epilogue a plot twist develops that turns the whole story upside-down and completely obliterates any sense of closure.
I think I smell a sequel coming on...
Still, it was entertaining in its own way. Perhaps I expected too much. That cover art really is gorgeous.
March 26, 2011
Very atmospheric. Little slow to start, it takes a bit for the author to reel you in and the characters to open up. Then it quickly becomes a book that you just can't put down. In the beginning, I was almost cheering for the villian because I felt that Gill, Peta, & Juliana were just too quirky. But the faerie worlds are so amazing. Vivid descriptions that make everything feel so intensely real. Eventually the characters seem more than just their quirks and become more relatable. I would have also like the author to elaborate more on some of the secondary characters and events, such as Ned, Flora, Corah, Theo, and Leith. I can't wait to read Elfland, and whatever this author has next!
February 7, 2011
3.5 stars
This book pales in comparison with Elfland, though many of the issues Elfland suffered from were solved here. Despite it's 3.5 stars, it's still a worthy read.
Read my full review here:
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
This book pales in comparison with Elfland, though many of the issues Elfland suffered from were solved here. Despite it's 3.5 stars, it's still a worthy read.
Read my full review here:
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
January 28, 2024
not as good as the first one and theres no romance in this but its well written and has fleshed out characters.
July 15, 2021
2.5 stars. A complicated book to review. There was a lot to love (in the first 200 pages especially) in the gorgeous writing style, with Gill and Peta as characters and Juliana as an intriguing side character, but there were also many flaws that don't sit right with me.
-Gill is the main character. As hard as this author tried to make Juliana the same, it never worked. As we progressed further into the book, Julianna's sections grow more frequent and actually sideline Gill, which feels wrong and detracts from the build up of Gill's storyline. Her healing and perspective should have been focused on more...by the end she was still very passive and mopey. Very much wasted potential here.
-the "gals being pals"ifying of Gill's relationship with Peta: the coding for a romantic relationship with tons of actual chemistry was there all along and set up like Peta would be her love interest. Their interactions were the most convincing and moving in the whole book. Gill has many thoughts about Peta of a sapphic nature, and Peta as the initiator of their "friendship" clearly does as well. But then...random men they have no chemistry whatsoever with are hurriedly thrown in...to the point where even if they're bisexual (which is completely fine) it makes no sense for them to be attracted to these men (except for Rufus, since that was magical manipulation towards Gill.) There's an actual shared bath scene between Gill and Peta where they kiss almosttt on the lips.
I'm not one to abuse an author for their decisions for who ends up with who. It's their story. HOWEVER - setting up a charged relationship between two very compatible women as if there's hope for it and then not acknowledging it later except for "yay friendship" feels wrong to me.
-the second half of the book completely lost its way. It lost most of the charm and intrigue of the first part, as Gill was more and more sidelined, other characters way flatter and more boring than the rest were introduced, and as the unconvincing, bland arcs of "Adam" and Theo were pushed. I'm for writing unlikable characters, but Juliana is so purposefully stubborn and useless - aside from random plot events pushing her forward - that it was hard to accept her as the protagonist the author wanted to write instead after abandoning Gill.
Gosh. It's just a lot to think I'm really going to love a book for a couple hundred pages only to have everything turn on its head, the writing degrade, the characters completely change course for no reason, and in general the end was unsatisfying and rambled foreverrrr to get to the point. I have 1 more book in this trilogy of standalones in the Aetherial universe. Will I ever get to it? Who knows.
-Gill is the main character. As hard as this author tried to make Juliana the same, it never worked. As we progressed further into the book, Julianna's sections grow more frequent and actually sideline Gill, which feels wrong and detracts from the build up of Gill's storyline. Her healing and perspective should have been focused on more...by the end she was still very passive and mopey. Very much wasted potential here.
-the "gals being pals"ifying of Gill's relationship with Peta: the coding for a romantic relationship with tons of actual chemistry was there all along and set up like Peta would be her love interest. Their interactions were the most convincing and moving in the whole book. Gill has many thoughts about Peta of a sapphic nature, and Peta as the initiator of their "friendship" clearly does as well. But then...random men they have no chemistry whatsoever with are hurriedly thrown in...to the point where even if they're bisexual (which is completely fine) it makes no sense for them to be attracted to these men (except for Rufus, since that was magical manipulation towards Gill.) There's an actual shared bath scene between Gill and Peta where they kiss almosttt on the lips.
I'm not one to abuse an author for their decisions for who ends up with who. It's their story. HOWEVER - setting up a charged relationship between two very compatible women as if there's hope for it and then not acknowledging it later except for "yay friendship" feels wrong to me.
-the second half of the book completely lost its way. It lost most of the charm and intrigue of the first part, as Gill was more and more sidelined, other characters way flatter and more boring than the rest were introduced, and as the unconvincing, bland arcs of "Adam" and Theo were pushed. I'm for writing unlikable characters, but Juliana is so purposefully stubborn and useless - aside from random plot events pushing her forward - that it was hard to accept her as the protagonist the author wanted to write instead after abandoning Gill.
Gosh. It's just a lot to think I'm really going to love a book for a couple hundred pages only to have everything turn on its head, the writing degrade, the characters completely change course for no reason, and in general the end was unsatisfying and rambled foreverrrr to get to the point. I have 1 more book in this trilogy of standalones in the Aetherial universe. Will I ever get to it? Who knows.
July 27, 2016
I’m not going to lie, when I first started reading this book I couldn’t really get into it. It was probably due to a bit of anger that I wouldn’t learn any more about Rosie and Sam and the fact that I didn’t find the main character, Gil, to be very interesting.
Summary:
After tragic car accident, Gillian (or Gil), a former track star and Olympic hopeful, has fled to Scotland to mope and start the healing process. In an attempt to seek solitude, Gil is thwarted by a 6-week long art workshop by the famous Dame Julianna Flagg. When Gil wanders off in the forest, she discovers a place called Foundry. But when Gil mentions Foundry to others, it seems as though the place couldn’t possibly exist. With old tales of children going missing, being taken away by fairies, and coming back mad, Gil isn’t quite sure what she’s discovered especially when a young man from Foundry comes looking for her.
My Thoughts:
I definitely had to warm up to this book. It’s a rather creepy book where the characters are forced to deal with dark familial mysteries of the past. I just couldn’t like Gil as a main character. I didn’t find her story interesting, a famous athlete can no longer run and hides from her problems.. bleh. It seemed as though her character was just used to uncover all the mystery behind Dame J. However, as I read the book, I found it more and more intriguing. Rufus Hart made an excellent villain who can seduce and give extraordinary happiness and then rip it away. When Leith, the young man from Foundry, shows up in Cairndonan things start to get very interesting as Gil and Peta search to discover which of the long-lost children he could be. The mystery behind his appearance starts to drive the plot forward, but even that struggles to gain momentum when Dame J delays Gil and Peta from questioning him further.
The redeeming qualities of this book had to be the way the Otherworld was developed, seeing the politics that exist there, how the Otherworld is shaped, and the intriguing notion of a human who can access this fairy realm with ease. This exploration of the blurring between the human world and the Aetherial world was very interesting.
But I felt that the plot was dragged out and only a few characters made the book worthwhile (Peta, Rufus, Leith).
Bottom Line: Maybe read this one before Elfland because it will spark your interest and you won’t be as let down as I was. However, I did enjoy the book overall. It just took awhile to get into it, and it wasn’t as character driven as Elfland.
See my other reviews!
Summary:
After tragic car accident, Gillian (or Gil), a former track star and Olympic hopeful, has fled to Scotland to mope and start the healing process. In an attempt to seek solitude, Gil is thwarted by a 6-week long art workshop by the famous Dame Julianna Flagg. When Gil wanders off in the forest, she discovers a place called Foundry. But when Gil mentions Foundry to others, it seems as though the place couldn’t possibly exist. With old tales of children going missing, being taken away by fairies, and coming back mad, Gil isn’t quite sure what she’s discovered especially when a young man from Foundry comes looking for her.
My Thoughts:
I definitely had to warm up to this book. It’s a rather creepy book where the characters are forced to deal with dark familial mysteries of the past. I just couldn’t like Gil as a main character. I didn’t find her story interesting, a famous athlete can no longer run and hides from her problems.. bleh. It seemed as though her character was just used to uncover all the mystery behind Dame J. However, as I read the book, I found it more and more intriguing. Rufus Hart made an excellent villain who can seduce and give extraordinary happiness and then rip it away. When Leith, the young man from Foundry, shows up in Cairndonan things start to get very interesting as Gil and Peta search to discover which of the long-lost children he could be. The mystery behind his appearance starts to drive the plot forward, but even that struggles to gain momentum when Dame J delays Gil and Peta from questioning him further.
The redeeming qualities of this book had to be the way the Otherworld was developed, seeing the politics that exist there, how the Otherworld is shaped, and the intriguing notion of a human who can access this fairy realm with ease. This exploration of the blurring between the human world and the Aetherial world was very interesting.
But I felt that the plot was dragged out and only a few characters made the book worthwhile (Peta, Rufus, Leith).
Bottom Line: Maybe read this one before Elfland because it will spark your interest and you won’t be as let down as I was. However, I did enjoy the book overall. It just took awhile to get into it, and it wasn’t as character driven as Elfland.
See my other reviews!
April 21, 2013
It's official...I have a huge author crush on Freda Warrington!
In this second Aetherial story, siblings Adam, Corah, and Melody decide to play a prank on their susceptible uncle by dressing up as fae in the middle of the forest. Thir prank takes a turn for the worst however when REAL fae turn up; inducing a heart attack on their uncle and Adam stolen away by them. Decades an decades later, a descendant of the original siblings runs an art facility on an estate where encounters with the fae are a thing of myth. One young woman, Gill, who is staying on the estate at the time stumbles into a part of the Otherworld called Boundry. Not long after, a mysterious stranger appears on her doorstep during a wild rainstorm seeking sanctuary from the fae, whom he claims have held him captive against his will. But who is this young man? Could he be long lost Adam? Does his identity stem from darker origins?
Dear gods, was this book fantastic! Once again Freda Warrington's writing style and sense of mysterious intrigue absolutely blew me away! There are so many questions and twists and turns that fill this book, but at the same time the pace was so delicious and full of beautiful descriptions of places and chracters that it almost felt decadent! :) I loved unwraveling each thread of the story, this book was such a pleasure to read!
In this second Aetherial story, siblings Adam, Corah, and Melody decide to play a prank on their susceptible uncle by dressing up as fae in the middle of the forest. Thir prank takes a turn for the worst however when REAL fae turn up; inducing a heart attack on their uncle and Adam stolen away by them. Decades an decades later, a descendant of the original siblings runs an art facility on an estate where encounters with the fae are a thing of myth. One young woman, Gill, who is staying on the estate at the time stumbles into a part of the Otherworld called Boundry. Not long after, a mysterious stranger appears on her doorstep during a wild rainstorm seeking sanctuary from the fae, whom he claims have held him captive against his will. But who is this young man? Could he be long lost Adam? Does his identity stem from darker origins?
Dear gods, was this book fantastic! Once again Freda Warrington's writing style and sense of mysterious intrigue absolutely blew me away! There are so many questions and twists and turns that fill this book, but at the same time the pace was so delicious and full of beautiful descriptions of places and chracters that it almost felt decadent! :) I loved unwraveling each thread of the story, this book was such a pleasure to read!
December 28, 2010
I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Elfland due to it not being quite as intense, but I still very much enjoyed it. It did have lovely writing, well-developed characters and more about Aetherials.
Full Review
Full Review
April 15, 2011
I quite liked it. But I didn't get as hooked as I was with elfland. But the ending was stupid. It was as if the author was like, "what shall I do with the man she finally fell in love with, that all the readers were finally looking forward to...oh lets just have him fall off a cliff."
Soooo dumb...
Soooo dumb...
June 23, 2019
Finally able to go back and finish this one! It wasn't as good as Elfland, but still very enjoyable. Excited to finish out the series.
July 3, 2017
Bumping to 4 stars just for the weird non sequiturs I got to yell at my husband.
I liked this way more than I thought I would. It's guilty of some of my bigger fantasy pet peeves, and yet I barely put it down once I got started. Warrington has a gift for the ensemble piece, layering characters and narratives into a compelling melodrama with few, if any, neat finishes. I haven't read the first book in the series, so I can't speak to whether this book is better or not, but this book works well as a standalone.
I liked this way more than I thought I would. It's guilty of some of my bigger fantasy pet peeves, and yet I barely put it down once I got started. Warrington has a gift for the ensemble piece, layering characters and narratives into a compelling melodrama with few, if any, neat finishes. I haven't read the first book in the series, so I can't speak to whether this book is better or not, but this book works well as a standalone.
December 20, 2020
I really enjoy novels that involve the people dealing with crossing between normal and fae. I enjoyed the first novel in this series. This one has quite a bit of violence. It is set in the same locale as the first book.
Gill books a stay at a cottage that is at an estate owned by her aunt, looking for isolation after a car accident that has destroyed her running career. The estate is operating as an artist class when Gill arrives. However, Gill goes out wandering and ends up at a pub in a village that shouldn’t exist....
Gill books a stay at a cottage that is at an estate owned by her aunt, looking for isolation after a car accident that has destroyed her running career. The estate is operating as an artist class when Gill arrives. However, Gill goes out wandering and ends up at a pub in a village that shouldn’t exist....
July 18, 2023
Honestly it was a good book, 3.5 rather than 4 stars but it feels more fair to round it up to 4 than 3.
It's not my first time reading Freda Warrington's books, in fact this is my second and while as I said it was a really good book I have to add that I can't help but feel like her books always lose some of their charm towards the ending. The way she writes action is good but not nearly as good as the mystery of the beginning, the dark settings and sort of almost horror vibes that pull you in.
Still would recommend it just had to say this
It's not my first time reading Freda Warrington's books, in fact this is my second and while as I said it was a really good book I have to add that I can't help but feel like her books always lose some of their charm towards the ending. The way she writes action is good but not nearly as good as the mystery of the beginning, the dark settings and sort of almost horror vibes that pull you in.
Still would recommend it just had to say this
August 17, 2017
This was actually the second time I read this book. I guess it wasn't that memorable! I recall enjoying Elfland, the first book in the Aetherial Tales - this one felt a bit flat, especially toward the end. The beginning portion, with its atmospheric setting and mystery works, but as the story progresses and becomes merged with the faerie realms I felt like it lost its momentum and floundered around, unsure of what the author really wanted you to think of the characters.
February 20, 2018
Fantastic story. I was disappointed at first that it wasn’t a continuation of the first book, Elfland, although a couple of characters are mentioned, but the story of Gill quickly captured my attention and I couldn’t get enough. I loved the twists and turns, and learning who each character was and how they were connected to others. I really enjoyed it.
December 30, 2018
I read this book because the first in the series, Elfland, was so well crafted. But this was pure drudgery. It clearly suffers from sequel syndrome. Worst of all, it wrecked some of the magic of the first book for me. Warrington is a good writer. Hopefully the third in the series will be an improvement.
May 5, 2018
Less of a fantasy novel, more of a chick-lit romance/quarter-life crisis book, in which the characters reference fantasy-type places/experiences that occur 'off-camera' so to speak.
August 18, 2020
I read this and read the whole series and pretty much loved them all. Loved them so much I re-read them. One of the better urban fantasy books I've read in a long, long time.
February 11, 2021
Engaging and immersive. Add in satisfying characters & their growth and tackling one of my favorite themes of all - how do you tell good from evil? - and you've got a winner!
July 26, 2011
Gill, former Olympic track hopeful, ends her running career after a life-changing car accident as well as a relationship with her trainer-boyfriend. Julianna, world-famous sculptor, is on the verge of bankruptcy as the result of not having sold a single work for the last fifteen years. It's at Julianna's remote British estate where their stories merge. Gill rents the little cottage on the grounds with the intent to recover in some peace and quiet. At the same time Julianna is hosting a summer art school, and plans to muddle through somehow and keep the creditors at bay.
It's during a stroll through Cairndonan Estate's extensive grounds that Gill inadvertently walks into the Otherworld—and a man follows her out.
From thereon out it's a tumbling waterfall of story and information. Because, really, there's a lot of backstory that has to be revealed. Fortunately Freda Warrington's deft hand weaves all the information without clunky exposition or contrivance (ok, maybe there is some, but the prose is so charming that you'll just go with it) into a complicated story that blends the magic of the Otherworld with Earth.
Gill and Julianna, our PoV narrators, are two very different women. Gill is still a young woman, but is broken body and spirit, and despite her assertion that she's recovering from her injuries, it's more like she's hiding. Julianna is in her 60s, although she looks much younger. She's driven by the need to make Midsummer Night, the sculptural group she's been working on, perfect before presenting it to the public. The supporting cast of ex-husband, housekeeper, art school teacher Peta, and others, are well drawn and interesting in their own right. There's Leith, the man who follows Gill from the Otherworld who is human, but has been gone so long from Earth he can't remember his former life. Then there's the sinister Rufus, the Aetherial man who took Leith and will do anything to get him back.
There is present-day Earth as you know it, but there's also the Otherworld, a sort of fairyland where magic originates. There's crossover between the realms, with ley lines on Earth where Aetherials—the inhabitants of the Otherworld—travel from realm to realm. Some Aetherials have chosen to live among the humans, and as a result they've changed from those who still live in the Otherworld. Peta is one such Earth-bound Aetherial, and like others of her kind, have a knack for the arts, which partly explains why she's at Julianna's estate when Gill has a run-in with the Otherworld, and then inserts herself into Gill's life.
In MIDSUMMER NIGHT the boundaries between the two realms blur, and we slowly come to understand that the Aetherials don't necessarily have the humans' best interests at heart.
The story ebbs and flows, so occasionally you come to a point in the novel where you feel like the climax should be any minute and story will wrap up...only a new event or information is tacked on. By three-quarters of the way through you'll start to feel that the story is being dragged on unnecessarily, and wonder if Warrington will just get on with it. But when the climax does come, then you realize that it couldn't have been any other way. It doesn't end like you'll expect it to, all tidy and happy. But that's what makes this story worth reading, because it would have been just another mediocre book if it had—Warrington stays true to the tone of the novel that she started with.
If you enjoyed Harkness' A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES, and are impatiently waiting for the sequel, this may be the book to tide you over.
Recommended Age: 16+
Language: A handful of profanity.
Violence: A sense of peril and some fisticuffs.
Sex: Referenced with some detail, including adult sexual abuse. Also, readers who enjoy romance and thwarted love will get their fill.
MIDSUMMER NIGHT is the loosely tied sequel to Freda Warrington's ELFLAND, but is readable as a standalone.
It's during a stroll through Cairndonan Estate's extensive grounds that Gill inadvertently walks into the Otherworld—and a man follows her out.
From thereon out it's a tumbling waterfall of story and information. Because, really, there's a lot of backstory that has to be revealed. Fortunately Freda Warrington's deft hand weaves all the information without clunky exposition or contrivance (ok, maybe there is some, but the prose is so charming that you'll just go with it) into a complicated story that blends the magic of the Otherworld with Earth.
Gill and Julianna, our PoV narrators, are two very different women. Gill is still a young woman, but is broken body and spirit, and despite her assertion that she's recovering from her injuries, it's more like she's hiding. Julianna is in her 60s, although she looks much younger. She's driven by the need to make Midsummer Night, the sculptural group she's been working on, perfect before presenting it to the public. The supporting cast of ex-husband, housekeeper, art school teacher Peta, and others, are well drawn and interesting in their own right. There's Leith, the man who follows Gill from the Otherworld who is human, but has been gone so long from Earth he can't remember his former life. Then there's the sinister Rufus, the Aetherial man who took Leith and will do anything to get him back.
There is present-day Earth as you know it, but there's also the Otherworld, a sort of fairyland where magic originates. There's crossover between the realms, with ley lines on Earth where Aetherials—the inhabitants of the Otherworld—travel from realm to realm. Some Aetherials have chosen to live among the humans, and as a result they've changed from those who still live in the Otherworld. Peta is one such Earth-bound Aetherial, and like others of her kind, have a knack for the arts, which partly explains why she's at Julianna's estate when Gill has a run-in with the Otherworld, and then inserts herself into Gill's life.
In MIDSUMMER NIGHT the boundaries between the two realms blur, and we slowly come to understand that the Aetherials don't necessarily have the humans' best interests at heart.
The story ebbs and flows, so occasionally you come to a point in the novel where you feel like the climax should be any minute and story will wrap up...only a new event or information is tacked on. By three-quarters of the way through you'll start to feel that the story is being dragged on unnecessarily, and wonder if Warrington will just get on with it. But when the climax does come, then you realize that it couldn't have been any other way. It doesn't end like you'll expect it to, all tidy and happy. But that's what makes this story worth reading, because it would have been just another mediocre book if it had—Warrington stays true to the tone of the novel that she started with.
If you enjoyed Harkness' A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES, and are impatiently waiting for the sequel, this may be the book to tide you over.
Recommended Age: 16+
Language: A handful of profanity.
Violence: A sense of peril and some fisticuffs.
Sex: Referenced with some detail, including adult sexual abuse. Also, readers who enjoy romance and thwarted love will get their fill.
MIDSUMMER NIGHT is the loosely tied sequel to Freda Warrington's ELFLAND, but is readable as a standalone.
January 23, 2011
The Aetherial Tales are awesome. What wonderful books! This book is set in the same world as Elfland (contemporary British Isles, with an Otherworld called the Spiral). It is not a direct sequel and can work as a standalone, but I'd recommend reading Elfland first just because you get a more comprehensive view of who the Aetherials are, where they come from, how they live, how the Spiral is arranged, etc.
The Aetherials are cool because the way their backstory is constructed, they could have been many types of supernatural being during many periods of history, and it would still work. There's incredible variety among them. Some are aloof, otherworldly snobs, some are warm, likeable, humanlike characters, and some are in between. I just love the mythology. And the Spiral, an Otherworld with realms that reflect the elements, is one of the best fantasy worlds ever (but while some of the action in Midsummer Night takes place in the Spiral, Elfland focuses more on it).
So, the story. It's very gothic. The scene is a manor house somewhere on the coast of Scotland, complete with dark family secrets and mysterious housekeepers. Cairndonan belongs to Dame Juliana, a world-class sculptor and formidable older woman. To help ease the estate's financial woes, Dame Juliana is holding master art classes during the summer and also renting out a cottage on the property. A young woman named Gill arrives to rent this cottage, intending to avoid human society and wallow in her misery. At the beginning of the book, Gill is nearly destroyed after surviving an enormous betrayal and the end of her promising athletic career. She's addicted to painkillers and wants nothing to do with anyone.
However, Gill's plans to isolate herself hit some major snags. First, Peta, a fascinating young artist teaching a class at Cairndonan, thrusts her cheerful, fiery company upon Gill. Then, Gill goes on a walk and ends up in a mysterious alternate village where nothing seems quite right. The man she meets there will play a big role in a story that's all about the missing, the dead, the cycle of revenge, and the nature of interactions between humans and Aetherials. I don't want to give away any of the big secrets, so I'll stop there.
This was a great book. It had me seriously captivated. The author, Freda Warrington, has a really good handle on what makes people tick and how they might realistically act. So although this is a fantasy, it feels fully real and you care about the characters even when they are foolish or in the wrong. I only wish that there could have been a little more resolution with a few of the characters, so I'm hoping that the 3rd Aetherial Tale (currently in progress) will feature some of them. Can't wait for more!
The Aetherials are cool because the way their backstory is constructed, they could have been many types of supernatural being during many periods of history, and it would still work. There's incredible variety among them. Some are aloof, otherworldly snobs, some are warm, likeable, humanlike characters, and some are in between. I just love the mythology. And the Spiral, an Otherworld with realms that reflect the elements, is one of the best fantasy worlds ever (but while some of the action in Midsummer Night takes place in the Spiral, Elfland focuses more on it).
So, the story. It's very gothic. The scene is a manor house somewhere on the coast of Scotland, complete with dark family secrets and mysterious housekeepers. Cairndonan belongs to Dame Juliana, a world-class sculptor and formidable older woman. To help ease the estate's financial woes, Dame Juliana is holding master art classes during the summer and also renting out a cottage on the property. A young woman named Gill arrives to rent this cottage, intending to avoid human society and wallow in her misery. At the beginning of the book, Gill is nearly destroyed after surviving an enormous betrayal and the end of her promising athletic career. She's addicted to painkillers and wants nothing to do with anyone.
However, Gill's plans to isolate herself hit some major snags. First, Peta, a fascinating young artist teaching a class at Cairndonan, thrusts her cheerful, fiery company upon Gill. Then, Gill goes on a walk and ends up in a mysterious alternate village where nothing seems quite right. The man she meets there will play a big role in a story that's all about the missing, the dead, the cycle of revenge, and the nature of interactions between humans and Aetherials. I don't want to give away any of the big secrets, so I'll stop there.
This was a great book. It had me seriously captivated. The author, Freda Warrington, has a really good handle on what makes people tick and how they might realistically act. So although this is a fantasy, it feels fully real and you care about the characters even when they are foolish or in the wrong. I only wish that there could have been a little more resolution with a few of the characters, so I'm hoping that the 3rd Aetherial Tale (currently in progress) will feature some of them. Can't wait for more!
August 20, 2013
The artwork for this book was almost as amazing as the first one. Kinuko Craft does brilliant, outstanding paintings that are completely mind-blowing. The art for the second book wasn't as complex as for the first but definitely no less beautiful.
As for the story, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first. I had heard that all three books in the series tie in together without having the same characters and its true but definitely a stretch. I guess they all take place in the same general universe and the reader is supposed to just go with it. I was kind of interested in finding out what happens to the characters from the first book but no luck there.
As a whole, the story itself was interesting but not quite as addictive as the plot in the first. The characters were interesting, but not as compelling as those in the first. Juliana was written pretty well and I found it interesting to follow her actions. I think everyone has that crazy old grandmother spitfire type that everyone humors and that's what she reminded me of. I never quite completely understood all the nuances of the Adam/Mist/Leon storyline. It just got a bit too hectic. The epilogue ending was also very WTF. The rest of the characters didn't seem to be fleshed out enough, like they were archetypes with a little personality but not enough to make following the story addictive. There were places where I had to trudge through the words to get to a point where I could follow things again.
Overall, it wasn't horrible; but definitely not up to the standards of the first one.
On a side note, I wish more than the Aetherial Tales were available in print in the US because Warrington seems to be an amazing author. Even in this book with a plot somewhat lacking, her control of grammar is impressive.
As for the story, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first. I had heard that all three books in the series tie in together without having the same characters and its true but definitely a stretch. I guess they all take place in the same general universe and the reader is supposed to just go with it. I was kind of interested in finding out what happens to the characters from the first book but no luck there.
As a whole, the story itself was interesting but not quite as addictive as the plot in the first. The characters were interesting, but not as compelling as those in the first. Juliana was written pretty well and I found it interesting to follow her actions. I think everyone has that crazy old grandmother spitfire type that everyone humors and that's what she reminded me of. I never quite completely understood all the nuances of the Adam/Mist/Leon storyline. It just got a bit too hectic. The epilogue ending was also very WTF. The rest of the characters didn't seem to be fleshed out enough, like they were archetypes with a little personality but not enough to make following the story addictive. There were places where I had to trudge through the words to get to a point where I could follow things again.
Overall, it wasn't horrible; but definitely not up to the standards of the first one.
On a side note, I wish more than the Aetherial Tales were available in print in the US because Warrington seems to be an amazing author. Even in this book with a plot somewhat lacking, her control of grammar is impressive.
September 18, 2015
At this length (400+ is my favorite, as a rule), I worried my experience with this charity book sale find would suffer since I'd not read the first title in the series, Elfland. However, I blissfully sailed through at least the 1st half of this 2nd book - backstory & in-depth character appreciation bedamned! Only one line at the very end of book 2 jolted me into realizing that Elfland exists for a reason.
Midsummer Night was a fun take on 'deep history of drama at the family manse' + art & sculpture muses + faerie/human interface + GOOD vs EVIL (yes, writ large) + a dash of odd-to-intriguing insights on relationships: romance, friendship, kinship, employee loyalty, patriotism/world-ism. Characters are lively, well-written overall and diverse; they play nicely off of established characters from 'real' myths, history and Biblical passages. There is a sickening thread of sexual predation that I didn't need; in some ways it short cuts or supplants the full-spectrum evil that certain characters wield.
The non-human world-building is pretty great. Hints leak out in casual conversations. Quick encounters lead to more experience and understanding. Even the original medium and then major breakthroughs to the other side are rolled out really well. And then somehow, it more jumps the shark than spins together in a lushly believable ending. I don't know quite how or why some of the threads start coming loose, but they do. I still read the whole thing but the last fourth took as long as first 3/4. And I am considering reading at least a very thorough review of books 1 & 3 because I do care about certain characters and plot lines - just not enough to track down the full books. But if they show up at a future book sale...I'm in.
Midsummer Night was a fun take on 'deep history of drama at the family manse' + art & sculpture muses + faerie/human interface + GOOD vs EVIL (yes, writ large) + a dash of odd-to-intriguing insights on relationships: romance, friendship, kinship, employee loyalty, patriotism/world-ism. Characters are lively, well-written overall and diverse; they play nicely off of established characters from 'real' myths, history and Biblical passages. There is a sickening thread of sexual predation that I didn't need; in some ways it short cuts or supplants the full-spectrum evil that certain characters wield.
The non-human world-building is pretty great. Hints leak out in casual conversations. Quick encounters lead to more experience and understanding. Even the original medium and then major breakthroughs to the other side are rolled out really well. And then somehow, it more jumps the shark than spins together in a lushly believable ending. I don't know quite how or why some of the threads start coming loose, but they do. I still read the whole thing but the last fourth took as long as first 3/4. And I am considering reading at least a very thorough review of books 1 & 3 because I do care about certain characters and plot lines - just not enough to track down the full books. But if they show up at a future book sale...I'm in.
January 27, 2011
First, I just have to say, look at that cover! Isn't that gorgeous!! PLus, it also has meaning to the book.
Okay, now on to the review. This book was very different from the first in the series, Elfland. Elfland centers on characters that are Aetherials. You follow them into the story and they already know their powers and limits. It's very refreshing. This book centers on mostly human characters. So, as they work their way into the plot, they learn more about the world of the Aetherials. It almost seems like this should have been the first book and Elfland should have been the sequel. Midsummer Night was also different from Elfland in that there was no heavy romance arch, whereas Elfland could very well have been put in the romance section of the book store. I believe it even won an award from the a romance magazine or something like that.
Nevertheless, despite the differences, this was every bit as good a book as Elfland. The thing I liked the most was that Freda took the reader on a journey with the main character, Gill, as she struggled to recover from a brutal accident. The mystery was great. It always left me wanting to read more. The world of the Aetherials and the Aetherials themselves were described beautifully. Freda is a spectacular writer. All I can say is that I am SO looking forward to Grail of the Summer Stars, the next book in the series. I need it now! (And I can't wait to see the cover!!)
Okay, now on to the review. This book was very different from the first in the series, Elfland. Elfland centers on characters that are Aetherials. You follow them into the story and they already know their powers and limits. It's very refreshing. This book centers on mostly human characters. So, as they work their way into the plot, they learn more about the world of the Aetherials. It almost seems like this should have been the first book and Elfland should have been the sequel. Midsummer Night was also different from Elfland in that there was no heavy romance arch, whereas Elfland could very well have been put in the romance section of the book store. I believe it even won an award from the a romance magazine or something like that.
Nevertheless, despite the differences, this was every bit as good a book as Elfland. The thing I liked the most was that Freda took the reader on a journey with the main character, Gill, as she struggled to recover from a brutal accident. The mystery was great. It always left me wanting to read more. The world of the Aetherials and the Aetherials themselves were described beautifully. Freda is a spectacular writer. All I can say is that I am SO looking forward to Grail of the Summer Stars, the next book in the series. I need it now! (And I can't wait to see the cover!!)
June 15, 2011
I enjoyed this mythical fiction and urban fantasy mix of a novel.
This book is about a group of mostly broken and unhappy people who end up growing closer (and stronger) than they thought possible, while they work to discover the truth about the appearance of a strange young man and later, as they battle the evil villain. The large estate where the story takes place is strangely wrapped up in and connected to the Aetherial world, the Spiral (faeryland), and the main characters journey there and back in their efforts to bring all to rights.
The characters in this one were somewhat harder to like than in Elflands, but that didn't upset the story, or my interest in the plot. I was hoping for a different resolution, but the author's fits the storyline and characters better than any assumptions I had before I started reading. I did enjoy the fact that the storyline was not a copy of that in Elflands, with different heroines and different villains. I have also discovered a great liking for Warrington's prose, and her descriptions of the strange and eerie Otherworlds. An interesting bit of politics provides an intriguing plot twist that took me by surprise.
Final word: I look forward to the next in the series, and any other books of Warrington's that get published in North America.
This book is about a group of mostly broken and unhappy people who end up growing closer (and stronger) than they thought possible, while they work to discover the truth about the appearance of a strange young man and later, as they battle the evil villain. The large estate where the story takes place is strangely wrapped up in and connected to the Aetherial world, the Spiral (faeryland), and the main characters journey there and back in their efforts to bring all to rights.
The characters in this one were somewhat harder to like than in Elflands, but that didn't upset the story, or my interest in the plot. I was hoping for a different resolution, but the author's fits the storyline and characters better than any assumptions I had before I started reading. I did enjoy the fact that the storyline was not a copy of that in Elflands, with different heroines and different villains. I have also discovered a great liking for Warrington's prose, and her descriptions of the strange and eerie Otherworlds. An interesting bit of politics provides an intriguing plot twist that took me by surprise.
Final word: I look forward to the next in the series, and any other books of Warrington's that get published in North America.
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