A Great and Terrible Beauty

[snookums]

Is anyone else here a fan of Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle Trilogy? These books are on my top tier bookshelf. Don't overlook them just because they are labeled youth fiction. They are some of the best Victorian Gothic/Fantasy novels I've ever read. Rather than try to describe them myself, here's the blurb.

A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy--jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel.

Gemma, 16, has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother’s death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls’ academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left wi! th the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order. A Great and Terrible Beauty is an impressive first book in what should prove to be a fascinating trilogy. (Ages 12 up) –Patty Campbell

http://www.amazon.com/GREAT-AND-TERR...28/ref=ed_oe_k

I'm still finishing the third book in the trilogy (800 pages) so for God's sake don't post any spoilers if you've already read it.

[CommanderROR]

Okay, just bought it @ Booksonboard for 3.xx$ which is basically nothing in Euro... and will start reading now.

I hope it's as nice as the Quote above indicates.

[snookums]

Originally Posted by CommanderROR

Okay, just bought it @ Booksonboard for 3.xx$ which is basically nothing in Euro... and will start reading now.

I hope it's as nice as the Quote above indicates.

Please post back here when you get a chance to read it. I'd love to hear what you thought of it. I have to say that along with Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell) Libba Bray is on my short list of up and coming authors that deserve watching. I've just finished the third book in the trilogy, and that's usually where you're most likely to be disappointed what with author burnout and tying loose plot lines together and all. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that I wasn't going to be disappointed like I was with the last Harry Potter book. If anything, the last book in the trilogy is the best by far.

[CommanderROR]

Ok then...I finished reading the last volume last weekend, just before I had to send my Iliad away for the battery upgrade, and now I've finally found some time to write a few words about the series...

First of all, it really is a nice trilogy. The story is interesting and it keeps you interested until the very end. There were a few things that I did not like, some of the characters were a bit too stereotypical, some plot twists were too transparent, some logical mistakes here and there and so on, but nothing major.

I have to disagree with you about the last volume...the first half (or even more) of that book seemed rather weak compared to the other volumes, it felt like there were a lot of rewrites and edits done, sometimes even as though two different authors had tried their luck on certain parts of the story and then just pieced it together. At this point I was starting to get worried...hoewever, the second half of the last volume then goes back on track and finishes the story off nicely, so all in all it's a good conlusion to the series.

Libba Bray is an Author worth watching, at the moment I would not place here among the big ones, but it may well be that she will be among them soon...time will tell.

At this time I'm putting more confidence in Brandon Sanderson however, both as author for the final Wheel of Time novel and as author of solid Fanatasy literature.