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Title: The Godmother by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough ISBN: 0-441-00269-2 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: December, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.53 (15 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Well-written but somehow not quite there for me
Comment: Scarborough is, without a doubt, a talented writer (as if one needs me to tell one that). Her prose just about sparkles; it is a delight to read. It's too bad this story is so.. I don't know.. not up to par. It's like a poorly-fitted dress on a supermodel.
The titular Godmother is the best of the characters here. She swoops in at the behest of the heroine (a typical do-gooder a la "Briar Rose"'s Becca, matryr complex, filled with love for the downtrodden, hardworking and without a romantic interest in sight, etc.) to save the entire city. Along the way, she rescues people who closely resemble characters from old fairy tales (the passage in the book that I liked best was her appearance as Kwan Yin to an Oriental gangbanger -- powerful and entirely believable, but alas, probably lost on most people), like "Red Riding Hood" and "Hansel and Gretel".
It felt like the story took the easy way out in many ways. Of course Hansel and Gretel was about molestation, for example. Many vignettes were too easy, too manipulative, too baldly obvious. Some characters were very stock in nature. The end spiralled out of control fast, coming to a conclusion that I had to read twice to believe I'd seen. I don't get into stories that are too pat, too obviously forced together, but this had that feel, in spades. And the bit about magic being doled out irked me for some reason -- very hokey and totally unnecessary, particularly since, having introduced the device, Scarborough promptly stomps it for the whole rest of the story. She could have thought of a better way to lessen the use of magic.
Would I read it again? Not likely. Scarborough has written many better books, but this isn't one of the better efforts.
Rating: 5
Summary: Thought-provoking, clever, fun take on fairy tales!
Comment: Cleverly weaving in lots of familiar fairy tales, the author also reminds the reader that life in the 90s is NOT a fairy tale, and, often, not even fair! But Felicity to the rescue -- a Godmother with just enough powers to make all the interwoven stories in this wonderful book have happy endings. I hope that Ms. Scarborough keeps writing more and more books in this series -- I'm reading "The Godmother's Apprentice" now and can't wait to get into "The Godmother's Web," the third in the series. I can't put them down, but I don't want to read them because then they'll be all gone!!
Rating: 2
Summary: A Disappointment
Comment: This book was a real let-down for me. I had just finished reading Lisa Croll di Dio's "Sherwood Forest" and was looking for some more magickal escapism. This book was just lame. Sorry.
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Title: The Godmother's Apprentice by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough ISBN: 0441003583 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: August, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: The Godmother's Web by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough ISBN: 0441006000 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: Alta by Mercedes Lackey ISBN: 0756402166 Publisher: DAW Books Pub. Date: 02 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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