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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780756403638
ISBN number: 0756403634
Label: DAW
Manufacturer: DAW
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: October 03, 2006
Publishing house: DAW
Sale Popularity Level: 120899
Studio: DAW
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Product Description:
Isabelle Benson has learned that an Elemental Master is behind the attempts on her students' lives-and the would-be murderer is someone very close to her former flame, 'The Wizard of London.'
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Rated by buyers 
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Terrific set-up for a climatic battle between Elemental Masters, Warriors of Light and assorted ancient spiritual figures, and then it peters out, completely. But up until the last three pages it was a pretty good story.
Rated by buyers 
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I enjoy the world of the Elemental Masters, but this book is the weakest of the series so far. The very first part of the book is more like a series of short stories, where the very first part of each chapter rehashes information you already have.
Also, the students with animal companions overcoming the bad guy who is trying to live forever is a plot sequence that I'm getting a bit tired of in Lackey's work.
The editing perhaps needs a little work as well -- there were several bits where character gender changed, and some of the grammar was bad (repeated words in the same sentence, etc). Those are minor points, of course.
Rated by buyers -
I was partially on a quest when I started this book: I wanted to appreciate genre fiction, this coming from a self-proclaimed literary geek, who despised popular fiction; but one has to widen his/her horizons now and again. So I picked up Mercedes Lackey's fourth book in Elemental Masters series. The main plot line as advertised follows the adventures of two girls in their adventures in a boarding school for the "talented." However, at the same time, the highlight of the book is in the character Isabelle "Memsa'b" Harton, the head mistress of the boarding school, and the problems she runs into while protecting these two new children from unknown sources, which are linked to her ex-lover, a man known as the Wizard of London and his tutor, Cordelia.
What stands out about Lackey's series here is that it is not your classical high fantasy a la Tolkien. Instead, it can be termed "historical fantasy," in that she takes a historical period and tells a story of that time, yet she adds fantastical elements, such as magic. What we get in this combination is an interesting mix. We get characters who are psychics, wizards, as well as "elemental masters" or Lackey's London, those who can control the elements. Fantasy is all about world building, and the author takes a twist, by adopting a world we already know and changing it. For the most part Lackey does a believable job, terming the magicians, wizards, and elemental masters as a hidden part of society and at the same time very human. We see a woman who reminisces about the past and wonder if she regrets anything; on the other hand, there's a man haunted by his past, seeing everything as a mistake despite his success; and there's a woman who will do anything for power, that precious thing that had been denied to her due to her sex (indeed, we see many feminist themes). The characters are life like and are people we can relate to, either directly or as figures we've seen in past books and stories, such as "The Snow Queen" which is the basis of this novel.
The weak points, however, are the parts when the book leaves the road of reality and enters a fantasy that is too outrageous to believe. For example, we see Shakespeare's Puck as an important character, who out of anything Lackey could have done, this was perhaps second to worst. The worst is perhaps the quick ending (I will not spoil it here) which simply leaves the audience hanging: at the end, the author wraps everything up quickly to the typical "happily ever after" ending, but seemingly her characters feel forced into this ending. Lackey could have done with extending the story a bit more, not just simply give us the ending. This, however, is a disappointment.
On the bright side, my very first experience with fantasy (besides Tolkien's novels) is a decent one. I plan to read more by Lackey for her characters, for the themes she develop, for that Lambda Literary Award she won, and for the cover: it's a really beautiful cover!
Rated by buyers 
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I think I'm the one person on the planet who hasn't read a lot of Mercedes Lackey books. I've only read "Children of the Night" which is a VERY different book than this one.
I really liked how the book so thoroughly immerses you into the time frame, the social dynamics and the etiquette of the era. Ms. Lackey nicely weaves the fantasy elements into the historical realities of the period. I also appreciated how she discussed true evil as a lack of emotion, rather than rage and fire.
The book did leave me wondering how truly nasty the very nasty villain would have been if she had been born a man.
I think I'll take a trip to the Tower of London and think very hard at the ravens now.
Rated by buyers -
The novel deals with school environment of talented children and thuss is of special interest. It's fantasy of an ideal school and good teachers, and it gives good mind and feelings to the reader, who can correlate it to her's ovn reality of the past. A nice story, with good characters, activities and environments. I recomend it to all ages, young and elder people
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