 "More UF than typical MZB..." | 2010-03-08 |
| - Reviewed By Sooo many books, so little time! from Whereever I go, here I am. |
I've read a few books by MZB, so I was pretty surprised at the subject of this book. Where I usually associate her with fairy tale kingdoms & Arthurian legends, this book is solidly in the "present" (1990s). The end result is something that both pleased & disappointed me.
Winter is a young woman running from something that she is unable to describe. Previously she was a self-assured young mover & shaker on Wall Street, but took a leave of absence from all of that due to reasons she is somewhat unable to put her finger on. Taking refuge in an old house after being released from a mental clinic, she tries to ignore the signs that something is after her. Each day she finds all of the windows & doors in the house open. It isn't until she once again finds dead, flayed animal corpses on her front door that she attempts to get help from local psychic researcher Truth. As the manifestations become more & more violent, her dreams of a mysterious man from a past she can't seem to remember begs for her help.
Witchlight is volume 2 in MZB's "Light" series, a fact I was unaware of until I came onto amazon to write this review. Don't worry- you should be able to read this book without having to read the previous books, although future books seem to require that you've read everything that has gone on before.
I rather liked the idea of this book. It's just that the book didn't deliver on everything that it promised. The magic in the book is the best part, which isn't surprising for MZB- she has a knack for making magic enticing to read. It's just that the characters weren't all that appealing. Every time that I thought Winter was getting over her whole "is this magic or insanity" thing, she'd jump right back on to that bandwagon. Frankly, it got really old after a while. The ending was also a little rushed in my opinion. It just seemed to be kind of a "huh? that's it?" type of thing. I was rather underwhelmed.
Still, even mediocre MZB is still fun. Fans of her far better written work will be sorely disappointed with this book, although new fans should like it- plus they get the added bonus of moving on to better books by her. This was good enough that I'll be looking for the other books, but not really good enough to really warrant keeping it. This is one that I'll probably be trading with friends or the local used book store for other reading material. |
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 "Not too good" | 2009-04-12 |
| - Reviewed By Vicki H |
| As much as I loved Mists of Avalon I can't believe she wrote this. Felt that it was written in a hurry maybe. Someone would go into the kitchen for coffee and bring back tea. I found this true of all the "light" books. |
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 "The Past Casts Long Shadows" | 2009-03-04 |
| - Reviewed By Jeanne Tassotto from Trapped in the Midwest |
This is the second in Marion Zimmer Bradley's (MISTS OF AVALON) 'Light' series. The first novel, GHOSTLIGHT introduced Truth Jourdemayne, and the Bidney Psychic Institute both of which play a secondary role in this novel. Winter Musgrave is a 36 year old woman who can remember very little of her past and who isn't very happy with her future. She is hiding from something, she is not sure what, in an isolated cottage in the Hudson Valley, and she is gradually remembering that she had been a highly successful Wall Street stock broker and that she had spent time in a mental institution recovering from a nervous breakdown. She was aware that odd and disturbing things happened around her, electrical and mechanical things did not work around her, doors and windows would not remain closed, and most terrifying of all, small, dead animals were often found near her. When these increasingly disturbing events finally drove her to once again seek help she found herself at the Bidney Institute, talking to Truth Jourdemayne. They discover that Winter had been a student at the college associated with the Institute and began to suspect that Winter's problems began then.
While not on a par with MISTS OF AVALON, or even the rest of that series the Light stories are interesting, as heirs to the mystic traditions that Bradley established in the ATLANTIS and AVALON books. The characters in this series do not seem to be as fully developed as in the earlier works but overall the stories are enjoyable. The focus here seems to be more on the romance aspects of the stories rather than the more elaborate settings of the earlier series. Still the stories are a good way to spend an evening or two. |
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| "Not her best work" | 2004-06-16 |
| - Reviewed By The Old Philosopher from WA USA |
| I read Witchlight over a weekend as a fill in and relaxation. The plot focuses on a woman "Winter" who lost her memory due to some psychological trauma, and is struggling to regain her memory before the evil demon becomes too strong. For me, that kind of plot is questionable at best and this one tries our imagination way beyond credibility. While I sympathize with authors who use common nouns for names, "Winter" was a name that was often confusing in context. In the plot, Winter and some college students began dabbling in dark magick some years ago and formed a magical group where they conjured an artificial elemental, but were too inexperienced to clean up after themselves. Winter gets pregnant, leaves her ne'er do well boyfriend and goes home to her abusive though rich parents. She forgets all about college (including the abortion and the magic) and becomes a successful Wall Street broker. Some years later her ex-boyfriend is almost killed in a motorcycle crash and is in a coma for years. Lost in limbo land between life and death he tries to make contact by summoning the artificial elemental which is still wandering aimlessly around the nether reaches of darkness. It begins to haunt the former members of the college circle, and Winter's torment begins. The book deals with how she tries to remember all that she's forgotten. Most of the other characters are cardboard, including the two professors at the psychic Institute where she turns for help, but rejects most of the help. Action is stilted and unnatural. Memory loss is treated in unrealistic ways. The artificial elemental is either very, very powerful or weak depending on plot at the time. Winter turns out to have psychokinetic power to destroy electric devices and other things. And after the long build up the ending is trivial. It just stops, the elemental goes away, and they live happily ever after. I was disappointed. |
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| "Slow starter, but keep reading" | 2002-12-28 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I've never been more tempted to put a book down after the first fifty pages as I was when I began reading this book. Bradley is one of my favorite authors and the biggest draw about her novels is their remarkable ability to keep you engrossed in the text. The beginning of this book, however is a completely different story. You go through the motions along with the main character, winding your way through the broken and patchy memories of an inconsistant past. Who wants to go through that? Even though you might be tempted to give up and move on to something else, stick with it. The end result will please you. As the memories slowly begin their emergence, the novel becomes more and more inticing, with the whispers of forgotten friends calling through the haze to reach you. Anyone who is a fan of Bradley's gothic storytelling will not be sorry that they read this. I know your not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but don't judge this one by the first fifty pages or so. |
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| "Not MZB's best..." | 2002-12-02 |
| - Reviewed By W. A. Comeau from Minneapolis, Minnesota USA |
| ...but not her worst, either. I haven't read any of the other titles in this series, so I didn't know what to expect. MZB's output has varied wildly in quality from brilliant to disastrous, and I was ready for this to go either way. For me, this sat smack in the middle. I wasn't overwhelmed by the characters. Perhaps it is that our main character, Winter Musgrave, is part-amnesiac and terrified through the first third of the book, but it was very difficult to get comfortable with her. Once we have some idea what is happening to her it is easier to dig in. I think that MZB has an interesting premise with this one, and I think the "why" of the mystery is well thought out. However, (note: I am trying to avoid any spoilers, otherwise this might be more coherent) I think Winter's eventual visit to her family serves only to introduce characters for another novel and doesn't seem structurally significant, and the ending did not satisfy. |
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