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Between Two Thorns (2013)

by Emma Newman(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0857663208 (ISBN13: 9780857663207)

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Angry Robot

series

The Split Worlds

review 1: I've long been a fan of Emma Newman's work, and it is to my constant chagrin that I didn't read this sooner. Set in her Split Worlds universe, in which normal people live in Mundanus, and the Fae have been locked in a beautiful prison called Exilium. Between these two worlds is the Nether, a reflection of the mundane world, and stuck about three hundred years in the past. Women are merely chattels to be sold to the highest bidder, with marriages used as political mergers between the Great Families, as the so-called puppets scrap to become the favourites of their Fae patrons. One such puppet is Cathy, daughter of the Papaver family and new favourite of Lord Poppy, but time spent living in Mundanus has convinced her how backward Society life in the Nether is. However, it's n... moreot just backward, it's also subject to corruption, and Cathy has to team up with an Arbiter, whose dislocated soul now animates a London gargoyle, in order to expose what's really going on. There's far more to it than that but I really don't want to spoil it for you! It's a wonderful read, and I genuinely didn't predict where the story would go. It's the first in a series so the ending is obviously open to lead into book two, which I'll be buying as soon as I've finished typing this review. Thoroughly enjoyable, wildly inventive, and fast paced!
review 2: Only a short review here, but an absolutely excellent introduction to Emma Newman's Split Worlds. You certainly don't need to have read the (52!) short stories beforehand to be able to grasp very quickly what is going on here. And while the fae realm is seductive, it's also repressive and repulsive in that Very English sort of way - fine to visit, but you definitely wouldn't want to live there; little wonder that Cathy is desperate to escape and leave the Nether behind. Recommended for any reader of intelligent fantasies - I'm headed for the next volume now.... less

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