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I read the preview pages for "Corambis" on Google Books last night to see if it might be worth getting the book from the library or maybe picking it up in paperback eventually -- I read the other three last year, and despite my steeply increasing loathing for one of the main characters and growing disgust for the other, I'm still morbidly curious how it all ends.

Even after reading the preview pages, I still don't know if I'm going to enjoy this book or if it's just going to tick me off.

I really, really hate Monette's tormented, effete, woobie noblemen -- or, let me be clear on this, it's not that I think there's anything wrong with men who aren't classically manly; it's that I hate the way she handles the trope -- her books are like the most over-the-top, smarmy h/c fanfic you've ever read. And this book puts you inside the head of not just one but TWO OF THEM. XD As soon as Kay was introduced, he totally struck me as Felix-lite -- yet another pretty gay boy for Monette to torture and rape and objectify and abuse. And look, within a few pages, he's blind and everyone hates him! WHAT A SHOCK. I think I can see where this is going already! Well, actually there are two possible ways this is going:

- If Felix is actually supposed to be a redeemable bastard (I keep feeling like he's supposed to be likable, though I don't like him at all), and if Monette gets tired of torturing him, then Felix falls in love with Kay and they live happily ever after, with Mildmay in the basement or something.

- If Felix continues his descent into bastarddom, or if Monette can't give up on her apparent love for making Felix suffer beautifully, then Felix falls in love with Kay and then Kay dies as an accidental side effect of Felix's machinations so that Felix will be very tormented and indulge in perpetual angst. And probably abuse Mildmay on general principles, because that's what Felix does when he's depressed. (Until Mildmay snaps and kills him. No wait, that's just wishful thinking on my part.)

I think I'd like Felix better if he'd just go over totally to the dark side and be evil, rather than doing horrible things and then weeping and angsting because now everyone hates him and he feels so guilty.

And I wish Monette would come up with something to do with her characters other than ABUSE ABUSE TORTURE RAPE ABUSE ILLNESS ANGST ANGST TORTURE RAPE ABUSE.

*cough* Um, that was a bit rantier than I realized when I started typing. *g*

So has anyone else read it? Given my issues with the rest of the series, do you think I'd be more likely to enjoy it or chuck it into a wall? (I don't want to know how it ends; I just want to know if I ought to bother reading it.)

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I think the characters get a break in this one -- Felix and Mildmay end up in a healthier sort of dynamic with each other, and the book on the whole is much . . . happier? than the first ones. That was the impression I got, anyway.

Not that it's a perfect book or anything -- there are still some parts where you'd likely have issues. But on the whole, you'd like it better than the other books, I think.

I agree with you--there are some connections to the earlier one, but with Felix and Mildmay being totally OUT Of their home cultures and away from everybody who knows what they went through/who they are/etc. etc., it is better for them. And Kay's suffering is political in nature, not personal, and I have come to quite appreciate his brother in law.

Totally. Being somewhere without all that baggage was much much better for them both!

The comments in this thread have made me think I should at least give it a chance -- thanks! The whole notion of Felix and Mildmay's relationship eventually working its way around to something healthy and mutually supportive was what had sustained me through the first couple of books, but by the third book I'd given up hope and pretty much decided that Felix had passed the point of no return. *g* But I think I'll go ahead and pick up a cheap used copy and see how it is!

I agree with the first commenter: there is a real shift in tone in this one -- although yes, Kay has to go through hell, but actually read him as a totally different type than Felix.

I don't know if it would be worth your time--shockingly I can sort of agree with you about everything you say but *um* I love the books (I never liked h/c in fan written slash, but apparently I have a thing for it in original slash--mostly I LOVE MILDMAY with a passion). And he gets to Kick Felix's butt a few times.

You know, the weird thing is I actually *do* like h/c in fanfic (and published fiction as well) but I like it heavily adulterated and have a fairly low tolerance for it in its pure form -- a sensitive tipping point, if you will, and this series was pretty far over it. Obviously this is NOT meant to criticize anyone else's taste for it. I guess the problem is that I like my protagonists to have agency and to take control of their own lives, and I feel as if Monette's people tend to be victims, yanked around by circumstance and helplessly spinning in the orbit of people who are very bad for them. I loved Mildmay madly at first but slowly lost my love for him when he kept coming back to Felix and comforting him despite Felix's abuse. AAARGH. There is only so much time that I can spend reading about a doormat and an abuser before I start to want one or the other of them to either have an epiphany or have the abusive relationship DEALT WITH before I read much further.

Responding to both this comment and the one below at once, I am pretty sure that Monette has said that Felix is her favorite and the character that the series is centered around. Having written quite a lot of self-indulgent original fic as a teenager, I think that Felix even NOW reads like the product of a teenage mind raised on a lot of Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey (and I am speaking, please note, as someone who wrote a ton of that sort of thing between about age 12 and 19). I could totally see myself writing Felix into one of those stories. As an adult, though, the fantasy of being a socially-privileged and yet abused and misunderstood perpetually adolescent brat is no longer quite so appealing to me. *g*

In any case, I think the various comments on the book in this thread sound like the elements that really bugged me in the last couple of books may have been toned down in this one. I think I might pick up a used copy (Amazon has some super-cheap ones!) and see if I enjoy it.

I actually don't like Felix at all (though I suspect Monette does--or maybe she loves him, heh--I seem to recall reading in her blog that she didn't like Mildmay which throws me--I adore him!).

And Tabby. One cool thing about Corambis is Mildmay actually verbalizing/calling Felix on some of the shit, and Felix having to take care of Mildmay instead of the opposite, hah!

My impression is that Felix came first; he's the character Monette dreamed up and built the story around, so he's her baby. Mildmay came second and (iirc?) was a bit harder for her to get a handle on (I think his voice (which I adored) came only after a few rewrites). So my impression wasn't so much that she didn't like Mildmay, just that she was surprised he was such a huge hit.

(Take this all with a massive grain of salt, of course. This is all based on faint memories of a quick blog read.)

I... am not sure. ;P Felix does go through some over-the-top (and over-described, imo) ABUSE TORTURE RAPE ABUSE, but Kay isn't treated as badly. And Felix seems to get over his scene-o-angst fairly quickly (too quickly, imo).

I had mixed emotions about the end book, to tell you the truth. I'm not quite sure how it fits in with the three proceeding and, while I was pleased that the ending didn't tie things up into a neat little bow, I had this niggling sense that larger issues weren't dealt with. (I suspicion my biggest complaint was not enough attention paid to Mildmay. *g*)

But I can say I didn't find the ending predictable, and Kay is made of fairly stern stuff so doesn't whine too much. Relatively speaking anyway.

I need to do a reread (though the books are stored neatly away at the moment), but from my first impression I neither chucked the book at the wall in disgust nor clutched it to my chest in delight.

So count me as a decided: eh? ;D

LOL. I think that from the various comments on the book, I will at least give it a chance! Then, if I hate it, I can throw it against the wall in the warm fuzzy certainty that at least I TRIED. *g*

I think that the comments at least indicate that it may not push my DO NOT WANT! buttons quite as thoroughly as the previous books. (Brief disclosure: I grew up in a household with emotionally abusive dynamics that still make me flip out at some fictional tropes -- I had to stop watching LOST because it made me physically ill and I had to leave the room -- and the last couple of Doctrine of Labyrinth books kinda hit me in that sore spot.) And I quite think that "not enough attention paid to Mildmay" is a very legitimate complaint! *g* At any rate, I'll try it out and see what I think!