The Fire Rose

"The Fire Rose" is an excellent historical fantasy, full of period detail and rich characterizations. This was Mercedes Lackey's first book about Elemental magic, and in my opinion, her best of the three (so far).Rose is a scholar in a bad bind; her father's just died, her money is gone, the creditors are howling at the door, and she has few options and almost no hope.Enter Jason Cameron. He's a man with a bad problem of his own; because of extreme hubris, he attempted a spell to turn him into a werewolf. It didn't totally work, but the partial working has left him tired, ill, injured and feeling almost without hope himself.Cameron needs a scholar who can translate old manuscripts, because only those manuscripts have the potential to help them, and because of his disability, he can no longer read them himself. Rose is a scholar who can read almost anything (she talks of reading Ovid, Sappho's poems, the Decameron, etc.) in just about any language, which is why he wants her help. The two of them link up, and find a most unusual love.Other than that, I don't want to give away the plot; they obviously face trials and tribulations on the road to a fuller realization of their love, but if I talk about them, I'll definitely spoil this unusual and unique story.So all I'll say is, "Read this book for yourself!"Five stars. Recommended.Barb CaffreyOh, and if you've tried "Gates of Sleep" and didn't like it (I didn't, although I enjoyed "Serpent's Shadow" well enough), you might like this. I did.

I have read so many retellings of Beauty and the Beast. It takes a lot to impress me anymore. I was not impressed by this one either...I was astounded and overjoyed. It is so fresh and unique, no matter what the cover looks like.Here is a slice of plot for you. Rose Hawkins' world is turned upside down by the sudden death of her father. Her world spins out of control when she finds out that her father has left her penniless. So, with very few respectable options, Rose journeys from her home in Chicago to mysterious San Fransisco to become a governess in a wealthy household. She arrives to find that she has been deceived, there are no children, only a wealthy invalid who longs for someone to help with his research. Rose stays and is content...for awhile. Rose is far too intelligent not to notice that things are not exactly as they seem. Where are the servants? Why can't she see her employer's face? And what are the strange manuscripts she must read to him? I don't want to spoil it, so I'll stop right there.This is a great book. The love story is romantic, but never sappy. Best of all, you feel like they really get to know and understand each other. There is some mystery, adventure, and magic thrown in too. And a rather unusual, but just right, happily ever after.

In what is Mercedes Lackey's best novel to date, 'Beauty and the Beast' is updated to 1905, where fabulously wealthy rail baron and Fire Master Jason Cameron has transformed himself into a wolfman and he needs the help of an tame scholar (female so that she is no threat) to help translate the Magickal texts that will give him clues to breaking the spell. Instead of the mouse he expects, he gets a lioness, Rosalind ('Rose') Hawkins, a classicalist and medievalist whom he has brought from Chicago to his San Francisco estate under false pretenses, supposedly to be a governess to his non-existent children. Penniless, she is more than willing change the terms of the initial agreement to do interesting work in luxurious surroundings, even with someone who may be a madman. She eventually learns the truth about Jason and begins to grow as a Magician herself. But Jason has enemies who do not want him to return to human form and full power, or wish to exploit his power for themselves. And then terror strikes, both from Magickal and natural sources....Lackey has done considerable research into this historical period and does a very good job of bringing early 20th century Chicago and San Francisco to life. She also makes the Cameron mansion, and indeed, all the other locales, into very real places with her rich descriptions - I have noticed that she is particularly good at describing food, clothing and furniture. More importantly for a fantasy novel, she makes the supernatural as real as the commonplace. Her magic systems (Western and Eastern) are extremely well thought out, even 'scientific', and undoubtedly based on 'real' magic systems. There is a nice parallel here to the magic of Valdemar, which is measurable and follows mathematical laws. The story moves at a crisp pace, full of dramatic situations, culminating in the horror of the San Francisco earthquake, and Lackey's style makes the book nearly impossible to put down.What has always been Lackey's greatest strength is her ability to create characters who one can immediately like and identify with, even in her earliest novels where the technical prowess of her writing was limited. I cared about what happened to Rose from the very beginning. She is a strong, smart, intellectual, adaptable, no-nonsense person, perhaps a bit TOO forward and opinionated, and yes, a little greedy. True, I share her interest in medieval studies, and the fact that she's an opera lover certainly doesn't lower my estimation of her, but I don't think readers who aren't interested in these topics to the extent that I am will also empathize with her. Jason too is a fascinating character - despite his hubris, selfishness, and ruthlessness, he has many moments of sympathy and is Rose's intellectual equal. The repartee between them and their growing affection is believable from the beginning. Yes, I suppose it's 'predictable' that they fall in love - but it doesn't stop one from wanting to see the way it happens. Also many of the 'm

I picked up this book on a whim... and ended up with two copies of it (one for me, one to hand around to my friends!) Rose is not your average heroine (she has read the unexpurgate Ovid, the love-poems of Sappho, the Decameron in the original... she knows in precise detail what Caligula did to, and with, his sisters, and she can quote it to you in Latin or in her own translation...you get the idea), and she is certainly no shrinking violet when she comes to a new employer, a turn-of-the-century rail baron Firemaster whose spell gone wrong has left him half-human, half-wolf. An intriguing and fun story which has a hint of Beauty and the Beast within a well-written and wonderful story of Magick. Watch for the salamanders and the sylphs... who have a personality all their own! Fabulous!

I have been an all-the-way Mercedes Lackey fan since I first read one of her books. Every single one has been unbeleivably fantastic, but this is great story-telling taken to a new level! Although if you really sat down and thought about it, the plot is rather predictable, but as you read it, you have no idea what's going to happen next. This isn't a classic tale of Beauty and the Beast, where both hero and heroine are impeccable, perfect people. Here, it was Jason's own hubris which brought him down! No, these are all but real characters, who you can really relate to. Mercedes Lackey's new and original (an original concept of magic; almost unbeleivable!) way of "Magick" is so astouding in its perfect detail that you begin to wonder if Lackey herself is a magician! And, it touches a place deep inside every one of us that hopes, dreams we have that potential to become special. A magnificent accomplishment.