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jgintrovertedreader's review
3.0
This was a follow-up to A Princess of Roumania. I liked it about as well as that book. They're not my favorite fantasy, and they move a little bit slowly for me, but they are definitely worth reading.
wmhenrymorris's review
I tried to not like it. Probed it for the standard weaknesses of the middle books (and it's hard to believe now that there are two more rather than just one). But I really enjoyed the way the magic and the plot and the characters unfold and the mysterious muddledness of the whole thing which could be annoying for some; I find it compelling, even charming. Miranda Popescu and Baroness Ceaucescu (and there are moments still when I anger and awe at the audacity of Park's treatment of history) are fantastic foils, both trying to figure out how to win hearts and minds. The magic sometimes seems as a bit of a cop out, then, but on the whole, it's strange and, well, magical. And I think what Park does uncommonly well is leap around to the people and moments that are most needed at that time and that isn't always the big plot changes or plans (some of which are revealed almost parenthetically) but rather the times when we need to understand what's going on in the minds of the key players and in their environments. Good stuff. I hope he can pull of the next two.
woodge's review
3.0
This book continues the tale begun in A Princess of Roumania in which a young woman named Miranda Popescu learned she was hidden away in our world but is a princess caught amidst political intrigue in an alternate *real* world where Roumania is one of the world's superpowers and is busy fighting off the advances from Germany in a Victorianesque era. The goings-on get even stranger in this second book (of a quartet) and we follow the exploits of Miranda and her friends Peter and Andromeda. Peter is actually a renowned soldier named Pieter de Graz and Andromeda is really a (male) soldier named Sasha Prochenko. But in this story she morphs from a dog to a young woman. Miranda also ventures into the hidden world while conjurers like the Baroness Ceausescu and the Elector of Ratisbon put their own plots into play. It sometimes gets confusing only to clear up later and I enjoyed the real sense of strangeness in this story. It's always interesting and I'll be reading the follow-up soon. It's called The White Tyger.
kmccubbin's review
4.0
In the second book of Paul Park's "Princess of Roumania" saga, he continues to upend everything you thought you knew about the fantasy novel. He still pushes firmly against a standard "Hero's Journey" trope by giving his characters strong senses of self-determination as well as by setting up goals that we, as readers, believe we understand, but prove far more elusive as they're neared. He also, brilliantly, tantalizes with magic without ever allowing us to feel confident in it.
Magic in the world of Roumania is accepted as a reality while also considered almost obscene and thus is rarely explicated. But don't let this fool you into thinking that when he DOES explain it that you're going to be any more comfortable. This is a world where Greek mythology, Christianity, Renaissance Hermeticism and Vampires interrelate.
"I thought a vampire was someone who sucked your blood, " she grumbled. In the humid, breezy air the statement seemed absurd.
"I never heard that."
The result of all of this fraying of the edges is that the book has an elusive sense of force, of potency. Your preconceptions are not safe and so the world that has opened before you is untameable. The tension is delicious and in those moments where, like the magic in the book, the right series of elements do seem to fall into a pattern that just about feels comfortable, it's a delight.
Magic in the world of Roumania is accepted as a reality while also considered almost obscene and thus is rarely explicated. But don't let this fool you into thinking that when he DOES explain it that you're going to be any more comfortable. This is a world where Greek mythology, Christianity, Renaissance Hermeticism and Vampires interrelate.
"I thought a vampire was someone who sucked your blood, " she grumbled. In the humid, breezy air the statement seemed absurd.
"I never heard that."
The result of all of this fraying of the edges is that the book has an elusive sense of force, of potency. Your preconceptions are not safe and so the world that has opened before you is untameable. The tension is delicious and in those moments where, like the magic in the book, the right series of elements do seem to fall into a pattern that just about feels comfortable, it's a delight.
nigellicus's review
5.0
It's been a while since I read A Princess Of Roumania, and my memory of what happened in that books is a bit sketchy, but I remember enjoying it enormously, so I'm delighted to have the next three books in the series to dive into. Miranda Popescu grows up in a small town in America, only to discover that she is, in fact, in a hiding place. Our world is merely a conjuring designed to keep her safe from her enemies. She is, in reality, a princess of Greater Roumania, and when our world vanishes, she and her two friends find themselves in a North America that is nothing but sparsely inhabited wilderness, hunted by soldiers sent by the evil Baroness Ceausescu. At the end of the first book, Miranda is transported to Roumania, leaving her friends behind.
Book 2, and we discover that she has not just been transported through space, but through time. For her, it is now five years later. While Peter and Andromeda set out to find her, their recent identities as American teenagers merging with their old identities as imperial soldiers, Miranda is taken by gypsies to her aunt's shrine, hunted by a vampire and used by the German Elector of Ratisbon in his war against the Baroness.
The Tourmaline is a fantasy in the mould of a fairy tale, a princess returned to reclaim her rightful throne. But Park avoids and defies convention and cliche. His protagonist jumps from young adult to adult in the space of a page. Her friends take on new, less attractive personalities. The careful plan laid by her aunt is immediately thrown away when the letter she leaves is destroyed unread. The political complexities of Europe are beyond Miranda's grasp and the woods and shrines and caves of Roumania are filled with magics and conjurings she cannot understand.
Comparisons with Pullman, Wolfe and LeGuin abound, and there is no question that if you like those authors you should give this a shot. There is also Margo Langan, of whose dark fairy-tale style this reminded me quite strongly. It is a subtle, sophisticated, ambitious work, and I'll be diving into the next volume directly.
Book 2, and we discover that she has not just been transported through space, but through time. For her, it is now five years later. While Peter and Andromeda set out to find her, their recent identities as American teenagers merging with their old identities as imperial soldiers, Miranda is taken by gypsies to her aunt's shrine, hunted by a vampire and used by the German Elector of Ratisbon in his war against the Baroness.
The Tourmaline is a fantasy in the mould of a fairy tale, a princess returned to reclaim her rightful throne. But Park avoids and defies convention and cliche. His protagonist jumps from young adult to adult in the space of a page. Her friends take on new, less attractive personalities. The careful plan laid by her aunt is immediately thrown away when the letter she leaves is destroyed unread. The political complexities of Europe are beyond Miranda's grasp and the woods and shrines and caves of Roumania are filled with magics and conjurings she cannot understand.
Comparisons with Pullman, Wolfe and LeGuin abound, and there is no question that if you like those authors you should give this a shot. There is also Margo Langan, of whose dark fairy-tale style this reminded me quite strongly. It is a subtle, sophisticated, ambitious work, and I'll be diving into the next volume directly.
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