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chirson's review
4.0
"I currently have five partially written stories set in the universe ... the last of which deals with... babies."
Give me the babies story, Kate Elliott. Give me the fluff, give me baby dragons, give me Cat & Andevai babies, give me all the babies...
(I also really enjoyed the poem! I'm slightly distracted by the metrum, but I enjoyed the story, it was funny and adorable and made me remember how much I love those heroines and that I should re-read the trilogy one day.)
Give me the babies story, Kate Elliott. Give me the fluff, give me baby dragons, give me Cat & Andevai babies, give me all the babies...
(I also really enjoyed the poem! I'm slightly distracted by the metrum, but I enjoyed the story, it was funny and adorable and made me remember how much I love those heroines and that I should re-read the trilogy one day.)
caroleen's review
5.0
A fun read, whether or not you've read the Spiritwalker Trilogy.
(Any WHY haven't you? ;) Cold Fire is one of the best books ever.
But also the extras--an interview with Kate Elliott and her essayss on history and self-doubt, and all kinds of great authorly things.
(Any WHY haven't you? ;) Cold Fire is one of the best books ever.
But also the extras--an interview with Kate Elliott and her essayss on history and self-doubt, and all kinds of great authorly things.
glaiza_echo's review
4.0
I have nothing but respect for Beatrice, the orator, in this short epic poem/retelling of the Aeneid. I love how this playful retelling calls out the romanticisation of Roman empire. (The accompanying essay - An Ending I Like Better - explores this aspect too). I miss reading Cat & Bee's adventures, so it was nice to briefly return to their world.
tsana's review
4.0
The Beatriceid by Kate Elliott is an epic poem written in the style of The Aeneid but about girls at school and a prank. It is set in the world of Elliott's Spiritwalker books, which start with Cold Magic and which I haven't read.
This poem was shorter than I expected it to be, with the poem itself only taking up about half the ebook pages. The rest of the book was filled with an afterword explaining the reasoning behind the poem, an essay about self-rejection, and an interview with Kate Elliot conducted by the Book Smugglers. I generally wouldn't go out of my way to buy this sort of extra content in ebook form, but I didn't mind reading it after the main event.
The poem was quite amusing, featuring school girls' retellings of the story of Dido and Aeneas — modified to fit into the alternate history of the fantasy universe — framed by a school girl prank. I quite enjoyed reading the epic poetic style employed to speak of school shenanigans. And the actual prank itself. I suspect there were also several references to the source material that went over my head, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the poem.
I am, at this point, wondering why I haven't already read Cold Magic. From the description in the afterword, it sounds like a fantasy book I would enjoy. It was a little strange, perhaps, to read the Beatriceid without having read any other books set in the same world, but after Tansy raved about it on Galactic Suburbia, I couldn't resist. I don't think there are any issues reading it without the wider context, but I suspect people already familiar with the characters will get more out of it.
4 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
This poem was shorter than I expected it to be, with the poem itself only taking up about half the ebook pages. The rest of the book was filled with an afterword explaining the reasoning behind the poem, an essay about self-rejection, and an interview with Kate Elliot conducted by the Book Smugglers. I generally wouldn't go out of my way to buy this sort of extra content in ebook form, but I didn't mind reading it after the main event.
The poem was quite amusing, featuring school girls' retellings of the story of Dido and Aeneas — modified to fit into the alternate history of the fantasy universe — framed by a school girl prank. I quite enjoyed reading the epic poetic style employed to speak of school shenanigans. And the actual prank itself. I suspect there were also several references to the source material that went over my head, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the poem.
I am, at this point, wondering why I haven't already read Cold Magic. From the description in the afterword, it sounds like a fantasy book I would enjoy. It was a little strange, perhaps, to read the Beatriceid without having read any other books set in the same world, but after Tansy raved about it on Galactic Suburbia, I couldn't resist. I don't think there are any issues reading it without the wider context, but I suspect people already familiar with the characters will get more out of it.
4 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
eafiu's review
medium-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
cassanette's review
4.0
The poem itself was alright but it's the essay afterwards that really made the message stand out to me. Elliott's essays are, as always, A+.
"So (...) while I can acknowledge the great achievement of The Aeneid, and thrill to its heroic adventures, I can also get tired of a powerful woman's story of love and rulership being cast as a tragedy when the dude (typically) gets off with a few faint regrets as he trots off to his next conquest."
hammard's review
3.0
This represents an interesting short retelling of Aeneid, solving a number of the problems I always had with the tale. However, before reading this I had no idea it was part of the Cold Magic series so I feel I missed out on quite a lot by my lack of familiarity with the world.
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