Mélusine (Doctrine of Labyrinths #1) by Sarah Monette

Mélusine (Doctrine of Labyrinths #1)

by Sarah Monette 

Published by Ace

Publication Date: August 2nd 2005

Rating: Amazing

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Mélusine — a city of secrets and lies, pleasure and pain, magic and corruption — and destinies lost and found.

Felix Harrowgate is a dashing, highly respected wizard. But his aristocratic peers don't know his dark past — how his abusive former master enslaved him, body and soul, and trained him to pass as a nobleman. Within the walls of the Mirador — Melusine's citadel of power and wizardry — Felix believed he was safe. He was wrong. Now, the horrors of his previous life have found him and threaten to destroy all he has since become.

Mildmay the Fox is used to being hunted. Raised as a kept-thief and trained as an assassin, he escaped his Keeper long ago and lives on his own as a cat burglar. But now he has been caught by a mysterious foreign wizard using a powerful calling charm. And yet the wizard was looking not for Mildmay — but for Felix Harrowgate.

Thrown together by fate, the broken wizard Felix and the wanted killer Mildmay journey far from Melusine through lands thick with strange magics and terrible demons of darkness. But it is the shocking secret from their pasts, linking them inexorably together, that will either save them, or destroy them

Imagine an huge sprawling city, where the elite are live along an enormous dome , The Mirador. And the majority in the slums, in the Lower City. Thieves, murderers, sexworkers , poor and any other seen as lesser than magical practice are pushed out sight for the wizards or hocuses in Lower City speak. Mildmay, the fox is one of those down below . A kept-thief , not on good terms with any criminal gang and hunted by the DOGS like the fox he is. He's telling you his story and your point of entrance to this city. Never trust a hocus he tells you but what he doesn't know that someone that will be close to him is one and lives up above, his gay older brother. Welcome to Melusine.

This European inspired fantasy world would not felt lived in if it weren't for our two leading men. Mildmay and his brother, Felix Harrowgate, wizard of the Callaban order. Felix and Mildmay have equal amounts of page time in alternating points of view and their voices are distinct. But Mildmay is the narrator and talks to us the reader.I was never lost or what happened in their story.Keep in mind that a moment in felix' dark past is shown once and other times alluded to, the scene goes dark the second time. And he's finally able to speak it loud with his dear ones at the end of the book. Both felix and mildmay have hideous childhood traumas in one way of or another. Monette doesn't use any scenes for titillation or shock. She truly cares for these brothers and it feels that way when reading. Thank you for creating and thinking up this duo. I'll my upmost best to keep their tales alive for new readers.


That ending line in melusine. My heart.It was so soft. And illustrated their bond fully, what already started to form and I can imagine what it will be come. Both are more like each other that they think and maybe , just maybe Felix will be less of a witty jackass.