Synopsis:
The orphaned daughter of Henry VII’s widow Katherine Parr finds herself at court, ostensibly as a lady-in-waiting but in reality to serve Queen Elizabeth as a white magician.
Review:
The Red Queen’s Daughter is one of the last of the galleys I picked up at Book Expo this year. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction but I was intrigued by the magical aspect to the story. The book has a good balance of historical detail (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived–anybody remember that) alongside a “training” type story as Mary learns to harness the powers inherent within ordinary objects. She does this by considering how an object can be a metaphor or symbol for something else, and the beauty Kolosov gives to the mundane belies her alter ego as a poet.
If you enjoy books like Maria Snyder’s Poison Study series, this is a good one to pick up when it comes out on October 2nd.
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Ann // Sep 2, 2007 at 2:49 am
Is this due for publication in the UK do you know? Celia Rees apart, we have precious little historical fiction for YA and this sounds interesting.
2 Superfast Reader // Sep 2, 2007 at 7:47 am
I’m not sure–the galley I picked up was from the US publisher and only had that information on the back.
3 Heather (errantdreams) // Sep 4, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Historicals have never been my bent either, but like you the magical aspects of this one intrigue me.
4 Superfast Reader // Sep 4, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I wonder why we like magic/fantasy but not historical fiction? Both are alternate worlds… interesting to ponder.
5 Heather (errantdreams) // Sep 4, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Well, in my case I think the problem’s purely psychological. I’ve been a history-phobe since grade school. I like to explain how cruddy my history teachers were by relating the tale of the one who told us that the dinosaurs lived 10 billion years ago; I positively itched to ask him what they were doing in the 5 billion years before the Earth formed—riding around in spaceships?
6 Superfast Reader // Sep 4, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I love the image of dinosaurs in spaceships!
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