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Title: Reserved for the Cat
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Edwardian fantasy/rewritten fairy tale (one in a series set in this world, with very little continuity from book to book)
Thingummies: 3.5

Synopsis: When Ninette is unjustly fired from her place in the Paris Ballet, she is just desperate (and hungry) enough to follow the directions of a mysterious talking cat. She quickly finds herself, to her astonishment, impersonating a Russian ballerina at a music hall in England. But, like the cat, the music hall owners are not exactly what they appear to be. And neither is the ballerina Ninette is impersonating. She's something much darker, and she is not amused that Ninette is using her name.

Thoughts: This is not a book with any ambitions other than to be entertaining, which it succeeds at most admirably. Lackey's work has become increasingly fluffy, especially given her more recent forays into not one but two series of rewritten fairy tales. The Elemental Masters series has been featuring magicians (each of whom specializes in an element, hence the name) who "modernize" various fairy tales by bringing them into late nineteeth and early twentieth century America and England. So The Fire Rose featured a "Beauty and the Beast" in which she is a bluestocking and he is a railroad magnate who's accidentally transformed himself in a misfired spell in San Francisco right before the Great Quake. The Serpent's Shadow casts Snow White as a half-Indian lady doctor fighting prejudice in Edwardian London, The Gates of Sleep turn a pre-Raphaelite painter into Sleeping Beauty, Phoenix and Ashes makes Cinderella's prince a shell-shocked officer from the Great War, and The Wizard of London sets up an elaborate cast of mediums and spiritualists into "The Snow Queen". This latest installment rewrites "Puss In Boots", complete with faked drowning.

There's no deep theme here or anything. Just a delightful little tale that zips right along. While everyone's rewritten every fairy tale ever, it's still fun to see the various elements reimagined and repurposed. The magic system is not particularly innovative (an Elemental Master can call upon creatures of his or her element to spy or perform tasks--it's summoning magic with sylphs and undines and salamanders), it has enough variety to be entertaining and not get too much in the way. The characterizations are decent, the pacing's tight, and Lackey is an old enough hand not to leave much in the way of questions or plot holes. Has she reached hack status? Maybe. But they're hack work I find relaxing and enjoyable, so I'll continue reading them.

Date: 2011-03-23 08:20 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] firynze.livejournal.com
Hm. This sounds cute...I may have to check the series out.

Date: 2011-03-23 09:53 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] jethrien.livejournal.com
It's definitely cute. Not brilliant or really compelling, but fun.

Date: 2011-03-23 10:24 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] firynze.livejournal.com
And sometimes, that's just what the doctor ordered. ;-)

Date: 2011-03-23 10:45 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] jethrien.livejournal.com
Especially when you're reading it in one sitting (or slouching, rather), sick on the couch.

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