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The Moon and the Sun Vonda N McIntyre 9780671567651 Books

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The Moon and the Sun Vonda N McIntyre 9780671567651 Books

Father Yves de la Croix has been commissioned by Louis XIV, the Sun King, to find a sea monster. Louis, well into his reign in his fifties, believes he will obtain immortality by eating one of these creatures, and Yves, his Jesuit natural philosopher, knows where to find them. He succeeds, returning with a live female and a dead male for dissection.
Yves sister, Marie-Josephe, is also at court. She is intelligent and helps him in science experiments but also naive in the ways of the sophisticated French court. She befriends the live sea creature and learns to communicate with her.
This is an alternate history book about Louis XIV and Versailles with a tremendous amount of historical detail. As someone interested and somewhat knowledgeable about that time period, I found this book extremely interesting, but I suspect others might find the historical aspect a bit dense and too detailed. The book won the 1997 Nebula award versus books like A Game of Thrones, King's Dragon, and How Few Remain, and I believe it was well-deserved. The author has captured well the character of the many persons depicted in the book. Most of them were real persons and have their own historical record. The settings and descriptions are excellent, displaying all the opulence of Versailles.
Some might think the writing a bit stilted, but I thought the formal tone fit the period and setting. The world of the sea creature is suitably fantastical. I especially like music as the medium of communication between Marie-Josephe and the creature. I also liked that the sea creature was the Ariel-type version of a mermaid and more of an alien creature.
I found this an excellent read and truly enjoyed the book.


Tags : The Moon and the Sun [Vonda N. McIntyre] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In seventeenth-century France, Louis XIV rules with flamboyant ambition. In his domain, wealth and beauty take all; frivolity begets cruelty; science and alchemy collide. From the Hall of Mirrors to the vermin-infested attics of the Chateau at Versailles,Vonda N. McIntyre,The Moon and the Sun,Pocket,0671567659,Fiction,1638-1715,17th century,Fantasy,Fantasy - Historical,Fiction - Fantasy,Fiction Fantasy Historical,Fiction General,France,France;History;17th century;Fiction.,Historical fiction.,History,King of France,,Louis,Mcintyre, Vonda N. - Prose & Criticism,Sea monsters,Sea monsters;Fiction.,XIV,,General & Literary Fiction,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

The Moon and the Sun Vonda N McIntyre 9780671567651 Books Reviews

I'm torn on this one-- it drops a lot of anvils, but they are anvils that needed to be dropped (i.e. slavery is bad, the patriarchy is bad, the Catholic Church condones a lot of abuses in its educational system), but it's not done in a deft or clever way. It's just an anvil, lobbed at your head, screaming, "HEY DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE HORRORS OF BEING A WOMAN BEFORE FEMINISM?" The characters are all rather one-note, and I grew quickly irritated with the protagonist. She was an Ingenue, with all the tropes implied by the capitalization. As much as I liked and admired her eventual love interest, I was baffled that they got together in the end. I couldn't much buy their chemistry or their eventual devotion to each other.

The mermaid society was really neat, but again, pretty anvilicious about human violence and brutality. The author's research on the court of Louis XIV was impeccable, too. She did a wonderful job on the details of daily life int eh court of the Sun King. But again, I felt like a lot of the information was just spread before me like a history buffet, without much effort at presentation.
"The Moon and the Sun" is one of those novels that shows up pretty consistently on people's favorite fantasy lists. So, as someone always on the look out for good fantasy, and a lover of history, I decided to give this alternative history a try.

This book is based on a fascinating premise. Although mariners over the course of history do not have a reputation for being particularly educated or sober individuals, they were no doubt very experienced in their field of business. So is it possible that given the amount of times sea monster stories pop up, that sea monsters themselves are real? And if so, why is their no proof of it?

Well, this novel endeavors to answer that question. In the court of the sun King were two siblings Yves, a Jesuit priest and natural philosopher who was carrying out the King's whishes to search for immortality (in the form of two captured sea monsters, one dead, one alive) and his sister and assistant Marie-Josephe. But as they spend time with the monsters-dissecting the dead male to learn its secrets and observing the live female- Marie begins to notice something strange. The female sea monster can speak to her through song-actually make itself understood. And while this may be wondrous, it points towards the creatures humanity-making the King's plan of consuming its flesh to achieve immortality a repugnant idea that must be stopped-to save the King's soul and the creatures life.

With a cast of court characters, some real and some not so much, this is a very procedural novel. Court masks and hunts lie side by side with the increasing urgency to find a way to save the sea woman, and the introduction of Marie's incredibly innocent mindset into the real world is just as much of a plot point. Because of this the book seems to lack focus-and it definitely lacks speed and urgency-even though the portrayal of life at the Sun King's court is very accurate. But current elements of the novel-especially the myriad of secrets and rumors surrounding the cast of characters, seem to do nothing but take away from the main plot. They add no depth, only distraction.

All in all it's a good idea to introduce just one fantasy element into a historical setting but you have to ask-if sea monsters were real in this alternate world then what else? Unicorns? Dragons? Surely there are more myths about them spread by a more diverse group of people. And ultimately casting the creature as just another animal-even if its communication was a touch unorthodox-moved this book out of fantasy and into a sort of sudo-historical limbo when it comes to genera. Given that reading the book felt like being left in limbo, I suppose that's appropriate.

Four stars for the writing style, two for the way the book was written. Lets say two point five stars altogether.
An excellent read.
Looking forward to the movie
Everything I hoped it would be. I hope the movie does it justice.
Marie-Josephe is a naïve young woman suddenly thrust into the spotlight of Louis XIV’s court at Versailles because her brother Yves captures a mermaid for his majesty’s menagerie. She befriends the sea-woman and tries to save the misunderstood creature from Louis’ plans to eat her and gain immortality.

While I enjoyed the story, I skimmed (extensively) because the painstakingly researched and lavishly depicted court at Versailles overwhelmed the characters to the point of being distracting.
This is an historical romance fantasy, set in the time of the Sun King, King Louis XIV, at Versailles. It won the 1997 Nebula award for best fantasy novel.

Lovers of the splendors of France and Versailles before the revolution will be enchanted by the plot, the romance between two seemingly opposites, and the historical detail and personalities of the times.

I've read this several times and am always delighted by it. What a fantasy treat.
Father Yves de la Croix has been commissioned by Louis XIV, the Sun King, to find a sea monster. Louis, well into his reign in his fifties, believes he will obtain immortality by eating one of these creatures, and Yves, his Jesuit natural philosopher, knows where to find them. He succeeds, returning with a live female and a dead male for dissection.
Yves sister, Marie-Josephe, is also at court. She is intelligent and helps him in science experiments but also naive in the ways of the sophisticated French court. She befriends the live sea creature and learns to communicate with her.
This is an alternate history book about Louis XIV and Versailles with a tremendous amount of historical detail. As someone interested and somewhat knowledgeable about that time period, I found this book extremely interesting, but I suspect others might find the historical aspect a bit dense and too detailed. The book won the 1997 Nebula award versus books like A Game of Thrones, King's Dragon, and How Few Remain, and I believe it was well-deserved. The author has captured well the character of the many persons depicted in the book. Most of them were real persons and have their own historical record. The settings and descriptions are excellent, displaying all the opulence of Versailles.
Some might think the writing a bit stilted, but I thought the formal tone fit the period and setting. The world of the sea creature is suitably fantastical. I especially like music as the medium of communication between Marie-Josephe and the creature. I also liked that the sea creature was the Ariel-type version of a mermaid and more of an alien creature.
I found this an excellent read and truly enjoyed the book.