Sarah Monette - The Mirador

For Sarah Wishnevsky

Praise for The Mirador

The third installment of Monettes Mlusine series continues to evoke the wonders of an ancient and mysterious city and its memorable inhabitants... Impeccable story-telling with adult themes reminiscent of the works of Terry Goodkind and Jacqueline Carey makes this solid tale most suitable for mature readers. Library Journal

"Monette continues the fantastic saga begun in Mlusine and The Virtu with virtuoso narratives of theatrical, political, and magical intrigues. Publishers Weekly

A thrilling, sometimes heart-wrenching series of crises leading to a conclusion that opens the door to something new. Locus

As usual, Felix and Mildmay are fascinating characters their points of view are distinct and compelling... The shape of the story is complete while leaving a number of tantalizing ends dangling for the next book.

Romantic Times Book Reviews

Praise for The Virtu

Compelling... The magic is delightfully inventive... Perhaps best of all is Monettes authorial voice, abundantly blessed with originality, sophistication, and artistry.

Booklist (starred review)

A humdinger of a fantasy, full of action, romance, intrigue... and, of course, wizardry... Monette loves language and is unafraid to delve into dark corners, which makes for a novel that is both poetic and suspenseful.

BookPage

[A] wonderful follow-up to her extraordinary fantasy debut, Mlusine... every bit as original and satisfying as its predecessor. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Fascinating... In the course of escalating adventures that will leave your knuckles white and your mind ablaze, these half brothers manage to find (or rediscover) some small measure of order in a very disorderly world. Monette brings their story to a strong conclusion, but Id gladly follow her into the labyrinth againwith or without their company. Locus

Monette creates an interesting world with fascinating and complex characters... a fun read. SFRevu

An engagingly intelligent fantasy. Library Journal

Praise for Mlusine

A lush novel, rife with decadent magic, debilitating madness, and dubious deeds, told in a compelling entwined narrative. The setting is richly imagined, a sprawling city at once strange and familiar, and the characters are vivid and alive. Jacqueline Carey, New York Times bestselling author of the Kushiels Legacy series

Open this book and fall under its spell... a spellbinding, gut-wrenching, breathtaking quest that resonates with truth and heart. Joan D. Vinge,

Hugo Award-winning author of Psion

Brilliant and original... Monette writes with a deftness that never loses its way among the intricacies and anguishes of her plot, world building, and characters.

Jo Walton, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Hapenny

If Mlusine werent four-hundred-plus pages long, I might have tried to finish it in one gulpits that good, and it moves at a commendable pace for a character-driven novel with a complex, twisty plot. Locus

"Set in the wondrous city of Mlusine, Monettes extraordinary first fantasy novel focuses on two captivating characters from two very different worlds. [Monette] is a highly original writer with her own unique voice.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

An exciting debut by talented new writer Sarah Monette.

Cecilia Dart-Thornton, author of the Bitterbynde trilogy

While Monettes story engages, her characters deserve a standing ovation. Mildmays off-color personality and often wickedly funny narration keep the story and the other characters fresh. Booklist (starred review)

I was hooked from the very first page... lush and mesmerizing, so carefully constructed that I often found myself rereading passages as if letting the smoky flavors of a good red wine roll over my tongue... I couldnt have asked for a more satisfying book.

GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources

Elegant, joyously written... an exquisitely painful romp, a return to an old kind of fantasy with a gleaming new edge. Interzone

Ace Books by Sarah Monette

MLUSINE
THE VIRTU
THE MIRADOR

Part One

Chapter 1

So to begin with, General Mercator was dead.

Thered been rumors for months that he was sick and then that he was failing and then that he was dead, but the news had come for sure that morning. General Mercatord been in charge of the Bastion for longer than Id been alive, so I guess it wasnt no surprise that nobody in the Mirador quite seemed to know what to do now that he was dead.

So Lord Stephen had cancelled all the committee meetings and soires and stuff that was what the Mirador normally did with its time. Me and Felix had gone back to the suite, and Felix and Gideon had talked the thing to death, because that was how Felix was, either you couldnt get him to say nothing, or you couldnt get him to shut up. Theyd been reading since dinner while I played hand after hand of Hermits Pleasure, but all at once Felix shut his book and said, Do you want to go see Berinth the King tonight?

I dont mind, I said. Mehitabel was in it.

Well, I dont mind either, he saidteasing me, but only a little. Its a nice change from arguing with Edgar and Simon about the nature of the stars.

You could wear your new coat, I said, hoping I could keep his mind off me. The one Rinaldo says

Is an affront to seven hundred years of aesthetic philosophy. I could, couldnt I? He loved to wear this red-violet color that clashed with his hair something awful. He said enough people stared at him, they should suffer for it. The new coat, aside from the color, had gold bullion around the cuffs and down the lapels. Loud dont quite begin to cover it.

A little pause, and he looked at Gideon. Do you want to come?

It wasnt no big secret that you could hardly get Gideon out of the suite with a crowbar and an ox-team. I dont blame him powers and saints, if Id had the choice, Idve been right there with him, and I dont know which one of us had the worse deal. I mean, theres me with the obligation dme and being the guy that offed Cerberus Cresset, and then theres Gideon being Kekropian for one thing, and having had his tongue cut out by the Duke of Aiaia for another. And then there was the fact that he was sleeping with Felix and everybody and their dog knew it. And the Curia wouldnt let him take the Cabaline oaths. No, I dont know why. Felix and Gideon were both so pissed off about it that I didnt even want to ask. So, anyways, he didnt go out much, and like I said, I didnt blame him.

But Felix kept trying, first one way, then another, and mostly Gideon said no, but sometimes he said yes. And tonight, he gave Felix a crooked sort of half-smile and nodded, and got a smile back, too.

All right, Felix said. Lets go see Berinth the King.

After the worst rehearsal in the history of the world, I went back to my dressing room. Well, fled back, to be perfectly honest, and if I had a plan at all, it was to make faces at myself in the mirror until I felt better.

But when I got to my dressing room, there was someone already there. He was about my age, Kekropian-dark, not like the people in Marathat with the leaven of Tibernian blood, well-dressed and as sleekly self-pleased as a cat with a songbird pinned beneath one plump paw. He would have been perfectly cast as Uriel Glabney in The Siege of Kerchesten.

I drew myself up on the threshold like every outraged cuckold in every comedy de Ferric ever wrote and said, You have the wrong room. Corinnas taste in men was frequently ghastly.

Oh, I dont think so, he said. And paused. And smirked. Maselle Cressida. Cressida was the code name Id had in the Bastion, when Id been a spy; anyone who used it was therefore a spy from the Bastion himself, and oh didnt that just put the hatpin through an already foul day.