Very mediocre for a Magic Flute fan...

books:


	• Sunlight and Shadow (Once Upon a Time) Cameron Dokey Simon Pulse, 2004 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Magic Flute, made more magical

The Magic Flute isn't one of the classic Grimms' fairytales, so I wasn't at all familiar with it and failed to recognise it in the blurb. The story looked intriguing nonetheless: Sarastro, "Mage of the Day", and Pamina, "Queen of the Night", have a daughter who spends her life with her mother until she is 16 - whereupon she must leave to live with her father. The blurb then promises treachery and betrayal when Pamina lures a prince into a deadly agreement to win Mina as his bride.

Cameron Dokey puts a new spin on this story with first-person accounts from different - and very likeable - characters - mainly Mina, but also an orphaned girl who is brought up by Sarastro, Gayna; Lapin, a boy who owns a magical set of bells (not a flute), and Tern, the prince. Through their voices you get a glimpse of how they think and of how fate unfolds.

This is also a story of opposites. Night against day. Mina against Gayna. Mina with Statos and Tern. Gayna with Statos and Lapin. Love against hate and treachery. And of course, good against evil.

While everything seems quite separate at first, all the threads do wind together in the end quite satisfyingly. Everything that Sarastro does is based on trying to outwit a prophecy about Mina. The only problem is that, careful as he is, he may not have all the cards in his hands.

The tone of the book was refreshingly modern even though it is set in "a time that was young and many things were commonplace that are now forgotten". Sarastro and Pamina don't speak to each other, so Mina grows up wondering what her father is like. Sarastro tears her from her mother when she is just shy of 16, breaking the original agreement and causing a great deal of defiance on Mina's part. Gayna is hopelessly in love with Sarastro's guard Statos, but he's not interested in her. It makes absorbing reading.

And in the background there is Lapin, whom I count as my favourite character. He inherits a set of magical bells which can call your true love to you. While he practices listening to the music of his heart, he ends up calling birds instead. Lots of birds.

What Lapin and Pamina do after Mina has been stolen away by Sarastro is ingenious, and entirely within the rules of the game. I felt the blurb was totally misleading when it claimed that Pamina had lured Tern into a set of deadly trials. Sarastro set those trials, and Tern agreed to rescue Mina of his own free will.

Of course everything ends well and all live happily ever after. The story is shorter than I would have liked but it's very easy reading but sticks with you for a long while after. That's the best kind of story to own.

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"The Magic Flute" Retold

"Sunlight and Shadow" was the first book in the "Once Upon a Time" series that I read. It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it.

The story is a retelling of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute", but it still manages to be original. The author puts some nice twists on an old story that was interesting and pretty original to begin with. It can be a little confusing because there are several narrators who switch without much notice, but it's not too hard to figure out. The plot has nice pacing, and the book is just the right length.

Best of all, she gives life to characters who were previously flat and stereotypical. The characterizations are nothing really special by themselves (still better than the stereotypes, but they're pretty typical of this kind of book), but it's interesting to get insight in the the characters' thoughts about events.

The writing was well-done. The romance was all right, but it seemed a bit shallow. But it was good for love at first sight, which was what it was in the opera. The author did a good job with it considering her resources. She does include a few themes about life in general, but they were nothing we haven't seen before.

I was not familiar with "The Magic Flute" before reading this, but it was a good way to introduce myself to it. It wasn't the best book I've ever read, but it was still worth my time.

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Very mediocre for a Magic Flute fan...

I was excited about this book because "Magic Flute" is one of my favorite stories. However while I did find myself enjoying it, I am not sure if I really appreciated this particular feminist take on it. Sometimes I think that a feminist take on an old beloved tale is great, however there are other times where it just distorts the story. I think that Nights Daughter by Marion Zimmer Bradley probably has a better attempt at having a feminst take on the story. And for an even better treat, score a copy of the Ingmar Bergman production of Magic Flute through netflix or your local library.

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Wow!

I have to admit, I was skeptical when I picked up this book. I don't really like romances, and I wondered if I'd be bored. I figured I'd read a chapter and put it down. I was sure wrong about that.

Cameron Dokey's got an amazing way with words and how she weaves them together: It's magical and the story flows together brilliantly. I just couldn't get over how likable she made the characters: ALL of them, not just the "good guys." The "bad guys" are not all bad, nor are they hopeless, and problems are resolved in interesting ways. I couldn't tell you who my favorite character is (though I lean toward Lapin, who is Mina's best friend and defender, player of the bells.) They have depth and their feelings are interesting, not dull or run-of-the-mill, and these characters do not have any yawn-ish conversations, either.

The story is fun and easy to follow, but it's not simple, as in predictible. In order to prove his love, Prince Tern (how cool of a name is that?) agrees to "Boss of the Day" Sarastro's conditions of a very interesting set of trials: And Sarastro's daughter, Mina goes with him. Ever wonder how mourning doves came to be? Clever Cameron Dokey tucks this into the trials that Tern and Mina endure.

I won't give away anything about the ending other than to say it is very satisfying, on more than one level. I will definitely pick up another Once Upon a Time book by Cameron Dokey!

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Changing a classic

While as always well written and entertaining as ever, don't read this book expecting it to be just like the opera it is based on. Several character names and personalities have been changed to suit the authors needs and style, and the acutall opera base is only three chapters long. The book though is an interesting with a happy ending that is expected, though the scenes taking place in Hell are a bit rushed and grow a little boring. I thought the most interesting part was the begging before the prince enters the picture. Over all, a pretty good book.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

A new spin on "The Magic Flute" by an acclaimed author!

In a time when the world was young and many things were quite commonplace that are now entirely forgotten, Sarastro, Mage of the Day, wed Pamina, the Queen of the Night. And in this way was the world complete, for light was joined to dark. For all time would they be joined together. Only the ending of the world could tear them apart. In other words, in the days in which my parents married, there was no such thing as divorce....

Thus begins the tale of Mina, a girl-child born on the longest night of the darkest month of the year. When her father looked at her, all he saw was what he feared: By birth, by name, by nature, she belonged to the Dark. So when Mina turned sixteen, her father took her away from shadow and brought her into sunlight.

In retaliation, her mother lured a handsome prince into a deadly agreement: If he frees Mina, he can claim her as his bride.

Now Mina and her prince must endure deadly trials -- of love and fate and family -- before they can truly live happily ever after....

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