The Moon and the Sun - Hardcover

McIntyre, Vonda N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671567659 ISBN 13: 9780671567651

Publisher: Pocket, 1997

Synopsis

In seventeenth-century France, Louis XIV rules with flamboyant ambition. In his domain, wealth and beauty take all; frivolity begets cruelty; science andalchemy collide. From the Hall of Mirrors to the vermin-infested attics of the Chateau at Versailles, courtiers compete to please the king, sacrificing fortune, principles, and even the sacred bond between brother and sister.By the fiftieth year of his reign, Louis XIV has made France the most powerful state in the western world. Yet the Sun King's appetite for glory knows no bounds. In a bold stroke, he sends his natural philosopher on anexpedition to seek the source of immortality -- the rare, perhaps mythical, sea monsters. For the glory, of his God, his country, and his king, Father Yves de la Croix returns with his treasures: one heavy shroud packed in ice...and a covered basin that imprisons a shrieking creature.

About this title

About the Author

Vonda N. McIntyre has been on the New York Times bestseller list five times, most recently for her novel STAR WARS: The Crystal Star. Her novel Dreamsnake won both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award, and there are ore than four million copies of her books in print. A resident of Seattle, McIntyre is currently working on her next novel, soon to be published by Pocket Books.

Reviews

Historical fantasy set in 1693 at the court of Sun King Louis XIV of France, from the author of Superluminal (1983), etc. In an age when the king's slightest whim has the force of an absolute command and the underclasses stand at the palace gates pleading for bread, Louis orders the natural philosopher and Jesuit priest Yves de la Croix to capture certain sea monsters that, he hopes, will yield the secret of immortality. Yves returns with a male corpse and a live female: She's of human aspect except for her green hair, webbed fingers and toes, and twin tails in place of legs. As the king observes closely, Yves dissects the dead male, seeking the organ of immortality. Yves's sister Marie-JosŠphe, convent-raised and nun-educated, sketches the procedure and attempts to train the captive female in her pool. Marie-JosŠphe, whose many flourishing talents bring her into conflict with the Pope and with Louis's courtiers, comes to understand the sea woman's eerily beautiful singing language; meantime, she also falls in love with soldier, Arab expert, king's advisor, and atheist Count Lucien the dwarf. Typically, however, despite Marie-JosŠphe's pleas, Louis rejects the sea woman's intelligence and humanity, and agrees to free her only after she has paid an enormous ransom; while for defying the king, Marie-JosŠphe and Lucien face exile and impoverishment. A dazzling and spirited evocation of the passions, intrigues, and preconceptions of the age, along with a dandy pair of misfit, star-crossed lovers: an enchanting slice of what-if historical speculation. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A successful sf writer takes a stab at alternate history in this Gothic tale featuring a captured sea monster in 17th-century France.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A Jesuit scientist, dispatched on an expedition by Louis XIV, brings a female "sea monster" back to the court. The king thinks the creature will enhance his glory and may hold the secret of immortality. But the Jesuit's younger sister, Marie-Josephe, newly come to Versailles, soon discovers that the newcomer is anything but monstrous. The revelation brings both females into collision with the Jesuit, the pope, and Louis himself. McIntyre has done her historical homework, as is evident in a superbly realized setting, and she executes the plot with superior skill. But her characterization is uneven, with the sea lady rising head and shoulders above the human protagonists, who are a trifle wooden and occasionally tainted by didacticism. But this is the only weakness in a splendid historical fantasy that shows sf star McIntyre admirably opening new territory. Roland Green

Edition details

• Publisher: Pocket
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671567659
• ISBN 13: 9780671567651
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432