Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps the best Paula Volsky book ever.
Review: If you like parallel/alternate worlds and dig the French Revolution in world history, then this is a good start for you! Paula Volsky draws very vivid characters here, and keeps the reader interested whether you're in the elegant royal court or in the dirty back streets of the city. It is more a tale of personal struggle than of strategic consequence, but Paula Volsky weaves them all into a wonderful tale.
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Summary: Historical Fantasy--the Best of Both Worlds
Review: Illusions is my favorite fantasy book of all times (sorry Tolkien), because it is the French Revolution with a fantasy twist, and is the first book to make me understand what class indoctrination can create. Although you hate the injustice of the class system, you understand how hard it would be to change thinking patterns that are ingrained since birth and justify your entire lifestyle. The characters live in your head permanently, and your view on the world, racism, anti-semitism, and even sexism are forever altered. This is a must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Overall....Interesting and Fun!
Review: Overall, I liked this book. However, the book doesn't get really interesting until the second half of the book. You just need to be patient with the first part because it does eventually become interesting. Sure, Eliste is selfish at the beginning but that part is unnecessarily drawn out. One keeps thinking, where the heck is Dref? (And why doesn't Aurelie just kick the bucket already?) For me, Dref was the most entertaining because he was the most charming and intelligent person in the book. I guess what I'm saying is that we don't need to know that much about the Exalted ways. It's all a bunch of fluff. But again overall, fun book.
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Summary: Review for Illusion
Review: Paula Volsky writes an engrossing book about magic and real life. She manages to get in reality with a tint of fantasy. This book is about the Exalted Miss Eliste vo Derrivalle and her realizing that her way of life is never going to come back. However, she goes from being a spoiled brat, to someone who would risk her life for a cause. Eliste also comes to grips with the fact that she has done the unthinkable and fallen in love with Dref Zeenoson, who by the way is a serf. Dref and Eliste, with the help of the magician, Eliste's uncle Qunitz save Vonahr from a horrible fate.
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Summary: Prefect detail
Review: Read it, see it. Volksy makes it easy to grasp and envision the world that she has created. Her characters become well known to you, the scenery someplace familiar, sound and smell tangible.
Volsky's style, with her use of alliteration and detail make this book one to keep for the library.
Yes, the story is predictable, but you won't care, with the verbal exchange between characters, the description of action and scene, it's easy to be hopelessly lost in reading rapture.
Clever and gifted, Illusion is my favorite of her work so far. Most impressive is the attention given to exploration of human motivation. You get a romantic and elevated sense of why and how a riot culminates into revolution.
If you are interested in exploring the relationship of last generation rulers and the red tides of revolution, you won't be disapointed.
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Summary: A Different Perspective on the French Revolution
Review: The adventures of the Exalted Eliste are very entertaining indeed. Our heroine is appropriately fesity, the settings well drawn, and the other characters who populate her world are interesting and believable. But what makes this story so different, and really quite entertaining, is that it is really a tale of suffering and redemption following the French Revolution, but in a different world and time. Following this, everything that Eliste knows and holds to be true is swept away in fear and violence, and her struggle to survive in this changing world is the centrepiece of the book.Eliste's world is not France of course, and the King and Queen are not Louis and Marie Antoinette, but they may as well be (though they have no children). The strict formalities that surrounded the French Court are faithfully related here, and you come to believe in this society where the Exalted lived just as the aristocracy did in France. Anyone who is familiar with the French Revolution will find this very clever - the reader can indulge in a game of "find the characters" - Marat for instance, who spent most of his time in a bath due to an unpleasant skin condition, is transformed into the beggar leader Fungus (who as the name suggests has an equally unpleasant skin condition). Even the guillotine is transformed into something far more nasty - a machine called Kokette with enormous spikes and needs of its own! Interspersed with all this is some magic, some terrible hardship (the author does not shirk from some rather graphic descriptions of hardship and deprivation), and of course love. Eliste travels a rocky road from a spoilt young lady to a woman with rather formiddable skills and fortitude. This is a different, clever and entertaining book. It is quite long, but thankfully keeps your attention for the whole time. I recommend it highly for people who enjoy a great story, fabulous writing and a complex plot.
Rating:
Summary: A very clever and entertaining read
Review: The adventures of the Exalted Eliste are very entertaining indeed. Our heroine is appropriately fesity, the settings well drawn, and the other characters who populate her world are interesting and believable. But what makes this story so different, and really quite entertaining, is that it is really a tale of suffering and redemption following the French Revolution, but in a different world and time. Following this, everything that Eliste knows and holds to be true is swept away in fear and violence, and her struggle to survive in this changing world is the centrepiece of the book. Eliste's world is not France of course, and the King and Queen are not Louis and Marie Antoinette, but they may as well be (though they have no children). The strict formalities that surrounded the French Court are faithfully related here, and you come to believe in this society where the Exalted lived just as the aristocracy did in France. Anyone who is familiar with the French Revolution will find this very clever - the reader can indulge in a game of "find the characters" - Marat for instance, who spent most of his time in a bath due to an unpleasant skin condition, is transformed into the beggar leader Fungus (who as the name suggests has an equally unpleasant skin condition). Even the guillotine is transformed into something far more nasty - a machine called Kokette with enormous spikes and needs of its own! Interspersed with all this is some magic, some terrible hardship (the author does not shirk from some rather graphic descriptions of hardship and deprivation), and of course love. Eliste travels a rocky road from a spoilt young lady to a woman with rather formiddable skills and fortitude. This is a different, clever and entertaining book. It is quite long, but thankfully keeps your attention for the whole time. I recommend it highly for people who enjoy a great story, fabulous writing and a complex plot.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: There is a reason this book has an average of five stars in its review. It is simply the best book I have ever read. I have an old tattered copy thats been read so many times I've lost count. It could be described as a retelling of the French revolution with magic, but what makes it so wonderfull are the characters. Every character is rich and deep. You will wish the book would never end!
Rating:
Summary: Great one book fantasy
Review: These days it's hard to find a good fantasy tale that only spans one book, but this is definitely one of my top recommendations. The world that PV creates is amazing and her character development is great, you can really empathize with them.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent novel
Review: This book introduced itself to me in a second hand store by way of its unusual cover. What I discovered therein was a gripping story with a tight plot, well-realized characters, fantastic world-building, and suspense at every corner. Perhaps most surprising is, in a genre where "magic" is abused, often substituted for craft, Ms. Volsky rather keeps the "magical" to a limit and adding in technology to keep the otherwise commonplace conventions interesting. Those who revel in words will especially enjoy the exquisite vocabulary and witty repartee which Ms. Volsky deftly employs; and fans of unabridged French and Russian novels will appreciate the "revolutionary" plot.--Emily C. A. Snyder
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