Rating: 
Summary: A unique and enchanting retelling of an Anglo-Scots ballad
Review: "Through a Brazen Mirror" is the first novel by one of the very best modern writers of serious fantasy literature. Based on an ancient Anglo-Scots ballad called The Famous Flower of Serving Men (a magical, tragic tale about a young woman who disguises herself as a man after the murder of her husband), Sherman deftly weaves folkloric motifs into a fascinating exploration of gender identity. If you can find this book it is well worth the search--for it's appearance in the 1980s instantly established Sherman as a major writer in her field.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it
Review: A friend recommended this book to me and it is now one of my five favorite books. It's a wonderful, interesting read. Delia Sherman makes the Middle Ages come alive. Through telling details and habits of speech, she shows you just exactly who these characters are, and why. And though it's sent in an oppressive era of history, she puts a woman-friendly twinge on events, filling in extant fragments of a ballad to tell of William Flower's arrival at the king's palace, his work as a cook, his ascent through the ranks, and the unexpected circumstances that led to his retirement. But the book is more than that. Much, much more. I absolutely loved it and am recommending it to my book club, and my sister, and my niece, and my mother, and my aunt, and...
Rating:
Summary: Loved it
Review: A friend recommended this book to me and it is now one of my five favorite books. It's a wonderful, interesting read. Delia Sherman makes the Middle Ages come alive. Through telling details and habits of speech, she shows you just exactly who these characters are, and why. And though it's sent in an oppressive era of history, she puts a woman-friendly twinge on events, filling in extant fragments of a ballad to tell of William Flower's arrival at the king's palace, his work as a cook, his ascent through the ranks, and the unexpected circumstances that led to his retirement. But the book is more than that. Much, much more. I absolutely loved it and am recommending it to my book club, and my sister, and my niece, and my mother, and my aunt, and...
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling mixture of history and magic in the ballad frame
Review: I can't really find anything bad to say about this book! The ballad that provides its story-line has always been a favorite of mine, and has all the elements you'd expect from such a thing -- tragedy, perseverance, mystery, magic, revenge, love... and Delia Sherman makes use of all of these, sometimes in unexpected ways. The historical details are flawless (as you would expect when the author has a PhD in Renaissance Studies), and even the magic has the feeling of alchemy and medieval grimoires and herbals, rather than the overly simplified or overly cutesey styles so prevalent in the fantasy genre. And I appreciated the author's courage in devising an ending that was not the conventional happily-ever-after scenario.My only complaint is about the introduction to the Circlet Press edition. Don't get me wrong -- I am all for queer-themed fantasy and SF, and in fact the description in the introduction was one of the things that led me to buy the book -- but it telegraphed a bit too much about the story! I think I would have liked the introduction to be a little more vague so that I wouldn't have had the expectations about the king, and made some premature assumptions that diminished the impact of what should have been a dramatic revelation. Other than that, I have no complaints, and I plan on loaning this book to four or five friends, by which time someone will have kept it and I'll need to buy another copy. So please, Circlet, keep it in print!
Rating:
Summary: Compelling mixture of history and magic in the ballad frame
Review: I can't really find anything bad to say about this book! The ballad that provides its story-line has always been a favorite of mine, and has all the elements you'd expect from such a thing -- tragedy, perseverance, mystery, magic, revenge, love... and Delia Sherman makes use of all of these, sometimes in unexpected ways. The historical details are flawless (as you would expect when the author has a PhD in Renaissance Studies), and even the magic has the feeling of alchemy and medieval grimoires and herbals, rather than the overly simplified or overly cutesey styles so prevalent in the fantasy genre. And I appreciated the author's courage in devising an ending that was not the conventional happily-ever-after scenario. My only complaint is about the introduction to the Circlet Press edition. Don't get me wrong -- I am all for queer-themed fantasy and SF, and in fact the description in the introduction was one of the things that led me to buy the book -- but it telegraphed a bit too much about the story! I think I would have liked the introduction to be a little more vague so that I wouldn't have had the expectations about the king, and made some premature assumptions that diminished the impact of what should have been a dramatic revelation. Other than that, I have no complaints, and I plan on loaning this book to four or five friends, by which time someone will have kept it and I'll need to buy another copy. So please, Circlet, keep it in print!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, with some flaws
Review: I enjoyed this book because of the author's pagan themes. Christianity and the Old Religion of the area seem to rub together well enough. While there is an evil sorceress, Margaret, who is trying to indirectly kill her daughter, Elinor, witchcraft has its positive side in that the people of Albian relied on their hedgewitches to scry the future and cure their ills. Elinor, who disguises herself as a man in order to find employment in the King's kitchen, is an interesting figure. She is not a great warrior queen or lightning-fingered mage. She is a middle-aged woman just trying to survive after having everything taken from her. What Elinor lacks in humor or liveliness of spirit, Sherman suffuses her with discipline, focus, and total devotion to the tasks at hand. This makes for a rather grim character, but all the more compelling. While I wished that the book could have been more "gay positive", the story would probably have rang less true. The young king is struggling to cope with his sexuality while, at the same time, trying to provide for the needs of his kingdom and subjects. His resolution at the end of the tale, while not the most satisfactory, is perhaps more "realistic" because of it. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Good, with some flaws
Review: I enjoyed this book because of the author's pagan themes. Christianity and the Old Religion of the area seem to rub together well enough. While there is an evil sorceress, Margaret, who is trying to indirectly kill her daughter, Elinor, witchcraft has its positive side in that the people of Albian relied on their hedgewitches to scry the future and cure their ills. Elinor, who disguises herself as a man in order to find employment in the King's kitchen, is an interesting figure. She is not a great warrior queen or lightning-fingered mage. She is a middle-aged woman just trying to survive after having everything taken from her. What Elinor lacks in humor or liveliness of spirit, Sherman suffuses her with discipline, focus, and total devotion to the tasks at hand. This makes for a rather grim character, but all the more compelling. While I wished that the book could have been more "gay positive", the story would probably have rang less true. The young king is struggling to cope with his sexuality while, at the same time, trying to provide for the needs of his kingdom and subjects. His resolution at the end of the tale, while not the most satisfactory, is perhaps more "realistic" because of it. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: The prose got in the way...
Review: I generally enjoy reading all sorts of fantasy the more different the characters and settings the happier I am. Unfortunately while trying to make a realistic setting for her characters, the only thing this author did was give me a headache from trying to discern just what was being said. I hope to find some other titles and see if it gets better, but for this, I pass...
Rating:
Summary: Through a Brazen Mirror
Review: I had read some of Ms. Sherman's short fiction and enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately, this novel disappointed. The lengthily titled Through a Brazen Mirror: The Famous Flower of Servingmen is based on a ballad, and as such should have had a workable plot. Essentially, a sorceress is trying to kill her daughter because of a prophecy that the daughter will be her death, but she can't kill her directly because of the rules of magic. In her efforts to kill the daughter indirectly, she kills the daughter's family. The daughter dresses as a man and goes to join the king's household, where she rises to a high position. The king falls in love with him/her, of course. I found this basically solid plot to be expressed very slowly and without tension. Character motivations never really seemed strong. The essential tragedy of the story, the fact that the young king is in love with the man he thinks the daughter is, only comes in at the very end and isn't adequately supported throughout the novel. Margaret, the morally ambivalent sorceress, never convinced me somehow. The novel is written in a self-consciously Renaissance style that sounds as if the author had worked RenFaire several too many times. It is fluent and correct, but to me it comes across as a little precious. There's some originality here and some appealing scenes, but overall, I didn't find it to be something I would recommend.
Rating:
Summary: It's a treasure!
Review: I read this book when it was first released by Ace. It's a shame it hasn't received the attention it merits. Ms. Sherman's writing is beautiful, compelling... she doesn't waste the reader's time, every perfectly chosen word matters. Anyone looking for a GOOD book (including those who don't usually read Fantasy) will not be disappointed.
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