Rating: 
Summary: A delightful gem of a book
Review: I was unfamiliar with the ballad on which this book is based, so the unfolding story herein was a complete surprise to me. I absolutely adored this book. The prose is lovely and the story is bittersweet. The tale of a young woman who discuises herself as a man and serves a handsome lord who falls for her--in her male guise, much to her distress. Classy and destined to be a classic. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Work!
Review: This is a very strong, unique novel, with some wonderful characters and a realistic setting, ending, and feel throughout the story. The medieval/Renaissance aspect to the novel is perfectly, professionally done. It took me a while to like the heroine of the tale, William/Elinor, but when her frosty, standoffish attitude finally faded into a likeable, strong protagonist, I really began to enjoy and like her character. The young King of the tale is a gem, who starts out as a headstrong, almost ignorant young monarch and blossoms into a truly wonderful, amiable, sympathetic and attractive character. His multidimensional character glows throughout the book. Margaret is the most tragic character of this story, and while she is definitely the villain of the tale, I couldn't help but hope she'd make it out all right. The reader really does feel for her, and sympathises with her (for lack of a better word) plight. This is a wonderful novel with the most unique flavor, and the people who move through the tale, from protagonists to antagonists to supporting players, are all excellently crafted. The queer/gay/transgender slant to this novel is splashed all over the back cover blurbs and Publisher's Notes and Introduction, but reading the book, I didn't once think of it as a queer/gay/transgender work. It's just an excellent story whose emphasis is on the plot and the characters, and to pigeon-hole the thing into a queer work is a shame. The book is a great deal more than just that. All in all, highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: A bittersweet gem of fantasy
Review: This is the sort of book that deserves a wider audience than it's gotten so far. The author is a lesbian, and the book contains a gay character. Since mainstream publishers are still a little squeamish about such things, this book gets the label "Queer Fantasy" slapped on it, gets published by a small press, and the upshot of it is that most straight readers have never heard of the darn thing. And that's a shame. This isn't just a good "gay book", it's a good book. _Through a Brazen Mirror_ fleshes out the ballad "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men". It is compelling from the first few pages, wherein a young man stumbles into the King's kitchens during a rainstorm. He announces he's looking for a job, proclaims his robust health, and promptly faints. But the young man, William Flower, is more than he seems; his quiet diligence causes him to rise quickly through the ranks of the castle servants, until eventually he comes to the attention of the handsome young King, who is questioning his sexuality. Meanwhile, in a mysterious tower in the woods, a sorceress has foreseen that her daughter will cause her death. Since the rules of magic forbid killing one's own blood, the sorceress instead tries to destroy everything around her daughter, releasing plagues and storms upon the land. I'll warn you right now, don't expect a "fairy-tale" happy ending; Sherman's ending is sadder but much truer to life than the ballad's original ending. But she leaves one major plot point open to imagination, softening the tragedy a bit. And everyone is a little wiser at the end. Delia Sherman writes in a lovely style of prose, atmospheric and somewhat archaic, reminding me of the early books of Patricia McKillip, before her work became more abstract. The magic in Sherman's world is not cheesy D-and-D stuff; it's the very sort of magic that medieval people actually believed in. And through it all, even though it's a sad story, Sherman weaves a delightful ribbon of dry humor. I very much enjoyed this book.
Rating:
Summary: A bittersweet gem of fantasy
Review: This is the sort of book that deserves a wider audience than it's gotten so far. The author is a lesbian, and the book contains a gay character. Since mainstream publishers are still a little squeamish about such things, this book gets the label "Queer Fantasy" slapped on it, gets published by a small press, and the upshot of it is that most straight readers have never heard of the darn thing. And that's a shame. This isn't just a good "gay book", it's a good book. _Through a Brazen Mirror_ fleshes out the ballad "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men". It is compelling from the first few pages, wherein a young man stumbles into the King's kitchens during a rainstorm. He announces he's looking for a job, proclaims his robust health, and promptly faints. But the young man, William Flower, is more than he seems; his quiet diligence causes him to rise quickly through the ranks of the castle servants, until eventually he comes to the attention of the handsome young King, who is questioning his sexuality. Meanwhile, in a mysterious tower in the woods, a sorceress has foreseen that her daughter will cause her death. Since the rules of magic forbid killing one's own blood, the sorceress instead tries to destroy everything around her daughter, releasing plagues and storms upon the land. I'll warn you right now, don't expect a "fairy-tale" happy ending; Sherman's ending is sadder but much truer to life than the ballad's original ending. But she leaves one major plot point open to imagination, softening the tragedy a bit. And everyone is a little wiser at the end. Delia Sherman writes in a lovely style of prose, atmospheric and somewhat archaic, reminding me of the early books of Patricia McKillip, before her work became more abstract. The magic in Sherman's world is not cheesy D-and-D stuff; it's the very sort of magic that medieval people actually believed in. And through it all, even though it's a sad story, Sherman weaves a delightful ribbon of dry humor. I very much enjoyed this book.
Rating: 
Summary: "Brazen Mirror" is fantasy at its finest
Review: THROUGH A BRAZEN MIRROR has just shipped from our warehouse on June 1, 1999 and we here at Circlet Press are very excited to bring this book back into print. When it first appeared in 1989, in mass market from Ace, the world just wasn't ready for a historically accurate fantasy where gender-crossing and queerness interact subtly with the milieu. Let me quote from the introduction by Ellen Kushner (author of Swordspoint, and Thomas The Rhymer): "Here was a medieval country, not quite 13th century England, but dense with the sensual textures of the past: sweeping cloaks, the smell of herbs crushed underfoot, the fire glowing in the hearth at midnight... and here were all the ingredients of a great romance: honest, hard-won love, a gentle knight, a woman wronged, an enchantress who wreaks a terrible vengeance, and a heroic young king... And nothing was quite like what we'd been led to expect from all those other books with similar ingredients. The woman was not beautiful. She valued usefulness over heroism, knowledge over power. And the young king's love was given to other men. ...the best fantasy gets to the bottom of reality in ways no contemporary tale of suburban angst ever can. Queer readers know this, and always have.... So take this "fantasy" and honor it as a great Queer novel about transgression, about reversal, about painful families and untold secrets... and the triumphant transformation that can come with giving it all a big kiss on the mouth." This is a finely crafted novel, great writing, wonderful characters, intense magic. I hope you enjoy it. -- Cecilia Tan, publisher
Rating:
Summary: A very special book!!!
Review: When you think about it someways, this book is more historical fiction than fantasy. That is, if the reader can accept a past where vengeful witches release plagues, murderers and assassins. I've read Christopher Marlowe so the king who is not very secure in his heterosexuality is not fantastical. The Elinor/ William character: again not very fantastical, it's what she needed to do, so she did it. I like fantasy, I like historical fiction. What is difficult about this book, is the language. Sherman wanted us to know so much about the medieval setting that she uses medieval vocabulary. For me, who reads voraciously it's not a problem, for my high school students to whom reading is decidedly _not_ a pleasure, it is a barrier to refer to cows as kine and vespers and matins as times of day. I could wish this very good story were more accessible to more readers. Another thing I could wish for: this book is so long out of print and recently re-printed. Why was it re-printed as an expensive trade paperback? This forced me to look for it for years used. (It was well worth the wait...)
Rating:
Summary: A very special book!!!
Review: When you think about it someways, this book is more historical fiction than fantasy. That is, if the reader can accept a past where vengeful witches release plagues, murderers and assassins. I've read Christopher Marlowe so the king who is not very secure in his heterosexuality is not fantastical. The Elinor/ William character: again not very fantastical, it's what she needed to do, so she did it. I like fantasy, I like historical fiction. What is difficult about this book, is the language. Sherman wanted us to know so much about the medieval setting that she uses medieval vocabulary. For me, who reads voraciously it's not a problem, for my high school students to whom reading is decidedly _not_ a pleasure, it is a barrier to refer to cows as kine and vespers and matins as times of day. I could wish this very good story were more accessible to more readers. Another thing I could wish for: this book is so long out of print and recently re-printed. Why was it re-printed as an expensive trade paperback? This forced me to look for it for years used. (It was well worth the wait...)
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