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The Inheritor

The Inheritor

List Price: $15.95
Your Price: $10.85
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sharon's Book Review
Review: Marion Zimmer Bradley has written another well-known book The Mist of Avalon. It is on the bestsellers list of New York Times, as well as this book should be. The reading keeps you wondering where it will take you next. With the turning of a page, you are not sure what to expect.
The Inheritor holds your attention while the author introduces her characters to you. There are Leslie, a doctor of pschology and her sister Emily, a conservatory student of music. The book opens simply with Leslie looking at a house because the apartment that Leslie and Emily share has become too small for them. She looks till she finds this wonderful little number that gives her the feeling of home.
The book becomes more intense from there. With the turn of a page, you wonder what will happen or who will pop up. I would recommend this book to any reader that enjoys a suspense reader with a twist of an ending.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The ending makes this book a HUGE disappointment.
Review: MZB does it again, making us accept a poor plot because of her beautiful prose (i.e., the Forest House) which is unusual considering her enormous talent (i.e., Mists, Darkover). But even with the quality of her description and storytelling, the ending betrays the readers. When I struggled to the last page, I was so disgusted that I threw the book across the room. This book is a huge disappointment, don't pay full-price for it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good two thirds of a novel
Review: The Inheritor is an early attempt at occult fiction of the type that came to fruition in books such as Ghostlight. All things considered, this is a good idea for a novel. The problem is, it needs about a hundred extra pages to resolve all the character development and side plots that Bradley builds up. The story centers around a psychotherapist named Leslie and her sister, Emily. Leslie has been experiencing psychic phenomena before the story begins, and "The Unseen" seems to be tracking her down. She buys a house in San Francisco (the book was written in 1984, before the idea of a normal person buying a house in San Francisco would have been the most fantastic element of the story) which happens to be a vortex of occult power. The place was owned by another psychologist, an occultist named Alison Musgrave who died without training a succsessor. The reason she didn't train a successor is because the person who would have filled that role, a musician named Simon, had a nasty habit of sacrificing cats and junkies in the garage. Leslie is, of course, sleeping with Simon. These could have been the ingredients of a very good book, if Bradley were to follow through. However, so much is left unfinished that the novel feels like a Persian carpet with a thousand frayed ends.

I enjoyed The Inheritor, I only wish Bradley had seen fit to finish it before sending it to her publisher.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good two thirds of a novel
Review: The Inheritor is an early attempt at occult fiction of the type that came to fruition in books such as Ghostlight. All things considered, this is a good idea for a novel. The problem is, it needs about a hundred extra pages to resolve all the character development and side plots that Bradley builds up. The story centers around a psychotherapist named Leslie and her sister, Emily. Leslie has been experiencing psychic phenomena before the story begins, and "The Unseen" seems to be tracking her down. She buys a house in San Francisco (the book was written in 1984, before the idea of a normal person buying a house in San Francisco would have been the most fantastic element of the story) which happens to be a vortex of occult power. The place was owned by another psychologist, an occultist named Alison Musgrave who died without training a succsessor. The reason she didn't train a successor is because the person who would have filled that role, a musician named Simon, had a nasty habit of sacrificing cats and junkies in the garage. Leslie is, of course, sleeping with Simon. These could have been the ingredients of a very good book, if Bradley were to follow through. However, so much is left unfinished that the novel feels like a Persian carpet with a thousand frayed ends.

I enjoyed The Inheritor, I only wish Bradley had seen fit to finish it before sending it to her publisher.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I thought it as all right...spooky to read at night.
Review: This book was not as good as her Darkover books it was more of a modern gothic.If you are looking for fantasy or sci-fi you probably won't enjoy it much.But if you love MZB you will read it anyway.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Yuck. Psychotherapist Buys Haunted House + Evil Boyfriend.
Review: This story was boring and not even written believably, with boring characters and only a vague description of its interesting setting, Haight St in San Francisco. The main crux of the whole matter is that something terrible happened in this bargain of a house the psychotherapist main character buys. And surprise, surprise, it's devil worship--perpetrated by her inexplicably irresistable new boyfriend who is also her younger sister's mentor.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful, but very different
Review: Unlike alot of people, when I first read Marion Zimmer Bradley's Arthurian books, I didn't particularly like them. I have yet to read her Darkover books, and I doubt I ever will - I'm not one for high fantasy/sci fi sort of stuff. Yet, this book is one of the main reasons that I consider her one of my most favorite authors, a highly talented writer - a talent which I one day hope to emulate. Make a note of this: the story in this book is decent. It's not highly original or gripping. The single reason that I love this book is because the writing, the prose, is truly artistic. Bradley is totally able to create the slightly, gothic, bohemian feel through her words. The characters are also very interesting and well written, but opinions on this may vary according to tastes. I love this book only in appreciation of the beautiful style in which it was written, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in creative writing.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: this was good--
Review: Unlike most, I began reading Bradley's more, well, I began with her books set in present time, instead of those in Medevil settings. THE INHERITOR was the first book I ever read by her, and I still like it a great deal. If you like it, you should also read HEARTLIGHT, which is realated-- it is about the man who worked in the book shop in THE INHERITOR-- kinda explains how he came to be who he is, and it tells more about his life. I liked it, too, but I still love THE INHERITOR best of all!!


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