The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantreage
Book Title: The Illuminator
Author: Brenda Rickman Vantreage
Genre: Fiction
My Grade: C+
# of Pages: 404
Week Read: Week #51 & #52 (12/17 - 12/31/10)
Summary: It is England, in the late fourteenth century, a time when the old feudal order is starting to crack, but the whim of a lord or the pleasure of a bishop still has the power to seal nearly anyone's fate. Books are rare and costly, painstakingly lettered by hand and illuminated with exquisite paintings.
For Lady Kathryn of Blackingham Manor, a widow and mother trying to safeguard her holdings without the dubious protection of her late husband, it is a time made both sweeter and more perilous by the arrival of a master illuminator called Finn. Caught between the King's taxes and the church's tithes, Kathryn strikes a bargain with the local abbot: she will take Finn and his pretty young daughter into her household in exchange for the monastery's protection.
Finn is working not only on approved church texts, but secretly- and dangerously- on a forbidden English translation of the Bible. As the hesitant friendship between Kathryn and Finn grows into a passionate alliance, wonderful new storyteller Brenda Rickman Vantreage brings us a glorious novel of love, treachery, faith, and redemption on the eve of the Renaissance.
My Thoughts: Again, I read this months ago and did not get right on reviewing it so I'm having difficulty recalling the good and the bad. I think I'll just try and go with the three things I require to make a decent read:
1) The characters. The Illuminator held many characters and only a handful of them seemed to have any sort of "soul" or "heart." The rest were not developed and thrown in there to only create some conflict and push the plot along. Thankfully our main characters, Kathryn and Finn, were fully fleshed out so following them was not as tortuous as following, let's say, their children. Though their children carried an impact on the story, they were not fully developed characters.
2) The plot/story. It's a slow going book, with starts and stops so frequent that after a while you just get frustrated and put it aside for some time. Vantreage had something, but like most of her characters, struggled to develop it into something full and wonderful. I'm not saying it's a story with no plot or a plot with no story, it's just very thin so you have to tread carefully.
3) The writing. This is where Vantreage flourished. Her writing was a crisp, clean and clear breath of fresh air. Her descriptions were spot on and her language flowed. I feel she may have spent so much time making sure her writing was good that that's why the characters and the story fell flat.
For new writers finding a fair balance in, what I consider to be, the three elements of a good book is a hard task indeed. While her characters and plot were lacking somewhat, they weren't terrible all together, and the writing more than made up for it. I wasn't so disappointed by this book that I want to avoid any of Vantreage's further works, quite the opposite. The potential for everything was there, just not reached. Judging by her style she can only grow further and I know her future works will be beautiful and worth a read.
Next Book: The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantreage • review
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Author: Brenda Rickman Vantreage
Genre: Fiction
My Grade: C+
# of Pages: 404
Week Read: Week #51 & #52 (12/17 - 12/31/10)
Summary: It is England, in the late fourteenth century, a time when the old feudal order is starting to crack, but the whim of a lord or the pleasure of a bishop still has the power to seal nearly anyone's fate. Books are rare and costly, painstakingly lettered by hand and illuminated with exquisite paintings.
For Lady Kathryn of Blackingham Manor, a widow and mother trying to safeguard her holdings without the dubious protection of her late husband, it is a time made both sweeter and more perilous by the arrival of a master illuminator called Finn. Caught between the King's taxes and the church's tithes, Kathryn strikes a bargain with the local abbot: she will take Finn and his pretty young daughter into her household in exchange for the monastery's protection.
Finn is working not only on approved church texts, but secretly- and dangerously- on a forbidden English translation of the Bible. As the hesitant friendship between Kathryn and Finn grows into a passionate alliance, wonderful new storyteller Brenda Rickman Vantreage brings us a glorious novel of love, treachery, faith, and redemption on the eve of the Renaissance.
My Thoughts: Again, I read this months ago and did not get right on reviewing it so I'm having difficulty recalling the good and the bad. I think I'll just try and go with the three things I require to make a decent read:
1) The characters. The Illuminator held many characters and only a handful of them seemed to have any sort of "soul" or "heart." The rest were not developed and thrown in there to only create some conflict and push the plot along. Thankfully our main characters, Kathryn and Finn, were fully fleshed out so following them was not as tortuous as following, let's say, their children. Though their children carried an impact on the story, they were not fully developed characters.
2) The plot/story. It's a slow going book, with starts and stops so frequent that after a while you just get frustrated and put it aside for some time. Vantreage had something, but like most of her characters, struggled to develop it into something full and wonderful. I'm not saying it's a story with no plot or a plot with no story, it's just very thin so you have to tread carefully.
3) The writing. This is where Vantreage flourished. Her writing was a crisp, clean and clear breath of fresh air. Her descriptions were spot on and her language flowed. I feel she may have spent so much time making sure her writing was good that that's why the characters and the story fell flat.
For new writers finding a fair balance in, what I consider to be, the three elements of a good book is a hard task indeed. While her characters and plot were lacking somewhat, they weren't terrible all together, and the writing more than made up for it. I wasn't so disappointed by this book that I want to avoid any of Vantreage's further works, quite the opposite. The potential for everything was there, just not reached. Judging by her style she can only grow further and I know her future works will be beautiful and worth a read.
Next Book: The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantreage • review
Back to the Book List.