Shades of Milk and Honey

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The fantasy novel you’ve always wished Jane Austen had written, Shades of Milk and Honey is exactly what we could expect from Austen if she had been a fantasy writer: Pride and Prejudice meets Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It is an intimate portrait of a woman, Jane, and her quest for love in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality.

Jane and her sister Melody vie for the attentions of eligible men, and while Jane’s skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face.

When Jane realizes that one of Melody’s suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right—and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.

©2010 Mary Robinette Kowal (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

relaxing slow burn

This won't change your life but if you've had a stressful month and just want a book that asks you to enjoy yourself amongst the minutiae of Jane Austin esque characters and ponder on art this is the book for you.

Mary Robinette Ka-WOW!

If you could sum up Shades of Milk and Honey in three words, what would they be?

Good. Proper. Fun.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Shades of Milk and Honey?

The climactic finale stands out among the memorable moments because it trades all of the book's stored potential energy for kinetic, full of energy and action. But I would rather highlight a series of small moments that show off MRK's awareness of the tradition she's writing in as well as her awareness of the reader's patience. The regency social setting is one full of failures of communication and misunderstandings, and Kowal uses this. She also knows that the reader will only put up with so much silliness, and she does this wonderful thing where, over and over, when characters miscommunicate in these ways, they actually talk the problems through and resolve them without dragging it all on for too long.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal?

If she's also the author, I certainly plan to!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Of course there was, but it would not be fair to spoil anything.

An exemplar of it's kind.

A wonderful novel with vivid characters and fascinating magic within an austere framework. It deserves all of those adjectives I just used.

Note: the accent was slightly jarring after listening to Writing Excuses, but it's not distracting after a few minutes.

Not your average fantasy book

I have never read a "Jane Eyre" styled book. This is a "Jane Eyre" style book. As a novelty is was good. I don't think people who exclusively enjoy more, for lack of better terms, violent fantasy will enjoy this book (think Dresden Files). This book focuses on the characters.

Narrator's Accent is Deplorable

Narration made it difficult to continue listening, until it just became laughable. The fake English accent is terrible. The story was interesting enough to hook me and I did listen and wince through to the end.

Really enjoyable

I wasn’t sure if this would be a retelling of PandP or something else but I have been in a Regency mood and thought I would give it a try. The concept was fun, the Regency setting as accurate as I could evaluate, and while it was not a direct PandP retelling, you could see the influences. The reader, who is also the author, has a pleasant voice and great pacing. But I docked a star for the affected accent :) This last decade has made me more particular about accents. So my only complaint is while I know it was cost saving to self read (and the author is a good reader), I would have preferred an authentic accent.

All of Austen's characters with none of the charm.

As a Jane Austen fan, and a fan of fantasy writing, I was duped into buying this book not once, but twice.

What I liked:
*Kowal's character's are exact copies of various players in Austen's works. If you're familiar with the stories, you can pick them out as you go, which is fun. Seems like a complete cop-out by the author, but alas, that was the most enjoyable part of the book for me.
*The descriptions of the setting and magics involved were vivid and complete.

What I didn't like:
*Character motivations seemed cloudy and counterintuitive.
*Plot was stale. Just a jumbled-up rip off of several Austen novels with some magic thrown in. You can trace entire scenes back to a Jane Austen novel.
*The narration was done in a terrible fake english accent which changed and dropped throughout the book.

If you liked the Pride & Prejudice & Zombies type books, or just need an Austen fix, this might be for you, but I'd borrow the book.

So Dull

This is a hard book to rate - yes, it is well researched and reads like a book from the Regency period. It hasn't been updated for modern vernacular like so many Austen homages. But at the same time, the wit, spark, and yes, magic, of Austen's works are greatly missing here. So although this is a very mannered rehash of nearly every Austen work (throw all her characters into a hat, mix up their histories, and rewrite Sense and Sensibility) it never elevators into an enjoyable read. Having the author narrate the Audible version doesn't help.

Story: Mousy Jane Ellsworth (aka Margaret Dashwood) and her emotional, petulant sister (aka Marianne Dashwood), like the same somewhat boring man (aka Edward Ferrars) who has a damaged younger sister (aka Georgiana Darcy). Jane is a talented glamourist - able to create intricate illusions but her sister, who only has beauty to her name, resents Jane. When the mysterious Mr. Vincent (aka Mr. Darcy) arrives on the scene making exquisite glamours, Jane is curious but his abrupt manner puts her off. Enter a cast of characters including a scheming lieutenant (aka Wickham) and you can guess what happens.

First and foremost, I was bothered by the magic itself. What should have been amazing was instead dull - and kind of pointless, too. If making pretty pictures was the best anyone could think to do with the talent (same as embroidery or singing), then that's a sad indictment on the society. I believe someone figures out military tactical uses later - but really only because of Napoleon? In addition to the bland magic, the characters themselves were also very bland. Jane Ellsworth is a dowdy bore, her sister completely unlikable, and Vincent (Darcy) really unlikable. Where Darcy wins us over, Vincent never does, perhaps because Margaret is a wet towel lacking all of Elizabeth Bennet's wit and witticisms.

As the story progresses, nothing happens. There's a dinner. There's some magic now and then, a picnic......but nothing to keep me returning to the page. Sadly, this dullness is sandwiched in solid writing that feels like it could have been from Austen's time. But the homage falls flat when it is so literal in characterizations but without the smart character studies. Perhaps because the DNA here is most closely tied to Sense and Sensibility that it was a bit flat.

The narration was as flat, unfortunately. Not a spark to be found amongst story, characters, or reading. I had a very hard time finishing it, always deciding that a podcast would be more interesting. It just all ended up being so completely dull.

'These intentions are well meant'

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No it was agony. I couldn't listen for more than 30 minutes. If the book is set in upper-crust England could Audible please - PULEEAZE use a narrator who is a native speaker from that sceptered isle? Some authors are competent narrators of their own works and Ms. Kowal is compentent, but she would have better served her books if she had allowed a native Brit be her narrator.

What did you like best about this story?

I'll tell you after I check it out of the library and read it.

What didn’t you like about Mary Robinette Kowal’s performance?

HAH! You read my mind did you? Well, read the answer to the first question. She is "sing-songy" too. A more experienced narrator with maybe some stage background and who has a good sense of timing and pacing would be an improvement. This book needs a female narrator who knows how to bring out the low tones in her voice to make the male characters more beliveable. This is really sensitive because when you have English characters speaking English, there are nuances Americans may miss and that messes up the whole project. Is Barbara Rosenblatt still performing?

What would have made this romance irresistible?

I'll tell you after I check it out of the library and read it.

Any additional comments?

This author came to me highly recommended. The reviews Audible posted are all positive. Perhaps I just have an overly sensitive ear. I would dearly love to listen to this book because my vision isn't that good. I have seen other books in the Audible inventory that have more than one narrator. Please give this book a chance.

Fanstatical

Pride and Prejudice meets Magic. I delayed reading this after I downloaded it, I should not have. This is a fantastic book for lovers of fantasy and the Regency error. Its easy to get lost in and not want to turn off, that is its only down side. I have to force myself to shut it off to sleep. Very anxious to hear the rest of the series.