Shades of Milk and Honey

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal

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

Great if you love speculative fiction and Austen

I was a little worried that I wouldn't like this book, but overall I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a complete Austen fangirl, but I love her writing enough that I would have been entirely put off if the characters, setting, etc, had seemed fake or over the top. The characters were familiar, but this was mostly a positive and only occasionally distracting. I liked the addition of glamour to the world, which was a relief as that could have easily ruined everything if not done well.

The author's reading was great, although the accent was a little distracting occasionally. I could tell when she'd had a break and started again, but she soon settled into the voices and I would forgot about it until the next time. Overall it gets better as you go along.

I listened to this recording all in one day, with only a couple of breaks. It was exactly what I needed that day, as I pottered around the house doing odd jobs and a bit of drawing. To begin with it was a nice backdrop to my other activities, but by the end it had drawn me in so I was sitting by the computer with my stomach in a knot, wanting a good outcome for my favourite characters.

Overall the author has taken on a concept which would have been very easy to do wrong, and has delivered an entertaining read/listen. I'm looking forward to her next book in this series being released on Audible, and hope she will be reading it herself.

OK Story, Not Ok Narration

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Given it to a stronger editor. This book basically felt like a really good second draft. Lots of interesting ideas, but a very underdeveloped romance and characters that never really clicked.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Just given it more time in the oven, really. It needed a lot more story editing. The romance not being fleshed out is a big one I mentioned above. It never felt like it built properly. They just kind of...didn't like each other, then were in love. OK? I guess?

The author also didn't do great at researching the regency period, in ways that were occasionally obvious and drew you out of the book. For example, declaring someone was experiencing "not simple melancholia, but depression!" This ignores the fact that melancholia WAS depression at this time; not some separate, lesser disorder. In fact, it's extremely unlikely the term depression would have been used to refer to a mood disorder at all in the early 1800s, let alone by a lay-person. Nit-picky? Yeah, totally. But blunders in historical accuracy like that are exactly the kind of thing that pull you out of a text, and should be caught before publication.

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

The accent was forced. The voices were often poorly distinguishable or kind of annoying, particularly the baby doll voices given to young women. She did a poor job of conveying emotion and nuance. A few times, at critical moments, she mixed up voices for characters in a way that made things confusing.

Do you think Shades of Milk and Honey needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I might be interested to see what happens next; but if I decide to I will absolutely (barring a change in narrator) be reading the physical book rather than listening to the audiobook.

Any additional comments?

Despite my kvetching, it's not a terrible book. A lot of the writing is solid enough, and the idea of glamour is intriguing. It's entertaining enough that I don't totally begrudge the credit spent on it. But I do still really recommend anyone interested in reading the book buy a physical copy rather than listening.

You become more invested as story goes on

I’ll be honest it took me a little while to warm up to the story but once I got into it I could not stop listening

Delightful

That was wonderfully adorable and fluffy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

The light touch of magic. The main character. Her eccentric family. The awful antagonists.

Very good. 7/10

Not for me

This was not what I thought it would be at all. At first I thought glamour was some sort of Regency art form I wasn’t aware of and looked it up. Then discovered it is just some made up form magic. Although everyone seems to be enthralled with it, it’s strange thrown into a Regency novel, as if magic were an everyday art form all young ladies should be pursuing.
Just too weird for me and off putting. I tried to keep going, but the stranger it got, and I felt I couldn’t waste my time with it.

An amusing story! Third time listening.

There are at least 3 different Jane Austen books I found referenced in this story. (Not just Pride and Prejudice). See if you can find the similarities.

Cute little story

I was about an hour into this story before I realized there was magic involved. It’s very Jane Austinesk with a hint of magic. The only part I wasn’t wholly sold on was the narration. The performance was ok and her voice was fine, it just sounded a bit like a fake British accent which I can’t account for because there are so many good British voice actors. I enjoyed it.

Delightful

Just what I was craving. Jane was painfully naive at times, but the plot, setting, and atmosphere was all excellent.

Light, even by Regency standards

I finished this light Regency fantasy with mixed feelings. It read like a young adult novel, which I didn’t expect, and I grew weary at times with the petty sisterly jealousies and bickering, or frustrated by the simple plot. About a third of the way through, I realized the novel was exactly as advertised, a Austen-esque comedy of manners, and I stopped expecting more frequent action or plot twists. I allowed the author to draw me in with the intricacies of her characters' conversations and subtle emotions as she painted a picture of the constraints of the time, which kept people from truly understanding one another as they honored the social conventions. By the end I was well satisfied with the results, although I might have wished for a romance more deeply drawn or for a less hasty resolution to difficulties.

The novel’s greatest strength is how the author integrates a form of magic known as glamour into the Regency setting. Considered an essential domestic art, glamour allows practitioners to create illusions of light, scent and sound, used to entertain guests or bring comfort and cheer to a home. Jane, the novel’s protagonist, is unusually skilled at weaving glamour, but her plain face has relegated her to life as a wallflower. Her beautiful sister, Melody, gets all the attention and suitors. Glamour – as an art form and as a means of “dressing up” one’s ordinary life – fit well with the period’s artifice and strict societal rules. Jane begins to learn it can also be an acceptable outlet for passions she is not able to express otherwise.

I appreciated the author's narration, which I think allowed me to catch subtleties in conversations I might otherwise have missed.

Jane Austen with magic

Mary Robinette Kowal's Shades of Milk and Honey is a period piece of English aristocracy from the early 1800's with all the pretensions of class, manners, and behaviors with an emphasis on aristocratic daughters marrying 'right'. The added twist is magic, referred to as glamour, but is treated as a fine art. While there are professionals, woman learn the art in much the same way they would learn to play a musical instrument. The story revolves around a family with two daughters, one quite attractive, but 'unglamorous', while her sister is plain Jane, but quite talented. Jane has reconciled herself to spinsterhood, but learns, partly as a result of her glamour skills that unscrupulous young man is playing multiple women, including her sister, off one another to cover his gambling debts. At the same time, she finds herself fascinated with a professional glamourist who is a true artist, but is also attempting to 'write the rules' for working with glamour.

While the British aristocracy seems to hold endless fascination to audiences, the excessive focus on manners and proper behaviors ("I should tell you that your hair is on fire, but that would force me to speak out of turn, so you'll just have to suffer 3rd degree burns") becomes annoying. The fascination is the conception of glamour as a property of the physical world that individuals can learn to control. The fact that no one has figured out practical things to do with it (no military applications) relegates it to artistic interpretation and there it shines. At the same time, Kowal distinguishes between raw talent (which Jane possesses) and true artistic skill that Vincent possesses along with his desire to understand how glamour actually works.

The narration is reasonably adequate with a solid performance by the author; typically, author performances (unless comedy), leave much to be desired. Character distinction is good and pacing is brisk for what is otherwise a quick listen.