Vintage Novels. Best of 2 years ago. Dreaming Under the Same Moon. Waiting on Wednesday Nineteen Edition 3 years ago. A Northern Belle. To Write the Love of God Above Rachel Rossano's Words.
Writing: Returning Characters 4 years ago. Footprints in the Sand. The Second Sentence. To Find a Castle. Note: 6 years ago. What happens at the end of plenilune by Jennifer Freitag?
Definition of plenilune in the Definitions. Meaning of plenilune. What does plenilune mean? Information and translations of plenilune in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Plenilune is an an amazingly-detailed world that I was sucked into and thrown around and battered, and awed, and swept away.
Margaret, our main character was a simple, English girl, plunged into a a strange new world and that world was the moon. View all. A cynical detective begins a tentative romance with the teacher of a child whose murder he is investigating. Yahoo Web Search Yahoo Settings.
Sign In. Search query. All Images Videos News. Considering she has cited Rosemary Sutcliff as a personal inspiration this should perhaps be no surprise, but Freitag's affection for brutality can be a little shocking. For younger readers, there is some sexual content of which to be aware unsurprising, considering the premise of the book.
The thought of sharing a bed with her captor crosses Margaret's mind several times, and though for the most part Freitag handles sexual nuances with some delicacy, their heavy presence definitely makes this novel suited to a more mature audience. That being said, although I can handle my fair share of innuendos without blinking, there were two or three I found distasteful, and at least one gratuitous act which is genuinely disturbing and vile.
I recommend reading the spoiler below, as it is worth being prepared for. Later on, there is a character in the book who becomes passionately attached to Margaret, and his sexual possessiveness of her is frequently, though somewhat subtly, alluded to. In an argument with her captor, this same character who we are meant to believe deeply cares for her does not take issue with the inhumanity of Margaret's captivity -- rather, he reveals his fury is due to the thought of the antagonist "between [Margaret's] legs.
I found this to be cheap and disappointing. Lastly, near the end of the book, Freitag uses a battle scene as an opportunity to introduce a character with a sexual taste for female corpses. To be clear, there is no context which renders this inclusion necessary, enrichening to the story, or remotely tasteful -- it is purely there for the indulgence of the author, and she clearly enjoyed writing it. If I haven't made it clear that Freitag has a fondness for writing gratuitous acts of violence and brutality into her fiction, take this as proof, and tread with caution.
Turns out, none of the characters are so nuanced. Whoever seems nice is Plain and simple. In hindsight I supposed I was meant to find this straightforwardness refreshing, though in other ways the lack of nuance felt wildly uncreative. I'll leave it to you to decide how you like it.
The first half of the book is a decently diverting read, if a bit slow, and is mostly full of characters who, despite a general "niceness" to Margaret, are entirely apathetic about her situation.
To be fair, Margaret herself seems oddly apathetic about her situation, asks no obvious questions, and seems a little too content to be dragged around and desired after. Around the middle of the book, however, the author finally gives Margaret an actual ally and, ahem, a little more than that. Though Dammerung himself is not unproblematic by a long shot, Freitag still does an excellent job at giving us a sense of when a hero has arrived, and thanks to his presence, the pulse of the story quickens at last, and we are blessed with roughly a half-dozen chapters of romantic charm.
If it feels as if you have waited the whole book to actually enjoy it However, as I said, the pulse quickened Then did so again. And again. The book really should have finished about eleven chapters from the actual end, after which point it is packed with anticlimax after anticlimax — which is a HUGE deal, considering every chapter is so.
For a more thorough explanation, see the vague spoiler below. Additionally, the plot falls into a repetitious pattern of Margaret being alternately attacked, kidnapped, threatened or what-have-you, and then rescued in anticlimactic ways -- by the end, the damsel-in-distress motif on repeat begins to feel more than a little ridiculous. The war feels aimless and pointless: small skirmishes break out, brutality commences, then they die down and suddenly the characters have nothing to do again.
The space between battles is filled with generally uninteresting rides on horseback, or times of nothing much at all happening. In short, the book went on I lost connection with the characters, I got restless, I wanted something to be done, but everything seemed to simply continue to unravel or stand still.
I felt it did no justice to the characters, the plot, or the level of suspense and enjoyment. All around, the book suffered dramatically from this end. However, having enjoyed the middle of the book so much, I struggled through until the last couple of chapters.
I finally reached them, but for me the climax had already come too many times, and should have been done with many thousands of words before. The last few chapters did draw me back into the story enough to make the ending somewhat satisfying if, ironically, a bit of a whirlwind.
However, I found myself bewildered by the scene wherein the conflict is actually resolved. It was chaotic, involved random confusing elements of spirituality, and not only rendered all the battles leading up to it unnecessary, but seemed itself unnecessarily executed--the end could have easily been achieved without the overly dramatic means.
Because the climax had already mounted so many times, the actual ending seemed brief, lacking in power, and deflating. Not to mention resulting in a handful of serious moral quandaries related to our remorseless and seemingly faithless heroine, which have been more thoroughly discussed in other reviews. I found Plenilune to be respectively a three, four, and two-star book. It may be worth having on your shelf, but it is mature.
That being said, it's easy to spend more time on the negative than the positive in a book review, but that is because the negative must be described to get it out of our systems. The positive must be experienced to get it into yours. So, go and experience Plenilune.
It will not be for everyone, but it may be for you. View 1 comment. Jan 25, Joshua rated it really liked it Shelves: scifi.
Perhaps the cover put the men off I mean, how can she see out of that thing on her head? But really, though some books are intended for girls and others for guys, guys should want to read planetary fantasy. So, why the sex bias? Freitag writes well, confidently and evocatively, and I can take my hat off to her in that department. She writes under the shadow of Venus: her style is fundamentally sensuous. Related to this is the romantic pleasure, which I think is at the heart of the high ratings by young girlies, and is the main thrust of the book, whether intentional or not.
The way Margaret is shunted around the chessboard — rarely on her own initiative — renders her position immensely desirable. Douglas Wilson has put it this way: girls want to be wanted and guys want to want.
The book largely centres on the former scenario, and is thus appealing to young girls in particular. This unfortunately results in the character focus contradicting statements which emphasise the value of Plenilune.
This ends up, again, making the girl feel wanted. The suspense is matched by the consistent atmosphere of intense emotion, though it doesn't become really uncomfortable. However, even the few jokes are highly strung. That resulted in me I laughing quite a bit when the book dropped a kind-of sexually explicit comment the lesson here is not to be emotionally serious all the time, because you risk being ridiculous.
It was a sanctified sort of laugh, with gold halos round the edges. Freitag is a somewhat masculine writer, which prevents the romantic side of things from being soppy. However, the romantic focus dampens the story somewhat: the main conflict is really a battle of two suitors over Margaret, not Plenilune. All three are strong-minded: Rupert, Dammerung and Margaret refuse to give in to anyone against their will.
Rupert wants to break things, particularly Margaret, to his will. Margaret refuses to be broken. Dammerung wants to break Rupert, and so is ready to break Plenilune, but not Margaret, to do so.
What Dammerung is willing to break and not break defines the story, and I was not hugely impressed with him: his erratic behaviour did not inspire confidence. Also, we, the readers, are not given a clear indication of the problem he faces This needs to be sparkly clear in a fantasy book, not starry-eyed, like some of the reviews.
Dammerung could have organised a successor, then Obliterated Rupert, and if he, Dammerung, died, there would be no issues, and if both brothers died, there would be no issues. However, Rhea was not such a threat, particularly since Margaret assumes the offensive: Margaret was quite able and had plenty of time to knock Rhea out and shove her in some cupboard for the record, she was not, I repeat, not capable of fighting as she did in battle.
Ever heard of training? Just had to get that off my chest. However, Plenilune was not given enough word-space to make us love it: how, then, is she able to love it? Other reviews have mentioned that Margaret doesn't feel strangely about being on another planet.
What is even more amazing is that she doesn't even appear to be on another planet. Plenilune lacks the detail that made Peralandra so beautiful. There is nothing in Plenilune, apart from the cryptic title, which assures me that I am on the moon, and not somewhere years ago in earth's history. That disappointed me, because Freitag is capable of doing justice to another world. Others have mentioned that putting in the inhuman sexual crime was unsupportable, and I agree.
I emphasise that the content is not the primary problem here, but rather the appropriateness and intentionality in relaying depraved practices. Freitag handles these things maturely, but she doesn't incorporate them maturely.
So, perhaps my rating seems inconsistent with the review. In my defense, I can say that the book satisfied my cravings for fiction when writing science-related things: it was an enjoyable read. However, in future, I recommend Freitag tighten up the story structure, and focus on a setting where the things she knows and loves can form the backdrop. View all 5 comments. Jul 29, Rachel Heffington rated it it was amazing. I go into a story willing to be pleased, wooed, won by the author.
But now, waiting for Plenilune's orb to come crashing into the literary atmosphere, I wish I could retrieve some of those stars from some lesser books because to give a book five stars is to give it my all and that I wish to do now. For several years I have read Jennifer Freitag's blog, The Penslayer, and enjoyed "snippets" of her writing. I read her first novel, The Shadow Things, and while I enjoyed it, I knew that her writing had grown since its birth and was anxious to read it in its modernity.
Plenilune, I imagined, was something a bit more mature than the smaller, tentative Shadow Things. A friendship gradually sprang up betwixt Jenny and myself but still I had not thought to get to read her "opus" before publication until one day probably overwhelmed with pregnancy hormones and the pressures of life Jenny caved and sent me Plenilune en masse. I did not ravage it in a sitting; Plenilune is not one of those novels that calls for such behavior.
Indeed, try to swallow it whole and you'll be marked a glutton with no fine taste. It ought to be read, savoured, gentled into one's comprehension because if you try to swallow a moon at one go, you'll certainly feel it a surfeit. Perhaps the thing that impressed me most in Freitag's novel was the fact that her writing as a whole--the characters, arcs, themes, sensations--stood scrutiny as boldly as one beautiful line in a post of snippets. She can conduct small magic in a line, pyrotechnics in a novel.
I left Plenilune feeling nobler. I can't explain it any other way than that Freitag managed to reach into a fierce, crimson, hidden part of me and call forth a banner-blaze not soon to be extinguished. You will hear readers say that Freitag's work is "like Tolkien" or "like Lewis" and I daresay they mean it well. But it's not. Freitag's writing is like Freitag. That's quite enough for Jenny; that's quite enough for me.
I look forward to buying my own copy of Plenilune and prowling upon her doorstep for the next installment in the Plenilunar world. Five of five stars. Because of the realistic dealings with characters both good and evil, I heartily recommend Plenilune for ages sixteen and older. View all 3 comments. Jul 28, Deborah O'Carroll rated it it was amazing Shelves: own , romance , reviewed , medieval-fantasy , fantasy , sci-fi , christian , historical-fiction , adult , 5-stars-awesome.
I finished this book August I'm rating it five stars, currently, simply because with a character like Dammerung in it, it would WRONG not to give it the highest rating.
Without him, it may have garnered a 4-star rating, but, well, without Dammerung it would have been an entirely different book, so there's no real way of knowing, now is there? This is not a review. It is merely a note explaining the rating.
Right now I'm just extremely pleased with myself I finished this book August Right now I'm just extremely pleased with myself for having lived through reading its ginormous bulk of pages of such rich and consequently excruciatingly-slow-reading writing. I feel accomplished; you have no idea. I may, at some point, try to review it, though I feel as if that would be vaguely like attempting to review the ocean Even if the book itself had been the worst book in the world which it is a far cry from , I'd be rating this five stars for Dammerung.
Dammerung is one of my favoritest characters of EVER. I've never met a character quite like him, and I love him very very much indeed. I feel that it was very well worth wading through so monstrously large of a book in order to meet him. That, my dears, is literally all that needs to be said. Dammerung Dammerung Dammerung! Nov 19, Allison Ruvidich rated it really liked it. When it was released last year, this book flew around our blogging community. Impressed by the number of positive reviews, I planned on reading it sooner rather than later, and the Blogger Awards gave me a chance to turn that into a reality.
Plenilune has an official excerpt, but I don't feel it captures the heart of the book. It's such a dense, vast story that it's difficult to capture in one sentence, but I'll try. Plenilune is about a Victorian lady named Margaret who, through a chance mee When it was released last year, this book flew around our blogging community. Plenilune is about a Victorian lady named Margaret who, through a chance meeting and a twist of fate, becomes the coveted object of the two powerful rulers of a different world.
In many ways, Plenilune is gorgeous. It has a vast scope-- the story encompasses countries, a dynasty, and a civil war, but that alone doesn't make Plenilune brilliant. In the long and short of it, Plenilune is a story of power and those that wield it told from the perspective of one small, angry girl cast into the center of it.
I still stand by our decision to elect Margaret the best heroine of Raised in the confines of Victorian-London society, retold through gorgeous chess imagery, her struggle with her own powerlessness and her gradual realization of her value make this novel. Freitag's use of language rivals the skillfulness of her characters. She has a sophisticated grasp of imagery uncommon in young adult literature and displays a cunning use of repeating motifs.
Indeed, sometimes she overdoes it. But I digress. She also has a delightful way of handling shocking revelations: namely, she refuses to over-explain them. Freitag does not talk down to her readers. She expects them to have the patience required to dig back through the novel, searching for half-referenced conversations and factoids.
Her discipline is a delightful surprise in a debut novelist. But-- You knew this was coming. Is it gorgeous? Did I go insane with my highlighter, picking out particularly beautiful phrases-- that is, the whole book? You bet.
Did it go too far? I'm afraid so. I would like to see Plenilune after it had passed through the hands of a particularly ruthless editor. Scenes wandered on and on through charming, unnecessary subplots ahem, Woodbird , eating up a decent chunk of word count that could have been used to address another issue: the political civil war. The world of Plenilune is a vast place-- so vast, indeed, that I only grasped about a quarter of its politics.
It was easy enough to remember who disliked whom Freitag helpfully gave the antagonists sinister names, like Bloodburn and-- well-- Rupert; never mind , but the chain of battles in the war proved more confusing.
At every step the forces of good defeated the forces of evil, yet by the end of the novel they were somehow still losing. Perhaps evil greatly outnumbered the good guys; but then, why would so many people choose to follow a frankly detestable character who quite openly attempted to murder his brother? And then there was Dammerung. Don't even get me started on Dammerung. Dammerung might have to be a separate post. Suffice it to say that he is utterly amazing, and that is not necessarily a good thing.
But I digress again. In short: Plenilune is fabulously gorgeous. I spent half of it in utter confusion which will hopefully dissipate after future rereads , but I still fell completely in love with it.
Check out Jennifer Freitag's blog and read her awesome books! View all 17 comments. Aug 02, Sarah added it. I'll be reading this slowly, said I. Well I read it as slowly as anyone could possibly read Plenilune. Everything that needs to be said has already been said by others. But for the sake of anyone who gets my updates, I say: Yes, this book is incredibly good.
But I would be slow to recommend it for 3 reasons: First, the absence of the Gospel. Planetary fantasy can be handled in various ways- you could have the people be Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, saved in the same way we are, you cou Whew! Planetary fantasy can be handled in various ways- you could have the people be Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, saved in the same way we are, you could have the people fall and saved by Christ in a different fashion, you could have the people fall and be unsaved, you could present a pre-fall planet as in the case of Perelandra , or you could not have people at all but animal-like creatures and deal with a spiritual battle in the heavens as in Out of the Silent Planet.
There might be other options, but the point is, that atonement and the work of Christ cannot be absent or unexplained. In Plenilune, God was spoken of with respect and thanked for food by the good men. But overall I got the impression that the good men triumphed because they were like gods and goddesses and not because they served the Triune God.
The Scriptures were referenced, but it seemed like just quotable literature, like Shakespeare. The book left me with a ton of questions in this regard. Perhaps the defense would say that the author didn't have the time to develop this thoroughly, but it wouldn't have taken much, just a few conversations really. And she certainly made the time for other lesser things.
Which leads me to my second complaint- the sexual tension. It was too much. I could not hand Plenilune to any young women, for fear that it would cause them harm. Even with the good guy there was an abundance of "fingering her hourglass" and intimate touching outside of marriage. Thirdly: Margaret. Her anger was over-the-top. If I had a 20 spot for every "mirthless laugh" I could make a down payment on a 4runner.
She drew strength from hatred. She said little child-like prayers during the crisis, but when she was strong she had no need for prayers. She was totally devoid of praise. She is not a heroine worth imitation from a biblical perspective, and yet, of course you are extremely drawn to her and want to justify everything she does. She is a Christian and a literary genius. I see the need for grit at times, but not at the expense of grace. But keep a close eye on the author, for she could do great things in the coming years, as she continues to grow in Christ.
Oct 31, Donna rated it it was ok Shelves: fantasy-supernatural. This must be for more refined and classical readers than me. I forced myself to finish it hoping all the prose and metaphors would actually lead to something magnificent. Unless you love beautifully poetic descriptions For example A red-and-white mottled f Torture. A red-and-white mottled face appeared out of the shifting black, wet and whiskered like a water-drake, and then slipped under again with a kiss of closing water. The names and titles of the characters even the animals become confusing because they pop up partial and inconsistent.
There is NO romance, no passion. She is just pulled and dragged around throughout the story, yet you expect me to believe she falls in love. They never even say the words. Then there is the whole metaphorical speach. I loved when someone would finally say what they meant. No one talks like that with every sentence. This book made the reader constantly question what was really being said. Worst of all, the heroine is an idiot.
For a smart, refined, strong willed person, she makes no sense. She never asks the right questions. It takes hundreds of pages for her to even wonder "Why me? One star is for having an imagination, and one is for the fact that the author writes beautifully Just stop choking me with it! If you like a story told that reads like the bible written by Shakespeare You'll love this.
Jul 29, Abigail Hartman rated it it was amazing Shelves: fantasy. With characters and a world that bound off the page, and the rich, full-blooded writing of Freitag's The Shadow Things times about fifteen, this is a story to grab the heart out of you. If you pick it up expecting a book in all aspects like The Shadow Things , you will no doubt be disappointed.
This is a vastly different story, with vastly different characters, in Rating a book five stars is always a little questionable, doubly so if it's a modern novel; but this is my frank opinion of PLENILUNE. This is a vastly different story, with vastly different characters, in a vastly different setting. But if you're looking for a fresh fantasy with an allegorical touch reminiscent of C. Lewis' Space Trilogy, and Freitag's lyrical, almost poetic touch, dive into Plenilune. If Margaret Coventry is going to save her family's good name, she will have to catch a husband - one far enough removed from Cumbria to have not already heard about her family and the blot on its reputation.
The man who kidnaps her from her train car and hurls her into Plenilune, however, is just a little too far removed for comfort. Rupert de la Mare and his brother were once contenders for the Overlordship of Plenilune, but with his brother out of the way, Rupert stands alone. Not particularly liking the idea of having him to rule over them, the nobles of Plenilune set him a task: prove his humanity by winning and wooing a woman, and he will have also proved himself capable of ruling Plenilune.
Which is where Margaret comes in. Kidnapped and a world away from home, she finds herself at the center of a chess-game - and the prize is the fate of Plenilune. But is she a pawn? Or is she the queen? May 16, Sarah rated it really liked it Shelves: fantasy , old-tales-revisited , sci-fi , alternate-worlds , it-s-a-love-story. Once again I am late to the party.
Plenilune is a magnificent book, with a great deal to love, but there is an undercurrent of darkness as well. It's not as much as some of the Mistborn books- but, then, I didn't read those until I was older either. The Good - Dammerung. Dammerung is amazing and fabulous and now I know why every review I read raves about him.
He's awesome. He didn't show up in at all the way I expected, nor is he the char Once again I am late to the party. He didn't show up in at all the way I expected, nor is he the character I expected, but honestly, he's even better. I did have a disagreement or two with her at the beginning- namely, why didn't she try to run away? Yes, Rupert's powerful and kind of scary, but I still think I would've tried, if I were in her shoes- but overall I liked her.
She's feminine and not a warrior, but she's still strong and still holds her own and yeah. She's cool. This book doesn't exactly move at a fast pace- not much faster than LOTR at times. But it still held my attention and kept a feeling of intensity, of suspense, all the way through, even when one would think the feeling would sag. Apparently it's on the Moon, but apparently the Moon is much like Earth?
That bit wasn't played up as much as it could've been, but it's still fairly interesting. And the setting is medieval-ish, but at the same time it also has the flavor of later eras, which made it just unique enough to stand out a bit as different.
The style can take a bit of getting used to, but once you get the feel of it, it's lovely. I think that's part of what added to the flavor of non-medieval eras in the setting? Not sure, but still, lovely. The Bad -There is some mature content in here. Not a ton, but still. High body count, though not too much graphic description. On more than one occasion, I finished a chapter, turned the page, and then had to say "Wait, what now?
How'd we get here? For a while, I spent a lot of time going, "Wait, who's Black Malkin? Wait, who's FitzGro? Where and ruled by whom is the Hol-land?
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