After the mess that was Ghostlight (book one in the Light series) I was relieved to find this one was written a little better. It isn't really necessary to read them in order, although you will miss out a little on the backstory of some characters. And there's been some uproar about the fact that this book was co-authored (ghostwritten, completely written, noone seems to know for sure) by someone other than Marion Zimmer Bradley, despite her name being on the cover.When Winter Musgrave finds herself in an old house all she remembers is that she released herself from a mental institution. The rest of her past is fuzzy, and strange occurrences keep happening around her, the worst of which being the mutilated animals on her doorstep. Having been a powerful trader on the stock exchange, Winter is surprised to learn that she once went to the local college and was studying the arts, but left before she was to have graduated. Realizing that the phenomena happening is getting more violent though, she desperately seeks her friends from back then, hoping they can fill in the gaps before it is too late.Winter bounces all over the place in personality. She goes from being cold to hopeful to reminiscent and back again over the spectrum. This is to be expected, she's undergone a lot of stress. But it just didn't feel genuine at times. In fact, the only character who really felt real was Truth, and maybe that's because she was in the first book. The rest were just flat characters who were there to serve a purpose. At least they had some interesting histories though, so you did care about where they came from.This book started out great. You really wanted to know what happened to Winter and cheered for her when she started making discoveries about herself. But by the end of the book, the pace was all off and things started happening too quickly. The author also assumes that the reader has more than a base knowledge of the occult/magic/etc. and if you don't, it can make the concepts of this book difficult to understand. I had a general idea of what was going on, but I suspect I missed a lot of the nuances that having a broader knowledge depth would have given me. It just made the book more difficult to read.I think someone more familiar with the occult and magic in different forms might enjoy this book more than the average person. It definitely has a specific audience unlike some of the other books with Bradley's name on the cover. I've got one more of the Light series at home that I'll probably read, but they're definitely not books I would seek out otherwise.WitchlightCopyright 1996303 pagesReview by M. Reynard 2013 More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
I liked this better than the first one. It had a little bit more plot twists in it. Although the main character was a bitter woman, kind of like Truth was in the first book, Winter finds herself and discovers that she doesn't have to be so bitter and angry over her past and how much forgiveness heals. Thrown in are some interesting things about the paranormal and some witchcraft and occultism, makes for a interesting read. I wanted to learn more about the "Grey Angels", but that seems to be being saved for a later book in the series. The ending of this book was a bitter sweet one. This book also touches controversies such as prejudice and womens' rights and is it right to have an abortion? or perhaps, will it haunt you for the rest of your life? And ultimately it's your choice and you have to pay the piper in your own way. Anyway, debates and discussions that can be saved for later. All and all a pretty good book.
I should have read this book BEFORE I read Gravelight, but since there was nothing on the books telling me which order was correct, I ended up reading them as I did. Of the three I've read: Ghostlight, Gravelight and Witchlight, I liked Witchlight the best. It has several of the characters present in the other two books, and they play a somewhat minor role. The main character, Winter Musgrave, has recently checked herself out of an asylum for the wealthy. She can't remember most of her past, and she thinks she's haunted or possessed. She seeks the assistance of psychic experts, but she must figure out what's happening on her own while discovering and confronting her past.I really enjoyed this book, and even though I was warned about unusual twists, I was still surprised by them. I thought the story was tighter than the other two books, and I found it satisfying. Truthfully, I had a hard time putting it down.
—Kim
(Fantasy 1995) Light #2. Winter Musgrave is the center of strange phenomena, including the bloody bodies of small animals. It took a really long time to get the story rolling, the narrative just kept rolling around the same information over and over. But once it took off, the story was engaging. Winter ends up finding Truth Jourdemayne (from book #1) and they work together to find out what's going on. I read it in a day. So far, this series is interesting but not great. Sometimes it feels like there were a required number of pages to be written and not enough plot. Overall though, glad I read it.
—Cathi95
Do I have to say more than blah??? I suppose I should. I couldn't stand this audiobook. I just completely disliked it. First of all, the main character, Winter, is a woman - yet they get a man to read it? Why? Secondly, the reader, Pat Bottino, was HORRIBLE! He flip-flopped between being too dry and being a drama queen. And, all of his characters sounded the same!I blame the director/producer mainly. The quality of the recording was not good. Sometimes the reader sounded like he was in a huge empty room, other times, he was right next to the mike. Up/down went the volume. Another pet peeve is that at the end of Disc 2, it just stopped. No music, nothing. The disc just started playing over again. I thought there was a disc error at first!!Recap - I've blamed the reader and director/producer, who's left? The writer!!! I read my first Marion Zimmer Bradley in a short story collection recently. It was wonderful, and made me search my library for more of her work. This audiobook is what I came up with. I just didn't enjoy the story. It made no sense to me at all. The main character was confused throughout the book, weak even. Suddenly, at the end, she finds enormous strength! The ending also just sort of dropped. Things were left hanging. Had I truly cared about the story, I would have been angry.So now I don't know what to do with Marion Zimmer Bradley. She had a fantastic story and she had this drivel. Which one is the fluke? Do I dare try her out again? Help me out here, guys! My rating: 1/5. If it had been any longer than 3 discs, I wouldn't have bothered finishing it.
—Susan Kelley
