Phantom's Legacy by Lucilla Epps Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Phantom's Legacy
Book Review: Fast-moving: 45 years in 424 pages!
Summary: 4 Stars
This book moves quite fast, especially towards the beginning, as it glosses over years at a time in just a few pages. It sucks you in from the first page, and won't let you get off the roller coaster until the very end.
The scope of this book is what is most impressive. The plot is fast-paced because it has to be; the author covers nearly half a century from beginning to end. It is obvious that Ms. Epps did a lot of research about WWI, which touches the characters in tragic and personal ways. It is also obvious that she has a lot of love for these characters, and wanted to give us "the rest of the story," to use Paul Harvey's favorite sign-off.
The main criticisms I have about this book are that the large amount of exposition got tedious, especially when written in the first person. Some of the dialogue seemed unnecessarily cryptic, and the punctuation was odd: underlinings where there should have been dashes or ellipses. A couple of really pivotal plot points seemed questionable and far-fetched to me. Also, towards the end, there were too many characters for me to keep track of---which is always a risk in a multi-generational story. The book would have benefited from a genealogy chart in the front, or something like that, so we could keep track of whose children are whose.
Aside from those factors, I did enjoy this book. I read the whole thing in one night, in fact. The things I did enjoy were: the bedroom scenes were very tastefully written, with no squishy, graphic details--just tender and romantic ones. The characters were interesting (what we could see of them from inside Erik's head), and I especially liked his "daughter" and how she affected his character.
I must be honest and confess that I have some little idiosyncrasies of taste that prevented my wholehearted enjoyment of this book. I am a Leroux purist (as evidenced by my own Leroux-based novel, Letters to Erik) rather than a Webber fan, and not generally in favor of pairing Erik with anyone but Christine. I also enjoy long, multi-generational sagas only rarely. However, readers who enjoy long stories with a very broad scope, and who don't mind Webber-based Eriks and non-E/C pairings, will mostly likely love this book.
Even within my peculiarities of taste, this was a good read---an excellent way to while away an evening at the beach, and I wish Ms. Epps every success.
Book Review: From A Non-PHANTOM 'PHAN'
Summary: 4 Stars
Not being an avid follower of things Phanton; I never-the-less found this book to be a good read. The author shows an ability to express those feelings that all can relate to.
A few too many 'emotional crescendos' for me, but that probably is a male trait thing. The inter-actions of the rivals, the lovers and the family members are familiar to anyone over 25. (Well, maybe over 35 now-days). I appreciated the letters/comments from the soldier viewpoint and the general overall depiction of life during that era.
I always find that a book, believable in content and having the "I can identify with that" quality, beats a more flamboyant one every time.
Kudos to the author for a great deal of research and some good reflections on being human, Phantom or not.
Book Review: Incredibly Dull Reading
Summary: 1 Stars
I am so sorry I have nothing good to say about this story, and that I wasted my money on it. Even "Letters To Erik" by A. Wallace was not as dull a reading,and that story took forever to get interesting. I'm truly sorry to have give any story such a bad review, but I couldn't get through it. This is the first time for me, a story was so very boring, I could not bring myself to finish it; I'm very frustrated.Book Review: Not for me!
Summary: 2 Stars
As an Erik/Christine purist .... this book and any other like it, no matter how superbly written, and creatively weaved is not one that I could enjoy. It's unfortunate not to know such important detail upfront.Book Review: Not one of my favorites
Summary: 3 Stars
If I had read the first few pages of this book before buying it I would have known it wasn't for me. The Phantom gets over Christine as soon as he walks thru the mirror!! I'm not sure I'll even finish it. The years pass by so fast in this book. If you like the Phantom with Meg then this book is for you.