Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal Series: Glamourist Histories #3
Published by Tor on April 2, 2013
Genres: Historical Fantasy
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Also in this series: Shades of Milk and Honey, Shades of Milk and Honey
Also by this author: The Calculating Stars, The Relentless Moon, Shades of Milk and Honey
Fantasist Mary Robinette Kowal enchanted fans with her novels Shades of Milk and Honey and Glamour in Glass, which introduced Regency glamourists Jane and David Vincent. In Without a Summer, Jane and Vincent take a break from their international travels. But in a world where magic is real, nothing—even the domestic sphere—is quite what it seems.
After a dramatic trip to Belgium, Jane and Vincent go to Long Parkmeade to spend time with Jane's family, but quickly turn restless. The spring is unseasonably cold, and no one wants to be outside. Mr. Ellsworth is concerned by the harvest, since a poor one may imperil Melody's dowry. And Melody has concerns of her own, given an inadequate selection of eligible bachelors locally.
When Jane and Vincent receive a commission from a prominent London family, they take it, and bring Melody with them. They hope the change of scenery will do her good and her marriage prospects—and mood—will be brighter in London. Talk here frequently turns to increased unemployment of coldmongers and riots in nearby villages by Luddites concerned that their way of life is becoming untenable. With each passing day, it's more difficult to avoid getting embroiled in the intrigue, which does not really help Melody's chances for romance.
It doesn't take long for Jane to Vincent realize that in addition to arranging a wedding, they must take on one small task: solving a crisis of national proportions.
Regency intrigue, magical fantasy, and a touch of romance
Mary Robinette Kowal makes good use of the historical “year without a summer” in the third book of her Glamourist Histories. As Britain remains locked in winter’s grip, Jane and her husband Vincent (now “Sir David Vincent”) are in London to work on a glamour commission for Lord Stratton, an Irish peer. Hearing that her sister Melody is melancholic and realizing there are few marriageable men near home, the Vincents invite Melody to stay with them. Melody’s growing affection for Stratton’s son, Mr. O’Brien, is complicated by Jane’s suspicions of the young man, and by the public’s growing belief that the coldmongers (boys and young men who can use glamour to make ice or keep things cold) are responsible for the unseasonable weather. Meanwhile, Jane and Vincent must contend with his father’s relentless cruelty and ambition, as well as a shadowy plot that threatens O’Brien, the young coldmongers, Jane and Vincent’s very lives, and even the British government itself.
Jane undergoes considerable character growth in this book, as she is forced to confront her own prejudices as well as her blindness to her sister’s needs and wellbeing. Her relationship with Vincent continues to grow and deepen as well. From a writer’s perspective, it might have been simpler to focus only on the external conflicts to create dramatic tension, so I applaud Ms. Kowal for making Jane’s (and to a lesser degree, Vincent’s) internal journeys as compelling as the external plot—which is quite engrossing in its own right.
I also love the blend of historical fact and detail with Kowal’s well-thought-out magic system. In 1816, a massive volcanic explosion on the other side of the world resulted in a year of unseasonable cold and crop failures across the Northern Hemisphere. In Britain, the privations were exacerbated by unemployment, as returning veterans of the Napoleonic Wars struggled to find jobs. Kowal also brings out lesser-known historical details, from the treatment of prisoners to the rules governing religious intermarriage to the procedures surrounding criminal trials. And she brings historical characters to life, notably the Prince Regent (“Prinny”), who plays a small but significant role as Vincent’s patron.
As for the magic system, I find it fascinating, not only for the magic itself, but for how Kowal integrates it into the fabric of society, from the gendered nature of glamour to the language used to describe it, and the uses it can be put to. Glamour is a ladylike accomplishment, like watercolors, needlework or playing the piano; but as a form of high art, it is restricted to men—very similar to the way in which, historically, only men were considered to be great artists or composers, while ladies were only expected to attain enough skill to dabble, to adorn the home or entertain within it. And the language used to describe glamour (folds, threads, knots, twisting, weaving) derives from terms used for fabric, primarily the weaving thereof—another art or craft with a long history of gendered rules and assumptions. As with most well-designed magic systems, there are costs to using glamour, primarily to the wielder’s energy and even health, although some works of glamour can be “tied off” and remain self-sustaining for some time. It’s fascinating, and completely believable because of how well it is woven (pun intended) into the mores, values, and practices of the real Regency era.
But it’s the characters, ultimately, that make the book live, and keep me coming back to this series. I have two more books to go, and I only wish there were more!
Highly recommended for lovers of historical fantasy, Regency romance, and/or Regency mystery.
About Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the Lady Astronaut Universe, The Spare Man and six historical fantasy novels: The Glamourist Histories series and Ghost Talkers. She’s a member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, four Hugo awards, the RT Reviews award for Best Fantasy Novel, the Nebula, and Locus awards. Stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov’s, several Year’s Best anthologies and her collections Word Puppets and Scenting the Dark and Other Stories.
Her novel The Calculating Stars is one of only eighteen novels to win the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards in a single year.
As a professional puppeteer and voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), Mary Robinette has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Pictures, and founded Other Hand Productions. Her designs have garnered two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest award an American puppeteer can achieve. A professional audiobook narrator, she records fiction for authors such as Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi.
Mary Robinette lives in Nashville with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters. Visit maryrobinettekowal.com.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- COYER Upside-Down 2023: Chapter 1
- The Backlist Reader Challenge 2023
Anne - Books of My Heart
I enjoy this author but tend to read her scifi offerings more.
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…Buried Too Deep by Karen Rose @KarenRoseBooks @BerkleyRomance @BerkleyPub #Excerpt
Lark_Bookwyrm
Her two main series—the Lady Astronaut books (ongoing) and the Glamourist Histories (complete)—are very different, but I love them both. I can see why many readers prefer the Lady Astronaut books, though. Kowal keeps growing as a writer, for one thing. I’m really excited for The Martian Contingent (due out in 2025), and I just helped Kickstart her collection of Lady Astronaut-universe short stories, Silent Spaces. Can’t wait for that one, either, even though I’ve read all of the previously published stories already. But there will be several new stories written just for the collection.
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits
This series sounds so fun! One of these days I will finally start reading it… I also have enjoyed Kowal’s blend of history and fantasy in Ghost Talkers, one of the few war books that I really enjoyed.
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits recently posted…Rainbow Yoshis on their way
Lark_Bookwyrm
It’s a good series! I also love her Lady Astronaut SF series; you might want to check out my other comment on that.
Katherine
I remember seeing wonderful reviews for Shades of Milk and Honey and this sounds like it’s jsut as good. I really need to try this author’s books.
Lark_Bookwyrm
I love all of Kowal’s books, but her series are very different. The Glamourist Histories (of which this is book #3 of 5) are historical fantasy, ranging in subgenre from Austen-style romance to mystery to heist novel. I love them, although I haven’t finished the series yet; I’m sort of saving the last two for a rainy day, because I don’t think Kowal plans to write any more of them.
Her recent Lady Astronaut series (ongoing) is alternate-history science fiction, set in a world where an asteroid strike in the late 50s (or early 60s?) will cause catastrophic climate change. To save humanity, countries must cooperate on a different kind of space race—one against time, rather than country vs. country. So you get all the 1960s-80s space technology development crammed into the 1960s, but the characters have to contend with most of the same cultural issues (widespread sexism and racism) that were prevalent in the 50s and 60s. The first book details the female main character’s fight to include women in the astronaut program; the second has her on the first Mars mission, and the third follows a different female astronaut on the moon base during that first Mars mission. They are really, really good, and I can’t wait for the new one to come out in 2025.