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The City in the Lake Rachel Neumeier Books

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The City in the Lake Rachel Neumeier Books

This is a fairy tale, in the sense of the original and not the sanitized versions.
Well written, lyrical and at the same time concise and spare in use of language.
What a great story.


Tags : Amazon.com: The City in the Lake (9780375847042): Rachel Neumeier: Books,Rachel Neumeier,The City in the Lake,Knopf Books for Young Readers,0375847049,Family - Parents,Fantasy - General,Fantasy.,Magic;Fiction.,Children's Books - Young Adult Fiction,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9),Fantasy,Fantasy & Magic,Fiction,Juvenile Fiction Fantasy & Magic,Magic,YOUNG ADULT FICTION,Young Adult Fiction Family Parents,Young Adult Fiction Fantasy General

The City in the Lake Rachel Neumeier Books Reviews

Once in a very great while, I am able to feel privileged to read a masterwork. I felt that way when I read The Riddlemaster of Hed and The Tombs of Atuan. I felt that way reading Rachel Neumeier's The City in the Lake.

It is likely that I wouldn't have found this book, even though I find myself reading even more young adult (YA) fantasy, except that I ran into Rachel at Windycon, and she gave me a copy to read. Frabjous joy!

Oh, boy. From the very first page, I got the same sense of being present at the unfolding of a wonder that I received reading Ursula LeGuin, Patricia McKillip, Peter Beagle, Lynn Abbey and the other great modern fantasists, or Cecelia Holland or Dorothy Dunnett, great writers as well.

I am here to tell you that this is a great book, and it is a wonderful read. It should not be restricted to young adult readers, either. The themes and dimensions of the story resonate well with young adult readers, and also the most adult of us.

There's a City in the lake, beside which a city has been built. As in Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, this city is more than just a single place, it spans all of existence and is the bedrock upon which the entire universe is built. There is evil in the world as well, and the evil wants to devour the power that is intrinsic to the City.

The evil is personified in a woman, sorceress and perhaps demon. She bears a child to the King of the City, and then leaves, abandoning her son.

There is a girl-child named Timou, fathered by a mage named Kapoen, who decides, when her father disappears, to seek him in the City. Timou has grown up in a small village, learning wizardry from her father, and the customs and culture of a small village from her surroundings. Yet she's different, apart, and sees herself that way.

On her way to the City, and once she arrives, Timou immediately finds herself embroiled in the almost hieratic play that unfolds when the King's legitimate son, the heir to the throne that the sorceress covets for her own, bastard son, disappears, followed shortly after by the King's own disappearance.

The book is extremely visual, and could be a terrific fantasy film.

As the characters move through the plot, they grow and change, in some cases maturing, and in some cases learning who they really are, for the very first time.

I think this is, or should be, an award-winning book.

I think you should run right out to your local bookstore, or jump right onto and buy it.

Then you, too, can have the experience of wonder and awe at reading what is sure to be considered a masterwork in the future.

Walt Boyes
Associate Editor, Jim Baen's Universe
Active Member SFWA
The City in the Lake is an original YA fairy tale. When the Prince of the Kingdom goes missing, the magic of the Kingdom is thrown out of balance. The disturbance reaches all the way to the rural village where Timou is learning the craft of her father, a mage. When he never returns from a journey to the City, Timou herself goes to look for him and the missing prince.

While I was originally under the impression that Timou would be the center of the story (and this still is somewhat true) the narrative is actually split between Timou and the Prince’s illegitimate older brother, Lord Neill. I actually liked his sections a lot more than Timou’s, especially in the beginning where he had immediate problems (the disappearing Prince) versus Timou, who was still having her story line set up. Even by the end, Neill remained my favorite character.

Other than Neill, there’s nothing else about The City in the Lake that I really like the same way. The prose is well enough written, but it took me over half the book to get involved in the story line. Partly this could be due to the slow start, but I think some of it also lies in how archytipcal everything feels.

There’s not anything about The City in the Lake which feels new. The setting is a generic fairy tale type, if well described. There’s nothing specific in culture or design to make it feel at all different from countless other fantasy or fairy tale type books I’ve read. There’s a city (the City, no other name), a kingdom (again, the Kingdom), an enchanted forest, pastoral rural land… I got the sense that Neumeier was using familiar fairy tale elements, but I don’t think she ever distinguished herself enough from the multitude of other stories out there.

I didn’t find the plot engaging until near the end, but I also felt like the ending was almost literally a deus ex machina. I also never cared at all about Jonas, Timou’s love interest who started getting POV sections about half way into the book.

I don’t think I would tell anyone not to read The City in the Lake, but I don’t think it’s a book I’ll be recommending in the future either.
I didn't even finish this book. The beginning was spectacular. A prince missing, his older brother suspect?!? Wow! Wait... now we're in a town. With very boring people. I can't even remember the female hero's name, but she was that boring. Typical teenager with magic, but no drive to develop it. I could go to my local high school and watch that for free.
The headline applies both to Timou, the heroine of this delightful novel, and to the novel itself. Anyone who likes strange and wonderful lands, mythic, dangerous magic, complex characters, and a plot like a fast- moving snake should like this a lot. Nicely-written, too. I am now a stone Neumeier fan.
This is a fairy tale, in the sense of the original and not the sanitized versions.
Well written, lyrical and at the same time concise and spare in use of language.
What a great story.