Mary Gentle
Reviewed by Amy B. on March 9, 2013
The secret occult brotherhood of the King's Men don't want to destroy the world, per se. They just think the devil would do a better job at running things than God has. So to change the balance of the world, they are going to write an opera so powerful that the very foundations of the earth are altered. That is, unless King Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies can get an atheist librettist, a drawing room composer, and a rag-tag bunch of opera singers to create an opera equally as powerful. Gentle does a wonderful job developing her characters, most of whom are wildly morally ambiguous, as well as building the world of nineteenth-century Naples for her readers. Bonus: Napoleon makes a daring rescue!