Belladonna (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = Belladonna
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Anne Bishop
illustrator =
cover_artist = Larry Rostant
country = USA
language = English
series = Landscapes of Ephemera
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Roc Books
release_date = 2007
english_release_date = March 2007
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 502 pp (paperback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0732283736 (paperback edition)
preceded_by = Sebastian
followed_by =

Belladonna is the second book in Anne Bishop's "Landscapes of Ephemera". Following "Sebastian", Belladonna continues on the battle between the Light and Dark of Ephemera, and Glorianna Belladonna's struggle to destroy, or cage the Eater of the World before it can convert the worlds into a massive playground to use for its own dark purposes. Belladonna also introduces into the duology Michael, a wandering musician who seeks the answer to the riddle that has been haunting his dreams, and whose arrival into the lives of all the original characters has catastrophic and far-fetched consequences for everyone.

The World

Ephemera

Ephemera is the world the duology is situated within, a complex combination of landscapes joined by bridges that humans and animals alike live within. Ephemera is dynamic, and as far from constant as is possible. It constantly changes to adapt to different situations, and manifests different objects and events, which Glorianna Belladonna refers to as ‘opportunities ans choices', in relation to strong or unfiltered emotions from its inhabitants. Ephemera never looks or remains the same for any period of time.

With the use of Landscapers and Bridges, Ephemera manages to maintain some form of stability. Throughout the landscapes, there are strands, or currents, of Light and Dark, that provide the yin and yang, the good and evil of Ephemera. The currents of light were once manipulated and protected by the Guardians of the Light and the Guides to the Heart, while the currents of Dark are still maintained by the Dark Guides. However, many eons ago, the Dark Guides created a creature designed to serve their purposes and transform Ephemera into an eternal Dark landscape – the 'Eater of the World'. When its threat became so fierce it threatened to overwhelm Ephemera, the Guardians of the Light and Guides to the Heart broke the world again and again into smaller pieces, now known as landscapes, until they managed to cage the Eater within one small section of Ephemera. In that caging, they broke something of themselves, and they all disappeared after the war. Since then, no Guardians or Guides have emerged, until the arrival of Glorianna Belladonna.

Currents

Ephemera is stabilized primarily by invisible currents that carve pathways weaving in and amongst the world. These currents are immaterial, and can only be detected and manipulated by Guardians and Guides, and the Dark Guides. These currents flare and dim depending on the actions and emotions felt and expressed around them, and set the tone for the landscape they flow within.

Currents can either be Dark or Light. Light currents represent the good in the world, while the Dark represent the ‘evil’. These currents should usually be equal in whatever landscape they are within. However, places of Light will contain an overwhelming majority of Light currents, while for dark landscapes, the opposite applies. A landscape’s current proportion and ratio depend largely on the Landscaper that controls the landscape, and changes in her heart could have a major impact on that individual landscape.

Before the war that saw their destruction, the Guardians of the Light created Ephemera in response to the heart wishes of their otherworld's inhabitants and continues to exist apart from Ephemera to nurture the Light, while the Guides of the Heart, similar beings to the Guardians, walked amongst the humans and animals and read their thoughts and emotions as clearly as if they'd been said. It from them that Landscapers obtained their power.

After the original caging of the Eater, when all the Guardians of the Light and Guides to the Heart were destroyed, landscapers were left to tend to the Light. Each individual landscaper commands only a fraction of the power the Guardians and Guides once did, but together they have enough strength to balance out the control the Dark Guides have over the Dark. No Guardian, Guide, Dark Guide of Landscaper has ever been able to control both currents, until the arrival of Glorianna Belladonna, whose very name suggests her duo nature, and thus this quirk in her heritage cements her status as the most powerful being to ever have lived.

Landscapers

Landscapers are the women within the different landscapes of Ephemera whose hearts acted as filters for the emotions that everyday inhabitants of the world expressed. Their gift stems from the legendary Guides of the Heart, but all of them, save for Belladonna, only possess a fraction of the Guides' former power. Depending on their skill, they can detect different emotions and absorb them into their own hearts before Ephemera can act on them and manifest objects or events to soothe those emotions. Landscapers can also sufficiently destroy landscapes to leave them uninhabitable and unrecognizable compared to their previous state. However, no landscaper has been able to 'alter' Ephemera, or change Ephemera’s structure, with the notable exception of Glorianna Belladonna. Landscapers also have levels, from one to seven depending on their skill and experience, with one being novices and seven being the most elite of the group.

Every landscape within Ephemera has its own landscaper to look after and tend to any complications within its boundaries and borders, and every Landscaper as a physical garden that is the centre of her power, a physical focal point that allows her to tend to all her landscapes at once and detect any problems they may be experiencing. If a landscaper is traveling, and discovers a landscape that resonates with them, as if an instant connection and a feeling of 'home' has been immediately drawn, they can allow their resonance to fill the landscape and thus make it their own. However, this process can only work if the contending landscaper is more powerful than the current. A Level seven landscaper once attempted to destroy the Den, one of Belladonna’s landscapes, and found it outside her ability.

Bridges

Bridges are men within Ephemera that have the ability to join different landscapes together. Bridges usually work in correlation with a Landscaper, and join of detach landscapes with or from her own. They are the male equivalent of Landscapers, and also assist in providing stability to counter Ephemera’s natural inconsistency.

Bridges also refer to the pathways that other inhabitants can use to transgress through landscapes. Bridges can take the form of either an object from a landscape placed within another as a link between the two, or as a mere emotional and circumstantial connection between a heart and a landscape that heart resonates with. The first form of bridge is known as 'stationary bridges', bridges whose one sole use is to join two landscapes. The latter are called ‘resonating bridges’, and can only be detected by a landscaper, bridge, or a lost or clashing soul who yearns for something so desperately that Ephemera feels the need to come up with a solution. Most resonating bridges are accidentally stumbled upon and crossed.

Plotline

After the ending of "Sebastian", "Belladonna" takes commences with Glorianna’s struggles to find a solution the problem the Eater was posing. Though her own landscapes were safe from its reach, she knows that she is the only one powerful enough to cage the Eater, but cannot see the means to do so alone. Though her friends and family lend advice, none of them have come up with a way to cage 'It'.

Meanwhile, Michael the Magician, a wandering musician who travels and entertains to make money and find shelter, searches Ephemera for the answer to a riddle and the woman that haunts his dreams. 'Hearts hope lies within belladonna', five words that have been haunting him since receiving it from its mysterious source. After a series of fated events, he enters the Island in the Mist, and for the first time meets the woman in his dreams - Glorianna Belladonna.

His arrival, combined with that of his missing sister, Caitlin, sparks a chain of events that none saw coming. As Caitlin struggles to control the power that, within Belladonna's landscapes, isn't as unnatural as it was once thought to be, and as Michael in turn struggles with his newfound knowledge of his abilities and his deep-rooted attraction to Glorianna, more and more landscapes were disappearing under the direct influence of the Eater. Some of them were becoming completely Dark, all the Light currents destroyed and an imbalance created, while others were completely destroyed and closed off from the rest of the World. None of them, not even Michael, has a solution to this potentially deadly problem, and as all parties involved move on through their lives, all of them are aware that time was running out to cage the Eater before it irreversibly damaged the Light.

A meeting in the White Isle, a place of Light, brings them closer to finding the location of Caitlin's garden. As events continue to unfold, one thing leads to another in their more prominent goal of fighting the Eater. Finally, Michael shares with Glorianna the story of 'the Warrior of Light', knowing full well that, along with providing Glorianna a basis from which she could cage the Eater, he was also providing her the knowledge of the sacrifice she would eventually have to make. Belladonna, after finally hearing the story, begins her preparations for caging the Eater. Finding a landscape she can separate from the rest of Ephemera, she draws into it the Eater and cuts off all connections to and from that landscape. In order to close off the landscape, she must resonate with it, and so, in response to that need, separates the balance within her of Light and Dark. Where once there was Glorianna Belladonna, there was only Belladonna.

Months go by after Glorianna caged the Eater. Michael has been receiving cold treatment from the men in the family after they discovered his part in Glorianna's loss, and her family and friends are still trying to recover from the event. In the landscape that Belladonna trapped the Eater and herself within, Belladonna alone reigns, with her Light half, Glorianna, gone. Her previous memory wiped clean, Belladonna converts into the dark, malevolent, invincible force as she rules the small section she separated from the rest of Ephemera. The Eater continues to exist, but without Light currents to feed on, it has been reduced to hiding amongst the terrain of her landscape and feeding off her 'kindness', often in the forms of temptation and cruelty. Belladonna's malevolence reigns free within the Darkness.

Finally, Michael imagines a way to bring Belladonna back. Along with Sebastian's cold by desperate help, they work together to bring Glorianna back into their part of Ephemera. Days become weeks as they try and fail, but eventually Belladonna, hearing the music that Michael so treasures, is drawn back to her own landscapes, and by the end of the novel, begins healing the rift between Glorianna and Belladonna again.

Main Characters

Glorianna Belladonna – a notoriously powerful landscaper, and a Guide to the Heart, a being that has not existed since the caging of the Eater. Branded a rogue for her unprecedented talents and power, she has garnered a reputation for the side of her known only as ‘Belladonna’. Glorianna Belladonna is the perfect combination of Light and Dark, and thus possesses the unique ability to command both strands. She can also communicate directly to Ephemera, an ability other landscapers can only dream of possessing. She has a duo personality – Glorianna, the woman, the commander of the Light, and Belladonna, her darker side.

Michael – a man who travels the world and entertains for money and shelter. He has powerful landscaper potential, a first for males. He can communicate directly with Ephemera, an ability unique to himself and Belladonna. He holds the title ‘Magician’, a two-sided role as either a luck-bringer or ill-wisher, enabling him to perform petty magic aside from his stronger abilities.

Sebastian Justicemaker – Glorianna’s cousin, Sebastian is a half-incubus, whose status prevented him from being truly able to blend into normal human society. His complication resulted in Belladonna creating the Den, a world exclusively for others in his situation, and the branding of Belladonna as a rogue. Sebastian acts as justice maker for the Den, and is married to Lynnea.

Lee – Glorianna’s younger brother, Lee is a Bridge, one whose linked heritage with Belladonna also ensured a little quirk within his abilities – he can manipulate a section of Ephemera, a mini-landscape he refers to as his ‘island’, to cross over other landscapes and view them as if through a window. Lee works exclusively as Glorianna’s Bridge, since all the other Bridges in Ephemera have shunned his sister and branded her ‘evil’.

Caitlin – Michael’s sister, she possesses the same brand of power as Michael, a brand of power that has seen her shunned and excluded from society. Branded a sorcerer by the Sisters of the White Isle, of whom she’d once wished to join, she yearns for a home and a friend, a place where she can belong. She is a strong landscaper, and begins to learn about her powers after being taught by Nadia and Belladonna, the first person she’s been able to understand and connect with.

Brighid – Caitlin and Michael’s aunt, she looked after them when they were children after their parents passed away and the rest of society rejected them. Brighid and her line of ancestors were Guardians of the Light.

Yoshani – a wise man that lives within Sanctuary. He came to Sanctuary seeking exactly that, and hasn’t left since. He acts as a friend and counselor to Glorianna, and has unconsciously self-promoted himself to the island’s doorman/guide.

Nadia – Glorianna and Lee’s mother, she was a powerful level 5 Landscaper before she fled within her own landscapes and left ‘public service’ to aid and teach the daughter the world had shunned. All her landscapes are connected to Glorianna’s, although they still remain separate to her daughter’s.

Teaser – an incubus and long-time friend of Sebastian. Teaser was the first person Sebastian could ever relate to, and thus their strong friendship was created when the Den was first formed.

Lynnea – Sebastian’s wife, the prequel to Belladonna was centred on her and Sebastian’s ordeals and desires against all the rules. She lives with Sebastian within the Den.

Jeb – Nadia’s husband after their wedding at the begging of "Belladonna". He started off as Nadia’s handyman, and eventually they fell in love and married.

The Eater of the World – a physical manifestation of pure Dark. Created by the Dark Guides eons ago to serve their evil purposes and transform Ephemera into a Dark ‘playground’, the Eater now commands them, and after the destruction of its previous cage, now roams free to destroy the Light wherever it goes.

References

[http://www.annebishop.com/s.b.belladonna.html] http://www.annebishop.com/s.b.belladonna.html

[http://www.annebishop.com/s.excerpt.sebastian.html] http://www.annebishop.com/s.excerpt.sebastian.html

[http://www.amazon.com/Belladonna-Ephemera-Book-Anne-Bishop/dp/0451461266] http://www.amazon.com/Belladonna-Ephemera-Book-Anne-Bishop/dp/0451461266

[http://www.voyageronline.com.au/books/title.cfm?ISBN=0732283736&Author=131] http://www.voyageronline.com.au/books/title.cfm?ISBN=0732283736&Author=131

[http://books.monstersandcritics.com/.../reviews/article_1265401.php/Book_Review_Belladonna_by_Anne_Bishop] http://books.monstersandcritics.com/.../reviews/article_1265401.php/Book_Review_Belladonna_by_Anne_Bishop

https://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/product/isbn/0451461541/bkm/true/ https://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/product/isbn/0451461541/bkm/true/

[http://simplebookreview.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/anne-bishop-belladonna/] http://www.simplebookreview.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/anne-bishop-belladonna/