The classic tale of Sleeping Beauty is reimagined and retold with a Victorian flavor in this new offering by Mercedes Lackey. Like her previous book in the Elemental Masters series, The Serpent’s Shadow, this one brings the sensibilities and customs of turn-of-the-century England to life with a vivid, thorough eye for detail. All of the familiar elements from the fairy tale are here, but the story itself has undergone more than cosmetic changes in order to give us a new spin on the narrative.

It all begins with the birth of Marina Roeswood to Elemental mages Alanna and Hugh Roeswood. Her parents have invited a number of their fellow magi friends and acquaintances to a magical christening for the infant, and all but one of the attendees have bestowed their gifts: skillful hands and deft fingers, an appreciation for music, blithe spirits, physical grace. One of them, the respected Roderick Bacon, grants the infant mage-to-be with a most potent gift indeed: alliance with his own affinity with Air magics and elementals. One gift remains, but an unexpected visitor appears…

Arachne Roeswood, long-estranged sister to Hugh, returned after a period of absence. No mage in her own right, she still has the power to curse Marina with a future death, revenge for a lifetime of imagined slights and quarrels.

Only the timely intervention of the last gift-giver, Elizabeth Hastings, twists the potent curse into a -potential- curse. Should Arachne be unable to trigger it by the time Marina achieves her eighteenth birthday, a feat only capable in close proximity, it will rebound upon the caster.

This is still enough to shatter the happy occasion and sunder the Roeswoods. That very night, Marina is spirited away by several friends of her family, to be raised in obscurity on an estate far off in Cornwall, never to see her parents again lest Arachne find a way to activate her curse. Seventeen years will pass in such fashion, Marina raised with love and care by her Bohemian, artistic magi “aunt and uncles” while her parents send her letters from afar.

She is given a progressive, artistic education, encouraged to grow into her creatively free spirit, and to begin mastering the Water magics that are her birthright. She’s happy, though never sure why her parents sent her away. When she is seventeen, her life is thrown into turmoil once again.

Alanna and Hugh Roeswood are dead in a boating accident, tragically lost. Their estate has reverted to the control of Marina’s mysterious Aunt Arachne, who demands that her niece be remanded into her care … immediately. The law on Arachne’s side, Marina and her foster family have no choice. Marina must return to Oakhurst Manor, the family’s ancestral home, and learn to be a proper lady, rather than a free spirit. Is Arachne a concerned relative and guardian preparing her for High Society in London, or a jailer with a much darker purpose at hand? Is Marina’s cousin Reggie a spoiled playboy, or a young man with a deadly and diabolical secret?

Marina will be forced to work quietly and secretively, gathering to her what few allies she can, for not all of Oakhurst’s servants are loyal to Arachne. If she can just find a way to get a message to Aunt Margherita, Uncle Sebastian, or Uncle Thomas, all the way back in Cornwall, perhaps they can rescue her from the fate that steadily approaches her. If she can gain the aid of the village priest, or Andrew Pike, the odd young doctor who is converting a local manor into a sanitarium for the mentally ill, maybe she’ll have a chance. But time is running out for Marina and Arachne both, and the curse looms, ready to strike at any moment.

In the end, only Marina herself can turn the tide and thwart destiny. Her friends, relatives, and allies can treat the symptoms, but not the actual disease. They’ll need to hunt down the source of Arachne’s unholy magics, and prevent her from destroying any more innocent lives in her corrupt drive for the magic she doesn’t deserve. And in the end, someone may even live happily ever after….

The Gates of Sleep is a clever retelling, one that uses all of the familiar elements and themes of the old fairy tale, while transplanting them to a different setting. There are enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, without abandoning the spirit of the source material. While at times the characters do seem to be a bit black and white — Arachne is Evil, Marina is Good, the Prince Charming/Doctor is Kind and Altruistic and Idealistic — they’re still far more complex than the broadly stroked characters of the salon tales this is inspired by.

Lackey manages to bring the charm and complexity of early 20th century England to life in all its color, investing it with magic at every turn, from the fey Elemental creatures of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, to the dark beings born from unholy ritual and destroyed lives. In the end, what we have is a thoroughly enjoyable, worthy retelling of a familiar story in an intriguing and sometimes-unusual setting. Recommended for Mercedes Lackey fans, those who enjoy Victorian or Regency-era romances, or retold fairy tales.