Susan Kay's "Phantom"

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 1/31/05 at 3:22pm

I just finished reading this book, and I think it is one of the best books I have ever read! It really rounds out both Gaston's orginal novel, as well as Andrew Lloyd's Webber musical. It tells the whole story of the Phantom's life and gives a much more, I think, favorable ending to the story. I'd recommend it for all Phantom fans, particularly those fans of the character himself. Has anyone else read it who would like to discuss it?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/31/05 at 3:30pm

must we rehash all this phantom sequel crap. good god. enough is enough.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 1/31/05 at 4:46pm

I remember really enjoying this book as well (it's been a few years). It finally gave reason as to why Christine would be so enamoured with this Phantom. I felt that Kay surpassed Gaston, and GREATLY surpassed ALW in storytelling prowess. It reminded me of an Anne Rice novel: the same mixture of exoticism, horror and romanticism.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 1/31/05 at 5:52pm

Can you read this without reading Gaston's novel? It sounds interesting but I have not read the book ^.

[LilMiZBroADwaY23]

Posted: 1/31/05 at 5:56pm

I haven't read Phantom yet, but I'm dying to read it. They don't have it at barnesandnoble.com, but I would HIGHLY recomend

Progeny
Phantasy

Progeny, (which is the second in the series, I accidentally read first) was absolutley astounding. I couldn't put it down. I'm awaiting Phantasy, and I'm hoping it's still up to the same par.

[DofB5]

Posted: 1/31/05 at 7:40pm

I think this was one of the very best "Phantom" stories that I have ever read. It made perfect sense unlike "The Phantom of Manhattan" by Frederick Forsyth.

I think the Kay version may be out of print. You might try either Half.com or E-bay as I have seen it on both sites from time to time.

D

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 1/31/05 at 7:45pm

BlueWizard, I totally agree about Kay's storytelling, it just rounds out the whole story completely and answers a lot of questions and is just a great read.

Ashley, I suppose Kay's novel does stand by itself and you certainly can understand without reading the original, though I read it after reading the original, and it kind of fills in a lot of blanks and I found it to be fun to see the different spin on it and how it intertwines with the novel and all the characters and such. I liked the experience of reading this one after the original, but I suppose you could read it without the original.

Liz, I never heard of Progeny and Phantasy. Are they sequels or something to this novel? If so, I think I'll have to read those too. And also Liz, I think "Phantom" is out of print, I recommend trying your local library, that's where I got my copy. Good luck!

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 1/31/05 at 10:24pm

Yes, you can easily read Kay's novel without having read Gaston's original.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/1/05 at 11:31am

CATSNY - Would you prefer another Wicked thread?

[LilMiZBroADwaY23]

Posted: 2/1/05 at 6:22pm

They are sequals to Leroux's novel. Phantasy incorporates more of the musical, and makes Erik more Musical Phantom like. He has the half-mask instead of the whole black mask etc. He also looks astoudingly like Michael Crawford... but that is because it takes place in the present and there's a whole "Reincarnation" theme. I have yet to read Progeny but it should be coming soon.

I'll check my library, and I've also seen it on Amazon, so I'll be checking that out.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/1/05 at 11:57pm

I really didn't believe at first that this novel was the "sequel" to Phantom, it is more of a prequel and completely goes into the events that take place in Phantom of the Opera. And now I realize I was correct. "Phantom" by Susan Kay was written a year after the musical came out, and though Kay claims to be influenced by that as well as all previous novels and movie of Phantom, is a work onto itself. "Phantom of Manhattan" by Frederick Forsyth was the "sequel" to Phantom that Andrew Lloyd Webber endorsed and considered making it the sequel.

Posted: 2/2/05 at 12:40am

'Phantom' is wonderful. I have read my copy co many times that it is falling apart and I need to buy a new one. The best part is most definitely Persia. It's wonderful. I love the whole book, but the weakest part is most certainly the Christine/Erik part. She changes some events around so that they are in a different order than both the original novel and the ALW musical.

Kay's 'Phantom' is drastically different from the original novel. Leroux's novel is much more of a gothic mystery, and Kay's is a romance at the heart of it. Different things for different people. I love them both, but Kay's is most certainly more satisfying to the average phan.

About Progeny and Phantasy, well... They are pieces of fan fiction that were published. (There is a difference--Susan Kay was a writer who decided to write Erik's life story and Meadows originally wrote her stories and published them online.) This is pretty evident in the reading of them. Progeny is an okay read, it pulls the same kind of cliches that many fan fictions pull. But it kept my attention. Phantasy... That I couldn't stand. It was a major struggle to get through. You know those people online who say that they are the reincarnation of Christine Daae? Well, it was basically 200 pages of that. The plot is: the reincarnation of Christine is married to the reincarnation of Raoul and is being spiritually pulled back to Paris by Erik's soul. Because Christine (and I quote) "owns his soul". It was ridiculous. There is much better fan fiction available online. If you want to know, I could point you in the right direction. On fanfiction.net, there used to be a lot of really wonderful stories. Although those authors are kind of blurred out by the pieces of trash floating around (especially since the movie ugh don't get me started), they're still there and all their stories are archived.

That was a long enough post. But if you haven't read Kay, definitely worth the read. It's a beautiful story, and if you aren't already in love with Erik, you will be by the end of that book.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 1:41pm

Sarah, I agree it's a great novel but I happened to find the Erik/Christine chapters to be my favorite in the book. Yes it changes a little bit from the original novel and the Webber version, but I like this version much more. You really understand why Christine is drawn to Erik and why Erik is drawn to Christine and it was so exciting to see the first time he saw her and the first time he sang to her. And I loved how it just all came together in a circle, her father, his mother. And the significance of the rose is just beautiful(hope this entices more people to read it, it's great, especially if you are a fan of Phantom and Christine. Raoul fans may wanna leave this one alone, though even his character ends up playing a great part in the end.

As for the other novels, I didn't realize there were so many takes on the story. I could check my library for some of these other stories, I suppose if I can't stand them I can just bring them back with no charge, so it couldn't hurt. Though I think through the magnificent storytelling and having it all come together, Kay's version is probably my favorite and what I will consider to be the truest story of the Phantom of the Opera.