The title of this third volume of Paul Park's Roumania series has multiple meanings. The White Tiger is the hereditary role and spiritual alter-ego of the protagonist Miranda. But the political dimension of this role has been usurped by the Baroness Ceausescu, who is at the center of the palace intrigue that makes up the meat of this book. And she is at work throughout on the autobiographical music opera named The White Tyger, often allowing its themes and speeches to eclipse her perceptions of her immediate circumstance. The play-within-a-play theme exhibits self-similarity in parallel to the relationships between Roumania and our own secondary universe as created by Aegypta Schenck, as well as the material world and the "hidden world" of sorcery.

A process continues here, whereby the central three characters regain their Roumanian identities in priority over those they had been given during their sojourn in the Massachusetts of our abolished constructed world--but not without some complications and regressions. Also, the political conditions in Roumania change as relations alter among the European powers, and a new and ugly form of nationalism is ascendant in Miranda's country, facilitated by the Baroness but not under her control.

This third book resolved in a manner very similar to that of the second one, The Tourmaline, but with a sense that the fourth and final volume must have a very different outcome.

Superb third volume in this extraordinary series. Miranda and Peter are in the clutches of the increasingly depraved Baroness. Andromeda is free, but poisoned by radiation and drift in her trip;e identity, Political forces are in motion as German power in Roumania wanes, but what will take its place? Miranda, in captivity, but courted by the German ambassador, rejects her role as a Princess and struggles to understand the lessons and plans of her Aunt Aegypta. The Baroness plots murder and celebrates her twisted art which mirrors her profoundly perverse mentality. Peter is imprisoned in appalling conditions and the streets are filled with revolutionary fervour.

This is a dark, strange book, with our heroes sidelined or forced into inactivity as danger grows around them and the Baroness is at her pinnacle of power. Terrible things are loose in the world of Greater Roumania, war is brewing in the East and a suspiciously fascist power is on the rise. The Princess of Roumania notably fails to ascend to her rightful place and set everything to rights in fairy-tale fashion. Straight into the final volume to see how all of this is resolved. ( )

Paul Park's penultimate volume in his Roumania quartet is probably the weakest of the series so far, but for all that it's still pretty good.

Now in well into the parallel universe, Roumania, Miranda finally meets her ostensible nemesis, the Baroness Ceaucescu. Meanwhile, her two guardians face internal and external struggles of their own, trying to reconcile multiple identities in the most trying of circumstances.

The White Tyger is the smallest of the Roumania novels, and rightly so. Whilst Park gives us slightly more insight into the world he's created, actual plot and character development is more limited - though we do get more insight into some characters.

It's also the darkest book in a series that wasn't exactly sunshiney to begin with. The chaos and confusion threatening to overwhelm all the characters throughout the books surges forth like a king tide in this volume.

The result - whilst it rings true - is frankly a little depressing at times, and in this context the further twists and revelations about the setting feel more rote and less original than in prior novels.

On the positive side of the ledger, the characterisation remains rich and multi-faceted. The discomfort Peter and especially Andromeda face in this novel is revealing and interesting, especially in the latter case. Indeed, this is really Andromeda's book, much more so than the others, and in investigating her character, Park drops all pretense of writing a Young Adult book.

The White Tyger is more violent than its predecessors, more sexy, more malevolent, confusing and more depraved in the form of the increasingly unstable - pathetic, yet somehow menacing - Baroness.

With these two focal points - conflicted, disturbed, chaotic - it's no wonder the book as a whole takes on these attributes. As a result it neither charmed me, nor thrilled me with its fecund imagination like earlier books in the series. However, it does set us up nicely for the concluding volume. The Roumania quartet remains one of the most singular YA series I've ever read, and I'm intrigued to see how - and if - Park manages to conclude it with verve, creativity and closure. ( )

This is the third book (in a series of four) that was begun in A Princess of Roumania and it's only getting stranger. In fact, this is one of the strangest plots I've come across in some time. In this outing, Miranda learns more about the mysterious hidden world which seems to be populated by people's animal spirits. And the Baroness Ceausescu must be half-crazy and a cold-hearted bitch besides. She's such an odd character with a weird appeal to various men around her. Some of the stranger developments concern Miranda's friend Andromeda who is really Lieutenant Sasha Prochenko in Roumania. Prochenko seems to vacillate between three modes of existence and not always mutually exclusive. He's both a he (Sasha), a she (Andromeda), and at times, a dog. Or a furry he-she. Strangeness abounds. The Hidden World is the next book. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2007/04/9-white-tyger-paul-park.html ( )