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rachel_here's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Although I remember having liked it a lot as a teenager (I loved the grand scope, watching the characters grow up and grow old, exploring multiple point of views and relationships); it still has a lot of elements that, looking back, were pretty bad. I've never picked up the following books despite owning them, and knowing who the author was as a person turned me off this series completely.
Graphic: Sexual content, Rape, and Incest
clyoung's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Minor: Rape
lydia_arvidsson's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Incest, Rape, and Sexual content
Moderate: Suicide
micaelabrody's review against another edition
2.0
i downgraded this rating from my original 5, but couldn’t bring myself to go to the 2 it actually deserves just bc it was so important to me when i was younger. i had actually never intended to read this again, but i did bc i had no other books on hand after finishing my previous read and this was on my ipad.
but man has it not aged well. even setting aside mzb herself (which i do only for this review. that’s why i’d never intended to reread this), it is 500-700 pages too long (based on the ebook at a whopping 1700!). there’s a lot of arthurian legend to get through but you reach the point when morgaine marries uriens and it feels like that really should be closer to the end but there’s STILL so much more to go! and honestly the ending is such a cop out. morgaine spends the entire book raging on behalf of avalon and the cultural genocide of her people (and she’s right) just to say “oh actually violent christian dominance is good bc they worship mary”? the characters are broadly consistent but moment to moment contradictory - does she love lancelet or not? morgaine switches off even in her own internal monologue with no acknowledgment of the change! - and the pacing is iffy at best.
it’s still okay, but the towering work of fiction i remember is simply not here. it’s just a kind of overwritten historical reimagining and sits nicely on a shelf with outlander. i will always love the version of morgaine she created but i wish that morgaine had been in a better book written by a less gross person.
but man has it not aged well. even setting aside mzb herself (which i do only for this review. that’s why i’d never intended to reread this), it is 500-700 pages too long (based on the ebook at a whopping 1700!). there’s a lot of arthurian legend to get through but you reach the point when morgaine marries uriens and it feels like that really should be closer to the end but there’s STILL so much more to go! and honestly the ending is such a cop out. morgaine spends the entire book raging on behalf of avalon and the cultural genocide of her people (and she’s right) just to say “oh actually violent christian dominance is good bc they worship mary”? the characters are broadly consistent but moment to moment contradictory - does she love lancelet or not? morgaine switches off even in her own internal monologue with no acknowledgment of the change! - and the pacing is iffy at best.
it’s still okay, but the towering work of fiction i remember is simply not here. it’s just a kind of overwritten historical reimagining and sits nicely on a shelf with outlander. i will always love the version of morgaine she created but i wish that morgaine had been in a better book written by a less gross person.
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Rape
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