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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A fascinating and fresh take on the Arthurian legend, but so lacking in nuance it was difficult to read. I’m not sure there’s a single likeable character in this book. Not for me.
challenging
dark
slow-paced
I think I'd like to give this a 3.5. There were a lot of things I liked about it, but there were a lot of things I didn't. Specifically the character "developments" of Gwenhwyfar, Arthur, & Lancelet. Seemed like they were all three stuck in a rut until the very, very last possible moment. I was also a little uncomfortable with the conflict between Christianity and Paganism until I decided that if it had been the same story with two fictional religions, I would've been fine with it. Perhaps the discomfort was intended for readers like me, to get us looking at the stories in a totally different way. Which is what the book succeeded at, along with its ability to carry you through how many pages? with only a very few places of feeling slightly tedious. And overall I really liked seeing the stories from such totally different perspectives.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Read it more than once, just love it
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
I read this book when it was first published, and at least once after that, but that was at least 20 years ago. I loved it then, but did not love it as much this time, primarily because the character of Guinevere, as portrayed here, drove me insane. She is represented as the absolute worst of religious fanaticism, and the number of people she brought down because of her holier-than-thou hypocrisy was absolutely maddening. The audio version, which I listened to this time around, is beautifully read by Davina Porter, but I spent a lot of time yelling at the audio player in the car because every time Guinevere showed up I ended up enraged. The current political climate is perhaps not the best background for the reading of this book, which is obviously in many ways prescient.
adventurous
slow-paced