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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Ok, I'm obsessed with Arthurian Legends and have been for the majority of my life. That being said there were parts of this book that I knew were going to happen like Mordred's betrayal but with White's writing they were still exciting as they came about in the plot. There is a love triangle but it is resolved mostly by the end of the book which I appreciated since love triangles usually annoy me. Even with the love triangle there were several parts where I was metaphoricall kicking my feet or rolling my eyes at the romantic scenes something I personally enjoy with my romance. I found the relationships extremely well written and organic and enjoyed the liberties that White took to change the traditional Arthurian Legend into something new. I specifically loved tha neither love interest were presente as perfect and that their faults fit in well with their characture. The narration for the audio book was quite good and I don't regret listening to it rather then reading. Overall I loved this book and White's style of writing and can't wait to read the next one.
Content Warnings
Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Oh man, I had high hopes for this book and it did NOT disappoint!
This had everything I want in my Arthurian retellings. It focuses on the women of the story and their relationships with one another - "Guinevere", Brangien, Lancelot (!!) and so on. It acknowledges the darkness of the original myths, particularly Igraine's fate and the moral ambiguity of Merlin. I'm a huge fan of the way White portrayed a Camelot - and a world - in transition, between the old ways of magic and mayhem and a new way of men and laws and structured religion, and the deep sadness that comes with "the ending of great things" even as they arguably serve a greater good. (Excalibur as a magic-eating sword was just...such a good touch.)
I love these characterizations. Love them. Our protagonist is sensible and powerful and trying her best with limited information and distorted memories; I liked her personality a lot and I'm very intrigued by her snippets of backstory. Brangien was great (Isolde! Isolde!!). Lancelot was wonderful. All the side characters had something interesting going on. Arthur was so, so good - you really understand why he's the center around which an entire kingdom orbits, as well as the personal cost of inhabiting that role. And Mordred was a delight, charming and watchful and ugh, I've read/watched so many versions of this story but I really had hope that this one would end differently when it came to Mordred. Alas!
There is so much to love about this book. I'm completely satisfied with it and So excited to see where the story is going. Definitely one of my favorite Arthurian retellings, and a great book to kick off 2020!
This had everything I want in my Arthurian retellings. It focuses on the women of the story and their relationships with one another - "Guinevere", Brangien, Lancelot (!!) and so on. It acknowledges the darkness of the original myths, particularly Igraine's fate and the moral ambiguity of Merlin. I'm a huge fan of the way White portrayed a Camelot - and a world - in transition, between the old ways of magic and mayhem and a new way of men and laws and structured religion, and the deep sadness that comes with "the ending of great things" even as they arguably serve a greater good. (Excalibur as a magic-eating sword was just...such a good touch.)
I love these characterizations. Love them. Our protagonist is sensible and powerful and trying her best with limited information and distorted memories; I liked her personality a lot and I'm very intrigued by her snippets of backstory. Brangien was great (Isolde! Isolde!!). Lancelot was wonderful. All the side characters had something interesting going on. Arthur was so, so good - you really understand why he's the center around which an entire kingdom orbits, as well as the personal cost of inhabiting that role. And Mordred was a delight, charming and watchful and ugh, I've read/watched so many versions of this story but I really had hope that this one would end differently when it came to Mordred. Alas!
There is so much to love about this book. I'm completely satisfied with it and So excited to see where the story is going. Definitely one of my favorite Arthurian retellings, and a great book to kick off 2020!
A great start to the Camelot Rising series. Kiersten White provides an interesting take on the story of King Arthur. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
I am a HUGE fan of the King Arthur mythos, and I loved Kiersten White's Conquerors Saga books with all my heart, so I was really excited about this one!
So let's start off with the bad: no Morgan Le Fay. This is actually a huge disappointment for me personally, because a.) I experienced what I can only describe as a personal renaissance after reading The Mists of Avalon (not sponsored: everyone should immediately go read The Mists of Avalon and I'm not joking), and b.) one time I played Morgan Le Fay in a school play. So that, through no fault of the author, who did not anticipate that Morgan Le Fay is my favorite and thus did not tailor her book to Me Specifically, is not great.
Also, I had a little bit of a hard time getting into it. Probably also just personal. I was having a lot of fun with it by the last quarter, though, so it definitely turned around.
Also, the good: is a woman! And is gay! And there are lots of female characters who talk to each other and support one another and are complicated and flawed, which Kiersten White just excels at. So all in all a solid 3-star book from me, and how about Morgan Le Fay is in the sequel? Please?
So let's start off with the bad: no Morgan Le Fay. This is actually a huge disappointment for me personally, because a.) I experienced what I can only describe as a personal renaissance after reading The Mists of Avalon (not sponsored: everyone should immediately go read The Mists of Avalon and I'm not joking), and b.) one time I played Morgan Le Fay in a school play. So that, through no fault of the author, who did not anticipate that Morgan Le Fay is my favorite and thus did not tailor her book to Me Specifically, is not great.
Also, I had a little bit of a hard time getting into it. Probably also just personal. I was having a lot of fun with it by the last quarter, though, so it definitely turned around.
Also, the good:
Spoiler
LancelotSpoiler
Isolde
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
GOD i love mythology rewritten from the female characters’ pov HELL YEAH
adventurous
dark
Side note before I eventually do a review moaning about how bored I was and how bland everyone other than Lancelot was, and how dang cliche the villains were:
I really don’t care for books that use strong language in the first few pages and then never again. It’s like gatekeeping when I’m trying to rec books for people uncomfortable by language who will be turned away from this book despite it being mostly clean after the handful of s*’s in the opening pages.
Not that I would in good conscious rec this confused mess to anyone anyway, but I still think my point stands. Enchantment of Ravens did it too, for no discernible reason.
~*~*~*~
Real review:
Good boys are from the city, and bad boys are from the forest. This is law.
The best part about this book is that it never backstabs Arthur and decides he's boring and a bad husband simply for being a good ruler and a good man. Many Arthurian tales, even the traditional lays, think Arthur is weak because he's nice. Being nice is not a weakness.
But it isn't necessary an interesting character, either.
Not a lot seems to happen in this book. None of the characters retain much spark--their interactions read as stolid and uninterested in each other. Arthur is generically warm and nice, Mordred disappears entirely when he isn't being a mopey bad boi with a much better kissing technique, I don't see all that much point in Tristan and Brangaine, except to be name drops. She can't decide what to do about Bors, Ector and Kay pop in for a name drop and a drunken bout of misogyny before vanishing pointlessly again...
It's a long line of references and name dropping to other legends and characters, but without substance behind it. Guinevere herself is not particularly compelling, just being a general Succeeding at Everything until she does some weird Nausicaa thing with tree roots at the end, and that's somehow bad. I never found myself particularly invested in her struggles, because she didn't really have many? There was a mild plot twist about who was protecting who, but no one was doing much of anything useful at all by the end of it, and it reads like she's just whining constantly when she has to share Arthur and can't decide if she likes him or not or if it's right or wrong or what she can or can't do and I just really don't care.
Oh, no, King Arthur, sweetest onion of all time who plays with kids and is literally massaging your fingertips after a long day, has to go be a king while you have to sit and talk with the ladies, and that makes you dead weight I guess. But Guinevere being a noble woman is never questioned for herself, only sort of half questioned in a different character and not to full potential. Impacting moments on what it means to be Queen other than jewelry would have really helped. Maybe if she'd become friends with the knights' ladies instead of sniping behind their backs, and used their abilities and knowledge to counterpoint her (boring) magic? In a better Camelot, maybe.
The Dark Queen started out as being an interesting counterpoint, but the fun of that wears thin too quickly, especially once you start to think about what visuals you're given (bunch of bats making a fang sharp smile in the night sky, faces in the water like a bad CGI trip, acting like the IT clown and eating some random little girl in an interlude for Drama).
This book is at once too much and not enough. There's a lot to get through, but it all feels utterly meaningless at the end. I'm simply not certain what the story was trying to tell me. Doesn't help that as Queen she's shuffled off to safe places any time something even remotely interesting starts to happen, to keep her safe. Smart tactics, boring plot.
The best part (other than not doing Arthur dirty by turning him into a coward or cruel, ofc), was. That's a much more interesting character and dilemma to follow around. The struggles of hiding the truth, of facing societal expectations, of persevering and refusing to give up even when everyone turns you down, even King Arthur (tho, we were just told that he did, and we didn't get that scene, which would have been So much more impacting but for the fact that it would have put Arthur in an actual bad light and that didn't seem to be allowed). No one else gets even close to that level of potential introspection. I would have much preferred the book to be about that.
It wasn't the book I wanted, true, so I might be inclined to be crabby about it regardless. But mostly I'm annoyed by how flat and bland it reads. The characters aren't compelling, the descriptions nothing unique: I do not know what time period this takes place in, other than Generic Fantasy, which is disappointing after the fun of some of White's other historical tellings. The surprise villains are boring and don't feel particularly threatening since I'm simply Told what they might do or have done. Arthur teleports at will according to what the scene requires. The romance triangle is pointless and frustrating and feels paltry. I just. Don't. Care.
I really don’t care for books that use strong language in the first few pages and then never again. It’s like gatekeeping when I’m trying to rec books for people uncomfortable by language who will be turned away from this book despite it being mostly clean after the handful of s*’s in the opening pages.
Not that I would in good conscious rec this confused mess to anyone anyway, but I still think my point stands. Enchantment of Ravens did it too, for no discernible reason.
~*~*~*~
Real review:
Good boys are from the city, and bad boys are from the forest. This is law.
The best part about this book is that it never backstabs Arthur and decides he's boring and a bad husband simply for being a good ruler and a good man. Many Arthurian tales, even the traditional lays, think Arthur is weak because he's nice. Being nice is not a weakness.
But it isn't necessary an interesting character, either.
Not a lot seems to happen in this book. None of the characters retain much spark--their interactions read as stolid and uninterested in each other. Arthur is generically warm and nice, Mordred disappears entirely when he isn't being a mopey bad boi with a much better kissing technique, I don't see all that much point in Tristan and Brangaine, except to be name drops. She can't decide what to do about Bors, Ector and Kay pop in for a name drop and a drunken bout of misogyny before vanishing pointlessly again...
It's a long line of references and name dropping to other legends and characters, but without substance behind it. Guinevere herself is not particularly compelling, just being a general Succeeding at Everything until she does some weird Nausicaa thing with tree roots at the end, and that's somehow bad. I never found myself particularly invested in her struggles, because she didn't really have many? There was a mild plot twist about who was protecting who, but no one was doing much of anything useful at all by the end of it, and it reads like she's just whining constantly when she has to share Arthur and can't decide if she likes him or not or if it's right or wrong or what she can or can't do and I just really don't care.
Oh, no, King Arthur, sweetest onion of all time who plays with kids and is literally massaging your fingertips after a long day, has to go be a king while you have to sit and talk with the ladies, and that makes you dead weight I guess. But Guinevere being a noble woman is never questioned for herself, only sort of half questioned in a different character and not to full potential. Impacting moments on what it means to be Queen other than jewelry would have really helped. Maybe if she'd become friends with the knights' ladies instead of sniping behind their backs, and used their abilities and knowledge to counterpoint her (boring) magic? In a better Camelot, maybe.
The Dark Queen started out as being an interesting counterpoint, but the fun of that wears thin too quickly, especially once you start to think about what visuals you're given (bunch of bats making a fang sharp smile in the night sky, faces in the water like a bad CGI trip, acting like the IT clown and eating some random little girl in an interlude for Drama).
This book is at once too much and not enough. There's a lot to get through, but it all feels utterly meaningless at the end. I'm simply not certain what the story was trying to tell me. Doesn't help that as Queen she's shuffled off to safe places any time something even remotely interesting starts to happen, to keep her safe. Smart tactics, boring plot.
The best part (other than not doing Arthur dirty by turning him into a coward or cruel, ofc), was
Spoiler
Lancelot, being a girl and Guinevere's protector, with a blind horseIt wasn't the book I wanted, true, so I might be inclined to be crabby about it regardless. But mostly I'm annoyed by how flat and bland it reads. The characters aren't compelling, the descriptions nothing unique: I do not know what time period this takes place in, other than Generic Fantasy, which is disappointing after the fun of some of White's other historical tellings. The surprise villains are boring and don't feel particularly threatening since I'm simply Told what they might do or have done. Arthur teleports at will according to what the scene requires. The romance triangle is pointless and frustrating and feels paltry. I just. Don't. Care.
This is my first Kiersten White novel, but I have the And I Darken series in my “to be read” pile. I’m waffling between a 3.5 and a 4 because I share other reviewers complaints about the pacing of the first 2/3rds of the book. However I’m a sucker for YA, fantasy, the Arthurian Legend, and fun gender-bent characters from long-told stories so I’m settling on a 4. The last third of the book had me devouring it, and I am enamored enough with the Arthurian legend and seeing all the familiar names that I gleefully lasted through the slow pacing to get to that point. For those who share those loves, this book is absolutely for you. And because of that I’m excited for the sequel!