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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed this. Way better than the classic The Sword in the Stone which I read last year. Mary Stewart brings Merlin to life in this extensive 'history' of his early years. I thought it was interesting the way Merlin's magical powers were downplayed and given religious and prophetic significance, rather than simply being a bunch of magic tricks. The interaction of his engineering skills and the way that hearsay built his reputation was fascinating.
I'm knocking a star off because this book suffered from a dragging middle. Most of Ambrosius' reign is summarised ("telling", my writer friends would call it) and Merlin feels at a loose end, simply waiting for the plot point we all know is coming with what he does for Uther in the final part.
The pace is slow throughout, but don't let that put you off. Despite the middle, it's well worth a read. I might pick book two up at some point.
I'm knocking a star off because this book suffered from a dragging middle. Most of Ambrosius' reign is summarised ("telling", my writer friends would call it) and Merlin feels at a loose end, simply waiting for the plot point we all know is coming with what he does for Uther in the final part.
The pace is slow throughout, but don't let that put you off. Despite the middle, it's well worth a read. I might pick book two up at some point.
I started this book with the assumption that I wouldn't finish it. I had thought that I had read enough books on Merlin and Arthur. But instead of the usual story starting with Arthur's birth, this one starts with Merlin's and takes us through his childhood, with it's troubles and traumas, his youth, filled with learning, and ends just about where most Merlin stories start. Thank goodness there's a sequel.
It was well written and an involving read. I admit to not really caring about any of the charaters besides Merlin, the relatively one dimensional women were not worth caring about and no one else gets developed enough to gain an interest. Merlin and his story were enough to keep me reading.
It was well written and an involving read. I admit to not really caring about any of the charaters besides Merlin, the relatively one dimensional women were not worth caring about and no one else gets developed enough to gain an interest. Merlin and his story were enough to keep me reading.
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Pretty good, but it read like a history book with all of the battles. I enjoyed Merlin’s backstory, it felt very real and believable.
I still love it. (And my preteen crush on Ambrosius is still strong!)
I... I don’t know. It was a lot. I read it pretty fast, and I onestly enjoyed the first part. Let’s say the second quarter of it? But the second half... oh man! I had so much trouble to find something to like, just to keep reading.
I didn’t care about Merlin, I didn’t like Uther, or any other character except for Cadal. And that’s one of the reasons why I gave it two stars.
It was too descriptive, too. Very well done descriptions, I’ll give you that, but so many! There were so many!
These are basically the things I didn’t like about this book, but there’s one more point: the protagonist had so few emotions, it was like reading the life of a stone! I mean, do you have any emotion? The only time I saw something was in the dialogues between him and Cadal! (And that’s why I loved him so much!)
Oh, well, enough ranting. I read it. I met my 2019 goal. I’m happy.
I didn’t care about Merlin, I didn’t like Uther, or any other character except for Cadal. And that’s one of the reasons why I gave it two stars.
It was too descriptive, too. Very well done descriptions, I’ll give you that, but so many! There were so many!
These are basically the things I didn’t like about this book, but there’s one more point: the protagonist had so few emotions, it was like reading the life of a stone! I mean, do you have any emotion? The only time I saw something was in the dialogues between him and Cadal! (And that’s why I loved him so much!)
Oh, well, enough ranting. I read it. I met my 2019 goal. I’m happy.
This was so boring: http://blogendorff.ghost.io/book-review-the-crystal-cave/
as i remembered so well written lovely flow go the language still love the story
A promising start to what I hope will turn out to be a great series. I actually read this book in elementary school and thought it was incredibly boring, but this go-around I enjoyed it much more. It struck me as more of a set-up to the sequels; there was a lack of action and not enough plot movement to make this book really stand on its own.
Mary Stewart's arthurian saga is a Famed Fantasy Classic of the kind that's so low fantasy it feels more like alternate history, though the author chose to use names and place names that would be "easier to recognize" over historically accurate ones (and they might be easier on a native. I don't know, I'm not familiar with the history or geography so I used The Fantasy Book Reading Toolset™ and assumed the story would inform me of anything important).
I liked Merlin and would probably have loved him very much had I read this book in my teens, but every other character in the story was either a manly man of war or a slave, and both kinds had little personality beyond their roles. The women existed, but had even more limited roles, which might feel historically correct but is more like a overwriting of women's role in history (in a pastoral society no one is left to do nothing and stare out windows, there is too much work to be done). Also, I felt like there weren't enough relatives to all those kings, but maybe that was on purpose so that there would be a succession crisis. The result was that world felt underpopulated and left me wondering who planted the crops that fed those armies, who wove the cloths that robed them, who mined the ore for their weapons and who moved all this product through the treacherous roads (though merchants and farms are mentioned, just not shown).
All this happens because the story is told in broad strokes, focusing on the big action pieces, the war victories, the meaningful omens. There is nothing specially wrong about that, but it was just not what I was expecting. It feels dated, and maybe it is.
I liked Merlin and would probably have loved him very much had I read this book in my teens, but every other character in the story was either a manly man of war or a slave, and both kinds had little personality beyond their roles. The women existed, but had even more limited roles, which might feel historically correct but is more like a overwriting of women's role in history (in a pastoral society no one is left to do nothing and stare out windows, there is too much work to be done). Also, I felt like there weren't enough relatives to all those kings, but maybe that was on purpose so that there would be a succession crisis. The result was that world felt underpopulated and left me wondering who planted the crops that fed those armies, who wove the cloths that robed them, who mined the ore for their weapons and who moved all this product through the treacherous roads (though merchants and farms are mentioned, just not shown).
All this happens because the story is told in broad strokes, focusing on the big action pieces, the war victories, the meaningful omens. There is nothing specially wrong about that, but it was just not what I was expecting. It feels dated, and maybe it is.