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opinionhaver69 's review for:
The Winter King
by Bernard Cornwell
i first read this series when i was probably 10 or 11 (i was a very precocious reader and my mum was extraordinarily lax about it lol) and i loved it then so unforch i’m completely unable to be objective about it now! but even so i think this does for the most part hold up - i will admit that on the surface gritty violent realistic arthuriana with all the magic and the chivalry sanded down if not completely removed sounds like the most obnoxious thing ever to the point of perhaps undermining the whole appeal of the mythology in the first place but i ALSO think that cornwell is an erudite enough writer to pull it off; his prose has a lovely elegance to it and the narrative voice has enough compassion and humanity that it’s really not as gratingly macho as it could be. his version is not particularly kind to guinevere but he does give her a hilary mantel anne boleyn vibe that is tbqh kind of cunt! cornwell’s biggest sin is the way he writes lancelot - there’s so much potential for complexity in the lancelot/guinevere/arthur dynamic and it’s v much underserved by making lancelot a purely villainous character imo (and also lancelot is blorbo from my myths, so)