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A review by maplessence
The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart
4.0
4.5★
This book is only part of a series in Goodreadsland. Lady Stewart quite clearly wrote this novel as a standalone - she just revisited a legendary world she loved. So a part of this story runs parallel to [bc:The Last Enchantment|1118314|The Last Enchantment (Arthurian Saga, #3)|Mary Stewart|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430792724s/1118314.jpg|1105347]. And some characters are realised slightly differently, most notably Nimuë in this reinterpretation of a well known legend.
But once you readjust your expectations, this is a cracking tale.
Morgause remains evil - people don't have to wrong her to get bumped off and her interest in her sons is, at best, capricious. The damage Morgause does to her four sons by Lot is enormous and well shown by Stewart.
When Mordred becomes part of Morgause's world his instincts help to keep him safe - for a time. Once Mordred is also part of his father's world his destiny is inevitable - although
The Mordred from the BBC TV series Merlin by coincidence looked like the Mordred in my head;
That expression of watchfulness - this is also Stewart's Mordred!
But there are a few time lapse sequences that didn't work so well for me and in spite of my great enjoyment of this book, because of this the third part of the book didn't read so well. Minor flaws and this book only misses 5★ by the narrowest of margins
This book is only part of a series in Goodreadsland. Lady Stewart quite clearly wrote this novel as a standalone - she just revisited a legendary world she loved. So a part of this story runs parallel to [bc:The Last Enchantment|1118314|The Last Enchantment (Arthurian Saga, #3)|Mary Stewart|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430792724s/1118314.jpg|1105347]. And some characters are realised slightly differently, most notably Nimuë in this reinterpretation of a well known legend.
But once you readjust your expectations, this is a cracking tale.
Morgause remains evil - people don't have to wrong her to get bumped off and her interest in her sons is, at best, capricious. The damage Morgause does to her four sons by Lot is enormous and well shown by Stewart.
When Mordred becomes part of Morgause's world his instincts help to keep him safe - for a time. Once Mordred is also part of his father's world his destiny is inevitable - although
Spoiler
Nimuë does try to avert it.The Mordred from the BBC TV series Merlin by coincidence looked like the Mordred in my head;
That expression of watchfulness - this is also Stewart's Mordred!
But there are a few time lapse sequences that didn't work so well for me and in spite of my great enjoyment of this book, because of this the third part of the book didn't read so well. Minor flaws and this book only misses 5★ by the narrowest of margins