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A review by j_f
The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell
4.0
You should know two things about me: (1) I can't stand reading most fantasy, and (2) I adore any retelling of the King Arthur myth. As you can imagine, these polarizing emotions compete when I do read Arthur-inspired stories. However, The Winter King comes out mostly on top.
The pace is slow, which is pretty on brand for the first book in a series. While this is one of my least favourite things about reading fantasy, it was made much easier by the fact that I love reading about Arthur and his knights.
Also, the main character is of the author's own creation, which definitely makes the story more unique than other retellings, but at times I wanted to focus on the "recognizable" characters that I have come to love, like Merlin, Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere, who appear but aren't central to the plot. Granted, I don't fault the author for this, since he's entitled to making this choice.
At no point was I bored and, though the author doesn't have the most beautiful writing style and doesn't spend a lot of time "showing" the characters' personalities, I still got a really strong sense of who they were as people.
I will be continuing with the series.
The pace is slow, which is pretty on brand for the first book in a series. While this is one of my least favourite things about reading fantasy, it was made much easier by the fact that I love reading about Arthur and his knights.
Also, the main character is of the author's own creation, which definitely makes the story more unique than other retellings, but at times I wanted to focus on the "recognizable" characters that I have come to love, like Merlin, Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere, who appear but aren't central to the plot. Granted, I don't fault the author for this, since he's entitled to making this choice.
At no point was I bored and, though the author doesn't have the most beautiful writing style and doesn't spend a lot of time "showing" the characters' personalities, I still got a really strong sense of who they were as people.
I will be continuing with the series.