A review by sialia95
The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart

3.0

I obviously wanted to love this book the way I loved the others, but I'm left feeling underwhelmed. My favourite apsect of the first two books in particular was the way Stewart wrote a "realistic" version of the Arthurian legends, creating a surprising and engaging story despite more or less knowing how it will end. This book felt like it would do that, giving Mordred a chance to become a good person despite what he was always told about himself, and asking interesting questions about the nature of fate. The story is politically intriguing as well, foreshadowing drastic changes poised to take swift effect upon Arthur's death. Despite being mad at most of the characters most of the time, I was looking forward to finding out how it would all resolve. I was engaged with how Stewart moved the pieces on the board towards an undefined but certain doom. It felt like there were still many versions of how Arthur's fall could play out. But I started to get suspicious around the last 30 pages when it seemed like there was still too much to wrap up. [Mild spoilers henceforth.] And where is Nimuë to warn Arthur of all the stupid stuff his men are doing? Isn't she supposed to be his chief advisor? Sure enough...the ending was a BONKERS culmination of disasterous miscommunications. In a disappointing departure from her usual creativity with the legends, Stewart ended the story very true to the absurd 12th century tale. My prevailing feeling for the last chapter was "are you kidding me??" Anyway, I still liked getting different viewpoints of Arthur's Britain and it was interesting to see Arthur slowly coming down from the apex of his glory.