tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post2895888830744915024..comments2023-11-29T07:39:34.401+00:00Comments on Carla Nayland Historical Fiction: King Arthur: Warrior of the West, by MK Hume. Book reviewCarlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-21870380763124870212010-02-05T15:41:07.738+00:002010-02-05T15:41:07.738+00:00STAG - Hello and welcome! Up to a point that'...STAG - Hello and welcome! Up to a point that's true; you know pretty much how the story is going to go. That said, some of the Arthurian novels I've read manage to make the story fresh and exciting, even though the end is known. Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, for example. So some writers can make even last week;s hockey match gripping :-) Agreed that the absence of magic is a definite plus.<br /><br />Annis - I'm glad it wasn't just me who wasn't hooked! I did finish it, partly to see if it got any better, and partly because it was a review book and I never write a review unless I've read the whole book at least once. I think the weight of legend tends to acumulate on Arthurian stories as they progress and eventually it flattens the story to the ground. Even Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy gets noticeably weaker in the third book, I think, and Helen Hollick's Pendragon trilogy does the same. It may be compounded by trying to split a story over multiple books, because I don't find that single-volume Arthurian retellings (Sword at Sunset being the best) flag towards the end.<br /><br />Marg - I'd say it's definitely a library book (though of course your opinion might be different from mine!). Can the library order it or use inter-library loan? It's with one of the big publishers, so it ought to be available in Australia eventually.<br /><br />Rick - depends whether the fiction and folkore is synologous in the doppleganger as well.<br />In some ways I suppose the Arthurian legend is subject to the same 'what if' and 'could it have gone differently' (not to mention 'we wuz robbed') that can sustain discussions about sports matches indefinitely :-) On top of which you also have disputes over the venue, the participants, the date, and even whether it was all made up wholesale in the first place...Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-57779537137747947552010-02-05T03:44:32.813+00:002010-02-05T03:44:32.813+00:00The line you paraphrase is exactly what I had in m...The line you paraphrase is exactly what I had in mind. Tolkien implies that Middle Earth lies in our own misty past, so it can as easily lie in the misty past of a doppelganger. <br /><br /><i>last week's hockey game</i><br /><br />Intriguing little observation! I suppose the Arthurian cycle is supposed to be the equivalent of a 'legendary' game that continues to be talked about indefinitely.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-84574924293564538802010-02-04T09:36:28.446+00:002010-02-04T09:36:28.446+00:00I had this recommended to me not all that long ago...I had this recommended to me not all that long ago, I think in part because the author is from my part of the world. I can't get the books from the library though, so I wouldn't have been reading it even before I read your review.Marghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13508430635744720721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-239494358760715112010-02-04T03:56:27.800+00:002010-02-04T03:56:27.800+00:00I've read "Dragon's Child" (of c...I've read "Dragon's Child" (of course I had to give it a go, with Marilyn Hume being an Antipodean author).<br /><br />There's an interview with her <a href="http://www.specusphere.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=709&Itemid=31" rel="nofollow">here</a>, if anyone's interested.<br /><br />I found it initially intriguing, but lost interest a bit as Artorex grew older and became a grim, super-human figure. I did bring home 'Warrior of the West", but my heart wasn't in it, and it became a DNF. Come to think of it, I've had this happen a few times with Arthurian series- the first one seems fresh and original, but further stories seem to lose the plot (or maybe it's me who's losing the plot :)Annishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02367569632016734415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-4537738736766625892010-02-03T19:30:34.343+00:002010-02-03T19:30:34.343+00:00Arthurian books are like watching last week's ...Arthurian books are like watching last week's hockey game...you know who is going to win. The lack of phoney baloney magik is a clearly positive mark of distinction IMHO.STAGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06198646624631167489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-69810514231058588412010-02-02T20:01:28.072+00:002010-02-02T20:01:28.072+00:00Gabriele - there are certainly plenty of Arthurian...Gabriele - there are certainly plenty of Arthurian novels to choose from :-)<br /><br />Rick - given that 'Baggins lived on as a character in folklore long after the real events had been forgotten', or words to that effect, you could get away with that, provided your Lyonesse is in some way a successor to Tolkien's Middle-earth. (The Tolkien estate might have something to say on the subject, though).<br />Indeed, there is a tension between the parts and the whole in a trilogy (or any closely connected series), and the structure may reflect that. I still would have liked the two parts to have been more connected.<br /><br />Constance - you may well be right about that :-) There are certainly plenty to choose from.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-9642376462197550792010-02-02T14:08:53.378+00:002010-02-02T14:08:53.378+00:00Well, you can never have too many books about Arth...Well, you can never have too many books about Arthur - I think that's the theory. Maybe why I've grown disinterested in him.Constance Brewerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17964121072645959593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-62309876977446744732010-01-31T18:59:11.021+00:002010-01-31T18:59:11.021+00:00'Glamdring' rang a bell, but I didn't ...'Glamdring' rang a bell, but I didn't quite make the connection till you spelled it out. I could buy some Tolkien references, but that one seems kind of arbitrary. <br /><br />(I've considered having Catherine's court jester play a turn as 'Hob Baggins,' vanishing with a bang and flash at a court banquet. But that is a riff I can sort of justify from Tolkien's own text.)<br /><br />The split personality of this book may be a problem of trilogies, with the Bedwyr thread being picked back up in the next book. There is a tension between trilogies as linked novels and as one big novel split up.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-44529763788782768572010-01-31T18:04:59.983+00:002010-01-31T18:04:59.983+00:00I think I'll give this one (and the prequel) a...I think I'll give this one (and the prequel) a pass. I've grown a bit tired of the Arthurian stuff and it takes something more outstanding to make me read it these days.Gabriele Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17205770868139083575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-42676013140954157902010-01-31T17:15:10.063+00:002010-01-31T17:15:10.063+00:00Rick - Saxons in south Wales, fair enough as a pre...Rick - Saxons in south Wales, fair enough as a premise; I personally don't find the cited source terribly convincing, and I thought 'hmmmm' as soon as I saw it in the Author's Note (which I read first, as I usually do), but unless there's definite evidence against (which in Arthuriana there mostly isn't), all's fair in fiction. I did wonder if the book was going to build something really interesting on the location, since it's quite a major departure from the conventional Arthurian locations, and I might well have got on better with the novel if it had. But because of the book-of-two-halves structure as soon as the battle's over it vanishes from the scene (like its hero Bedwyr) and hardly even gets mentioned again, so nothing is made of the location and it could have been placed almost anywhere. Maybe I'm missing something.<br /><br />Saxons, or indeed anyone else, called Glamdring, made me think 'hmmmm' redoubled in spades. There are plenty of Old English names attested in sources dating from only a few hundred years later (e.g. Bede), so a name with such a strong flavour of Tolkien seemed really weird to me. Both those together got the book off to a bad start.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-22691767030756854452010-01-31T15:54:59.091+00:002010-01-31T15:54:59.091+00:00My first thought was that a Saxon chieftain in Wal...My first thought was that a Saxon chieftain in Wales was in line with some of our speculation about blurred or shifting identities in the post Roman period. If a Cerdic could bubble up as founder of an English kingdom, why couldn't a Saxon bubble up in Wales? <br /><br />Alas, it sounds as if the author merely picked up on an eccentric theory, and a rather needless one. Even by conservative standards the Arthurian period offers an awful lot of flexibility, so to speak.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.com