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kilroyPrint date: 1970 (20s: 1, 50s: 1, 60s: 4, 70s: 9, 80s: 7, 90s: 6, 00s: 17)
There was never any chance that I wouldn't like this book. It's Arthurian. It's about Merlin. Everyone I know who read it loved it. And it's possibly my mom's all-time favorite book. I've been meaning to read this since I was around twelve, but for whatever reason I never got around to it. Now I have.
It's one of the best depictions of magic I've seen. Here magic is fundamentally uncontrollable, incomprehensible, and tragic-- trading a little power for a lot of cost and never losing sight of the fact that There Are Things Bigger Than You Are. What magic actually does is tiny-- almost insignificant-- but with repercussions that change everything. Most of "magic" is just rumors people start around people being clever.
The characterization is sharp both in the sense that characters stand out immediately and that the author shows a keen perception of human nature. Nobody's perfect and nobody's one-dimensional here; everyone has secrets and surprises. There are a few points in the book where I had to go back and re-read sections because I just couldn't believe Stewart allowed her characters to do something. The actions always make sense, but they give you this sense of "Wow, this really isn't the kind of story I thought it was."
The book moves through Merlin's entire childhood and well into his adulthood through something like six distinct acts, each of which is engaging in a different way. There's a breadth of smaller stories here which don't feel like smaller stories; the novel as a whole manages to be one continuous narrative thread while actually doing a dozen entirely different things. Most of the foreshadowing is in-character (which is a nice change), but there are one or two places ("I hope you die betrayed by a woman!") that are almost unremarked in the story but the audience can see things the characters don't.
Really my only problem with the book is a personal preference thing; Stewart spends an awful lot of time describing geography. This cliff is named this now but that then, looks exactly like this for so many yards, faces west, is two shades darker than the rock surrounding it, has these two species of birds on it, and in the spring has beautiful pink flowers, etc. I tend to think of it as the Tolkien problem. Some people love this kind of description because it really puts them into the story. I connect with the people as opposed to the places so I end up skimming those bits. It certainly wasn't enough to put me off the book, but I did start getting that "Oh no, not again" feeling by the end.
I suspect that most adults will-- like me-- know before they read the first page whether or not they're going to like this book. If you find Arthurian mythology engaging, it's a must-read. But if you're a kid... I can imagine this book being that book for you. The one that opens doors you didn't even know were there.
Verdict: Keep and read the other books. (29/77)
Page count: 484 (15715 total)
Completed: 45 (20 female authors, 24 male authors, 1 anthology)
Rejected: 32 (20 male authors, 12 female authors)
Next book due: Some Kindle book, Thursday 3/31
There was never any chance that I wouldn't like this book. It's Arthurian. It's about Merlin. Everyone I know who read it loved it. And it's possibly my mom's all-time favorite book. I've been meaning to read this since I was around twelve, but for whatever reason I never got around to it. Now I have.
It's one of the best depictions of magic I've seen. Here magic is fundamentally uncontrollable, incomprehensible, and tragic-- trading a little power for a lot of cost and never losing sight of the fact that There Are Things Bigger Than You Are. What magic actually does is tiny-- almost insignificant-- but with repercussions that change everything. Most of "magic" is just rumors people start around people being clever.
The characterization is sharp both in the sense that characters stand out immediately and that the author shows a keen perception of human nature. Nobody's perfect and nobody's one-dimensional here; everyone has secrets and surprises. There are a few points in the book where I had to go back and re-read sections because I just couldn't believe Stewart allowed her characters to do something. The actions always make sense, but they give you this sense of "Wow, this really isn't the kind of story I thought it was."
The book moves through Merlin's entire childhood and well into his adulthood through something like six distinct acts, each of which is engaging in a different way. There's a breadth of smaller stories here which don't feel like smaller stories; the novel as a whole manages to be one continuous narrative thread while actually doing a dozen entirely different things. Most of the foreshadowing is in-character (which is a nice change), but there are one or two places ("I hope you die betrayed by a woman!") that are almost unremarked in the story but the audience can see things the characters don't.
Really my only problem with the book is a personal preference thing; Stewart spends an awful lot of time describing geography. This cliff is named this now but that then, looks exactly like this for so many yards, faces west, is two shades darker than the rock surrounding it, has these two species of birds on it, and in the spring has beautiful pink flowers, etc. I tend to think of it as the Tolkien problem. Some people love this kind of description because it really puts them into the story. I connect with the people as opposed to the places so I end up skimming those bits. It certainly wasn't enough to put me off the book, but I did start getting that "Oh no, not again" feeling by the end.
I suspect that most adults will-- like me-- know before they read the first page whether or not they're going to like this book. If you find Arthurian mythology engaging, it's a must-read. But if you're a kid... I can imagine this book being that book for you. The one that opens doors you didn't even know were there.
Verdict: Keep and read the other books. (29/77)
Page count: 484 (15715 total)
Completed: 45 (20 female authors, 24 male authors, 1 anthology)
Rejected: 32 (20 male authors, 12 female authors)
Next book due: Some Kindle book, Thursday 3/31