Crystal Cave Discussion

This is part 3 of 3 in SamoaPhoenix and my joint review/discussion of Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave.  My review can be found here and SamoaPhoenix's review can be found here.

Our discussion begins right after I sent my review to SamoaPhoenix and she finished reading it.  I had already read her review earlier in the day to prep it for posting.

Warning for Spoilers

Samoa Phoenix Guest Review: The Crystal Cave

Part 2 of 3.  My review can be found here and the discussion of the book between myself and SamoaPhoenix can be found here.

~Storyteller Knight

Title: The Crystal Cave Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: William & Morrow Pages: 527 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Almost everyone knows Merlin as the dark, brooding figure mysteriously associated with Camelot and King Arthur’s court. But who, really, was Merlin? Was he the enchanter of fairy tales, the magician of the black robe and pointed hat and wand? Or was he the king and prophet of old legends of Brittany and Wales? How did a man reputed to be the bastard son of the Prince of Darkness, and condemned to death as a child of the Devil, become the chief architect of the first united Britain? Mary Stewart’s answers to these provocative questions form a spell-binding novel that catapults the reader into fifth-century Britain—a land uncertainly divided by conflicting loyalties, political and spiritual; a land riddled with rumor real and planted, and spear-alert with superstitious fear. Into this strange world was born Merlin, bastard son of Niniane, daughter of the King of South Wales, and an unknown father. The novel opens in Wales when Merlin is seven, and closes in Cornwall, at Tintagel, with the begetting of Arthur.

My aunt and uncle were moving to a smaller place and my uncle gave me his copies of Mary Stewart's Arthurian books. I mentioned it to Story, who suggested the joint project we are on now.

Spoilers!, etc…

The Crystal Cave Review

So, not wholly on accident, SamoaPhoenix and I ended up reading the same Arthurian retelling at the same time.  So we decided to have some fun with this.  SamoaPhoenix and I have both written up a review of this book (to be posted separately) and then we're going to to have a discussion about the book.  So consider this Part 1 of 3.  SamoaPhoenix's guest review can be found here and our discussion of the book here.

~Storyteller Knight

Title: The Crystal Cave Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: Fawcett Crest Pages: 385 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Who was Merlin?  Was the famed magician of Camelot and King Arthur's court really a sinister, all-powerful being from another world?  Was he truly a prince of Darkness? Or was he a man with the passions of other mortals?  A man with unique intelligence and unusual gifts? Why was he so feared?  How did he come by his occult powers?  Why was the crystal cave so important to him? Mary Stewart's novel brings to vibrant life one of the world's great legends and sheds a fascinating new light on the turbulence and mystery of 5th-century Britain. In This enthralling work, Mary Steward once more shows her own great wizardry.  Again she reveals those qualities of suspense and romantic adventure which have made her one of the world's most widely read novelists.

So, just as a heads up-- I have already read book four of this series (The Wicked Day).  I'm going to try and not spoil anything that goes on and will put up warnings if I get into anything about that book.  But do know that I read it several years ago and my memory of what on is a little fuzzy, so some stuff might slip in.

Also, I'm not even going to touch on the covers of this series because it has been reprinted so many times with so many pretty covers.  

Warning for Spoilers