The Last Enchantment Discussion

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

The first three books were over.  Merlin was no longer the narrator and the story was no longer his.  It was time to celebrate!

Warning for Spoilers

SamoaPhoenix Guest Review: The Last Enchantment

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 Last Enchantment Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: William Morrow & Company Inc Pages: 536 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Merlin, whom men call “enchanter” is the narrator of this magnificent and haunting novel of Dark Age Britain, which begins with Arthur now King by right, having drawn the sword Caliburn from the stone. He instantly plunges into fierce warfare against the Saxon enemy, fighting to achieve the “small miracle” of unity and independence that Britain alone attained among the dependencies of a crumbling Roman Empire. But Merlin’s story focuses on a different kind of warfare against more subtle and dangerous enemies. Of these the chief is Morgause, rose-gold witch and half-sister to Arthur, whom she once snared incestuously to her bed, an act resulting in the birth of a son, Mordred, who will be the most dangerous of all. In fact, the book begins with the desperate and bloody attempt to find and murder this child. It fails, and one by one Merlin’s other prophecies are realized: the passion and grief of Arthur’s marriages; his betrayal by friends and kinfolk; Merlin’s overpowering but short-lived love. The account of Merlin’s own enchanting is not, however, a tragic one. In the dark ebb-tide of his gift he finds that he is not totally deserted by the god who bestowed it. Struggling for resignation, he finds a fulfillment that even he had never dreamed of. His power and bright vision will be there at the King’s services as long as Arthur lives, and as he believes, long after. The Last Enchantment is a richly woven tapestry peopled by princes and soldiers, grave-robbers and goldsmiths, innkeepers and peasants and witches, in a finely described landscape where each forest, lake and hill is charged, not only with the natural life of the countryside, but with the twilight spirits of older mythologies—multiple threads merging into the bright promise of the future, and linked through Merlin in the archetypal themes of a fast, exciting and powerful story. A magnificent novel to put beside Mary Stewart’s best-selling The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills.

This book was hard to get through. At least the cover is more interesting than the last two and has something to do with what happens in the book. The title is also apt, unlike Hollow Hills for book 2.

Warning for Spoilers

The Last Enchantment Review

Review number three in SamoaPhoenix and my five part review series of Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy which is actually five books.  SamoaPhoenix's review is found here and our discussion of the book can be found here.

~Storyteller Knight

Title: The Last Enchantment Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: EOS (An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) Pages: 513 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Arthur Pendragon is King!  Unchallenged on the battlefield, he melds the country together in a time of promise.  But sinister powers plot to destroy Camelot, and when the witch-queen Morgause-- Arthur's own half sister-- ensnares him in an incestuous liaison, a fatal web of love, betrayal, and bloody vengeance is woven

This is going to be an exercise in how one moment can change your entire perception of a book.  I was reading a long and The Last Enchantment was going down in flames.  I was all set to give it One Star.  And then, in the course of a single page, my entire perception of the book changed and I find that I really enjoyed it.  

Warning for Spoilers