SamoaPhoenix Guest Review: Hawk of May

Title: Hawk of May Author: Gillian Bradshaw Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (Kindle Version) Synopsis: (from Goodreads) On the path toward greatness, every hero makes a choice. Legends sing of Sir Gawain, one of the most respected warriors of King Arthur’s reign and one of the greatest champions of all time. But this is not that story. This is the story of Gwalchmai, middle son of the beautiful, infinitely evil sorceress Morgawse, and gifted student of her dark magical arts. A story of an uncertain man, doubting his ability to follow his elder brother’s warrior prowess and seeking to find his own identity by bonding with his frightening and powerful mother. Disappointed in himself and despised by his father, Gwalchmai sets out on a journey that will lead him to the brink of darkness…a tale of loss, redemption and adventure, Hawk of May brings new understanding to Sir Gawain, the legend of King Arthur, and the impact of choices made—and the consequences that follow.

Hello everyone! It’s me again, back on my chosen calling of reviewing books about Sir Gawain. If I ever doubted his awesomeness after reading Mary Stewart’s Wicked Day, my faith is restored to me now.


Warning for Spoilers

The Wicked Day Discussion

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

~Storyteller Knight


SamoaPhoenix and I have just swapped our reviews of the book and she has just finished reading my take on the book.

Warning for Spoilers

SamoaPhoenix Guest Review: The Wicked Day

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 Wicked Day Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: William Morrow and Co Pages: 447 Synopsis: (from the publisher) The Wicked Day is the gripping story of Mordred, bastard son of King Arthur by incest with his half-sister Morgause, witch-queen of Lothian and Orkney. Morgause sent the child to the Orkney islands to be reared there in secret, in the hope that one day he would become, as Merlin the Enchanter had prophecied, the doom of her hated half-brother. When Mordred is taken from his rude life as a fisherboy in the islands and suddenly thrust into the full panoply of the High King Arthur’s court, he learns of his true parentage and rises to a position of trust in his father’s kingdom. But, as the plots and counterplots of the last part of Arthur’s reign unfold, Mordred is drawn into a tangled web of tragedy that is the climactic drama of Arthurian legend. The Wicked Day breathtakingly displays Mary Stewart’s extraordinary gift for bringing the obscure past to life. Her characters are unforgettable: the young Mordred, whose close bond with his father arouses dire jealousies in the High Court at Camelot; his malevolent mother; her four unruly sons by King Lot; King Arthur himself, his Queen, Guinevere, his trusted friend Bedwyr; and the warring factions that seek to bring down the bastions of Arthur’s new confederation of Britain. As she did in her earlier Arthurian novels, Mary Stewart challenges the accepted legends in this stirring and danger-ridden tale. Was Mordred in truth a traitor—or the victim of implacable fate? Mary Stewart’s view brings tremendous emotions impact to the drama, as Merlin’s prophecy hangs broodingly over each moment and the action plays itself out inexorably to the final, wicked day…

I recently joined goodreads.com and on a whim looked up Mary Stewart's Arthurian books. The number of resoundingly positive reviews is astounding. People seem to think these books are the greatest thing since sliced bread; a lot of them called them their favorite books ever. I do not understand this attitudes. This book was the best of the four so far by far, but that doesn't make them great. They summarize far too much and the characters are barely sympathetic at best. They're certainly not very lively.  I feel sorry for anyone reading fantasy in the 70s and 80s if this was the best there was to offer.

Warning for Spoilers

Reread: The Wicked Day Review

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

~Storyteller Knight

Title: Wicked Day Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton Pages: 350 Synopsis: (from the publisher) The Wicked Day tells the story of Mordred, Arthur's bastard son by incest with his half-sister Morgause, witch-queen or Lothian and Orkney.  Morgause sent the child to the Orkney islands, to be reared there in secret, in the hope that one day he would become, as Merlin had prophesied, the doom of her hated half-brother How Mrdred fought to deny that destiny, hoe he rose at length to a position of trust in his father's kingdom, becoming Arthur's regent and eventually his heir, is the substance of this story.  That he did so is not denied even by the romancers who make Mordred the 'black treacherous villain' or the Arthurian legend. The Wicked Day does not make Mordred into a 'hero', but it does show him as a real human being, fallible rather than evil, a powerful and ambitious man whose actions are reasonable, not (as in legends) inconsistent and often foolish. The Wicked Day comes as a postscript to Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy, and in it, as before, a dark age of history is brought to vivid life, and a tangled mass of legend made plausible.  The story of the hidden prince, the witch's curse, the wild doings of the Orkney princes, the plots and counter-plots of the last part of Arthur's reign, is a colorful and exciting one, moving inexorably towards the climax of the last battle, where 'Arthur and Medraut fell'.  But even this unavoidable ending, as it is handled here, leaves the reader with a sense, not of tragedy, but of tranquil leave-taking. For thousands of readers who enjoyed Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy The Wicked Day is a magnificent storytelling bonus, a novel of passions and purposes told with the clarity of detail of an illuminated page from a medieval Book of the Hours.  A marvelous book from an enchantress of an author.

1. I, personally, do not know what the publisher is going on about with the ending not leaving the reader with a sense of tragedy.  I may or may not have been crying at the end of this book.  Just saying.  

2. Slightly different format for the review because this is a reread for me.  Since this is my first reread/review I thought I'd add something about my feelings on the book the last time I read it and what they are now.  It ended up getting pretty personal.  I'm not sure if that's because it's the first one of these or it's going to be a thing.  We'll see.  

3. I also own this cover:

Warning for Spoilers 

Arthurian Generations: We Write What We Are

This is something I've been working for a while and it covers a lot of ground within the Arthurian mythos.  It's probably horribly America-centric and not really researched with any sort of depth.  This has just been trends I have noticed over the past year while blogging and thinking critically about Arthurian literature.  There may be some small spoilers in this for Persia Woolley's Guinevere, The Legend in Autumn.  My thanks to DarkAngelKiely for doing some beta work and Lucre-Noin for helping me figure out Galahad's role in all of this.