The Prince and the Pilgrim Discussion

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

~Storyteller Knight


Last review!  And we're both so happy to be done with this series!

Warning for Spoilers of The Prince and the Pilgrim, The Paths of Camelot series, and Spamalot

SamoaPhoenix Guest Review: The Prince and the Pilgrim

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 Prince and the Pilgrim Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: William & Morrow Co. Pages: 292 Synopsis: (from the publisher) A story of adventure, love and sorcery! Mary Stewart returns to the world of King Arthur and Camelot—the magic era which she depicted in her enduring and highly acclaimed Merlin Trilogy: The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment. The prince, our hero, is named Alexander. He is but a tiny infant when his father, Prince Baudouin, is brutally murdered by the King of Cornwall in a remote corner of England. Aided by a trusted servant, Alexander’s mother escapes the same fate by fleeing with her son to a safe and secret haven. When Alexander comes of age he sets out to Camelot to seek justice from King Arthur and avenge the death of the father he never knew. The pilgrim is named Alice. We first meet her when she is a pretty child accompanying her father, a royal duke, on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. While growing up into a beautiful young woman, Alice also experiences many adventures. Among them is the rescue of a young French nobleman who has in his possession an enchanted silver cup. Many believe the chalice to be the mysterious and much sought after Holy Grail. Prince Alexander is diverted in his quest for justice by the enchantments of Morgan le Fay, the seductive but evil sorceress. She persuades him to attempt a theft of the Holy Grail so that she can own it and thus gain power over King Arthur and his court. A wise man once said, “Everyone has their own grail.” Alexander’s search for the mysterious cup, Holy Grail or not, leads him to Alice. Together the prince and the pilgrim find what they’ve really been seeking: love, the greatest mystery of all.

I was interested to note that the blurb on this book makes no mention of The Wicked Day. I have no idea why the publishers would make this choice, as of the four previous books Wicked Day is the best, in my opinion. But people seem not to know what to call this series. Lots of people refer to it as The Merlin Trilogy even if they are aware of the existence of Wicked Day. No one seems to know Prince and the Pilgrim exists, even people who have read the other four and liked them. The reaction when I told people Story and I were reading all five Mary Stewart Arthurian books was usually: “Oh, I thought there were only three/four!” Thus, here is the review of the oft-overlooked fifth book.

Warning for Spoilers

The Prince and the Pilgrim Review

Review number five 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: The Prince and the Pilgrim Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: Fawcett Crest Pages: 308 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Eager, burning and young, Alexander sets off towards Camelot to seek justice from King Arthur for the murder of his father.  But he is diverted from his quest by beautiful, sensual Morgan Le Fay, who persuades the young prince to attempt a theft of the Holy Grail Alice has lived a life of lively adventure, accompanying her father, a royal duke, on his yearly pilgrimage.  Now she has come under the protection of a young prince brothers were murdered, a prince who is in possession of an enchanted silver cup believed to be the Holy Grail. And so the state is set for two young seekers to meet-- and find the greatest treasure of all...

What?  What!  That is a horrible synopsis.  That's so bad and wrong and incorrect I can't even laugh at it the way I laughed at The Hollow Hills synopsis.  Thank you for ruining my expectations Fawcett Crest.

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 

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

Hollow Hills Discussion

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



After reading each others reviews the previous night, SamoaPhoenix and I finally sat down today to discuss the second book in Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy.

Warning for Spoilers

SamoaPhoenix Guest Review: The Hollow Hills

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 Hollow Hills Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: William Morrow & Company Inc Pages: 402 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Once again, as she did in her international best seller The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart uses Arthurian legend to tell a spellbinding story. The Hollow Hills takes place in a fifth-century Britain fraught with superstition and fear, where no life is safe, no law is stable, and where a king risks accusations of murder and adultery to get himself an heir. For his own safety, the boy Arthur, rejected as a bastard by his father, is long kept ignorant of his parentage. Dangerous rides through the deep forests of England and Wales, sudden battles amidst brooding mountains, and retreats into secret hollows in the hills provide the background for this tale of Arthur’s growth into manhood and his discovery of the strange sword that was to test his claim to power. Behind and around Arthur always is the mysterious, strong, yet vulnerable figure of Merlin, who sees and knows so much but who, like Arthur, must also suffer for the sake of a nation being born. In this world of embattled kings and courtiers, hurried journeys, whispered anxieties, and sudden death, we watch Merlin and Arthur follow their common destiny. Merlin is the narrator, and his prophetic voice communicates not only the bristling atmosphere of the ancient setting but also the profound relevance of this age-old tale to our own time.

So I went into this book not expecting much after how deadly dull most of Crystal Cave was. How did this next installment compare? Read on...
    
Warning For Spoilers

The Hollow Hills Review

Review number two 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 Hollow Hills Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: Fawcett Crest Pages: 447 Synopsis: (from the 1973 hardcover published by William Morrow & Company, Inc.) Once again, as she did in her international best seller The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart uses Arthurian legend to tell a spellbinding story. The Hollow Hills takes place in a fifth-century Britain fraught with superstition and fear, where no life is safe, no law is stable and where a kings risks accusations of murder and adultery to get himself an heir.  For his own safety, the boy Arthur, rejected as a bastard by his father, is long kept ignorant of his parentage. Dangerous rides through the deep forests of England and Wales, sudden battles amidst brooding mountains, and retreats into secret hollows in the hills provide the background for this take of Arthur's growth into manhood and his discovery of the strange sword that was to test his claim to power. Behind and around Arthur always is the mysterious, strong, yet vulnerable figure of Merlin, who sees and knows so much but who, like Arthur, must also suffer for the safe of a nation being born.  In this world of embattled kings and countries, hurried journeys, whispered anxieties and sudden death, we watch Merlin and Arthur follow their common destiny. Merlin is the narrator and his prophetic voice communicates not only the bristling atmosphere of the ancient setting but also the profound relevance of this age-old take of our own time.

So I read the copy of the book picture above but it didn't have a blurb so I had to pull it from this one:

Which I also own because something is wrong with me.

Warning for Spoilers

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