Camelot's Library: Vortigern

Welcome All- A Few Things to Know

Welcome All- A Few Things to Keep In Mind:

1. Hi all. I'm Storyteller Knight. You can find me on Fictionpress where I write novels about King Arthur, Superheroes and Vampires (but not at the same time) and at Pardon My Sarcasm where I rage about how the republicans are ruining all things.

2. Here is the Master List of books read, books owned and books needed to complete a series. Superscripts next to title links to reviews on this site. Or you can search using the lables.

3. I'm approaching this blog with the assumption that everyone reading already knows the ultimate spoiler of the King Arthur Legend: Everyone Dies. Those who read King Arthur books do so to see different interpretations of the characters and the stories. My goal here is to analyze the effectiveness of those interpretations. Thus, all my reviews will include spoilers.

4. This is not an Arthurian 101 blog. As I said above, I'm assuming that everyone reading already knows the legend and is looking for different interpretations of that legend. Therefore, I'm not going to take time to explain who the characters are and what roles they traditionally play. Links to Arthurian Encyclopedias at the bottom of the page.

5. These reviews are my opinions of the books. I may hate a book you love or I may love a book you hate. If you have a different opinion, write it up. I'd be more than happy to have some guest posts.

6. Please don't ask me (or any of the guest bloggers) to do your homework for you. As I said above, this is a blog dedicated at looking at these books from an Arthurian perspective. If you comment on posts asking us what the theme is or such, we're just going to screw with you.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

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