Queen of Camelot by Nancy McKenzie Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Queen of Camelot
Book Review: A delightfully enchanting tale...
Summary: 5 Stars
Queen of Camelot is an Arthurian tale written from a unique perspective. I origianlly purchased this book for a report in my college mythology class. I was terrified that it was going to be one of those "trudge through it and *make* myself read it" types. But I was gratefully mistaken. I loved this book. From beginning to end I had a new-found respect for a character that I had always underestimated. Not only that, the intricate relationships that are woven throughout the book are astounding. For anyone who loves the tales of Camelot, the mysteries of Arthur, and the nuance of Lancelot: this is the book for you. The author creates endearing characters, realistic perspectives, and an enchanting tale!Book Review: A great retelling of the Arthurian Saga
Summary: 5 Stars
Wonderful book. The Arthur legends as told from the viewpoint of Guinevere, a beautiful, strong, courageous woman and her heartbreaking love of two men - Lancelot and Arthur. We see Guinevere grow from a young girl to the most beautiful woman in England.
An exciting tale and the love she bears for both Lancelot and Arthur - and the love they both return to her made for an engrossing book.Don't pick this one up in the middle of the night thinking you'll read a couple of chapters and be able to go back to sleep. This book cost me a few hours of sleep, but was well worth it. Highly recommended.
Book Review: A must read!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is an absolute page turner. The hazardous and tragic love triangle between Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere is finally plausably explained. If you enjoyed Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, then The Queen of Camelot is an absolute must-read!Book Review: Almost a classic
Summary: 3 Stars
I almost stopped reading this book into the second chapter or so. The writing starts out somewhat juvenile and without much emotional depth, and I was rolling my eyes more than once for the earlier parts of the book. The child Guinevere is hated by her brother's wife because she's... blond? Guinevere's singing eases wounded soldiers and speeds their healing? Yeah, right. Along with the preoccupation with horses and too many people falling over themselves praising the heroine, Queen of Camelot at first read like an Arthurian retelling for teenaged girls.
Nevertheless, I didn't want to judge a book I hadn't actually read and managed to finish it. I'm glad I did. One of the remarkable things about this book is that the writing matures visibly as its heroine does. The earliest Guinevere, the too-perfect-for-words kind of girl character I love to hate, grows into a flesh-and-blood woman who is sometimes irrational, sometimes makes mistakes, and is above all believable as a beloved companion and lady to Arthur and his knights.
The ending is where Queen of Camelot truly shines. Towards the end, the writing finally finds its pace and takes on the kind of lyricism that I associate with the best of modern Arthurian literature. The central conflict and mystery of the book, of how father and son became pitted against each other, plays out as both inevitable and wholly believable tragedy through a series of mishaps, misfortunes, and human failure.
The closing chapter was particularly masterful, with Guinevere coming across naturally as a nurturing and uplifting figure without the kind of heavy-handed praise that annoyed me so much at the earlier parts of the book. The emotions in the writing were heartfelt and profound. I closed the book satisfied with the reading experience mainly for the ending.
Still, the greatness at the end of the book doesn't cover its flaws. There's the "everybody who counts loves Gwen" kind of myopia, where you can rank about 99% of the characters on the coolness scale by how much they love Guinevere. Just about the only exceptions I can think of are Merlin and Niniane. There doesn't seem to be much room for disliked yet respected adversaries or complexly motivated villains in Guinevere's world. I don't know if that's indicative of the author or the character, but either way it wasn't to my taste.
Speaking of villains with complex motivations, the female villains were a big letdown. Some of the most interesting female figures of Arthurian literature are here no more and no less than evil witches without the least redeeming feature or the barest scrap of motivation. And, you guessed it, they really, really hate Guinevere. The reader has no clues to guess why, except maybe these women are just hateful towards the world in general or they're jealous of Gwen's perfection or something. Don't expect the kind of nuanced treatment of classic villainess along the lines of The Mists of Avalon or The Idylls of the Queen. (Both highly, highly recommended.)
Furthermore, the deftly skilled writing at the end of the book left me surprised that the author didn't revisit the work for major rewrites, or at least some edits. The prologue seems to be meant to follow from the ending, yet there are clear mismatches in facts and tone that left me scratching my head. It's only natural for a book to change during its writing, but it seems careless not to go back and at least edit for consistency.
It's a shame, too. Had the whole book been (re)written with the kind of emotional depth and poetic, stately language near its end, Queen of Camelot would have been up there with the classics of modern Arthurian novels. As it is, I give it two stars for the beginning, three for the most part, four or even five for the ending, and three overall.
Book Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
Nancy was able to make you feel for the characters, thatsomehow you knew them and felt their pain. This was an
awesome book that anyone who remotely likes the story of
Arthur should read. I really did feel for the characters
and I enjoyed it to the fullest.