Reviews - Elizabeth E. Wein
The Winter Prince (Elizabeth E. Wein)
After finishing The Winter Prince, I had to stop for a minute to think about it -- do I like it? How much did I enjoy it? The style is very interesting: it seems to be straight first person narration at times, but when Medraut's mother appears, it becomes apparent that he's addressing the story to her. It deals with one of the issues that lie at the heart of the Arthurian mythos, often blamed for the fall of Camelot: the incest between Arthur and his sister. It works out the issues, in a way, binding Medraut to his brother, Lleu, and neutralising him, though it's not an easy road for either of them to walk.
It also deals with the issues of abuse, a horribly powerful link between Medraut and his mother, and even between his mother and his brothers. He has to deal with the tangled feelings that come when at one moment someone will hurt you horrifically and the next comfort you, when they'll say it's for your own good or that you did wrong, to excuse them torturing you. Medraut's confusion is well done: I couldn't predict what he would do and how, I couldn't predict whether he would go free of her at the end or not.
With the point of view it took, I suppose it'd be hard to show more of Medraut's mother and her motivations, but I found that somewhat difficult to swallow, of everything in the book. So casually evil, toying with other people as though they're not real... Goewin and Ginevra are positive female characters, to an extent, though the latter does very little after the opening of the novel. Goewin hints at a way she could become like Medraut's mother, so there is a bit of a sense of circumstances making her the way she is, but still... I did want more, I wanted less senseless evil and more a sense of someone made the way she is by being wronged and so on. Turning Morgause and Morgan Le Fay and their like into evil witches is one of those ways of pathologising female power that people don't seem to guard against.
The Winter Prince can be a quick, easy read, but there's darkness at the heart of it -- which is, I suppose, countered by the end.
A Coalition of Lions (Elizabeth E. Wein)
A Coalition of Lions is quite different to The Winter Prince. The narration is straight first person, by Goewin, and it's set after the fall of Artos' kingdom. This one explores the role of women in this world better, and is quite empowering to Goewin, which was nice. The decision to include a non-canonical daughter for Arthur is quite a bold one, as is following her after her father's death, and her attempts to do her best for Britain as though she were its queen.
That, and Medraut's continued loyalty to Artos and Lleu -- the fact that it is not his treachery, only an accident, that brought about the tragedy at the end of Arthur's reign -- is a pretty bold move. I don't really believe in this version of the Arthurian myth, but it's a breath of fresh air, a nice change.
Like the first book, A Coalition of Lions is very easy to read, and it's not as dark. There is a bit of darkness and torture -- Medraut would surely have somewhat in common with the brothers who are the coalition of lions -- but it isn't as internal to the story as in The Winter Prince.
The Sunbird (Elizabeth E. Wein)
I think I liked The Sunbird best of the series so far. It goes even further from Arthurian myth -- the only character from the Arthurian canon is Medraut -- but in the process makes an enchanting narrative. Young Telemakos is growing up and showing all signs of inheriting his father's ability to stalk prey, but he uses his skills politically.
The story of his search for the figure called the Lazarus, and what happens to him there, are compelling. The darkness from the other stories remains here. Telemakos is a very strong character, almost unbelievably so, and yet still believably a child, too. The reactions of the other characters to what happens to him feels real and shocking, and is well-handled.
Medraut as a character develops further here, into someone one can like, or at least sympathise with a little -- largely divorced from the Arthurian canon, by this point.
Again, it's easy to read, well-written, but there are parts at which the soft-hearted will struggle.
The Empty Kingdom (Elizabeth E. Wein)
The Empty Kingdom is quite a long way away -- in time, in distance, and in the kind of story it is -- from The Winter Prince. Medraut and the Arthurian characters are much less in evidence now, and Telemakos is definitely our hero, and one I enjoy completely independently from his links to the Arthurian story, which is almost unimportant by this point in the story.
Unlike The Winter Prince and The Lion Hunter, this book is less about healing and focuses more on the political intrigue. One thing I found very interesting about these books was how unpredictable I found them: I've read a lot of books and usually am able to predict their twists and turns. While some parts of this were easy to guess, most were not. So it's a breath of fresh air in general, as well as an interesting and -- so far as I know -- new addition to the Arthurian tradition.
I can easily imagine that more might be written for this series, and I'd be interested to read it.
The Lion Hunter (Elizabeth E. Wein)
The Lion Hunter is less able to stand alone than the other books of this series: the story ends in a cliffhanger, which goes directly on to the last book, The Empty Kingdom, so beware of that! It does help if you have read the other books, too, but really you just need to know what happens in them, what the main characters did in previous books.
Early in this book, Telemakos is severely wounded, and part of the point of this book is his adjustment to that, his ways of dealing with it, and also his ways of dealing with the mental scars from what happened to him in The Sunbird. It's a story of recovery, and it goes carefully with it -- it's not a magical healing, by any means.
Easy to read, like the other books, but yes, dark and even quite saddening, near the end.
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After finishing The Winter Prince, I had to stop for a minute to think about it -- do I like it? How much did I enjoy it? The style is very interesting: it seems to be straight first person narration at times, but when Medraut's mother appears, it becomes apparent that he's addressing the story to her. It deals with one of the issues that lie at the heart of the Arthurian mythos, often blamed for the fall of Camelot: the incest between Arthur and his sister. It works out the issues, in a way, binding Medraut to his brother, Lleu, and neutralising him, though it's not an easy road for either of them to walk.
It also deals with the issues of abuse, a horribly powerful link between Medraut and his mother, and even between his mother and his brothers. He has to deal with the tangled feelings that come when at one moment someone will hurt you horrifically and the next comfort you, when they'll say it's for your own good or that you did wrong, to excuse them torturing you. Medraut's confusion is well done: I couldn't predict what he would do and how, I couldn't predict whether he would go free of her at the end or not.
With the point of view it took, I suppose it'd be hard to show more of Medraut's mother and her motivations, but I found that somewhat difficult to swallow, of everything in the book. So casually evil, toying with other people as though they're not real... Goewin and Ginevra are positive female characters, to an extent, though the latter does very little after the opening of the novel. Goewin hints at a way she could become like Medraut's mother, so there is a bit of a sense of circumstances making her the way she is, but still... I did want more, I wanted less senseless evil and more a sense of someone made the way she is by being wronged and so on. Turning Morgause and Morgan Le Fay and their like into evil witches is one of those ways of pathologising female power that people don't seem to guard against.
The Winter Prince can be a quick, easy read, but there's darkness at the heart of it -- which is, I suppose, countered by the end.
A Coalition of Lions (Elizabeth E. Wein)
A Coalition of Lions is quite different to The Winter Prince. The narration is straight first person, by Goewin, and it's set after the fall of Artos' kingdom. This one explores the role of women in this world better, and is quite empowering to Goewin, which was nice. The decision to include a non-canonical daughter for Arthur is quite a bold one, as is following her after her father's death, and her attempts to do her best for Britain as though she were its queen.
That, and Medraut's continued loyalty to Artos and Lleu -- the fact that it is not his treachery, only an accident, that brought about the tragedy at the end of Arthur's reign -- is a pretty bold move. I don't really believe in this version of the Arthurian myth, but it's a breath of fresh air, a nice change.
Like the first book, A Coalition of Lions is very easy to read, and it's not as dark. There is a bit of darkness and torture -- Medraut would surely have somewhat in common with the brothers who are the coalition of lions -- but it isn't as internal to the story as in The Winter Prince.
The Sunbird (Elizabeth E. Wein)
I think I liked The Sunbird best of the series so far. It goes even further from Arthurian myth -- the only character from the Arthurian canon is Medraut -- but in the process makes an enchanting narrative. Young Telemakos is growing up and showing all signs of inheriting his father's ability to stalk prey, but he uses his skills politically.
The story of his search for the figure called the Lazarus, and what happens to him there, are compelling. The darkness from the other stories remains here. Telemakos is a very strong character, almost unbelievably so, and yet still believably a child, too. The reactions of the other characters to what happens to him feels real and shocking, and is well-handled.
Medraut as a character develops further here, into someone one can like, or at least sympathise with a little -- largely divorced from the Arthurian canon, by this point.
Again, it's easy to read, well-written, but there are parts at which the soft-hearted will struggle.
The Empty Kingdom (Elizabeth E. Wein)
The Empty Kingdom is quite a long way away -- in time, in distance, and in the kind of story it is -- from The Winter Prince. Medraut and the Arthurian characters are much less in evidence now, and Telemakos is definitely our hero, and one I enjoy completely independently from his links to the Arthurian story, which is almost unimportant by this point in the story.
Unlike The Winter Prince and The Lion Hunter, this book is less about healing and focuses more on the political intrigue. One thing I found very interesting about these books was how unpredictable I found them: I've read a lot of books and usually am able to predict their twists and turns. While some parts of this were easy to guess, most were not. So it's a breath of fresh air in general, as well as an interesting and -- so far as I know -- new addition to the Arthurian tradition.
I can easily imagine that more might be written for this series, and I'd be interested to read it.
The Lion Hunter (Elizabeth E. Wein)
The Lion Hunter is less able to stand alone than the other books of this series: the story ends in a cliffhanger, which goes directly on to the last book, The Empty Kingdom, so beware of that! It does help if you have read the other books, too, but really you just need to know what happens in them, what the main characters did in previous books.
Early in this book, Telemakos is severely wounded, and part of the point of this book is his adjustment to that, his ways of dealing with it, and also his ways of dealing with the mental scars from what happened to him in The Sunbird. It's a story of recovery, and it goes carefully with it -- it's not a magical healing, by any means.
Easy to read, like the other books, but yes, dark and even quite saddening, near the end.
Stuff here is posted first to Dreamwidth. I won't disable comments here, but I prefer to receive comments on DW. Go here to do so. If you need a DW invite, ask. There is a tutorial on how to set up your OpenID here. If you comment anonymously, please sign your comments!