Rating:  Summary: An Arthurian tale that finally comes to life!! Review: I was absolutely entranced by this book. I was simply amazed at the realness of the characters. I found myself laughing, moaning, sighing, and crying with them. I have read this book over a period of 4 months. My fav. Characters were Bedwyr, Gareth, Kevin, and of course Gwen, Arthur, Mordred, and Lancelot. There are so many small characters to hate and love and are so easy to enjoy. This book will capture your heart and mind and you will NOT be able to put it down once you start. ps. make sure you have a box of kleenex when you come to chapter 44. ~blessed be
Rating:  Summary: Best tale of Queen Guinevere Review: I was very very happy with this tale of Queen Guinevere! I couldn't put the book down! I was so so engaged in reading it.. It was so real. The image of Guinevere was clearly set, and wonderful. I was very excited to hear she has another book in the Arthurian legend, Grail Prince, which I recommend reading. This book is WONDERFUL! I loved it! I HIGHLY recommend anyone to read it!
Rating:  Summary: Touching, Heartwarming, Colorful, Spirited Review: I'm not a person who usually reads fantasy, and I picked up this book on a whim. And I couldn't put it down again. It's one of the best romance/historical fiction/fantasy books i've ever read--deep in scope and lifelike and real. It provides a differnt viewpoint on the lancelot-guinevere-arthur love triangle, and makes your heart pity all three. Yet in the end, you are happy for them, too. It's hard to express the emotions I felt when I read this book. But it made me wish that our society today was like those of Arthur's--where loyalty, trust, goodness, and true love could be found. And unlike many women of romance novels, Guinevere is strong and spirited--she can hold her own in any situation. This book successfully portrays the true essence of Guinevere, and shows clearly why she was worthy to be the wife of the High King. Once you read it, you want to do and act like her, to be good, kind, loving, and strong. It brings out the good qualities in a person, and is truly a wonderful piece of literature.
Rating:  Summary: Mesmerizing Review: I'm only half-way through this book and I felt I needed to say that this is one of the best Arthurian "woman-based" novels that I have ever read. In fact, I read Ms. McKenzie's newer novel about Galahad first, and then went back to Queen of Camelot. These are books that are meant to be savored from word to word. I have been a Marion Zimmer Bradley fan from the first time I picked up the Mists of Avalon and this is the first time I've felt that a book is even close to its equal in its understanding of the women of the Arthurian legend and their side of the conflict. Guenivere is portrayed here as a woman of the time with genuine frailties that she overcomes with courage and strength. She is as realistic to me as Morgaine was in the Mists of Avalon and yet this is an entirely different method of story-telling (and more historically accurate). I strongly recommend that anyone who has read the Mists of Avalon read this book as well. As I have said, it is written from a different perspective, but it is no less compelling in its own way.
Rating:  Summary: Im a major Arthurian fan Review: I've read every book there is about Arthur, Guenevere, Merlin, and the whole gang. This has been the best one i have ever read. Its the first book I have ever given 5 stars to. I laughed, I CRIED, and I fell in love with this book!!!!
Rating:  Summary: Don't pass this one by! Review: I've read MANY Arthurian tales, and was excited to find that Nancy McKenzie has taken an ancient tale and given it new life. Her rendition of Guinevere as an almost modern woman breathed new life into a character who is usually secondary to the men of this tale. I was impressed that this Guinevere possessed a quiet strength in the face of so many adversities. Written as a memoir, the book gives you a complete understanding of not only Guinevere as a person, but also of the circumstances behind the person.
Rating:  Summary: Amazing Review: Nancy was able to make you feel for the characters, that somehow 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.
Rating:  Summary: Incredible porrayal of Guinevere and the legend... Review: Numerous retellings of the Arthurian legend had been published - with the exception of the Mists of Avalon, none of them can sustain a reader's attention while being faithful to the original legend. Truth be told, it must be extremely difficult to pull off a novel when its readers already know the plot back to front, and that is one area where Queen of Camelot spetacularly exceeds. Though having read many versions of the story already, Queen of Camelot is one novel I could not put down: this book shed light on Arthur's queen, who was portrayed as a weak and moral-less woman who brought about the downfall of Camelot, sculpting her into a strong and just queen. This novel also loks favorably at the character of Arthur - who was pretty much ignored in the other books. Together, the pair worked Camelot into the height of its glory, and its fall was due to a cruel twist of fate, in which Guinevere, Arthur, and Lancelot were victims of.This is the must-read retelling of the story. I suggest reading the Mists of Avalon in addition to this. I have also read Rosalind Miles' Guenever series but personally I didn't think much of it. Alice Borchardt's version, fascinating by itself, was unfaithful to the original story.
Rating:  Summary: Well, the cover is nice... Review: One of my friends told me this was a good book, so I started to read it with high hopes of loving it by the end. While the book is written with beautiful language and pulls you into the story for a very short while, it gets old. Guinevere, who is a both a good idea and a heroine in all other Arthurian legends I've read, becomes boring. She is whiney and complains constantly about her love life. There was so much I would have changed about this book. For one, Gwen falls in love with her husband, King Arthur's, best friend and fellow knight, Lancelot. After King Arthur dies, Lancelot invites her to live with him and after all these MANY, MANY years (and pages!!) of complaining about how she cannot have Lancelot, it just seems right to go with your one true love, right? Gwen runs off to a nunery! The book had no depth at all to me and lagged and lagged until you were bored sick. Not worth buying or reading. A waste of time. ~Atalanta
Rating:  Summary: Strength of the Woman Review: The book's greatest strength is its complex portrayal of Guinevere. The author succeeded in giving her believable strength and utilized it beautifully in the setting we know and love so well as Camelot. Arthur, a strong character himself, was not undermined and Mordred, undoubtedly a significant presence in the book, embodied the depth in which Guinevere's strength of character took. It is a fresh look at the old legend wrought with failure and betrayal. Perhaps the only weakness I could find was the *inherent* Mary Sue-ishness of the entire thing. Though it is apparent that nothing could be perfect, even in Camelot, things always work out except for the inevitably bitter end. Even the problems characters faced were handled with great grace. Make no mistake. I'm not saying this book has a bunch of Mary Sues and Gary Sues. Most of the characters are complex; imperfect, but there was still something terribly ideal about all of them in spite of it. However, I must say that I still enjoyed the book very much. In spite of the moments where everyone was just too disarmingly polite if not entirely evil, I would recommend this book for a wonderful new perception of Guinevere. Ms. McKenzie is a brilliant writer and I look forward to reading more from this series.
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