The Mists of Avalon (Avalon, #1) in Beyond Reality

Jun 06, 2012 Carrie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 4-and-a-half-to-5-stars, own, fantasy, favorites, historical-fiction, 1st-in-a-series, goddess-gods, arthurian

4.75

This would have to be one of my top reads for 2017.....It lost .25 to make it a full 5 stars because of all the times I wanted to smack Gewnhwyfar.

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Sep 04, 2009 Gaijinmama rated it it was amazing

This blew me away when I was 15.
I'm in my 40's now and a bit better informed about history, but nevertheless this is a brilliant piece of fiction, with characters that will stay with you forever. ...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy-fiction, theme-religion

I first read this when I was a freshman in high school. It was a good time to read it — I had time, I wasn't bothered by doorstopper-sized books, I had just enough exposure to the idea of woman-centered pagan religions and the King Arthur mythos from other fantasy books to be able to appreciate this. (Apparently other people felt the same way — I left this in a common area in the Theatre Department by mistake and it vanished and then re-appeared weeks later. Which was a relief, because it was a I first read this when I was a freshman in high school. It was a good time to read it — I had time, I wasn't bothered by doorstopper-sized books, I had just enough exposure to the idea of woman-centered pagan religions and the King Arthur mythos from other fantasy books to be able to appreciate this. (Apparently other people felt the same way — I left this in a common area in the Theatre Department by mistake and it vanished and then re-appeared weeks later. Which was a relief, because it was a library book.) And I didn't mind its occasional moments of emotional overwroughtness at all.

At the time, I thought it was an excellent and awesome classic. Now, however, I can't help thinking that it tries to do too many things, and so does not fully satisfy the reader.

Mists is:

(1) a fantasy book (Atlantis, reincarnation, magic)
(2) a feminist reworking of the Arthurian tradition, with heavy reliance on the dubious scholarship in The Chalice and the Blade
(3) an attempt to situate the characters of Arthurian legend in a plausible historical context as three-dimensional characters
(4) a look at what people want and need from religion, and what religions demand of their devotees

As a fantasy book, I'd say it succeeds. As a feminist reworking of the Arthurian books ... hmm. It depends on your definition of feminist and it depends on your definition of success. When I first read it, I thought it was great. Now, the dubious historicity of the premise rather bothers me, especially when you combine it with the very realistic portrayals of court and castle life, and Bradley's attempts to work with what historical evidence there is for the existence of Arthur as a real historical figure. (It's kind of thin on the ground.)

For the most part, Bradley succeeded in making the characters real people with flaws. Near the end, though, it felt like she was running out of steam in the characterization department. Nostalgia for youth as a cause of camaraderie was emphasized a little too strongly, and characters who were introduced later on — Niniane, Nimue, Mordred — seemed a bit two-dimensional. Mordred particularly — Bradley wanted him to be an enigma, but he was a little too much of an enigma for his motives to be fully understandable or believable.

There were several things where Bradley gave us the ending but not the payoff. We see Arthur dying but have no idea how he came to be wounded. And — after he spent much of the novel struggling over what the gods were and what they wanted — we hear of Lancelet's funeral and are told that he took Christian priest's vows shortly before his death and found peace and enlightenment, but we don't see the actual peace and enlightenment. This is particularly bothersome to me, because I thought that Lancelet's struggle with religion and whether or not it was real and had anything to offer him was one of the most fascinating aspects of the novel. I've been doing a Neal Stephenson re-read lately and noticed that a pervasive theme in his books is whether or not religion has anything or offer smart geeky people. It is an interesting question; Mists tries to grapple with it, but in the end, doesn't fully explore it. ...more

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Nov 01, 2009 Frank Taranto rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

The legend of King Artur as seen from the female side. Read once and lsitened to once.

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Jun 27, 2007 Wealhtheow rated it did not like it

Shelves: fantasy

If you've never before read a modern retelling of a fairy tale or legend, or if you've never really thought about Christianity, paganism, or in fact feminism, then this book might intrigue you. ...more

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