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Review by William D. Gagliani
Arthurian legend is a rich trove indeed, and Marion Zimmer Bradley dips into it with both hands to produce "Lady of Avalon." This new novel is the eagerly awaited link between "The Forest House" and "The Mists of Avalon," arguably her best novel. In "The Mists of Avalon," Bradley reworked the Arthur legend by concentrating on the women and their roles in the timeless romances.
That same feminist perspective permeated "The Forest House," which told of sacred priestesses and the goddess they worshipped in the dawn of Britain's history.
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Bradley deftly blends great characters and the sweep of early British history with the mystery of Arthurian lore and ancient ceremonies. |
The year is AD 96, and the abbot of the monastery is none other than Joseph of Arimathea, the same Joseph who is said to have caught Christ's blood in a vessel at the crucifixion, and who eventually made his way to Roman Britannia to found a religious order and guard the holy vessel and its contents.
Now the High Priestess introduces young Gawen to her maidens -- he is the Son of a Hundred Kings, who shall be given power and glory and a certain sword, forged by heavenly fire. In Part One, Gawen comes into his legacy just in time to lose his life to Roman spears -- but in his passing, he and the High Priestess and the Faerie Queen form a ritual bond which forever shields the Isle of Avalon from the eyes of mortals, moving it slightly off our plane of vision and surrounding it with magical mists. Almost 200 years later, with Britannia besieged by pirates, the High Priestess Dierna awakens the ancient soul reborn in a valiant Roman admiral -- a historical footnote named Carausius, who defied Rome and briefly declared himself Emperor of Britannia -- and once again the Sacred King aids the Britons in their hour of need. In Bradley's sure hands, even this character brims with life and mystical motivation.
But with Saxon raids sapping Britannia's strength, it is Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, who must rise above her own flaws to prepare the way for yet another incarnation of the Son of a Hundred Kings, the one who will be called Arthur.
Though almost too large in scope and spanning too great a time for its pages, this exciting novel delivers. Bradley deftly blends great characters and the sweep of early British history with the mystery of Arthurian lore and ancient ceremonies to fashion yet another romance full of magic and wonder. If this doesn't send you back to your Malory and Geoffrey, not to mention more Bradley, I don't know what will.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.