Percival's Angel (1999)

Eh. This book has a lot going for it: an Arthurian retelling that's not centered around King Arthur, a fantasy plot that appeals to more than just King Arthur fans, and a perspective on the Arthurian legend other than a knight's. There's not much action to the plot, but it's not boring. What makes this novel "eh" is that it can be confusing. Maybe I should have read another version of the legend first (Wolfram von Eschenbach's 400+ page Parzival is sitting on my shelf), but there were places in the book that just didn't make much sense. They weren't really random, it was just that their importance in the story, as well as how the story had led up to them, was left unexplained. It became frustrating after a while, especially since Crompton's otherwise a good author and writes an interesting retelling. It's left me with mixed opinions on Percival's Angel. ( )

Lili is fey, once part of the Children Guard. She yearns to learn about the human heart and this power called "Love", that Merlin speaks of. Her friend Percy is a human that was raised in the Fey Forest. Never knowing of King Arthur or his Knights. They embark on a journey together to the human world to seek out what they most desire.

Percival's Angel is the third book in Crompton's Arthurian series and my first time delving into the series. A mystical and magical tale. The writing is like nothing I've read before. It's written in such a way that is almost poetic, which made for a delightful story. I was most intrigued and in the end enjoyed reading it. I have always loved the King Arthur legends, especially from the female point of view. I think fans of Fantasy and Arthurian Legends will like this one too. ( )

Have you ever had a random food craving—random in that it is for something you rarely eat, and doesn’t even qualify as one of your “guilty pleasures,” either? Say it’s for chocolate. (Oh dear, this analogy is breaking down already … isn’t chocolate everyone’s guilty pleasure?) What you really want is some high-brand dark, but your co-worker tosses you a tin-foil wrapped mystery chocolate that she was given at Halloween, and you decide to try it to tide it over. It’s not that great—actually, you admit to yourself, it’s pretty terrible—but somehow it still satisfies that basic craving. Well, that’s pretty much what happened with me and Percival’s Angel.

It’s been a couple of years since I last read an Arthurian novel, but while at a used bookstore, I had an unforeseen urging to pick one up. I did not want it to be something I’d read before, I did not want it to be too long, and I certainly did not want it to be the first book in a series. In other words, I was looking for a quick fix. I got it with Crompton’s book, and can now move on to other things, but there’s still that gnawing conviction that I could have chosen something better.

Percival has spent his entire life in the Fey Forest; his mother Alanna, her niece Ivie, and their faithful steward Edik brought him there when he was only a week old, in order to keep him from knighthood and eventual death. The Forest is a strange place, and Percival has never quite felt at home there, despite the fact that he has a protector in Nimway, the Lady of the Lake, and one true friend in the young Fey Lili. When a band of knights rides through, he finally discovers what he has been longing for, and sets out to become a knight. Lili comes with him, for she has a quest of her own: to gain a Human Heart.

There were a few things I found to like about the book. For one, the opening chapters set in the Fey Forest feature some very nice, dreamy writing, and the choice to use first person present tense for Lili’s point-of-view contrasts nicely with the third person past used for the human characters. Crompton sees these two races as diametrically opposed, with the Fey lacking the power of the Human Heart but gaining a simplicity, a clarity, and a freedom that mortals lack. (This must make things interesting for half-Fey such as Merlin.) Lili’s desire for a Human Heart reminds me a bit of the heroine of Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” who longs to have an immortal soul. This was one of the more interesting aspects in the book, although Nimway’s sorrow was also compelling, and although Alanna was a little difficult to get used to, in later chapters she emerged as a truly complex person, a woman who purposely lied to her son and dressed him up as a fool, that he might be mocked and derided and eventually come back to her.

Given that Percival is one of the most distinctive characters in the Arthurian legend—the sinless fool, the tarnished saint—Crompton’s characterization of him is more than a little disappointing. In her version, he’s a block-headed killing machine without a conscience, whose favorite word is “g**d***.” (Probably the weirdest feature of Crompton’s prose is the juxtaposition of such modern-sounding terms as this with high, flowery medieval language. “Lo, g**d***.” Yeah. That bad.)

Much of what happens in the last half doesn’t even make sense. The Grail is worked into this story in the oddest way—I can’t even recall now how it was first brought up, and by the end everyone seems to have pretty much forgotten about it, although there wasn’t that much going on to distract them from such a high and lofty goal. It’s not exactly clear how Lili ended up gaining her Human Heart, or how Percival suddenly became a halfway decent fellow. Maybe because they had sex? Ugh, that’s just nasty. Not sex itself, of course, but the concept that it is a cure for all ills. Finally, there was all the religious imagery—the figure of Mary in this story seems to have real power, and when Lili encounters good people she often sees angels guarding them. I was looking forward to seeing how Crompton would develop the conflict (or lack thereof) between medieval Christianity and the pagan ways of the Fey, but she never really does anything decisive in that area. That was a major failing of the book: great ideas, but no development.

I can’t see myself recommending this book to anyone, even fellow fans of Arthurian fiction. On the other hand, it did satisfy my random craving, so I can’t say I absolutely hated it either. ( )