The King's Peace (2000)

It took me a while to get into The King's Peace -- I knew from the first few chapters that it would be a slow burn. Which is was, but I ended up loving it. It's an alternate history -- think like Guy Gavriel Kay's A Song for Arbonne, I suppose: the places and people are given different names, but all the same you can trace it back to real events in our history -- with touches of fantasy. It explores the Arthurian mythology, without ever using those names (e.g. Arthur is Urdo, Guinevere is Elenn), and it explores an alternate theology and the meeting of different peoples and gods.

One warning -- the novel pretty much opens with a rape, and the issues that arise from that rape are revisited quite a few times. I didn't find it particularly graphic or upsetting, and I thought it was reasonably well-handled, but still, it is a theme.

Anyway, it's narrated by an original character, Sulien. She is a female warrior who rises to lead Urdo's own troops. The story follows her as she joins the ranks and fights for the peace Urdo so desperately desires. It took me a while to become attached to the characters -- and I think constantly comparing them to Arthurian characters and trying to figure out who was who was a barrier to that -- but I came to believe in Urdo and his kingdom, his hopes and dreams. I believed in Sulien, very much, and in her awkward relationships with her family and her son.

I enjoyed that Sulien was not a sexual being. Sex is part of her world, but she has no desire for it, and according to her statements at the beginning of the book, she's never coaxed into liking it by any man. She simply doesn't want to, and that's that.

I'll be going straight onto The King's Name, at speed. The book ends at a most unfair time. ( )

Not as unusual as Jo Walton's later books, but still good reading. This is a sort of take on the King Arthur legend, with a bit of King Alfred thrown in. ( )

http://www.lonelymountain.net/books/oct03.html#waltontkp ( )

(Amy) Having been so blown away by Farthing (the sequel is on my to-read pile even now, though I am doing my best to delay a bit yet before reading it), I turned naturally in search of other books by the same author. As is often the case, there were books of hers already on our bookcase that I had not read, which were the obvious next step.

The King's Peace is an interesting pseudohistorical fantasy of a not-Britain and its not-Arthur, told from the perspective of a woman who would be a Knight of the Round Table (and not a woman) if this were actual Britain and the actual Arthur. This first volume details the formation of the eponymous King's Peace and the wars that precede it, and some of the politicking that comes along with any large group of people.

It took me some time to get engrossed in the book, but once I did, I enjoyed every page, and was sad when it ended. I am also sad that the second book in the series does not appear to be available anymore, so I shall have to undertake a Used Book Hunt. (At least we have the third one.)
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/zenos-library/2008/06/the-kings-peace-jo-walt... ) ( )

Heroic fantasy, with the quest being undertaken by a heroine rather than a hero. Unlike many writers who grab Welsh myth and legend, Jo is actually Welsh -- which is a huge difference.