In Camelot's Shadow

Risa's father forbids her to marry, and at last Risa discovers why--years ago, her father promised her to a sorcerer in exchange for his wife's life. Unwilling to wait around to lose her soul as part of a sorcerer's household, Risa flees. The sorcerer pursues, but to everyone's amazement Sir Gawain happens upon them and rescues Risa. Gawain offers his protection to Risa, and as they ride together toward Camelot the seeds of love are planted in them. But even as they fall in love, they are troubled by marauding bands of Saxons, sorcerous machinations, and Gawain's tendency to save any damsel he comes across.

I don't know exactly why but I just didn't enjoy this. Zettel conveys the medieval period well, and Risa's reactions to spices, show more servants, and cloth types tell you a lot about her society. But Risa herself feels like an anachronistic hodge podge of modern fantasy heroine tropes; if I never read another red haired archer who disobeys her father to be with the man she loves, I will still have read too many. Gawain at least is given a chance at depth, as he tries to be honorable even as he's stupidly susceptible to manipulations by ladies. Two side characters, Agravain and Kaye, comment on this, and I think a little more attention to this aspect of the novel would have made me like it more.

I didn't like the pacing; the plot with the Saxons is built up to be the big problem of Camelot, but then it fizzles away (presumably to come up again in some later book in the series). The sorcerer is defeated ludicrously easily and simply. Worst of all, I flat out disliked Zettel's rewrite of the Green Knight and the Loathly Lady stories. She actually manages to make the Loathly Lady tale less feminist. In the original, the hag asks her new husband whether he'd rather have a virtuous hag or a perfidious beauty as a wife, and the knight says she should be whatever she chooses. But in this, Risa is saved from her horrible disfigurement by Gawain's kiss. Additionally, the sorcerer asks the riddle "What do all women want." In the original tale, the answer is "sovereynté." In this, the sorcerer assumes that all women want "sovereignty" and Risa tells him he's wrong, all women want "freedom." What? That just seems like a difference in word choice.

Basically, I didn't like Risa, was unconvinced (and uninterested) by the romance, and thought the plot was a combination of poorly-paced imagined events and poorly-rewritten legends. show less

I liked this story--mildly. I'm a fan of Arthurian stories and given this is the story of Gawain and his lady that helped. Being a fan I've read such excellent takes as those by Mary Stewart, T. H. White and Gillian Bradshaw. The comparison didn't help. This one is more in the mode of T.H. White in the sense history was played very loosely and the fantasy element to the fore, but there was none of the imagination and whimsy that was the hallmark of White.

It did help that this was one of the better Lunas. I had a friend looking to publish her first novel, and because of that I read this new line of books from Harlequin that strove to be placed in the Fantasy rather than the romance section, that were to feature strong heroines. I found show more them pretty formulaic up to this one and this didn't break the mold. Young heroine finds special powers and finds love. I did like Risa though, and found this a decent read. It's certainly better than most fair I've found on the romance aisle. But it doesn't compare well to high fantasy or Athurian tales for those who've cut their teeth on Marion Zimmer Bradley, Bradshaw, Stewart or White. I felt no desire to go on to the next of the series about the brothers of Gawain and their loves. show less

I was prepared to adore any book written by a woman who's cat is named Buffy the Vermin Slayer. Unfortunately, this did not quite reach adored status. The story of Risa of the Morelands and Sir Gawain of the Round Table is filled with Celtic mythology and Arthurian Legend. Risa's father has sold her to a sorcerer and Gawain must rescue her. That's pretty straightforward, but there is also another witch who wants Arthur's throne and sees Gawain and Risa's issues as fortuitous to her aims.
The pacing is a little slow, but the characters are well-developed and sympathetic. Zettel's take on Camelot is not wholly unique, but she throws in enough of her own inventions to make this different enough from other Arthurian tales that it doesn't show more feel old hat.
This is the first book in a series, but I don't own the other three. From reading this, I would be interested in Gawain's brother Agravain's story, but in doing some research his is the fourth book, and I didn't like this enough to slog through another two 400+ page novels to get to that. In my opinion, the ending of a series book should make one long to pick up the next, but I am sort of glad this didn't. This way I can leave it here with a satisfying wrap-up, knowing Gawain and Risa are going to be happy and well. show less

The Lady Rhian is 19, beautiful, wise and wishes to marry, but her father turns away all of her suitors despite their merits offering no explanation to his wife and daughter. Asa last straw he sends away a childhood friend of Rhian's and her mother is determined to learn the truth and for Rhian to place herself in a position to hear it too. It emerges that before Rhian was born her father made a deal with a sorcerer named Eubaracan from the East. In xchange for using his magic to save his wifes life, he agrees to willing give him his first born child. He accepts thinking he will have many children and when his wife seems suddenly recovered he is devastated they seem to only be able to have one child that lives, Rhian.

Hearing the news show more she runs away with the intention of joining a convent, but the sorcerer means to claim her. Saying a prayer to Mother Mary she is saved by a dashing knight who turns out to be Arthur's nephew and heir, Lord Gawain. He is on his way back to Camelot to tell the King of the Saxon plans to rise up against him and declare war and he takes her with him to gain the protection of the King and Queen.

The road to Camelot is not easy, the two have a second enemy to outsmart. Witch Kerra knows no family anymore besides Morgaine who taught her the magic she knows. She is a temptress and uses her magics to ensnare men and bind them to her will. The Green Man also has an interest in Rhian and later Gawain and he comes to challenge them as the Green Knight in the famous tale. A whole host of other famous characters from the tale are introduced like Merlin, Kai, Agravain, Lancelot etc and I am interested to see which characters the next book in the series follows.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. It has everything I love in a novel. Love, passion, temptation, loyalty as well as fantasy and mythology. The characters are all very christian, yet there is much magic and folk tale lore as well as talk of Old Gods so it wasn't too moral. Definitely a great start to the series and I can't wait to get started on book two, Camelot's Honour. show less

Starts off quite slow and then becomes quite a good read. The story of Gwain and the Loathy Lady. Worth persisting for the last few chapters when it flys along.

As much as I wanted to enjoy this book, I couldn't. The book started off interesting but soon became boring. I had to really pull myself through the boring stuff to get to the more exciting material. I thought the book was post-Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but reading the end informed me that the author takes the story and retells it with her own spin at the very end of the book. I found this odd and misplaced and wished she would have put this at the beginning of the story, it seems too "thrown in there" for the sake of doing it.

The author spends a good portion of the book bringing Risa, the main character, and Gawain together only to separate them 3/4 of the way through. I didn't like this, and it added to my opinion of the author show more sort of working backwards. The stuff at the end should have been at the beginning.

The characters were flat. It was obvious Risa was meant to be a strong female character, but she just wasn't. She fought and used a bow, but there was nothing else strong about her. I also did not like how Gawain was portrayed; he was nothing more than a cookie cutter. He "enjoyed" the company of women and even had a fling with some one before Risa came along. I didn't mind this but it didn't prove any significance to the story and I soon wondered what the point of it was. Because no point or resolve presented itself, it just added to the fact that Gawain isn't the gentleman he is in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Gawain is not a complex character in the least. I guess the author was afraid of branching out from the way he was presented in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He desires glory, brags honorably about Camelot, Arthur and Guinevere, and of course his fame is mention quite a bit. There was really nothing more to his character.

The idea of the story is a good one, and that's why I pulled myself through hoping for the plot to get better. By the time I had but 30 pages left of a 480 page story I had to give it up. I just didn't care enough about the characters. The author does not "show" us what is happening throughout the book but tells us everything. There is more writing about what the characters think they should do, how their past hurts them, how they feel currently and what they will soon do than there is dialogue. I longed to learn these things through the character's actions and dialogue rather than just reading the information. This caused the book to become boring very fast. I won't be reading the second in the series. show less

Set around King Arthur's reign this book is an enjoyable mixture of folklore, magic and romance. Well worth the read.