Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country

Guenevere becomes queen of the Summer Country at the unexpected death of her mother. In the Summer Country, queens rule and are free to choose their partners and can choose another after seven years. At the same time, Merlin brings Arthur to Caerleon to claim it back and despite his resistance, Guenevere chooses Arthur for her chosen one and they join the kingdoms. But Merlin and Morgan plot, so life doesn't go smoothly. This was an interesting retelling of some of the Arthur legends, from Guenevere's point of view. Will probably look for the next book in series too.

This take on the Arthurian tale was refreshing for me. I've read several books of the same theme lately and every one of them somehow portrayed Guenevere as being petulant, evil, hateful, spiteful or otherwise unpleasant. At no point in the story is she worth of the title princess or queen as the Guenevere of this story is. Guenevere's history and the culture from which she grew help bring sense to the flow of her actions and choices.

The story seems to deal with real issues and handle the situation of a patriarchy meeting with a matriarchy very well, and the fallout from that kind of clash of lifestyles.

Above all, though, I think the really human reactions to various events of life were what kept me reading through the story. I felt show more that their reactions were real and reasonable and that made the consequences that presented from them more reasonable as well.

I really enjoyed this story and look forward to reading the rest of the series. show less

I am a big fan of books about Arthur, so started this with high expectations! And I have to say I was a little disappointed. It leant a lot more towards fantasy than I expected. Guenevere was a soft, whimpy sort of character that I found really annoying at times. Arthur was just a dreamy whimp from start to finish, and indeed I found a lot of the book airy fairy and very unreal! However I did enjoy the book, but not as a historical story about Arthur and Guenevere but rather as a fantasy tale.

I used to like this book, because it was the first novel I'd ever read with "dirty" bits. Then I ventured further into the trilogy and realized that it was just another Arthurian feminist fantasy. If you want Arthurian feminist fantasy, go for one of the other myriad options. The Guenevere novels offer nothing new, but preach like they invented the genre. Tiresome.

I love this books, a different take on the Arthur legend, coming down strong on the side of Guenevere. The story flows and has enough real facts and historic notes in to make you think it could of really been like this.

Probably not the best telling of the Arthurian Legend but I was interested enough to keep reading. With thousands of other re-tellings out there I doubt I'll be picking up the sequels.

Probably not the best telling of the Arthurian Legend but I was interested enough to keep reading. With thousands of other re-tellings out there I doubt I'll be picking up the sequels.