The King's Peace

When Sulien's village is attacked by Jarnish raiders, her father sends her to the king for help. She immediately proves her courage and worth as a warrior to Urdo, who is setting himself up as the new High King. She rises through the ranks of his army, while all around her the various factions and tribes fight for land and power. Only the High King has the vision and the might to unite them all, but he needs all the help he can get against the encroaching chaos.

This is a fantastic retelling of the myth of King Arthur. It is by far the most believable version I've read--White and Mallory should take notes. I hate how the Victorians screwed up the entire mythos of King Arthur and made it entirely about forbidden sex (oh noes!). Walton show more takes back the myth from their damp hands and sets it once more into a time as brutal as it is honorable, with characters as pragmatic as they are brave. show less

3.5 for a delightful but uneven read.

The King's Peace is a retelling of Arthurian legend that blends the historical and the mythic in a very pleasing way. I don't read much Arthurian fiction, but I feel this book is a meaningful contribution to a crowded field.

Walton sets her story in an imagined world but performs impressive slight of hand to infuse a setting inspired by post-Roman Britain with the elements we expect from Arthurian legend—castles, knights, magic, and Arthur as ethical monarch. As a pseudo-historical novel it's totally engaging, full of drama and historical interest. Cast of thousands, yes, but I didn't mind getting a little confused and disoriented along the way. It's not like there's a test at the end.

This book show more also showcases Walton's mastery of first-person perspective. Sulien is a gift of a character and her voice is clear and strong as the beautiful and elegiac portrait on the cover.

However, a little more than halfway through, this book suffers from a sneak attack by the First Novel Pacing Monster. Part One had some overlong conversations, but Part Two devolves into protracted setup for the rest of the trilogy and the narrative urgency suffers as a result.

Alas, the library doesn't have the rest of the series so I'm not sure if I'll get around to finishing it. I do have scattered Thoughts about how Walton deals with sexual agency and sexual assault in this book (mostly positive, but some reservations), but without finishing the series I'm going to reserve my judgment. show less

first of an Arthurian trilogy, this was just lovely, with strong and endearing characters and relationships, authentic and lyrical and very detailed about the clash of cultures and religions of the period. she's chosen between a lot of Arthurian texts for this, as of course she must, and changed all the names, but Arthur and Morgan and Morgan's son remain vivid and true within this loose canon. not much magic in it as such (a plus for me, as magic tends to be lazy as a plot device), but Morgan and her son remain witches, the elementals and the high gods are present and occasionally even active, the sidhe dwellers and those who came before them are known, and the pagans still sometimes can use the old homely charms, which are spoken. show more altogether it's a masterful retelling, with a fine heroic female protagonist at the center. and all the poetry written for it was really excellent, and very true to the various forms of the period. show less

This was lousy. I don't say that because it took a woman's view. Read the excellent Paksarnarion books and you know that we can find women heroic figures.

The reason that this was such tripe was manifold. And herein lie spoilers. I had this on my to purchase list for a long time and regret that I spent the money for it now. And that time of my life reading far too much of it.

Firstly our hero is raped in the first few pages. That sets up the drama, right? Well her rape is such that she will forgive the rapist, forgive the rapist who also killed her brother when he tried to rescue her.

Forgive a man who turns her off men and sex for ever. All of which conspire to make the hero unbelievable.

Further what makes this a difficult read is show more that all the names of places are long winded and unfamiliar without a map reference, so you never know really where you are and where it is in relation to anywhere else.

And then all the people. Each of whom needs to be named when they are on stage for a second. Why not just call so and so, a warrior. We'll never see him again. And those that show up twice, there are so many that you are confused. So a list of names and their relations to each other in the story could have sorted this out. But with a garbled mouthful to read past each time some minor character impacts the hero, getting lost amongst all the people for countless pages also occurs.

I stuck with it well beyond 80% until I realized I didn't care. I had invested my life in a character that I could not care about. That had no redeeming humanity. All she cared about was her being a great warrior. She didn't care about anything else, and that was boring. The thing about our characters and making us want to empathize with them is to give us emotion to relate to. Sulien, the main character was so lacking, and her hooks to humanity so subtly left behind that I didn't care how it ended, and that there were more books to follow. I have much better fantasy to delve into then reading a series that is so bad. Or I can reread some much better fantasy then give any more hours to this.

The King's Peace qualifies as a NEVER AGAIN. show less

(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 show more 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... ) show less

I liked this book a lot and can not wait to get the rest of the trilogy but have not been able to find it yet. I found this one in a discount store for a dollar and have felt it was a dollar well spent. One reason I like this book is because the main character is a woman and a strong woman at that. She is raped in the book and deals with it extremely well in my point of view when she must fight side by side with the man who raped her. This book is a fairly long book and is filled with technical jargon of a military aspect but when it is a book about war what else can one expect. If you are bored easily by this sort of thing you might get bored a bit in this book but I think it adds to the theme of the book and the mood which may have show more been what Walton was going for. She is one of my favorite authors! show less

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.