Gwenhwyfar: The White Spirit

The synopsis of this book is extremely misleading. You'd think the Gwen in the novel is the Guinevere who becomes Arthur's wife, but she's not. In fact, the novel opens just before Arthur's wedding. The protagonist of the novel is a girl who shares Guinevere's name and who lives on the very outskirts of Arthur's kingdom. In fact, she mentions they are so far on the outskirts that anything Arthur does would barely cause a ripple for her and her family.

The book is interesting to a certain extent. You can tell Lackey really did her research on this one as she goes into great detail involving the goings on of the castle, the clothing, the decor, etc. The religious aspects are interesting to. Part of me wanted to continue with the story just so I could fully understand this world Lackey had put together.

Yet, the pacing of the book is slow. By chapter six, I still had no idea why we were following this not-Guinevere around. We learn about her sisters, none of which she is particularly attached to, and her desire to be a warrior, which is fulfilled as she undergoes training. And training itself is nothing particularly interesting either.

If I'd had this in book form instead of audio CD, I would have been skimming over the pages in the hopes to getting to something more substantial. As it was, I kept listening to the book for background noise, not because I had any further interest in it. A third of the way through the book is when the plot finally gets moving. And even then, it's in such a sinister way as to make me certain that not only would I not enjoy this book but I'd be frustrated and angry until the final pages.

I've read Mercedes Lackey before and enjoyed her work. I thought I was going to like this, and I really wanted to. The detail she puts into the world is admirable, and from what I've read from other reviews of this story, she goes into some of the less favorable tales of Arthur - the killing of all the May born babies in an effort to kill Mordred, the switching out of Guinevere for a fake one so that Mordred can have the real one...

I think it's clear that Lackey set out to do something specific with the book, and I applaud her efforts. It's possible she even succeeded at what she had hoped to do, but this book - with it's slow pacing and what I'm sure was to be an utterly depressing plot - isn't for me.