Review - Hawk of May
Jan. 3rd, 2010 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanHawk of May started rather slowly, and I found myself reading only a little each day, but once I got to about the middle of it, it was much more absorbing. It's an interesting take on the legend, set while Arthur is still establishing a kingdom, with more ties than is usual to the older Celtic myths and legends, including CuChulainn. So far there's been no sign of the now traditional Lancelot, Guinevere and Arthur love triangle, or Lancelot the super perfect knight. Gwalchmai is Gawain, basically, though I was pleased to find he wasn't portrayed as quite as much of a lout as the Gawains I've been coming across recently. I was also pleased that it had a likeable -- flawed, but likeable -- Agravain: so often he's awful. The kinder portrayal of Medraut (Mordred) as a sweet boy twisted by his mother, Morgawse, is interesting, too.
The idea of serving the Light, of Arthur's cause being that of the Light, isn't new at all, of course. Still, it was dealt with interestingly here -- with Arthur bowed down by his own darkness, and so unable to see the Light in Gwalchmai. With both of them having ties to the darkness, even, ties that won't let go. I liked that Arthur was more of a character than he sometimes is... that he was less of a cypher than he often is. He's not some perfect, lofty king, here -- he's good, even great, but he makes mistakes, just like anyone else.
It's not exactly a quick read, I think -- it's best not read at a gallop, but savoured. That's how I read it, anyway. It's a bit different to a lot of the stuff that's around, which is all courtly romance and whatever.
The idea of serving the Light, of Arthur's cause being that of the Light, isn't new at all, of course. Still, it was dealt with interestingly here -- with Arthur bowed down by his own darkness, and so unable to see the Light in Gwalchmai. With both of them having ties to the darkness, even, ties that won't let go. I liked that Arthur was more of a character than he sometimes is... that he was less of a cypher than he often is. He's not some perfect, lofty king, here -- he's good, even great, but he makes mistakes, just like anyone else.
It's not exactly a quick read, I think -- it's best not read at a gallop, but savoured. That's how I read it, anyway. It's a bit different to a lot of the stuff that's around, which is all courtly romance and whatever.
