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Review - The Sword and the Circle
Mar. 5th, 2010 01:20 amThe Sword and the Circle (Rosemary Sutcliff)
I've always loved Rosemary Sutcliff's books, so probably I'm automatically biased towards this one. Actually, I found it a little hard to get into at first -- the first few chapters seemed very much like the first part of the Historia Regum Britanniae, except for children. Still, I gave it chance and though it was slower to get started for me than, say, The Eagle of the Ninth, it got to a point where I didn't want to put it down. It is recognisably for children, but at the same time there isn't too much talking down -- the narrative voice is pleasant, not patronising.
It has some interesting features, when compared to other stories. The main things that interested me were the fact that Arthur has a bit more to do than in most tellings, and actually ventures out on quests himself, and the fact that Lancelot is described as ugly. I wish there was a little more done with that, somehow, but I don't know what I'd do with it if there was something to do with it... It's a bit negated by tonnes of women falling in love with him, anyway. I liked the little glimpses of Nimue we got near the beginning, and I wish she'd kept on showing up -- the story cleared both her and Morgan Le Fay out of the way fairly quickly, which felt odd to me.
The book is fairly episodic, so it's easy to read in little chunks if that's what you want (perhaps if you're reading to a child -- though some of the chapters are a bit long for that, and I wouldn't really say a young child would be that interested).
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
I've always loved Rosemary Sutcliff's books, so probably I'm automatically biased towards this one. Actually, I found it a little hard to get into at first -- the first few chapters seemed very much like the first part of the Historia Regum Britanniae, except for children. Still, I gave it chance and though it was slower to get started for me than, say, The Eagle of the Ninth, it got to a point where I didn't want to put it down. It is recognisably for children, but at the same time there isn't too much talking down -- the narrative voice is pleasant, not patronising.
It has some interesting features, when compared to other stories. The main things that interested me were the fact that Arthur has a bit more to do than in most tellings, and actually ventures out on quests himself, and the fact that Lancelot is described as ugly. I wish there was a little more done with that, somehow, but I don't know what I'd do with it if there was something to do with it... It's a bit negated by tonnes of women falling in love with him, anyway. I liked the little glimpses of Nimue we got near the beginning, and I wish she'd kept on showing up -- the story cleared both her and Morgan Le Fay out of the way fairly quickly, which felt odd to me.
The book is fairly episodic, so it's easy to read in little chunks if that's what you want (perhaps if you're reading to a child -- though some of the chapters are a bit long for that, and I wouldn't really say a young child would be that interested).
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
