Sold Out
Book Categories |
Title: Mists of Avalon
Sagebrush Corporation
Item Number: 9780785787136
Number: 1
Product Description: Mists of Avalon
Universal Product Code (UPC): 9780785787136
WonderClub Stock Keeping Unit (WSKU): 9780785787136
Rating: 3/5 based on 2 Reviews
Image Location: https://wonderclub.com/images/covers/71/36/9780785787136.jpg
Weight: 0.200 kg (0.44 lbs)
Width: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Heigh : 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Depth: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Date Added: August 25, 2020, Added By: Ross
Date Last Edited: August 25, 2020, Edited By: Ross
Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
$99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub (9296 total ratings) |
Larry Bushaw
reviewed Mists of Avalon on June 28, 2011I picked up The Mists of Avalon because I really love Nordic myths, and usually any stories about King Arthur. Everyone seems to adore this book; even my librarian told me that this was a really good Arthurian tale! Well, it's not. It's horrible.
The Christian bashing was just a tad boring, or repetitive (said as the atheist that I am). As if having one stupid priest wasn't enough, the author just had to fit in several more and call each stupider than the previous.
Yeah, there were dumb/evil priests and followers of that religion who did horrible things, and there will always be bad people who call themselves followers of a religion. However, this amount of blabbering about stupid, mean, cowardly priests did nothing to advance the plot. At all. I mean if you wanted to write a book in which the antagonists were all evil Christians then you're on the right track, but this was supposed to be a book on King Arthur, dang it, not of your personal hate issues with Christians.
What's worse, the author couldn't seem to create a halfway decent female protagonist in all the 800+ pages and the countless women characters.
Igraine? No. She's a whiney pushover who convinces herself she's in love with a man her husband hates because she hears a prophecy that she's supposed to bear that man's child (if I heard a prophecy like that, I'd run away). Okay, she didn't love Gorlois, but he was good to her up until she started spending time with a man he clearly distrusted and told her to stay away from (not that I really like Gorlois, but wouldn't you be freaking mad if your wife/husband got all cozy with someone you consider evil?). And besides stabbing her husband, Igraine doesn't do anything. She just sits at home. Wow, my new hero.
Vivianne plotted adultery and incest, acted like she loved everyone, but in reality, did horrible things to them. She was even surprised when Galahad, who she barely had anything to do with, didn't love her. Also, did anyone else notice how Vivianne always corrected people and told them "All gods and goddesses are one" and then proceeded to ridicule the Christian God and call him and his followers morons? Hah! Ha ha. I don't know if that was meant to be funny, or if Ms. Bradely was just too stupid to notice the contradiction.
Morgaine failed at everything in life. I felt bad for her at being used like that, then for being rejected by Lancelet. But then again, she couldn't care less for her child, hated pretty much innocent Gwenhwyfar, and came up with plans to have Lancelet sleep with her even though she knew he didn't love her; so whatever sympathy I had for her went pretty quick. And it gets even better - she gets married, sleeps with several more people, goes to Avalon again and acts like she's the main goddess, even though she did so many un-goddess like things. I loved how Niniane thought "She should be here in my place, the GREAT Morgaine of the Fairies!" HAH! What did Morgaine ever do besides sleep with her own brother?
Gwenhwyfar was worse than Igraine. On the other hand, it was so obvious that Bradley created her solely to make fun of Christians. She must have been like "Oh, I'll create this woman who's a dumb little bitch in heat who everyone will hate. And, bonus: I'll mention how beautiful she is every two pages to make sure all the female readers will be jealous of her and hate her even more! Then I'll make sure to have her pretend to be a pious follower of Christ (even though, in reality, an adulteress is not a pious follower of Christ) and I'll have created a perfect epitome of all Christian women to show the world what nasty morons they are! Yay!!"
I mean really? And a lot of people actually agree with this exaggerated, biased, ridiculous nonsense.
When I was browsing through 5-star reviews of this book to try and understand why exactly human beings love this trash, someone actually said "...this book makes me want to leave behind my life and become a pagan..." ! (That wasn't the exact quote, but that was the gist of it.)
I just... I can't even... Oh yes I can. Become a pagan, then, and have a baby with your own brother at a drunken bonfire. Next, make sure you neglect your child and run around effing tons of other men! By the way, back then protection didn't exist; so be sure not to use any of that either, and see how many STDs and unwanted pregancies you'll get. Homeless and vulgar, isn't Morgaine's portrayal of a pagan lifestyle just wonderful?!
Back to the characters - the males were all one-dimensional and flat. They were all extremely handsome and extremely skilled knights and extremely horny. *Coughs* A little originality, please, Bradley? Maybe divert from your view that all men are chauvinist pigs?
The one character I kind of liked was Morgause - she's independent, seemed to have a good relationship with her children, and kept Morgaine's secret. But she wasn't anything I really cared about.
There also seemed to be a whole lot of describing boring day-to-day activities that, just like all the Christian hate, did nothing to advance the plot. It's like, somebody gets up, stares in the mirror and thinks about some complicated love web, goes downstairs, starts knitting, talks to an old woman who came in from the cold... *47 pages later something tiny happens that helps the story along*.
Then another good 1/5 of the book was made up of describing how beautiful this and this person was, and then another person is introduced who is WAY MORE beautiful, and so on and so on. In Morgaine's case, it was terrible. One minute she's plain, then someone calls her beautiful, then she's called ugly, then she's supposed to have an inner beauty, then Morgain does something horrible so I can't see what inner beauty they're talking about, then she's beautiful, ugly, beautiful, ugly...
Like, did the author have bipolar attacks while writing this? I honestly don't spend a whole lot of time detailing characters' faces. Tell me they're tall, red-haired, have a scar on their face and that's just perfect. I'm interested in the plot, not the size of everybodys' big toes. Seriously!
The writing itself could have been okay, but because its subject was crap, it was not okay. This book was bad, it really was. After a good 150 pages, I just skimmed another 500, and then skipped the last part and skimmed the epilogue. Had I read the entire book, maybe it would have been better and the characters/plot would have made more sense, but it's a miss I'm willing to take.
Login|Complaints|Blog|Games|Digital Media|Souls|Obituary|Contact Us|FAQ
CAN'T FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR? CLICK HERE!!! X
You must be logged in to add to WishlistX
This item is in your CollectionMists of Avalon
X
This Item is in Your InventoryMists of Avalon
X
You must be logged in to review the productsX
X
Add Mists of Avalon, , Mists of Avalon to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
X
Add Mists of Avalon, , Mists of Avalon to your collection on WonderClub |