INSOMNIAC SONG
BOOK REVIEWS
HISTORICAL FANTASY
Gwenhwyfar: The White Spirit
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Page Count: 407 pages
Date Published: 2009
Publisher: Daw Books
Synopsis: Gwenhwyfar moves in a world where gods walk among their pagan worshipers, where nebulous visions warn of future perils, and where there are two paths for a woman: the path of the Blessing or the rarer path of the Warrior. Gwenhwyfar chooses the latter, giving up the power that she is born into. Yet the daughter of a King is never truly free to follow her own calling. Acting as the "son" her father never had, when called upon to serve another purpose by the Ladies of the Well, she bows to circumstances to become Arthur's queen-only to find herself facing temptation and treachery, intrigue, love and redemption.
Marion Zimmer Bradley redefined the legends of King Arthur when she decided to tell the tales from Morgaine’s point of view. Mercedes Lackey attempts to do the same with Gwenhwyfar by giving her a personality beyond wife and adulteress. The way that Lackey finds to differentiate Gwen from those legends is to rely on Welsh sources which state there were three women with the same name all married to Arthur. There’s also a ‘false’ Gwen named Gwenhwyfach. This could have been an interesting way to explore the mythology. Rather than explore each Gwen in detail, Lackey chose the third Gwen as the focus and made her into a warrior princess. The choice to do so gives her a bit of more of a chance to really explore a character that hadn’t been fleshed out before.
The first half of the book is spent with the buildup of her Gwen deciding to forsake the magical path that her mother had planned for her. The headstrong young girl decides to become a warrior and take the path of steel. She fights and scrapes her way through earning the respect of the men around her in order to secure her position in the world. Eventually, Gwen becomes the lead scout for her father’s army. Sadly, that’s where everything falls apart. The warrior woman melts at the sight of Lancelin once he rides in. All of the buildup of her being a strong woman is broken down by this, leaving her another whimpering, doe-eyed girl longing for romance.
By the time we’re introduced to Arthur, he’s too distant and cold from Gwen’s perspective to be a likeable character. Why does he do the things he does? How does he feel about having to marry yet another woman named Gwenhwyfar? He gets very little character development as does others like Merlin and Morgana. It’s unclear whether these were direct choices based on the narrative being in Gwen’s perspective or a by-product of simply trying to fit every character from the legends in.
Having four characters with the same (or similar) names can be confusing. However, it is a clever way of making all the stories about Gwenhwyfar plausible. One woman couldn’t have completed all the tasks and events credited to her. Four could have, although I feel that this is where Lackey loses a lot of momentum. She bit off a bit more than she could handle in one novel. Perhaps, the choice of splitting each Gwen into separate books would have been a better way to go. There would need to be a bit of crossover, but she could have been more effective that way.
Rating: 2.5/5
HISTORICAL FICTION
Water for Elephants
Author: Sara Gruen
Page Count: 331
Date Published: 2006
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Synopsis: Orphaned, penniless, Jacob Jankowski jumps a freight train in the dark, and in that instant, transforms his future.By morning, he's landed a job with the Flying Squadron of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. By nightfall, he's in love.In an America made colourless by prohibition and the Depression, the circus is a refuge of sequins and sensuality. But behind the glamour lies a darker world, where both animals and men are dispensable. Where falling in love is the most dangerous act of all...
A former co-worker handed me this book one afternoon as we were leaving for the day. We’d often exchanged novels to read which had led to some decent debating. Her tastes ran more toward the Oprah Book Club where mine are more epic fantasy. I decided to give it a try considering the film adaptation was going to be released soon. Normally, I can go through a few books a week. This one was difficult to get through. Sara Gruen may have the critics praising her, but the novel I read was far from a compelling, page turner.
The premise is interesting. A recently orphaned youth runs away to join a circus after leaving the veterinarian school at Cornell just before graduating. It’s just Jacob’s luck that the circus he’s found is in need of a veterinarian and is willing to accept one that didn’t complete his degree. This is an unlikely situation from the beginning even in the 1930s with a second rate circus. He’s likely the worst veterinarian possible with all the times he breaks down crying or goes comatose over having to deal with putting down a sick horse. Jacob has to be the most sniveling character in the novel aside from his love interest Marlena. She cries far more than he does, but he’s the one lamenting about how there are people worse off than him in the world while he’s nearly starving.
The biggest problems I found with the novel were the way the characters were all very flat and one-dimensional. Jacob and Marlena’s love affair was supposed to invoke some sense of longing for the couple to get a happy ending. I felt entirely indifferent about the entire process. August’s mental illness was simply used as a plot device to make the couple seem more righteous for their actions. The cheating, sex and violence weren’t shocking at all. It simply felt like the author was throwing things in when she wasn’t adding unneeded sentiment.
Rating: 1/5