Review: Merlin’s Harp by Anne Crompton
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(2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)
Loading ...| Title: | Merlin's Harp |
|---|---|
| Author: | Crompton, Anne |
| Publisher: | Sourcebooks Teen Fire |
| Pages: | 256 |
Among the towering trees of magical Avalon, where humans dare not tread, lives Niviene, daughter of the Lady of the Lake and apprentice to Merlin the mage. Her people, the Fey, are folk of the wood and avoid the violence and avarice of man. But the strife of King Arthur’s realm threatens even Avalon’s peace, and Merlin needs his apprentice to thwart the chaos devouring Camelot. And so Niviene will use her special talents to help save a kingdom, and discover the treachery of men and the beauty of love.
“Like The Mists of Avalon, the Arthurian legend from a woman’s point of view.” –USA Today
I have read a lot of the reviews on this tour and I have to say I am astounded that people were not immensely in love with this novel. I for one found it quite thought provoking. I however am deeply interested in Arthurian legend and all of the tales of Camelot. So when Paul from Sourcebooks came to me with Merlin’s Harp I knew I had to read it.
This is Arthurian romance in a way that has not been done. Imagine that the Lady of the Lake is a fey, and her daughter is living in the time after Arthur has Excalibur. Instead of hearing from the same narrators as always, we here from Niv who is the Lady’s daughter. When I read the first paragraph I had to stop and put the novel down and think about what I had just read. I truly believe it is one of the best book openers I have ever had the pleasure to read and I want to share it with you now.
When I was yet a very young woman I threw my heart away. I fashioned a wee coracle of leaf and willow twig and reed, a coracle that sat in the hollow of my two palms. In this I placed my wounded, wretched heart, and I set it adrift on the rain-misted wavelets of the Fey river, and I watched it bob and whirl, sail and sink. Ever since then I have lived heartless, or almost heartless, cold as spring rain the way Humans think all Fey live. Humans I have known would be astounded to learn that I ever had a heart that leapt, brightened, fainted, quickened, warmed, embraced, froze or rejected, like their own.
You can expect a lot of twists and turns and new outlooks on the stale Arthurian legend in this novel. Sourcebooks is allowing Bookalicious to share with you the first 40 or so pages of the novel here.
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The next two stops on the tour:
By: Heidenkind
I’m going to have to read this one. That’s all there is to it. I hope they have it at the library. :)
By: Jen - Devourer of Books
I’m one of the ones that didn’t like it. I agree it was really interesting to look at the Arthurian legends through a different perspective, but I thought the characterization/world building was so lacking that the promise of the new perspective was simply not realized.
By: ShootingStarsMag
Interesting review. I really loved the opening paragraph. Keeps you interested for sure!! Glad you loved it.