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The Witchwood Crown

Tad Williams

7.0 (3 Ratings) Rate It

Book

New York Times-bestselling Tad Williams' ground-breaking epic fantasy saga of Osten Ard begins an...

Epic story

David McK (3623 KP) rated Albion: The Legend of Arthur in Books

May 22, 2020

For some reason, and I don't know why, but modern stories about Arthur, the once and future King, always seem to miss the mark with me. Maybe it's because little can compare to T.H. White's The Once and Future King?

(That's not to say that there are enjoyable stories set in and around the same period - Giles Kristian's Lancelot, for example.)

Still, I live in hope.

It was that hope that led me to pre-order this Audible exclusive, described as somewhat akin to Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King: A Novel of Arthur trilogy (incidentally, the authors favourite, and that I couldn't really get into that much the last time I tried: might be time for another re-read!).

Now I've read (listened) to it, and I feel it could probably best be summed up in one word: "M'eh".

This Arthur, I found, was thoroughly unlikeable. Yes, I know he could be at times in the originals, but the key phrase there is 'at times'; not for the entirety of the story! Never the less, I persevered throughout to see if it would improve: I have to say, however, that the other recent Audible original (Assassin's Creed: Gold) was far better, in my opinion.

Kudos

David McK (3623 KP) rated Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in Books

May 22, 2020

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Rae Carson | 2020 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

6.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Novelisation of the final entry in 'The Skywalker Saga', that seeks to add context and rationale behind some of the decisions made in that movie.

And, for the most part, it works.

It's just a pity that the film needed this added to it …

It's here we learn that Palpatine (in the movie) is a failing clone body inhabited by the spirit of the 'original' Palpatine, and that Lando's daughter was kidnapped and raised by The First Order (giving greater context to his decision at the end of the movie to go off with Jannah). We also get a bit more insight into Rey (and her 'Dark Rey' vision) although, bafflingly, there's still no explanation of how she can be so powerful in the Force.

The biggest problem, to me, with the sequel trilogy is that it is clear there was no guiding hand, making The Rise of Skywalker feel like a massive retcon after Rian Johnson through out all of the good work in The Force Awakens with his The Last Jedi - even a hint that Palpatine had been pulling the strings the entire time in either of those two earlier movies would have helped somewhat! It's here that Rae Carson attempts to tie the narrative into a coherent whole, with mixed results.