Priestess of Avalon

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Summary: Priestess of Avalon is a walk through Ancient Rome
Review: From the best-selling author that brought you The Mists of Avalon, comes another timeless, realistic Roman tale called The Priestess of Avalon, the story of a sacred priestess that leaves behind her religious life to follow a life of love, wisdom, and power. Marion Zimmer Bradley brings to life a world of Roman history, pagan wars, and religious controversy in this soon-to-be-classic.
The spectacular style in which the story is written sends the reader into the body of a young girl. Each chapter is headed with a span of five years ranging anywhere from 259 and 329 A.D. as this epic saga continues. We see the story through Helena's eyes and become one with her and her many complex emotions. We are drawn to this personal point of view because it again gives us the feeling of familiarity and intimacy with the characters as our own sentiments are fused with Helena's.
The dialect isn't very modern but it isn't written in Elizabethan dialect either. It is very simple to understand, except for the slight difficulty a reader may have with the Roman names. Besides that, the words are very common and the dialect is comfortably proper. A helpful tool Bradley provides is a glossary containing all of the names and places in the story and their correct pronunciation. There is also a map at the beginning of the book to tell you how far Helena's travels range.
The situations are quite normal for the belligerent Roman period but very entertaining for the historical yet fantasy-craving mind. Chapters about battles and wars are not uncommon in this text and neither are family disputes and love affairs. The situations are based on real Roman battles, history, and gods so the book could be named some type of historical fiction. I'd also say that Bradley has captured the essence of the ancient Roman government quite well. Despite its historical accuracy, this novel is still considered pure fantasy because of fairy apparitions and such appearances by legendary characters in the book.
The breath-taking setting is definitely one of the elements that make the story so impactful. The lush, green valleys of Britannia and the warm humidity of bustling Rome intertwine with the spice-perfumed streets of Palestine and trade-posts in between the many voyages in the story. The descriptive language that describes each place helps transport the reader do that the events are more understandable. These settings already add some seasoning to the already favorable plot so that it's impossible to want to put this book down.
The characters are very interesting and they vary from angry, power-hungry sons to secretive, mysterious faeries. The characters definitely keep the plot going because of their human and complex personalities which keep the story chopped full of surprises, very similar to real life. Constantine, the power-hungry Emperor that is the son of Helena, keeps the story full of tragedy and murder. Constantius, Helena's devoted lover, gives the story romance and a love for life. Ganeda, the hateful, serious priestess, keeps the tale full of punishment, scolding, and vindictiveness. In other words, the characters keep the story well-rounded.
This story is full of small themes but probably the two strongest themes are: "It's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all" and believe in yourself or trust your own judgment.
I highly recommend this book because of its life-like qualities, situations, and characters. It teaches important lessons that are, again, able to be applied to life. The book is a lifetime in only 298 pages. If you're willing to live another life, then I suggest you read the incredibly realistic The Priestess of Avalon.

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Summary: Surprisingly good
Review: I glanced at a few of the reviews here before buying this book, and had low expectations. Perhaps that's why I enjoyed it as much as I did.

Contrary to previous comments, I thought this book provided fans of the series with some fascinating scenes regarding the making of a priestess, and Eilan's training. And latter two-thirds of the book, although not taking place in Avalon and focusing on Eilan's life in the Roman Empire, still addressed the Goddess and pagan religions and the spread of Christianity, which gave a wonderful historical perspective.

As a life-long fan of "The Mists of Avalon" and a non-Christian, I found the domination of Christianity depicted in this book to be oppressive, as did other reviewers. But it is historical, after all, and I would rather explore how such a thing came to pass and better understand it, in any case.

Let's face it, MZB fans: nothing in this series was ever going to be as great, as magical, as special as "Mists". It's a once-in-a-lifetime book, and it touched a lot of our lives. I though "The Forest House" was disappointing, and "Lady of Avalon" less so, but the comparison to "Mists" is what doomed both of them, for me at least. This book, "Priestess of Avalon", was from such a different perspective that I was less inclined to compare it to the progenitor of this series, and therefore I enjoyed it more, on the whole. Give it a chance, if you haven't read it yet, and just go in with an open mind.

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Summary: A Good book that fills in some holes
Review: It has been a while since I have read "Mists," "Forest House," and "Lady," so I only vaguely recalled those stories. However, that did not diminish my pleasure in reading this book. The characters from the other books are mentioned, but are not pivotal. The title is a little misleading, as Helena does not remain in Avalon throughout the book. I loved how the legend of Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, was woven into the Avalon legend. That must have required a lot of research and effort.

I thought that the characters were well written and interesting, except for Constantine. I found him to be whiny and egotistical. This book allowed me to see the evolution of the Roman Empire and the evolution of the acceptance of Christianity in a whole new light. There were times I cried and times I laughed. But at no time did I not want to continue reading the book.

Enjoy!

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Summary: Repeat
Review: Marion Zimmer Bradley illuminated my world when I was a teen, when I read Mists of Avalon. I've read all the books of the serie, in french and english (I speak french). After reading the Avalon Cycle serie, I've realized that every stories Bradley wrote was the same: She changed names and places in Britain, but the story is always the same. Always a foreign Savior in love with a priestess that will bore their child of the Prophecy.
I think Bradley was obsessed and fascinated with Arthurian myths, so am I. But she never did serious researches for her writings about them, until the last decade. So I believe she began to be interested by the 'real' history much later in her life, after The Mists of Avalon.
And The Priestess of Avalon is her final cut, with too much of history (names, places...), probably because scholars didn't think Bradley was a serious writer and discredited her. I think she was obsessed now with the credibility of her stories and she loses all the magic... and the mists!

So, shortly, as a fan, Priestess of Avalon doesn't worth the buying. But if you fall on it, read it. But nothing is new and I've guessed everything from the beginning to the end.

I'll read and read and read The Mists of Avalon again and again.

P.S. The TNT special series was pathetic and didn't look what I thought. Too bad.

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Summary: Strange As It May Be, This Is The Best Of The Lot
Review: Of course, Priestess of Avalon isn't really part of the lot. For the most part, it's a story tangential to the Avalon epic. I also suspect Diana Paxson did a lot of the filling in of Marion Zimmer Bradley's dream of the tale. Take it in this context--as a book about Avalon but not really part of any series--and perhaps this novel will have a different meaning.

The idea proposed to us the readers is that Eilan (Helena in the Roman world), a priestess of Avalon, falls in love and runs away with Constantius, a Roman. He existed, by the way. Somehow through her travels in the Empire (after all, her patroness is Elen of the Ways), Helena gains a wisdom and an understanding. She gives birth to Constantine, the Roman emperor who embraced Christianity. Eilan, through it all, begins to see where all religions and paths are reflections of a greater truth. Sometime after the book ends this Eilan/Helena is canonized as Saint Helena. In short, it's a detailed autobiography of a fascinating figure of a woman.

I can see where Mists devotees would be disappointed by this book. After all, only a small part of it actually takes place in Avalon. But does Eilan need to have spent her entire life on the island to be a priestess of Avalon? It seemed to me that she spread and shared the wisdom she learned on Avalon with people all over the Empire. If that doesn't make her a worthy heir to the Avalon legacy, nothing does.

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Summary: Marion's Legacy
Review: Thís fourth and final "Avalon" novel tells the life story of Eilan, a Priestess of Avalon, who becomes the wife/concubine of the Roman soldier Constantius Chlorus and mother of the legendary Emperor Constantine the Great, who later will be worshipped as a Christian saint. Known as Helena to the Romans, Eilan has to leave the isle of Avalon, because she wants to follow her heart. Her way leads her to Roman Germania, Rome and eventually the Holy Land. But her true home is elsewhere. Bradley's novel is a careful reimagination of a historical character that sometimes captures the reader with its atmospheric descriptions and lush storytelling. Written from Helena's first person point-of-view, Bradley adds another chapter to her popular series of pre-Arthurian historicals. Most of the time it is an entertaining read, but really too much happens off-stage or is simple recounted in dry sentences. Helena's story would have had the potential to rival THE MISTS OF AVALON, and it would have demanded a truly epic treatment. There are far too many time jumps and too much is left out. I think this novel could easily have been twice as long. Overall, this is a good book for MZB/Avalon fans, but not for people who have yet to encounter the magic of Marion Zimmer Bradley.