Rating: Summary: An enchanting work of art Review: I read this book 3 years ago, and fell in love. I gave it to my mother, my grandmother and all of my friends. We all found some semblance of ourselves in each character. It inspired my mother and I to explore our own Celtic heritage, and to question everything we learned in church. It also helped the two of us grow closer as friends, not just parent-child. This is a novel that will always have a special place in my heart. I found it inspiring as a woman, and a future history teacher. I recommend it to anyone that loves Arthurian legend. It's a fresh twist on an old tale that will have you enthralled to the very end.
Rating: Summary: This one's a classic.... Review: I've read this book (the whole series, actually) several times and never get tired of it. The characters are beautifully drawn and complex. I'm in awe of the research and skillful plotting that went into this book. It is quite detailed, and I can understand how that might try some people's patience. However, if you allow yourself to become immersed in the beautiful world of this story, you'll never want to leave!!
Rating: Summary: My favorite novel to read over and over..... Review: Dear Readers, I have read this novel 5 times. Each time kept me at the edge of my seat, each time made me feel every emotion of the characters, each time made me laugh and cry and feel angery for some of the evil characters. I felt like I was secretly there, watching every move of what was going on, like I was a fae myself. One time, a few years back, during my senior year in high school I had to do a book report and I choose "The Mists of Avalon", and from that I got an A on my report. Well, I know you will enjoy this novel as much as I did. Have fun reading the wonderful world of Marion Zimmer Bradly, she is a goddess in her own right of her creations. :-)
Rating: Summary: Interesting but not Incredible Review: I recently read this book for my bookclub and enjoyed it. The story's perspective (seen through the female characters) is inventive and refreshing. However, the characters do not have distinct voices (despite their obvious differences) and the story does go on. I felt the plot lagged quite a bit in the middle section but captured me again nearer the end. I think I was disappointed overall because of the high praise the book had received from friends. With lowered expectations (this is basically a highbrow romance novel) I was able to enjoy what was good about the book.
Rating: Summary: Thrilling, wonderful, though a bit preachy Review: This book is one of the few to reveal the Spirit of the Arthur legen, the spirit of Avalon. This is a very real place, if you know how to get there. The great strength of this book is that it makes you want to. However, I would actually take off half a star for the heavy handedness that permeates the conflict between Augistinian Christainity and British Paganism. In places it slows down a book which some readers may find is overlong to begin with. For those who like to live with their books for awhile, Mists of Avalon is a treasure, dispite its flaws.
Rating: Summary: Wow Review: I read this book when I was about 14 (6 yrs ago), and I have to say it still remains one of the most memorable novels I have ever read. Disturbing in so many ways, yet so captivating that, even when you're hating it, you're loving it. I love how these romantic, legendary characters are faced with all these eerie psychological, and very much contradictory issues. This is definetely a new perspective to the arthurian legend, and specially of Morgane. A book that will inspire opionions even from those indifferent to sci-fi novels.
Rating: Summary: ONE OF MY FAVOURITE BOOKS Review: I guess I have to realize that not everyone loves this book, however,when I read a negative review I just want to say, WHY?? It's clearly such an excellent novel... When I read the reviews where people say the book was good, but too long I am reminded by Mozart's words in Shaffer's play Amadeus where he replies to the kings criticism that his opera has 'too many notes'...'there are neither more nor less notes than the piece requires, Majesty...it is perfect the way it is!' Please, please, please, if you truly love books you must read this one--it will not disappoint.
Rating: Summary: Big book-little reward Review: I read this book as a member of a book club. It is very long, 900+ pages and I did not find it worth the effort. Other women in my club really liked it, but I found it depressing and dark. Life is too short to struggle through a book like this - there are other great things to read.
Rating: Summary: Quite overrated Review: I felt this book (and series) were quite overrated. I like only a few fantasy books/series, and love a lot less. This was definitely not one of the books that impacted me. Although the book starts out well, it grows increasingly stale after that. The Arthurian legends have been incorporated into so many fantasy books that a book has to really execute fresh ideas in order to stand out from the crowd. None of the characters are particularly well drawn either. If you really love Arthurian legends and can't get enough of them (is there anyone really like that) maybe you might want to read this book. Otherwise, i wouldn't recommend it, to fantasy fans or newcomers.
Rating: Summary: Make way for criticism! Review: I read "The Mists of Avalon" when a few years ago when I was thirteen years old, and I have to admit that Marion Zimmer Bradley has this over-sensitive, doubtful, extremely romanticised way of writing. Morgaine was thought to be mischievous, although she never was and her jokes were anything but funny (humor was a little lacking too). She was always whining, whining that she is the "little, ugly fairy", and somehow, by the end of the book, I thought: "Okay, this book is encapturing, but it is too flowery and sugary, and whenever they just 'offended' eachother, it was as if the world went under, and Morgaine had to escape to the Fairy Lands." I know that it was another time and another era, and that, back then, beauty and mind was different. Bradley tries to distinguish characters with various and completely different personalities, but as I see it, too many of them just result as being the same, and there is no contrast to the extremely frail personality Morgaine obviously has and between anyone else. The women cry, the men cry, the animals cry, there's basically no one with strength in the book. I can't guess how many oceans she cried by the end of the book. The book was magical, it had an aura in it that made me page through the book, and not even skip any page like I usually do, OR read the end, because I'm bored. I love reading life-stories, but if Morgaine had A LITTLE more fire in her, a little more strength, which everyone lacked in the story, I would have enjoyed it as much as reading "Jane Eyre". I recommend that others read it, and form own opinions, but keep my comment in mind...
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