Rating: 
Summary: Once again MZB's brilliance shines through!
Review: Having recently read this amazing book, I wish to share my thoughts with those who have not yet been lucky enough to read it.
There are few authours in the same class as MZB, and this book was well worth its pricetag.
The book begins by contuning the story of Callean, priestess of the "Forest House".
Bradley does well to weave this book in to her cloth of Avalon tales, and it fits snugly into place between the "Forest House" and "The Mists of Avalon". This book comes highly recommended to any fan of her work, and is a fantastic means of escapism.
The characters are deeply rooted in Celtic and Roman beliefs and come to life before your eyes on the pages of magically worded text.
This trilogy of books is sure to be regarded as some of the best writing of this gendre.
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Summary: Finally a link between the coming of Rome and Arthur.
Review: In this prequel of The Mists of Avalon, MZB provides the link between two stories, The Forest House and The Mists of Avalon, and the link of history between the Roman occupation (and subsequent withdrawl) of Britian and the rise of Arthur. The Lady of Avalon is the story of how Avalon became a refuge for those who serve the Goddess and a haven for Druidic learning. The darkness and sadness of The Forest House is replace here by the great magics that must move Avalon beyond the ken of man. The story is very moving and alive with Druid symbolism. Here we see the sacrifice (for the first time) of the Year King. Here for the first time is the prophecy of a great King of the Britons. Here is the great magics that were waning in the end of the Mists of Avalon. And here is the birth and training of Viviane, the greatest Lady of the Lake and the patron of Arthur.
If you read the Mists of Avalon and wondered where the Sacred Regalia came from, if you read the Forest House and thought there must be more to the story, this is the book for you! This bridge to Avalon is a great story of a wonderful place-treat yourself to it this summer!
Rating: 
Summary: What I love most about MZ Bradley
Review: What I love most about LADY OF AVALON and, indeed, all of Marion's books, is falling back into a once-again familiar world of women's lives that are full of mystery, myth, ritual. The sense of being inside a kind of cloistered community--of how these women lived their daily lives, what they did day to day--is completely seductive to me, in much the way that reading about any cloistered community is.
It's that sense of a secret world revealed that I always remember, and that brings me back again and again to Marion's work. That, of course, and these incredibly heroic women!
I hope soon to have news on Marion's plans for her next book--stay tuned!
Rating: 
Summary: Longing for the Mists!
Review: As one who found the Mists of Avalon enchanting, I eagrely began this book looking for more of the magic. I would have been more likely to stumble across the Holy Grail.
Though Lady of Avalon holds some interest, here and there, for those already familiar with Mists of Avalon, and the style of writing has its merits, it mainly is a disappointment. The characters seem to have no understandable motivation beyond having had relationships in previous lives.
Of course, as one whose favourite character in Mists was Merlyn, I was especially disappointed in this shallow portrayal.
Rating: 
Summary: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Review:
I hate to say it, but this book was boring. I've read The Mist of Avalon and The Forest House, and while I wasn't expecting something as good as them, I was hoping for SOME of the amazing charaterization that was in the other two, you know, characters that you really, really care about. I cried at the end of Mists, and I was sad at the end of Forest House, which to me is the mark of genius in a writer--to get me caring about the characters. And also, to let me understand them. In Mists, Morgaine was hardly a good person, she did a number of 'immoral' things, and her personality fluctuated, but it made sense and I understood why. In Lady of Avalon, I didn't have a clue why the characters were doing what they were. Teleri agrees to marry Carausius--but why didn't she put up a fight first? Did she find it innevitable, or did she feel duty to Avalon? I would've liked a confrontation between Teleri and Dierna. And why does Carausius suddenly accept his 'role' (as defined by Dierna) in Britain? Why does Dierna 'love' Carausius? Everything here seemed to be explained away by 'past lives'. He was the sacred king in a past life, they were in love in a past life, blah blah blah. Whoopie. So we're all a bunch of puppets, enslaved to whatever our first lives did? Where's the feelings behind the actions? I think the book jumped around too much--it skipped all of the sections that should have been confrontations, whether between two characters or in one character's mind. And this is only what bugged me about the middle section. I won't go into the other two, except to say that the only characters I cared about in the book were Gawen's Roman grandfather (just because I liked that paragraph about him trying to find Gawen after he abandoned the army--I'm not sure why, but that touched me like some of the sections in Mists), and Viviane and Caillean, but they were just because I already knew them from the other books. This one certainly didn't lend me any new insights into their characters. Also, all of that ritual stuff seemed too surrealistic to me--passing through the barriers of the four elements, etc. My mind couldn't get a good picture on them. I think I liked Mists' way better, where Morgaine said she was initiated into the Mysteries, and the author didn't tell us any more. Explaining the mystery takes the mystery out of it. Whew! This review was longer than my usual ones (and I didn't even get 1/4 of my complaints out!) I'll finish up by saying that if you want a taste of Marion Zimmer Bradley, read Mists of Avalon, The Firebrand, The Forest House...pretty much anything but this book. However, I think the book deserves a 3 because there are many other much worse novels out there.
Rating:
Summary: Another disappointment.
Review: I think it would be better if some authors did not return to the scene of previous successes. Where
the Mists of Avalon was captivating, Lady of Avalon and The Forest House are boring and forgettable.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally!
Review: This is my first taste of the works of Marion Zimmer Bradley, but it won't be my last. For years I've been looking for an author who could do the impossible: Melding the Arthurian Legend, magic and all, with historical accuracy. The closest I ever got was "Coming of the King" by Nikolai Tolstoy, but that book was a bit unwieldy for all its literary merit. Bradley's novel flows easily. Where Tolstoy required every ounce of concentration to make anything of his book, Bradley can be read lightly during a lunch hour or before bed, where I get to do most of my reading. The only complaint I have about the book is that she could use three or four pages of transitional story between sections. One gets the feel of reading a book of short stories instead of a flowing solid novel. But this takes little from the enjoyment of the novel
Rating:
Summary: Marion Zimmer Bradley does it again!
Review: This book was great, I read Mist of Avalon a few years back, and wanted to get more of the World of Avalon. This book does that and I also read "Forest House" and I'm reading "Mists of Avalon" again to get the whole feel of the world. This book answered many questions I had about Mists and they are all answered. I thank Marion Zimmer Bradley for bringing another great book to her fans
Rating:
Summary: Formula-itis
Review: This Avalon didn't enchant, it bored. Bradley's formula here serves as a crutch to pole this unwieldy boat through a lake of molasses to the Isle of Trite
Rating:
Summary: Lovely, wonderful novel
Review: I love all three books of this trilogy. Bradley's characters are so real, I feel as if I personally know them. The descriptions of ritual and magic are always superb, as are the dialogue and thoughts of the characters. LADY OF AVALON does an excellent job of linking FOREST HOUSE and MISTS. (A few inconsistencies in Harriet Klausner's review: Gawen is not Caillean's grandson, and Teleri is not Dierna's daughter.
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