Rating: 
Summary: I loved this book.
Review: Unlike everyone else I thought this book was BETTER than the Mists of Avalon. I felt the Goddess throughout the book, Helena never strays from paganism, she just awknowledges that all religions seem to have the same underlying theme. She clearly mentions several times that all Gods are one God and all Goddesses are one Goddess.
I read this book in 1 day. I did not want to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Avalon book!
Review: I've read all of the books in the Avalon priestess series, and this is my favorite!
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: I have read all of MZB's books. I love them all, but I think this is my favorite. It moved me. It made me think about my faith and reminded me that having compassion and kindness supercedes all religions, in the long run.
Rating: 
Summary: Not life-changing, but worth reading
Review: I was skeptical about yet another addition to the Avalon series, as I thought the books had definitely become consecutively less interesting. So I enjoyed this better than I expected._Priestess of Avalon_ is less about magic and spirituality than it is about one woman's journey through life, from childhood to old age. Eilan/Helena is both an individual and an everywoman as she experiences and embodies all three faces of the triple goddess (Maiden, Mother and Crone) and learns the lessons that each has to teach. The bulk of her experiences take place in the world of Rome and Roman Britain, not Avalon, and are practical rather than mystical. Some people might find this disappointing, but I was glad to see someone from Avalon who was able to function in the world effectively. I was also glad to see a different slant on the Avalon persepctive, as I found the last two books to be pretty samey in their focus and mysticism. I found this book unexpectedly touching. Books with a spiritual message at their core can get very preachy, but _Priestess_ managed to convey a lot of wisdom without patronising. I liked the relationship between Eilan/Helena and her son, the Emperor Constantine, which showed how likely it is that even members of loving families do not really know one another. I also liked Eilan/Helena's voice. It was easy to envision this witty, strong woman and to like her. This book reads a lot more like Diana Paxson than it does like Marion Zimmer Bradley, but I expected that and as I enjoy Paxson's work it didn't bother me. I think people unfamiliar with her might be disappointed, though, as her writing tends to be starker. My only real problem with the book was that it was too short. I think there were many things that could have been gone into in more detail. However as the story was less about the main character's relationship with her environment than it was about her relationnship with herself, the lack of detail about the world and current events did not really detract. _Priestess of Avalon_ is not life-changing or particularly challenging, nor does it turn a generally accepted view of the world on its head as _Mists of Avalon_ did. Still, it is a thoughtful depiction of one famous woman.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Had waited and waited for another Marion Zimmer Bradley but have been sorely disappointed with this latest release. Unlike her other Avalon books, I found this extremely slow moving. I actually had to re-read parts as my mind drifted from boredom. The magic, mystery and excitement were missing. I will miss Marion.
Rating:
Summary: Missing Marion!
Review: As an avid reader of this Avalon series, I was sorely disappointed in this book. One of the things I loved about the previous books was the mystique and magic of avalon. I found this to be lacking in this book as it focussed much more on history and battles and had (in my opinion) a very loose connection to avalon. It is a well written book, but it does sadly signify the end to the avalon series. The magic is gone.
Rating: 
Summary: A Side-Wise Look at History
Review: This is the life history of Helena (Elian), concubine to Constantius Chlorus and mother of Constantine the Great, as she grows from Avalon initiate to priestess to Avalon outcast, entering the realm of known history as wife and mother to two Caesars in the waning days of the Roman empire. This story has only a little of the fantasy elements of Mists of Avalon, and doesn't detail all the gory politics and wars of Rome of that period, but is rather a very personal look at this period of history, showing how her own personal thoughts, desires, and beliefs helped mold the political world of day, and the world event's effects on her. The major portion of this still deals with one of the main themes of Mists: the conflict between the burgeoning Christian religion and the older 'pagan' ones, both Roman and British. Helena herself finds a synthesis, that there is one 'Great Being', that humans, in their limitations, cannot fully see, and therefore worship many aspects of this being, all valid in their own way. Helen is well drawn; it is easy to become emotionally attached to her hopes and fears. The rest of the characters are not as fully realized, but still far more than cardboard. The strident feminism that marks much of Bradley's later works is very quiet here, only appearing in short thoughts and asides. But I think that if the reader does not have at least a passing knowledge of this period in history, some of the thematic power of this story will be missed. Things like the Council of Nicaea are treated as an offstage happening, as are many other events. This lends a certain distancing effect upon the reader; Helena's world seems not quite connected to the world at large. Some more direct exposition of some of these events would have helped this novel. Also, place names are consistently given in their Latin version. While a cross reference is provided, I think this was a poor decision; the modern Anglicized names would have provided more immediacy to the work. Still, a reasonably strong work, not as powerful as Mists, but an interesting prelude to the situation that Mists starts from, and providing a very different look at an important historical person that few people are even aware of.
Rating:
Summary: Totally without "The Goddess"
Review: Sadly lacking in the mysticism SO central to "Mists of Avalon", which truly was a MASTERPIECE. I could not recommend this book to anyone who has been enchanted by Marion Zimmer Bradley in the past, or to anyone for that matter.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time ! ! !
Review: This book was hugely over-written and extermely boring. I was tempted multiple times to just stop reading it, but I kept slogging through it, hoping it would get better. It didn't, until the very last chapter. If you are looking for the magical writing from the Mists of Avalon, it's not there - at least not in last three quarters. This is a huge historical read. There is chapter after chapter of detail about the growing Christianity and the battle between Christians and Paganism. The main character loses herself as an individual over and over again to support the men in her life, and in the end, becomes practically a slave to her son's bidding -- Constantine, the Emperor of Rome. It was pathetic to read.
Rating:
Summary: A nice tale for the Bradley fan
Review: This book is an interesting tale of a Catholic saint. As a practicing Catholic and an ancestor of the Celtic isles, it has always been a pleasure to read Marion's tales of the "before times". While this book does not broach the true depth inherent in Mists of Avalon and Firebrand, it is still a story of life. How we are born, grow, and die; the cycle of child to mother to grandmother and teacher. Priestess of Avalon is a nice continuing story.
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