In Camelot's Shadow

Rating:
Summary: A twelve year old girl's idea of love
Review: Camelot Shadow, by Sarah Zettel looks to be a promising book. Well, until it is actually opened. THe book is about the wonderful Risa, who falls in love with the perfect Gawain after he saves her from the bad guy, the evil sorceror Euberacon.

I suppose with a lot of work, this could have been a good book for those who are interested in Arthurian tales. And, as other people have said, it is a new take to the Camelot story; but in my opinion, a horribly done one.

The characters are all shallow, and quite dull. Gawain and Risa are both the epitome of beauty, wisdom, bravery... (you get the point). IN short, they have absolutely no flaws whatsoever, and become very un-realistic and unlikeable. Every single one of their actions, from the sob-fests, the make-out sessions, and the "I most go to war now and save my beloved" spiels were predictable. My friends and I were dying by paragragh one.

To be honest, the book starts out alright, with Risa's father making a pact with Euberacon in order to save his ailing wife's life. But then Risa is born, and she is the typical beautiful heroine who loves to hunt with her dogs and is full of bravery. Exactly where this bravery seems to go in the battle scenes (which are basically, the men were fighting, I was scared, lets charge through the battle so I can find my dear Gawain!) I know not. But it's supposedly there. I suppose it takes bravery to collapse into tears in the midst of a battle. YOu might get shot. Unless of course, you have a Gawain handy who is determined to believe that you are the core of his existence and would die for you...

And the descriptions in this books about Gawain's and Risa's infinate atrributes... "(Even Guenivere would be in awe of this beatiful creature who risked everything in battle!" Gawain thought to himself).

So, my advice to you is to save your monet and spend it on something more worthwhile...
If you're into Arhurian tales I would suggest, Mary Stewart's Arthurian saga, of Nancy Mckenzies books: Queen of Camelot, Grail Prince, and Prince of Dreams
If you'd like to read about fantasy romances, try Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel, and again Prince of Dreams
And finally, if your into fantasy heroines, try S.D Towers Assasins of Tamvrin, Queen of Camelot, and Pirates!

Rating:
Summary: Shallow and Contrived
Review: From the summary, this book looks promising. Usually all we get to read about are the tales of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenivere, and so I was interested in reading a tale about Gawain.
The book centers around the young woman, Risa of the Morelands who flees her home in order to excape the evil wizard, Euberacon, and of course is rescued by Gawain.
Immediately Gawain falls in love with the beautiful, brave, intelligent, perfect, amazing, adorable, magnificent Risa, and as the two head back to Camelot, Risa falls in love with the handsome, charming, witty, brave, one-of-a kind Gawain. Upon their arrival, Gawain promptly proposes after what- a week or two?
The rest of the book follows Risa who is at last captured by Euberacon who for some reason has decided that Risa is the key to killing the Empress Theodora, Empress of Byzantium (don't ask- I was confused to). Being the brave and romantic knight that he is, Gawain sets out to follow her, but gets side tracked by the green knight who he is sure, by some holy instinct, that the green knight has answers to Risa's location.
While I can't tell you the sickly sweet ending, all of course works out, and they live happily ever after.

I had many problems with this book. For one, Risa is the most boring main character I have ever had te "pleasure" to read about. She is perfect in every possible way, except for the fact that she breaks down in tears far too often (however, Gawain seems to like this as he spends half his time comforting her). On the back cover, Risa is described as courageous, yet I have to question this as whenever she and/or Gawain are attacked by saxons who are randomly traipsing around England, or Euberacon who is the typical bad guy with absolutely so clear motivation, all she does is cry and scream for the wonderful Gawain to save her. ALright, in the begining she does kill a couple Saxons, but then spends the next five pages in *yawn* tears. Sarah Zettel, the author, needs to learn that an interesting character is not one that is absoluetly perfect. An interesting character is somebody with a flaw, not neccesarily one that makes them evil or completely annoying, but one that makes the character interesting and un-predictable.
And another thing, Zettel's descriptions are laughable. With stuff like... "Guenivere's chambers opened like a summer meadow..." and "her body was like a summer sapling, and her clothes were like fall's leaves...", it is hard not to rush to the nearest bathroom.
And Gawain. Alright, I realize he is supposed to be the perfect man, as anybody can see after reading _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_. But in Camelot's shadow, he is turned into a pathetic knight who lives and breathes for Risa, and frequently launches into long tirades about how perfect she is. Furthermore, he falls inlove with her in a matter of weeks, which is obviously not realistic at all.
And finally, Euberacon is such a boring "bad guy." Like most bad guys, he has no redeaming qualities, which makes him so boring, and it's so obvious that you're supposed to hate him. Darth Vader has always been such a popular bad guy because he has redeaming qualities, and things that make the reader, well, viewer empathize with him.

So, in conclusion, I would reccomend this book to people who like reading books about beautiful, supposedly brave people who of course fall for each other within weeks and are tormented by weird sorcerors who don't really know what they want. However, to all others, I would only reccomend that you buy this book if you have friends you can read it to and laugh with. But better yet, find something better to read. I would suggest _Queen of Camelot_, and if you're into Gawain, _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_.

Rating:
Summary: A failed attempt at a new Arthurian "legend"
Review: I love the story of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, but I'm always on the lookout for new angles on it. Finding Sarah Zettel's book on the shelf of my local bookstore, I bought it, eager to read about the story from a different point of view.

I was, however, very disappointed by Zettel's attempt at a new take on the old tale. From the beginning, when the evil sorcerer Euberacon vows to save Risa's father's wife, in exchange for her firstborn child (Risa), the book seems less about semi-historical fiction, and more about fantasy. I call the time period "semi-historical fiction," because although magic does play a large part, it is rarely the sort of flashy magic I associate with fantasy. Not so much here, but later on, Euberacon's brand of sorcery steps outside what could have worked with the historical time period, into something utterly fantastical and bizarre, that I would not associate with King Arthur.

Zettel's attempts to create a believable female heroine in the time period fall flat. She gives Risa so many virtues and so few vices, Guinevere seems a boring and tedious housewife in comparison - not that I have anything good to say about Risa. She attempts to make Risa and Gawain's love semi-parallel to Arthur's and Guinevere's (without the whole Lancelot angle, of course, since Risa and Gawain will be together forever), in that tragedy seems to mar their perfect romance. I can appreciate writing that models the old writing, where ladies and their knights were without flaw, and love was pure, but every time I think this is what Zettel did intentionally, she has Risa or Gawain crack an inane joke, and they both start laughing.

Her attempts to make Risa and Gawain more "human" fail, in my opinion. To me they seem like unbelievable characters, although more often than not, they annoyed me, simply because they seemed too perfect. If Risa couldn't help Gawain on the battlefield? It was not becuase she was too scared, it was because she had to save the destitute refugees. Gawain gave into temptation once before, yes, but after realizing his love for Risa he easily pushes it away, gaining the information he needs to save his lady love.

The last third of the book was even worse for me than the first two thirds combined. Here, Risa is captured by Euberacon, undergoing her own angst-filled "torture" so bizarre it seems laughable. To rescure Risa, Gawain has to go on his own "Green Knight" quest, which is barely recognizable, since Zettel puts in so many of her own, made-up characters the whole intent of Gawain's journey is mutilated.

I won't spoil the ending, but it too disappointed me. Once again, too fantastical for my historical tastes.

There are some positive parts to the book. Kerra, Morgan's servant (and the only semi-believable character of Zettel's creation), is the only reason I did not give this book one star, along with some of Zettel's descriptions of the Saxon camps. Kerra has a background that makes her present, ambitious personality believable, and in the Saxon camps, their hesitation is revealed. Go against Arthur, or keep what little peace they have, and the heads of their sons who are in Arthur's care? The chief is under Kerra's sorcery, which seems the only magic in the whole book that fits with the Arthurian style of sorcery.

Overall, this book had a few good features, but I found the two main characters incredibly overdone and annoying, and the general writing style mediocre at best. The idea of a different take on the Arthurian legend is a good one, but one that Zettel fails to carry out with any sort of believability.

Rating:
Summary: Risa should've stayed in the Morelands
Review: I picked up this book largely due to it's cover, which I found intriguing and promising. I guess I should have listened to the saying, "Never judge a book by it's cover."

The book centers around Risa of the Morelands, the daughter of a Baron. After she learns that her father had sold her to the evil Sorceror Euberacon in exchange for his wife's life, she decides to run away. But things do not go as planned, for Euberacon meets her on the road, ready to claim her. But Gawain, knight of the round table shows up and rescues her. Over the next few days they battle with Saxon war bands, and Kerra (a powerful seductress whose master is Morgaine, more commonly known as Morgan LeFay).

After reaching Camelot, they realize they are in love (after maybe a week of getting to know each other), and they soon become betrothed.

Unfortunately Euberacon and Kerra are determined to seperate them; Euberacon so he can destroy Gawain, enslave Risa, destroy Camelot, and then destroy Theodroa (The Empress of Byzantium from about 527-548 AD, and Kerra for some motive I completely missed.

Risa is kidnapped by Kerra, though Euberacon somehow gets ahold of her, and Gawain accepts a challenge with the Green Knight- thinking that he might find a way to help Risa. Well, I won't give away the ending, other than the fact that I think it was rushed, and worked out too perfectly.

Like many have said, this is a page turner. It moves at a fast pace, and the plot is passable. However, I had many problems with this book:

1- Risa of the Morelands was a Mary Sue (a female character that is perfect in every way). Risa was beautiful, witty, intelligent, wise, brave etc. In short- she had no flaws at all. This made her a very un-realistic and annoying character. There really wasn't much depth to her character, and she would have been interesting had she had at least one minor flaw that detracted from her appeal.

2- The editing of this book was terrible. Never before have I noticed so many mistakes in something published. Some of the sentences to were awkward and sounded as though the author occasionally drifted back to the mind of a seventh grader.

3- Euberacon was a typical "bad guy"; pure evil with nonsensical motivations. He had none of the redeeming qualities that can make a "bad guy" interesting. There's a bit of back story mentioned that includes the Empress Theodora hunting him down for ruining her sister. However, the back story doesn't really reveal anything interesting about his character.
THe other "bad guy," Kerra was slightly better. While she was obviously evil, we had glimpses of her human emotions, and her back story really explained why she was the way she was. In my opinion, Kerra was the msot interesting character in the story.

4- THe author retells several tales in this story, including that of _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_, _The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle_, and, for some strange reason, bits of Chaucer's _Wife of Bath's tale_. However, Kettel's bizarre retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was what angered me the most. The point of that particular tale was to show Gawain's exemplory chivalric virtues. But in the retelling, the characters are ao warped and changed that the stroy loses its meaning.

5- Sir Gawain was pretty much the perfect hero. Yes, he had a weakness for women, but that flaw was pretty much erased after he and Risa fell in love. In shrot, he was a pretty flat character as well. Also, Zettel strongly emphasises the fact that Gawain is Arthur's right hand man and his best knight. However, this was Lancelot's position. I suppose Zettel is just trying to make Sir Gawain even more perfect here.

6- THe whole love deal happened to quickly. You don't fall insanely in love and consider marriage within what- ten days?

Somebody before me said somethiung to effect that this was like a rough draft to something that could have been great. I wholeheartedly agree with that. Had the characters been more developed and fleshed out, and the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight not been so warped, this would have been an excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: Risa should've stayed in the Morelands
Review: I picked up this book largely due to it's cover, which I found intriguing and promising. I guess I should have listened to the saying, "Never judge a book by it's cover."

The book centers around Risa of the Morelands, the daughter of a Baron. After she learns that her father had sold her to the evil Sorceror Euberacon in exchange for his wife's life, she decides to run away. But things do not go as planned, for Euberacon meets her on the road, ready to claim her. But Gawain, knight of the round table shows up and rescues her. Over the next few days they battle with Saxon war bands, and Kerra (a powerful seductress whose master is Morgaine, more commonly known as Morgan LeFay).

After reaching Camelot, they realize they are in love (after maybe a week of getting to know each other), and they soon become betrothed.

Unfortunately Euberacon and Kerra are determined to seperate them; Euberacon so he can destroy Gawain, enslave Risa, destroy Camelot, and then destroy Theodroa (The Empress of Byzantium from about 527-548 AD, and Kerra for some motive I completely missed.

Risa is kidnapped by Kerra, though Euberacon somehow gets ahold of her, and Gawain accepts a challenge with the Green Knight- thinking that he might find a way to help Risa. Well, I won't give away the ending, other than the fact that I think it was rushed, and worked out too perfectly.

Like many have said, this is a page turner. It moves at a fast pace, and the plot is passable. However, I had many problems with this book:

1- Risa of the Morelands was a Mary Sue (a female character that is perfect in every way). Risa was beautiful, witty, intelligent, wise, brave etc. In short- she had no flaws at all. This made her a very un-realistic and annoying character. There really wasn't much depth to her character, and she would have been interesting had she had at least one minor flaw that detracted from her appeal.

2- The editing of this book was terrible. Never before have I noticed so many mistakes in something published. Some of the sentences to were awkward and sounded as though the author occasionally drifted back to the mind of a seventh grader.

3- Euberacon was a typical "bad guy"; pure evil with nonsensical motivations. He had none of the redeeming qualities that can make a "bad guy" interesting. There's a bit of back story mentioned that includes the Empress Theodora hunting him down for ruining her sister. However, the back story doesn't really reveal anything interesting about his character.
THe other "bad guy," Kerra was slightly better. While she was obviously evil, we had glimpses of her human emotions, and her back story really explained why she was the way she was. In my opinion, Kerra was the msot interesting character in the story.

4- THe author retells several tales in this story, including that of _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_, _The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle_, and, for some strange reason, bits of Chaucer's _Wife of Bath's tale_. However, Kettel's bizarre retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was what angered me the most. The point of that particular tale was to show Gawain's exemplory chivalric virtues. But in the retelling, the characters are ao warped and changed that the stroy loses its meaning.

5- Sir Gawain was pretty much the perfect hero. Yes, he had a weakness for women, but that flaw was pretty much erased after he and Risa fell in love. In shrot, he was a pretty flat character as well. Also, Zettel strongly emphasises the fact that Gawain is Arthur's right hand man and his best knight. However, this was Lancelot's position. I suppose Zettel is just trying to make Sir Gawain even more perfect here.

6- THe whole love deal happened to quickly. You don't fall insanely in love and consider marriage within what- ten days?

Somebody before me said somethiung to effect that this was like a rough draft to something that could have been great. I wholeheartedly agree with that. Had the characters been more developed and fleshed out, and the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight not been so warped, this would have been an excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: New twist
Review: I simple loved this book. I loved the additions that she made to a long time favorite story of mine. I had never heard of Sarah Zettel before, but I will not forget her now... I look forward to future releases in this series

Rating:
Summary: It rankled
Review: I'll not go into the tedious details of how it is in no way historically accurate (because it isn't) and I'll also skip all the differences between it and Sir Gawain. Anyone with even a mediocre education should be able to see that it mangled one of the best Arthurian legends into a travesty.

Aside from all of that, it was entirely predictalbe and full of stereotypes.

Rating:
Summary: Gawain and Risa 4eva!!!!
Review: I'm generally not critical of books, so it's very rare when I come across a book I can't stand, and when my duty to humanity compells me to write a review. That said, lets get on with the review.
In Camelot's Shadow is a tale about the beautiful and abused Risa, and her adventures as she runs from her family home and evil sorceror Euberacon into the arms of Mr. Perfect, Gawain. These two lovebirds are then forced to fight invading saxons, the seductress, Kerra, and bad guy who confuses everybody in the book with his motivations, Euberacon. Touching story eh?
The plot is mediocre at best: beautiful maiden is in danger and is forced to flee and finds handsome man in process. But it is the writing and Camelot's sweethearts that make this book truly bad. Oh, and the bad guy.
Like most of us, Zettel is able to string a few words togethor into a sentence, and she can even put togethor a decent paragragh. But she seems lost on how to make a decent description. Either Zettel spends pages and pages on everybody's clothing and appearance, describing everything down to the last hem-line, or she begins to compare things to nature. "The door opened like a summer meadow...." and, "Guenevere's body was like a summer sapling..." Gag.
And onto the Mr. and Mrs. Perfect: Gawain and Risa. Both are the epitomy of beauty, intelligence, bravery (that's what the back cover says at least), and wisdom. Now that's nice and all, but all this makes for such boring characters! Every one of their actions is predictable, other than the source of their "wisdom" (Hmmm... Gawain thought as he saw the Green knight enter, He must know where Risa is! I will go after him!). But Gawain is nothing compared to Risa.
Risa is the female protagonist at the book (though I found myself rooting for Euberacon most of the time). She is the ideal female: full of beauty, bravery (will get back to this one in a second), charm, etc. Now back to the bravery thing. In the begining of the book, Risa runs around with her bow hunting. And she takes down a couple Saxons. But the majority of her bravery seems to be running around in tears searching for Gawain in battle. I have never read about a heroine who cries so much. She must be dehydrated.
And onto Euberacon. Euberacon is such a typical bad guy. He is portrayed so completely bad that the reader sympathize with him at all. Being able to understand Darth Vader and Commudus in Gladiator was what made them such succesful bad guys. Euberacon wants to enslave Risa so that he can kill Arthur in order that he might kill EMpress Theadora. Yeah, I don't get it either.
So, if this is the kind of book that appeals to you, go on and press the add to cart button. But if you're looking for a good story, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read, Great Author, Great Imprint
Review: I'm not normally a fan of Arthurian tales let alone romances, but this book has made me a fan of Sarah Zettel. She did a masterful job of bringing the era to life. Her characters are robust and the story is compelling. I found the book very hard to put down, spending the majority of one weekend drawn to its pages and captured by its prose.

Also, I disagree wholeheartedly with the reviewer who stated "Luna, Harlequin Silhouette's new 'fantasy with romance' line, has so far produced books by three stellar authors, all of which have dumbed down their science fantasy and added bland romance." If the author had actually read any of the other two books released by Luna so far, he or she would know that the first book (The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey) had a very well-fleshed out magic system and the romance was far from 'bland'. The second book (The Charmed Sphere by Catherine Asaro) had a phenomenally fleshed out magic system that bordered on science fiction in its technical explanation and the romance wasn't emphasized hardly at all. Yes, this is a 'fantasy' line that has some 'romance' in it. But there's nothing 'dumbed down' about it.

Rating:
Summary: Spin me a web...
Review: I've been reading Arthurian fantasy for years, and was fairly sick of it to be honest. The story seemed to be told in every way imaginable already.

Zettel's story, however, focuses more on lesser known characters and she spins her own tale (irregardless of all the 'rules') and makes a pretty decent story.

If you are an Arthurian fanatic (as I once was) and you are going to be disturbed by every bent rule or fact, pass on this book. If you'd just like to read a good story/romance based in this era, pick this one up!

Risa, the heroine, is a strong willed woman who fights against society and culture and can hold her own in a fight. Gawain is a true honorable knight...imperfect, but seeking to be the best man possible.

The magic of the book is more of the 'old ways', close to nature and fairly druid-like.

I enjoyed the story and look forward to the next!