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Rating: 
Summary: A good ending
Review: Rosalind Miles wraps up her Guenevere triology with "Child of the Holy Grail".Although not quite as engrossing as the first two books in the trilogy, "Child of the Holy Grail" was a good ending to a good story.
Rating: 
Summary: A tremendous final installment!
Review: Thank goodness this was a trilogy! It is only unfortunate that it isn't an even longer series. Miles continues her masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend in her third and final installment. I am happy to say she ends as strongly as she began with Guinevere- Queen of the Summery Country.
As a history buff - I relish the chance to find a great historical fiction. Finding a book blending enough history to be intellegent but enough fiction to be entrancing is a rare indeed.
This book (and the entire series) not only delighted me - but has now been passed along to family and friends who lack my love of history....and their delight with the story is as strong as my own. If you've read the first two books of this series by Miles, keep going!! You'll be glad you did!
Rating:
Summary: A tremendous final installment!
Review: Thank goodness this was a trilogy! It is only unfortunate that it isn't an even longer series. Miles continues her masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend in her third and final installment. I am happy to say she ends as strongly as she began with Guinevere- Queen of the Summery Country.
As a history buff - I relish the chance to find a great historical fiction. Finding a book blending enough history to be intellegent but enough fiction to be entrancing is a rare indeed.
This book (and the entire series) not only delighted me - but has now been passed along to family and friends who lack my love of history....and their delight with the story is as strong as my own. If you've read the first two books of this series by Miles, keep going!! You'll be glad you did!
Rating:
Summary: A Vivid Vision of the Past
Review: The feminist trilogy of Rosalind Miles finally grinds to a halt--here's hoping that she has exhausted herself on this particular subgenre and will now go on to some other area less close to my heart. After slogging through "Guinevere: Queen of the Summer Country" and "Knight of the Sacred Lake," for some inexplicable reason I picked up this novel. Sadly, it does not improve upon them; it retreads old Arthurian legend with some twists that left me queasy. "Child" picks up where "Knight" left off. Guinevere and Arthur are back together, but Arthur's illegitimate son Mordred arrives at Camelot, courtesy of his witch mother, Arthur's half sister Morgana. Arthur seats his son at the seat for the most peerless knight in the world -- but the Round Table cracks when Mordred sits there. (Wow, do you think that's an OMEN?!) And soon the young knight (barely a TEENAGER?!) Galahad arrives at Camelot, and turns out to be Lancelot's son, and the key to finding the Holy Grail, which has been twisted around to be the "Hallows of the Goddess." (Can't ANYTHING good be attributed to Christians?) And Arthur decides to build an empire comparable to the Roman one -- with disastrous results. One of the annoying things about this trilogy is the apparent unwillingness to admit that Guinevere might have done anything wrong. The fall of Camelot wasn't her fault; she was quite right to have affairs; the ending is all right and perfect. I would have been more impressed if Guinevere had done wrong, recognized her own failings and striven to be better. The same anti-Christian bias shows up in this novel; the above unwillingness to attribute anything good to Christians, the Grail being twisted to the "Hallows of the Goddess" is an example. Galahad is another. This poor kid is usually personality-free in most books, but Miles feels that she has to show him as a weird fanatic as well. The third is Arthur, whom Miles clearly has no use for and thus portrays as a wishy-washy puppet of sinister Christians. Guinevere herself is no stronger or more interesting than she's ever been. She doesn't act, she REacts. Lancelot is still unlikeable and whiny, except for the final chapter where I just wanted to shoot them both. Arthur is unlikeable because the author wrote him that way; we are again burdened with Merlin, who is still hungering for power and staggering around formulating plots.... Miles' irritating romance-novel prose has thankfully softened somewhat, some sections were actually somewhat poetic. (Still too much emphasis on sex) Yet the characters remain soap-operaish, reacting in a melodramatic manner to everything that happens. It gets tiresome after about 20 pages. And honestly, I am sick to death of the endless preaching about Guinevere's (fictional and dubious) country, her Mother-right, and the Goddess. It got old with Mists of Avalon, the story upon which this story rips off, okay? Altogether it might have rated two stars, except for the appalling final chapter. I have never been as disgusted with the end of an Arthurian book as I have been with this one. Miles seems to be unaware that the majority of people really, really loathe Lancelot, and dislike his affair with Guinevere. This kind of ending is the worst kind of soppiness, and it turned my stomach just to think about it. Thankfully, here the legend ends and Miles can't desecrate it anymore. Want a strong, intelligent Guinevere? Read "Dawnflight" by Kim Headlee--this book may sell more copies, but Headlee had the vision.
Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly good story!
Review: The first half of this book dealt with it almost exclusively as a theme - the second half of the book was the consequence of it...which essentially was the crumbling of the realms of Arthur and Guenevere. This made it interesting (and sad) to read beyond the telling of most other versions of the legend I've read. Galahad was a difficult character for me to warm up to - he was a little TOO fanatical, otherworldly and untouchable. I was surprised to find myself very intrigued with Mordred for a change - seeing him as another tragic victim of his mother and deserving of sympathy despite his scheming and ambitious manipulations to achieve the throne. Arthur infuriated me at times - being too easily swayed and influenced by the Christians determined to rule his soul. But this was Guenevere's glorious and tragic story and it was wonderfully told. Her femininity was powerful and proud -the devotion to her religion and culture unwavering under undue pressures - her loves demanding an emotional toll of heartbreaking longing. I can look forward to reading this book again. The Price of Immortality, swords of life and death series is highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Why read an entire trilogy if you don't like the author?????
Review: Upon reading the horrific review given by "jsolinas", one question begs answer: since she obviously dislikes this author why on earth has she devoted so much time to reading not just one, but all of the books in this trilogy? I found this book, as well as the preceeding ones, to be well written and interesting. As the above-mentioned review illustrates so well: if you don't like this subject matter then of course don't bother reading the book! However, if you do enjoy the subject of King Arthur, Christians vs Druids, Camelot, etc., then you will enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Why read an entire trilogy if you don't like the author?????
Review: Upon reading the horrific review given by "jsolinas", one question begs answer: since she obviously dislikes this author why on earth has she devoted so much time to reading not just one, but all of the books in this trilogy? I found this book, as well as the preceeding ones, to be well written and interesting. As the above-mentioned review illustrates so well: if you don't like this subject matter then of course don't bother reading the book! However, if you do enjoy the subject of King Arthur, Christians vs Druids, Camelot, etc., then you will enjoy this book.
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