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Fantasy. Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML: Mary Stewart's stunning Arthurian Saga that began with The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment continues withThe Wicked Day, the story of the clash between King Arthur and his bastard son, Mordred Born of an incestuous relationship between King Arthur and his half sister, and prophesied by Merlin to kill Arthur, Mordred is stolen away from his mother and raised in secrecy by a kind couple on an isolated Orkney island in the hopes that he will defy his fate. Mordred, known to history as a traitor and a murderer, is no villain, but a quick-witted young man, with hopes and dreams of his own. But try as he might, Mordred cannot escape Merlin's prophecy. His mother, the evil sorceress Morgause tracks her son down and takes him back, then feeds the flames of Mordred's ambition, setting into motion a chain of events that will go down in historyâ??and legendâ??as father and son are finally forced to confront each other one last time: on the wicked day of destiny, when Arthur's final battle will be fought… (more)
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In this fourth book we leave Merlin behind though: this book is centered on Mordred. I can't say I've read every take on Arthurian legend. (Who has? They're legion.) But I've read Arthurian novels by a lot of authors: Marion Zimmer Bradley, T.H. White, Thomas Malory, Jack Whyte, Gillian Bradshaw, Parke Godwin, Phyllis Ann Karr. And I've never seen a more sympathetic--or more memorable Mordred. I have to rate this a little lower than her Merlin Trilogy--but not by much, and that's a very high bar.
Modred's tale starts as a young boy in the Orkney Isles where Morguesse has hidden him fostered to a childless couple. He's learnt fishing and lives in a peat croft. By chance, and unaware, he aids one of Morguesse's legitimate children Prince to the isles. Morguesse takes the opportunity to bring him more publicly into court, and in due course (when she's summoned to camalot to account for Merlin's first poisoning) to Arthur's attention. Arthur can't resist including his only natural son into his court and so in due course as he grows Modred gains ever more responsibility.
I've come across the fable of the asp several times, and it didn't seem to fit in very well here, although obviously the author needed sometime dramatic to set Arthur and Modred that badly at odds after most the book having their ever closer relationship. I wasn't convinced by the series of coincidences and mishaps required to bring about the eventual wicked day. Morgan and Morgusee just seem to fade away and never quite gain the depth attributed to them in other tellings of the legends. The one tale of teh Knights is an almost incidental inclusion of the Green Giant set for no reason in Brittany. Sadly it didn't add anything to the book except pages, and none fo the other Knights seemed to feature very much. This is a much less complex story than the previous three.