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Sulien ap Gwien was seventeen when the Jarnish raiders came. Had she been armed when they found her, she could have taken them all. As it was, it took six of them to subdue her. She will never forgive them. Thus begins her story--a story that takes her back to her family, with its ancient ties to the Vincan empire that once ruled in Tir Tanagiri, and forward to Caer Tanaga, where the greatest man of his time, King Urdo, struggles to bind together the squabbling nobles and petty princes into a unified force that will drive out the barbarian invader and restore the King's Peace. Ringing with the clash of arms and the songs of its people, rich with high magic and everyday life, The King's Peace begins an epic of great deeds and down-to-earth people, told in language with the strength and flexibility of sharpened steel.… (more)
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The reason that this was such tripe was manifold. And herein lie spoilers. I had this on my to purchase list for a long time and regret that I
Firstly our hero is raped in the first few pages. That sets up the drama, right? Well her rape is such that she will forgive the rapist, forgive the rapist who also killed her brother when he tried to rescue her.
Forgive a man who turns her off men and sex for ever. All of which conspire to make the hero unbelievable.
Further what makes this a difficult read is that all the names of places are long winded and unfamiliar without a map reference, so you never know really where you are and where it is in relation to anywhere else.
And then all the people. Each of whom needs to be named when they are on stage for a second. Why not just call so and so, a warrior. We'll never see him again. And those that show up twice, there are so many that you are confused. So a list of names and their relations to each other in the story could have sorted this out. But with a garbled mouthful to read past each time some minor character impacts the hero, getting lost amongst all the people for countless pages also occurs.
I stuck with it well beyond 80% until I realized I didn't care. I had invested my life in a character that I could not care about. That had no redeeming humanity. All she cared about was her being a great warrior. She didn't care about anything else, and that was boring. The thing about our characters and making us want to empathize with them is to give us emotion to relate to. Sulien, the main character was so lacking, and her hooks to humanity so subtly left behind that I didn't care how it ended, and that there were more books to follow. I have much better fantasy to delve into then reading a series that is so bad. Or I can reread some much better fantasy then give any more hours to this.
The King's Peace qualifies as a NEVER AGAIN.
This is a fantastic retelling of the myth of King Arthur. It is by far the most believable version I've read--White and Mallory should take notes. I hate how the Victorians screwed up the entire mythos of King Arthur and made it entirely about forbidden sex (oh noes!). Walton takes back the myth from their damp hands and sets it once more into a time as brutal as it is honorable, with characters as pragmatic as they are brave.
The King's Peace is a retelling of Arthurian legend that blends the historical and the mythic in a very pleasing way. I don't read much Arthurian fiction, but I feel this book is a meaningful contribution to a crowded field.
Walton sets her story in an imagined
This book also showcases Walton's mastery of first-person perspective. Sulien is a gift of a character and her voice is clear and strong as the beautiful and elegiac portrait on the cover.
However, a little more than halfway through, this book suffers from a sneak attack by the First Novel Pacing Monster. Part One had some overlong conversations, but Part Two devolves into protracted setup for the rest of the trilogy and the narrative urgency suffers as a result.
Alas, the library doesn't have the rest of the series so I'm not sure if I'll get around to finishing it. I do have scattered Thoughts about how Walton deals with sexual agency and sexual assault in this book (mostly positive, but some reservations), but without finishing the series I'm going to reserve my judgment.