The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

Date Finished: 24 December 2012

Series: Arthurian Saga, #1

Rating: 2*

Read the Goodreads description here 


This was an interesting take on Merlin's life, and to be quite honest, I'm not completely sure how I feel about it.

The style of writing was good overall, but often the storyline was boring and dragged on a bit. The whole magic aspect confused me. I wasn't really sure if Merlin could really do anything extraordinary other than tell the future, but he would say things like: "Leave it to my magic," even though the book never really explained what he did that was magical or how he helped in any situation. He also seemed to believe that he wasn't "magical" or whatever for the first half or so of the book, and would say that it was just luck. Whatever, maybe I just didn't read carefully enough.

I don't usually enjoy the whole King Arthur and his Knights type of fiction, maybe because I like Historical Fiction books to actually be backed up by historical evidence. Even then, I still find it extremely difficult to finish them; often they are exciting in the beginning, but then the rest of the book is made up of the same sort of thing, which bores me to no extent. This book was no different. I was constantly annoyed with the fact that it was based on legend, but not exciting in the way that a modern re-telling of a legend or fairytale is. I guess it must be difficult to re-write a legend, because you're forced to involve certain parts of the legend and tell them almost exactly the way they've been told for years, but still. I also struggled to finish it. I had to force myself to pick it up every night and read at least ten or so pages, instead of diving into the growing pile of books on my nightstand which have been sitting there since Christmas. That took a lot of self control, and I have to say I am very proud of myself, although I still feel like I've hurt their feelings by leaving them to gather dust for a week. 

Anyway, now that I've FINALLY finished, instead of having that excited, breathless I-have-to-read-the-next-book feeling, there's that thank-goodness-that's-over, let's-put-this-on-the-other-side-of-the-room-and-never-look-at-it-again feeling, mixed with the why-the-hell-did-I-waste-a-week-of-my-life-on-this-crap feeling. Sorry if I've offended those of you who did like this book, but I really didn't get it.