Review: The Once and Future Camelot

Title: The Once and Future Camelot

Author: Felicity Pulman

Publisher: 26 May 2016 by Momentum

Pages: 276 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: fantasy, historical fiction, mythology

My Rating: 2 cups

Synopsis:

They would do anything to be reunited with those they love, even if it means traveling beyond the boundaries of the world as we know it.

Two women, living almost a thousand years apart, are experiencing the same catastrophic visions of the future. But these are not two ordinary women. They are descended from Morgana le Fay, and they have access to a magic that can stop this future from coming to pass – if they can trust it, and trust themselves.

Marie, troubadour at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Morgan, a 21st century botanist, are two very different women. When their lives collide in a garden in Glastonbury, they must overcome the secrets that surround them and work together to save not only the world, but each other.

Both of these women have known true love but lost it – and both must overcome their prejudice as well as their fear of the harmful power of magic in order to be healed.

An astounding historical fantasy turning the King Arthur legend on its head, in the tradition of Mary Stewart and T.H. White.

My Thoughts

I love Arthurian legend, so when I saw this book, I jumped at the chance to read it. What an absurd book! This author tried to do it all and failed in my opinion. There was little engagement, with next to no character interaction. Pages and pages of descriptive thoughts and places - just plain boring. It was as if the author used the Arthurian myth and legends as a medium to just info dump. 

This was a story of time-travel, and ultimately the end of the world - but not in a good, compelling/interesting way! The end is just ridiculous.  Throughout the book, it read as if the author was unsure of which path to take - a retelling of the myth? a historical fiction adaptation? young adult fantasy? time travel? Choose please! I don't think the author really knows and therein lies its failure - disappointing as the potential was there but the execution was severely lacking. 

At no stage was my attention grabbed and I really did try but the writing was hard to get through and there was just so much monologue. WOW!  I finished it but I’ll honestly admit that there was a lot of skimming involved. There was no real substance to it, the characters were poorly written which was heartbreaking given the epic status of some. 

I don't really know what to say about this book. The plot was interesting but overall this book was very slow and I found it almost a chore to read. I was disappointed as it didn't live up to my expectations at all.

"And so I lay and listened to the stories unfolding in my mind, rejecting some while embellishing others."

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.