The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon.

The Short of It

Plot: The legend of King Arthur often ignores the importance of the women who put him in power and kept him there.

Page Count: 1009. One Thousand and Nine. One one, two zeroes, and a nine, in that order. In binary: 1111110001

Award: 1984 Locus Fantasy 

Worth a read: Nope.
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: N/A.
Review: For a book that is about the strong women surrounding King Arthur, dang are all the female characters weak. They are almost all motivated by some mix of: love, forbidden love, lust, desire for children, marriage, envy of beauty... every entry on the "women's reasons" list. Characters either blend together or eventually become caricatures of themselves - especially Gwenhwyfar, whose presence makes a scene unbearable. There are some really exceptional moments here, and some genuine surprises. But too few and too far between in a 1000 page epic.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

I love King Arthur. One of the main reasons that I study history is reading the child-friendly versions of Arthurian legends with my mom as a kid. I like classical versions of the tales - the originals. I enjoy retellings - both those that go with old fashioned epic style, like The Once and Future King, and those that go a totally different route - taking Trollhunters on Netflix and tossing in Merlin? Sure!

And then there's this.

Excellent pacing is a necessity in keeping a book of this length engaging, and this just does not have it. There are a number of strange choices that contribute to this. Many chapters end with narration explaining what happened next. Then a section will begin, "Morgaine Speaks" and will recount precisely the same information that we read. The feeling that Bradley assumes that her readers are dense permeates this text.

"Be careful what you pray for," said Merlin, looking sharply at Uther, "for the Gods will certainly give it to you."

And then she heard the voice of the Merlin saying somberly, "Take care what you pray for, for you will certainly be given that."

"Beware, Elaine, there is a wise saying: Have a care what you pray for, it might be given you."

Gwenhwyfar thought of the ancient proverb, Have a care what you pray for, it might be given you.

I've taken the liberty of writing a scene that could be placed anywhere in the book.

"Remember, be careful what you pray for, because it'll happen but real bad," says a mentor character to another character.

Much later.

"Hey, I'm making a wish, and I'm sure that this will go well," says a foolish character.

"Be careful what you wish for!" answers one who learned from a mentor.
"Malarkey!"
Things do not go well.
"Who could have foreseen this?!" says a foolish character.

She remembered being told, "Things will not go well."
"Hey, I told you it'd go bad."

"Yes, you told me it would not go well."
She remembered telling her that "Things will not go well."

MORGAINE SPEAKS

I told her it would not go well when she prayed for something, and it did not go well. So I told her that I had told her before what I had been told about prayers not working out so neat. I feel smug yet nonetheless sad about this.

Repeat until insane. To be clear, characters say some version of, "I told you earlier..." 37 times in the text. And unlike many books, if someone is being told as much, we've heard the first time they were informed as well. 

It's infuriating. 

Continuing with pacing, it's unclear why this book needs to be 1000 pages. There is a problematic lack of broad plot arc, which means that any chunk of the book could be amputated without it having any real impact on the rest of the story. 

A handful of great characters are here: Morgause is easily the most interesting, but Kevin, Taliesin, and Viviane all have good scenes. Wikipedia lists 24 characters, and the list has some noteworthy omissions. Which is to say, certainly less than 15% of the named characters are engaging. I've noted that the plot has no real trajectory - the characters tend not to either. Many of them begin arcs, but just freeze at some point. This ties in with the "why" that drives each character - and it's never anything interesting. These are just totally shallow, completely uninteresting people. There are enough characters that every option for "generic women motivations" come into play. It's almost more offensive - the pretense that this book is the story of the powerful women who were really in charge, when it's more like "Medieval Catfight!" starring some pretty infuriating spellings of names you thought you knew.

I wanted to like this one. It's a classic, it's one of my favorite stories, and I've had an unread copy on my bookshelf for years. And it was nothing but a disappointment.

Look, it's a classic, and you might want to read it. If so, consider using the link below - I'll get a few extra cents at no cost to you!
The Links of Amazon

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

I don't want to go too much further with this one, having voiced my displeasure already. But there's one thing that needs to be discussed. 

We've really got to call a meeting with fantasy authors and ask them to stop making everything incest. Like, people are allowed to love people they're not related to. I don't know if everyone who writes fantasy books is aware of this, but it's the case. I guess I can't be a sword and sorcery protagonist, because I've never wanted to be in a relationship with one of my relations.

Arthur and his half sister, Morgan le Fay, according to most myths, do indeed sleep together, and do indeed have a child. But part of the point in those myths is that this is unnatural; it's suggested (or stated) that this is one of the reasons that he is ultimately defeated. 

Yet in making Morgaine the primary protagonist, we need to have a redemption arc for her. And instead of this being "ah biscuits, shouldn't have done that!" it's "Oh, it was true love!" Here's the part where Morgaine decides that incest is not just good, but is in fact the message of the Gods, and the only reason that it's considered bad is those gosh dang Christians.

And then a memory from Avalon surfaced in her mind, something she had not thought of for a decade; one of the Druids, giving instruction in the secret wisdom to the young priestesses, had said, "If you would have the message of the Gods to direct your life, look for that which repeats, again and again; for this is the message given you by the Gods, the karmic lesson you must learn for this incarnation. It comes again and again until you have made it part of your soul and your enduring spirit." 

What has come to me again and again...? 

Every man she had desired had been too close kin to her-Lancelet, who was the son of her foster-mother; Arthur, her own mother's son; now the son of her husband... But they are too close kin to me only by the laws made by the Christians who seek to rule this land... to rule it in a new tyranny; not alone to make the laws but to rule the mind and heart and soul. Am I living out in my own life all the tyranny of that law, so I as priestess may know why it must be overthrown?

Nope.

Don't meet your next date at a family picnic, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!