Queen of Camelot

I have searched and searched for a great Arthurian retelling and have been disappointed with the ones I have ventured into reading. I was somewhat skeptical when I picked up Nancy McKenzie's Queen of Camelot. This two-novels-in-one compilation is based on Guenevere, from her point of view, in first person narrative, and is 623 pages long in very small print. I didn't want to waste my time reading something this big only to be disappointed at the end. I nevertheless gave the book a whirl. Glad I did! This is one of the most compelling and beautifully told retells I have ever read! McKenzie gives us a detailed story about Guenevere from her point of view. She tells us about the prophecy on the day she was born, how she spends her childhood as an adventurous tomboy, how people fear her and treat her differently as she grows up, how the knights around her battle with the Saxons, and how all of the prophecies come true. She meets Arthur, marries him and later has a love affair with Lancelot, something based on the original tale. But the novel has so much more than that. You will see how this story of magic, prophecies, love and betrayal transpires in an altered, detailed and beautiful light. There are many twists throughout the novel. Guenevere is developed in such an abundant, three-dimensional way in this novel. She is no longer just the pagan beauty who marries a Christian, betrays him and destroys all of Camelot as a result. She is a complex character with flaws as well as virtues in this offering. Arthur is also written in a more interesting, compelling way here, but it is Lancelot that once again blows me away. I have always romanticized Sir Lancelot and McKenzie does not disappoint me in her version of the loyal, chivalrous knight. Merlin and Morgan Le Fay are written with much complexity and nuance as well. This novel, however, does not focus so much on the love triangle between Guenevere, Arthur and Lancelot as much as her inability to supply an heir for Arthur and her affection for Arthur's bastard son, the traitorous Mordred. The overall story is magnificent. Once again, I say that McKenzie did a wonderful job bringing Guenevere to life. She turns this character into a strong, intelligent, complex, three-dimensional, flesh and blood woman, someone you will feel a great deal of affinity with. She is not portrayed as a simple-minded, traitorous hussy in this one! I loved the fanciful storytelling style that made me turn the pages until the wee hours of the night. Some of my friends who read the book along with me complained about it being too long-winded. I didn't think it was long-winded at all. In fact, I wish it had been longer. I loved this book and I look forward to giving Grail Prince a whirl.

I didnt know what to expect when getting this book but Nancy Mckenzie has written it so smoothly that anyone can read it and understand it. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.... what else can I say. Best book I have read in years!

Queen of Camelot by Nancy McKenzie was a really good book, and, I know, practically everyone says that, but it is. I had to read it for school purposes. I'm glad they assigned it, actually, and now I find that Arthurian stuff fascinating. lol. I never knew much about King Arthur until I read this, and now I get it. When you finish the book, it leaves you with a sad, yet hopeful feeling. Oh, it makes me wish that Guinevere, Merlin, and all the characters were true. So, overall, I suggest you read this book, because it's so entertaining.

I'm only half-way through this book and I felt I needed to say that this is one of the best Arthurian "woman-based" novels that I have ever read. In fact, I read Ms. McKenzie's newer novel about Galahad first, and then went back to Queen of Camelot. These are books that are meant to be savored from word to word. I have been a Marion Zimmer Bradley fan from the first time I picked up the Mists of Avalon and this is the first time I've felt that a book is even close to its equal in its understanding of the women of the Arthurian legend and their side of the conflict. Guenivere is portrayed here as a woman of the time with genuine frailties that she overcomes with courage and strength. She is as realistic to me as Morgaine was in the Mists of Avalon and yet this is an entirely different method of story-telling (and more historically accurate).I strongly recommend that anyone who has read the Mists of Avalon read this book as well. As I have said, it is written from a different perspective, but it is no less compelling in its own way.

Although it does not correctly correspond to the true tale of King Arthur (so says my boyfriend according to the book "The Once and Future King"), I, too, greatly enjoyed this bittersweet book depicting the great legend of Camelot, King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and others. I loved the attention Ms. McKenzie put to the details of everything she wrote about. There were times that I wished the book would go faster but it kept my interest enough to be finished within three days. At the end, I mourned at the characters' fate and I wished that somehow they were real and I could change the way things ended. Nonetheless, it is a truly memorable book, though I don't think I can read the book again because it is too painful to fall in love with the characters and then bear their fate again..