Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Other Fantasy Novels

I just completed my reading Book One of the old Arthurian saga by Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave. I was impressed by her cleverness in extending the tale, but disappointed in two aspects of her storytelling.

First, I don't think her male characters were 'male' enough. Especially in sexual scenes, Stewart didn't seem to express a male view.

Secondly, in some magical or extremely emotional scenes, her writing lost its clarity and she seemed to retreat into a confusing prose that tossed unconnected images back and forth, as if she wished to overwhelm the reader, because she really didn't know how to express what was happening in the scene.

In all, the feel of the story was like historical more than fantasy fiction.