Supposedly a melange of stories, but 100 pages in it was just a girl having an affair with a married financial whiz and I gave up.
Neither the story nor the characters were interesting enough to keep me reading.
The story of an astounding woman who lived around the turning of the first milennium A.D. A Norman princess, she married two kings of England, mother of another, and aunt of William the Bastard who captured England in 1066.
Unfortunately, what could have been a thilling story is totally lost in historical details such as the various types of marriage and the status conferred by donation of a saint’s arm bone to an abbey. Information that could be used to bring Emma’s world to life is just scattered through the book, and there is no real story to hold the reader’s interest.
This omnibus consists of two separate but sequential books. The Child Queen starts with Guinevere’s birth and ends with Arthur summoning Morgause’s sons from Orkney. The High Queen starts with Niniane telling Arthur that Merlin is alive and continues through Arthur’s death. Any book that starts by acknowledging a debt to Mary Stewart’s wonderful Merlin series sounds promising, and McKenzie borrows character names and events from Stewart’s stories as well. But she varies from the Stewart mythos enough to be disquieting to Stewart fans. Someone less familiar with Stewart would probably enjoy this story more than I did: McKenzie offers up love, jealousy, honor, betrayal, kingship, humanity, and some new threads. Just as in Stewart’s The Wicked Day, I found The High Queen depressing as fate closes in on the son who adores Arthur but knows he will be his death. I also have to admit I prefer her contention that Lancelot and Guinevere never betrayed Arthur; while they may well have loved each other, I never believed that two such honor-bound people could commit adultery. I gave up about 400 pages through the 600+-page book; I don’t believe in irresistible fate and don’t enjoy reading about good people suffering it.
Yet another narrative that just isn’t interesting. This author compounds his boring story with interjections of not-necessarily related material, such as the history of libraries and his visit to NYC a couple of years after 9/11, that produce a disjointed feeling.
There are generally two classes of fantasy. One kind features normal life and is generally cheerful except for the story conflict; the Dragons of Pern series is a good example. The second is considerably more gloomy, often with complicated story interrelationships and characters who all have their own agenda, and frankly I don't enjoy this type. Queen of dragons is the second type, and apparently the middle of a series to boot. 'Nuff said.