A review by lsneal
The White Raven by Diana L. Paxson, Thomas Canty

1.0

A fairly dry retelling of the Tristan & Isolde story, from the point of view of Isolde's cousin/servant Branwen. The scenery descriptions were lovely, and the details of the festivals complete and scholarly, but the characters were pretty wooden. Isolde/Esseilte is just a selfish shrew the entire time. Tristan/Drustan was mildly more interesting, but we don't spend as much time with him. Branwen is supposed to be our heroine here, but she's pretty dull, for someone in constant contact with the spirit world. Still, it might have been 2 stars, were it not for the utterly gratuitous and pointless section of the book where Branwen is repeatedly raped by a side character but...likes it? Because she's just a weak woman ruled by her body? Despite this being utterly against her character throughout the rest of the book? But then the dude does something cowardly and THEN she decides she doesn't like it anymore and decides to blow up everything to bring about the denouement of the story? It's utterly gross and ridiculous. Not recommended.