A review by loram
I, Morgana by Felicity Pulman
2.0
First of all, the book is written in present tense, which I feel always puts a book at a disadvantage as few writers can pull off writing present tense without slipping tenses and it's very difficult, at least for me, to engage with a story written in present tense. There is good reason why novels are traditionally written in past tense with very few exceptions.
Moving past that, the book starts out well in the Prologue with Morgana speaking in first person in her old age, making references to events of the past. She proceeds to tell her story, starting in childhood in the first chapter as Merlin teaches her basic shapeshifting and other magic.
Various accepted points of Arthurian legend are recapped through the story, but in this version Morgana is to rule Cornwall and she has the support of Merlin himself.
As we get to know Morgana, we learn of her strengths and resentments. There is rather a lot of resentment for her brother, Arthur, in particular. She has a maternal sort of love for her baby brother until he gets a little older and begins to join in her lessons with Merlin.
Morgan feels that she is better and brighter than Arthur and just about everybody else, and she has a strong sense of entitlement. Merlin teaches her about tree lore and herbs and early on in the story it already seems unrealistic in that Morgana doesn't seem to accept the role of a girl, which in that time would be more than unusual.
Morgause comes into play as a younger sister. I've only seen her before in the Mary Stewart books, which seem to split the role of the legendary Morgan LeFay between Morgause and a younger sister called Morgian. There were also several characters which had been initited into the body of Arthurian literature by other modern writers, though Pullman does add two of her own.
I, Morgana paints Arthur as ambitious and resentful towards Morgana. As he grows into older childhood, he seems bratty and determined to take Morgana's birthright from her. He is not like the legendary benevolent Arthur of legend at all. The story depicts the famous incident of the sword in the stone, using the classical sequence of events, but as a trick of Merlin to get the petty kings to accept Arthur as king of all Britain.
I found it difficult to like Morgana. She travels the country raising support for her claim and feels herself continually belittled for being a woman, but overall she seems to be bitter and resentful all the time with no redeeming value to make her an attractive choice for ruler of Cornwall, never mind all of Britain. I found her disappointing, considering that Morgan LeFay is a character that I've found very interesting in the context of Arthurian legends for most of my reading life.
The story is written with a style of telling that is mostly Morgan's internal thoughts. There is no real action and limited dialogue.
To her credit she does show maternal love for her child, Mordred, but was cold about his conception and much of what she does is motivated by hate and resentment. The biggest problem that I had with this book is that *all* of the characters seem to be self-serving and resentful. Even Lancelot is a cad and displays some very unchivilrous behavior. Mordred, of course, is a complete monster. Guenevere is quite the harpy too.
Apart from being written in present tense, the writing is generally good. There is one fairly graphic sex scene, which I felt was unnecessary in a book that is not erotica. The plot meandered a lot in the second half and seemed to be trying to get all the characters that have ever been written into Arthurian stories in for a mention. Overall it was a fairly disappointing treatment of a character from the Arthurian legends that I thought could have been done much better.
Moving past that, the book starts out well in the Prologue with Morgana speaking in first person in her old age, making references to events of the past. She proceeds to tell her story, starting in childhood in the first chapter as Merlin teaches her basic shapeshifting and other magic.
Various accepted points of Arthurian legend are recapped through the story, but in this version Morgana is to rule Cornwall and she has the support of Merlin himself.
As we get to know Morgana, we learn of her strengths and resentments. There is rather a lot of resentment for her brother, Arthur, in particular. She has a maternal sort of love for her baby brother until he gets a little older and begins to join in her lessons with Merlin.
Morgan feels that she is better and brighter than Arthur and just about everybody else, and she has a strong sense of entitlement. Merlin teaches her about tree lore and herbs and early on in the story it already seems unrealistic in that Morgana doesn't seem to accept the role of a girl, which in that time would be more than unusual.
Morgause comes into play as a younger sister. I've only seen her before in the Mary Stewart books, which seem to split the role of the legendary Morgan LeFay between Morgause and a younger sister called Morgian. There were also several characters which had been initited into the body of Arthurian literature by other modern writers, though Pullman does add two of her own.
I, Morgana paints Arthur as ambitious and resentful towards Morgana. As he grows into older childhood, he seems bratty and determined to take Morgana's birthright from her. He is not like the legendary benevolent Arthur of legend at all. The story depicts the famous incident of the sword in the stone, using the classical sequence of events, but as a trick of Merlin to get the petty kings to accept Arthur as king of all Britain.
I found it difficult to like Morgana. She travels the country raising support for her claim and feels herself continually belittled for being a woman, but overall she seems to be bitter and resentful all the time with no redeeming value to make her an attractive choice for ruler of Cornwall, never mind all of Britain. I found her disappointing, considering that Morgan LeFay is a character that I've found very interesting in the context of Arthurian legends for most of my reading life.
The story is written with a style of telling that is mostly Morgan's internal thoughts. There is no real action and limited dialogue.
To her credit she does show maternal love for her child, Mordred, but was cold about his conception and much of what she does is motivated by hate and resentment. The biggest problem that I had with this book is that *all* of the characters seem to be self-serving and resentful. Even Lancelot is a cad and displays some very unchivilrous behavior. Mordred, of course, is a complete monster. Guenevere is quite the harpy too.
Apart from being written in present tense, the writing is generally good. There is one fairly graphic sex scene, which I felt was unnecessary in a book that is not erotica. The plot meandered a lot in the second half and seemed to be trying to get all the characters that have ever been written into Arthurian stories in for a mention. Overall it was a fairly disappointing treatment of a character from the Arthurian legends that I thought could have been done much better.