Customer Reviews

Ancestors of Avalon

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The world of fantasy lost a great voice when Marion Zimmer Bradley died. Her protégé and collaborator, Diana Paxson, deserves credit for trying to keep that voice alive.

Now please, don't ever do it again.

There is so much wrong with "Ancestors of Avalon" I don't even know where to begin. How about the fact that the book is entirely unnecessary? From veiled hints and glimpses of past incarnations, astute readers will have already managed to piece together a pretty good idea of how the vows of Deoris and Domaris, the two sisters from "Fall of Atlantis," shaped the world and lineage of Avalon. Why, then, do we need to hear the specifics of how the Atlantean refugees built Stonehenge, or settled at the Tor? Short answer: We don't. Long answer: We don't, and thanks a lot for boring us with it anyway.

Then there's Paxson's writing style, which is unfortunately so inferior to MZB's that I had to go back and read "Fall of Atlantis" just to cleanse the bad taste out of my mouth. Every sentence is either ridiculously expository or hopelessly vague. And the exclamation points! So annoying! Like a ninth-grader's email! Furthermore, the story just DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. I'm sorry, but Micail and Tiriki end up the equivalent of three towns over from each other, but they don't find each other for FIVE YEARS?

Speaking of the characters, most are so poorly drawn that at times I literally could not remember whether certain characters were even male or female. And far from MZB's wonderfully nuanced and conflicted portrayals of, say, Riveda or Lancelot, here all we get are cartoons. In Paxon's Avalon, anyone who was rich and privileged in Atlantis will invariably become a power-mad egomaniac bent on exploiting the British natives, while her "good-hearted" characters love their savage brethren and rail against the injustices of their countrymen. Oh no! Damisa thinks. Will I join the clearly delineated forces of evil and enslave the natives so I can keep wearing silk and drinking decent wine, or will I become a force of truth, justice, and the Atlantean way by painting myself blue and grubbing in the muck in a thinly veiled attempt at atonement for my race's arrogance? Boooring.

If you're a fan of "Mists of Avalon" I know you think you need to read this book, but honestly, you don't, and you shouldn't. Sometimes certain things are better left unsaid, and this story is one of them.

When I learned that a new installment in the Avalon series was published, I was thrilled. "The Mists of Avalon" is one of my favorite novels and I have read all of Bradley's other novels in the series. Diana L. Paxson who collaberated with Bradley on one of the Avalon books, decided to take on the prequal and link Bradley's Avalon series with Bradley's Atlantis novel. She should have left both alone.

Paxson cannot write. I would go as far as to call her work drivvel. It was terrible. The chacters were unsympathetic and hollow. They contained no substance whatsoever and as a reader I could not connect with them. Their speech was all wrong as well. Paxson had the characters swearing and using modern day slang! The whole novel was contrived, poorly written and not at all inline with Bradley's previous writings.

I cannot advise anyone to read this novel, it was so poor.

I'm a huge MZB fan, so I had to get this. I'm really discouraged by Paxon's work. The effort to make a storyline was a good one, the result was not.

There are too many characters and it's difficult to tell them apart, they're so similiar! Part of the cast ends up in one place, the other in another. While there is a list of characters and a brief, one-line description at the beginning of the novel, it's just not nearly enough. I was reading about one girl, and I was asking myself, "Who is this? Elara? Cleta? Damisa?" They're really that indistinguishable.

The characters are also very static. The good ones do No Wrong. the bad ones are Suspects From the Start. What I enjoyed about MZB's books is that the characters were like real people--they made some bad choices, some good, some totally uncomprehensible.

AoA does explain the transition from Sun-worship (masculine) to Moon-worship (feminine), and I'll give Paxton credit for that.

Out of loyality to Marion Zimmer Bradley's masterpiece "The Mists of Avalon", I really tried very hard to get into this book. But among the cheesy dialog, one-dimensional cardboard characters, and the author's annoyingly constant use of points of ellipsis -- forget it. I forced myself to get to page 174 (because of the money I spent on this) and decided I'm not going to torture myself anymore. Time would have been better spent reading "Mists" for the fourth time instead. Paxton's novel is an insult to Bradley's legacy.

Don't read this book. Don't go near it. Diana Paxson may like to pretend that she is the replacement of Marion Zimmer Bradley, but she doesn't come close. This book contains none of the magic that Ms. Bradley put into her books, nor the richness. I barely made it through the first few chapters before I threw it away. I understand that Ms. Bradley was planning on making a book that connect 'Fall of Atlantis' to 'Mists of Avalon' and all those books, but she sadly left us, and Ms. Paxson should have left the series alone instead of tainting it. I can see Ms. Bradley rolling over in her grave right now.

I love Marion Zimmer Bradley's self written Avalon books. Their mixture of the conflicting pagan and chirstian religions, history, and fantasy were nothing short of to/die/for. I was astounded when I saw this book was being released (awhile ago). I saw that it was actually written by Bradley's protege: Diana Paxson. I haven't read any full novels by her (are there any?) but I have read many short stories and for the most part they range from good to excellent, so I was sort of expecting Marion Zimmer Bradley quality, unfortunately I expected too much.

The feel I got while reading this was that of the pulpy fantasy books ala Dragonlance series and the such. You know the ones, where an author spews out 3 or 4 books a month in the series and the stories are all similar. That's how I felt with this. Plus the names, gods the names! Some of them were okay, but Tiriki?! Come on! And I hate those hyphenated names, so pulp fantasy! Feel free to add some realism to fantasy, it makes is so much better. Another complaint was the believability of characters, especially between the Priest Micail and Preistess (groan) Tiriki. They are husband and wife, lovers. It is very unrealistic that they would always agree on every single issue of everything *lovingly*! That never happens. People are different and disagree! Gah! Those characters and other just seemed to be cardboard cutouts and you really didn't care about them (unlike in The Mists of Avalon).

And my! Final! Complaint!!!! !!! Guess what it is! It seemed about every other sentence of dialogue had an exclamation mark. That is way to much and out of place. It was horrific.

Other than that it was a decently average read. I'm not going to throw it out or disown the author. I'm a completist and want to have all the Avalon books. Plus I would read it again if I want to read the series in chronological order (again). I know Miss Paxson has the ability to write great fiction, lets just hope this was the runt of her herd.

I saw Bradleys name, picked it up and ran to catch my plane. I was so happy to be reading another book by Bradley. My enthusiam soon began to diminish. Something was wrong. I felt irritated. The characters were shallow, the world meaningless. In the first chapter, she has all the brown natives, staring upwards, astonished, at the fair featured and smarter rulers of the land. Uggggh! I looked at the outside cover again. Noticed another name. Ohhhhh, I get it. On my return flight terminal bookstore, literally angry at the void this farce had created, I demanded my money back on the terms that the cover was depressingly misleading. They complied. Being an arist myself, and continually trying to see art from every non-judgemental side, it's quite difficult for me to write such a negative review. I think the mistake that was made was the tricky misleading "author advertising" on the front of the book. If I had bought the book thinking it was from just "any" author, I might not have such a strong reaction.

This book could have been much better if it had been longer, perhaps. With such a large cast of characters we needed more time with them to really care. But years flit by between chapters, and everyone ends up looking the same by the end.

A prophecy has come to pass. Atlantis is doomed. Its people, from craftsmen to priests and priestesses, are now refugees seeking a new home.

The horrific situation in which they find themselves is an opportunity for an author to build to climax after climax, to give her readers a roller-coaster of a ride. Having read Ms. Paxson's Hallowed Isles series, I expected as much.

It wasn't there.

The characters are flat and wishy-washy. The women are way too upbeat. (Did they have Happy Pills in 2,000 B.C.?) A princess, Damisa, promised to be interesting, but she turns out to be only slightly less milquetoasty. Micail, a priest and prince, and supposedly one of the wisest, is convinced that a foolish assumption is true.

The priestesses are almost always smiling, walking on the sunny side of the street. That outlook seems to come not from wisdom, spirituality and knowledge, but from a lack.

As for the story, there's little edge or conflict. Oh, there's plenty of potential for it! Which makes it all the more disappointing that such opportunities are blanched over. Everyone's just so gosh-darn nice.

I liked the beginning, the sense of history it gave. And I like how "magic" is presented, as a real force that, used properly, maintains a balance of Earth's powers; how the loss of their islands is the result of good intentions gone bad (though evil intentions would've given the story some kick).

I wonder if Ms. Paxson may have felt restrained by carrying on MZB's mission. Perhaps her hands were tied and she wasn't given free reign to write the story in her own way?

It's a pleasant read, but only a mildly interesting one.

The things that compelled me to read this book were: 1. I was hoping another masterpiece like "Mists" would come along in the series (which of course didnt happen... but that was truly special book), and 2. This series is just SO fascinating... how could i NOT read it? It's REQUIRED reading! :)

It was an enjoyable read overall, but not superb..some parts made me not want to put the book down, some parts were slow..and unfortunately, the ending was disappointing. I enjoy both authors' works, so writing style wasnt a problem. After reading some of the other reviewers thoughts on that subject... I have to say not all of MZB's novels were perfection, and Ms. Paxson has written some amazing books. They are equally good writers. But, the story was sort of just a repeat of some of the other themes of the Avalon series...like the relationship between Tiriki and Micael.. it felt like we've already heard that story.

However, what reader of the Avalon series could NOT read this book? It would be like a Star Wars Fan refusing to see Episode I. I would have given this book a 3.5, rather than a 3.