Customer Reviews

The Dragon Queen (Tales of Guinevere)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Alice Borchardt presents an interesting take on the Arthur/Guinevere story in The Dragon Queen. Guinevere is the daughter of a Celtic queen. She is hidden from the arch-druid Merlin at an early age and is raised by a druid and family of wolves and werewolves. During the story, she grows into powerful magic and fearlessly confronts every situation that she is thrown into. Merlin and Igraine are cast as evil sorcerers who torment the young Arthur and plot for power. Guinevere and Arthur must navigate the trials that they are thrown into by Merlin and Igraine if they are to win their thrones and be reunited.

Borchardt paints a vivid picutre of Britian in the Dark Ages. She has no trouble setting up scenes of legendary castles and fantastic worlds populated with dragons and goddesses. However, the plot often bounces around abruptly, which may leave you confused about which characters you are following. I found myself having to go back and re-read paragraphs and pages until I figured out what was really happening. The dialogue is uneven and several of the characters can't seem to find a consistent voice or personality. The main characters are either near-perfect (Guinevere, Arthur, Maeniel the werewolf) or consummately evil (Merlin, Igraine) with little room in-between. While that isn't a showstopper in a good vs. evil tale, it would be nice to have a character the reader could relate to.

Guinevere's many adventures seem to have only one point: to give her more magical victories and allies. Arthur enters the tale about halfway through the book, and he is also launched into several trials. Arthur's courage and nobility are showcased during his struggles, but they don't seem to advance the plot. His adventures might acquire more relevance in the sequels. The concepts and twists added to the Arthur legend are fascinating, but because of the inconsistent dialogue and the abrupt transitions I was not able to settle in and enjoy the storyline.

When I saw the sub-title "The Tales of Guinevere" for Alice Borchardt's "The Dragon Queen," I assumed she was going off in a new direction and since I was waiting for her next wolf book I just got around to reading it and discovering that it is, tangentially, a wolf book. What this means is that Maeniel is a character, albeit, a supporting character. He dominates the scenes in which he is present, but they are relatively few. This story is indeed about Guinevere, about to reach puberty and apparently intended to be the concubine of young Arthur, the summer King.

The most interesting part of this book are the ideas of kingship and queenship that drive Arthur and Guinevere. Borchardt may or may not be dealing with authentic notions of kingship from this period of history, but that hardly matters. The idea that the Dragon Queen has the duty of bringing her people a worthy king makes Guinevere a player in the power politics of her world where there is a growing need to bring order out of chaos. Reading "The Dragon Queen" is as much about finding out the rules of the game and the possibilities in play as it is about learning about the abilities and intentions of the characters. Consequently, Maneniel's presence is perhaps something of a hindrance because this book is certainly less grounded in the history of the times than "The Silver Wolf" or Borchardt's other novels. Then again, there is a logic to this, since Arthur and Guinevere are more figures of legend than Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.

Having read "The Dragon Queen" I keep asking myself one key question, and I do not mean whether Borchardt will ever have a book that does not have a quote from Anne Rice on the cover. No, my question is why is this story about Guinevere and Arthur? Of course, the fact that "The Dragon Queen" is the first of a planned trilogy is enough to suggest that at least the title character would make it to the final volume, but once you make it about Guinevere and Arthur we pretty much know the endgame, and while I definitely appreciate the idea of making Guinevere more than a trophy wife there has to be more of a payoff to this idea down the road, especially given that this Arthur seems more given to pragmatics than idealism. Additionally, there needs to be some sort of a significance to turning Merlin into a villain. However, at this point my enjoyment of the characters and the story has little to do with that fact it is Guinevere and Arthur. The only important thing is that I will be around for the rest of the tale.

This is an absolutely fascinating tale of Guinevere, brilliantly written and told from the perspective that she was not just another pretty face, but a force to be reckoned with in her own right. Those who do not like tales of powerful women or the rewriting of a beloved legend may not like this book; however, Arthur is not slighted in this novel at all and proves himself to be a worthy consort, surviving trials of his own. The secondary characters, be they shape-shifting wolves, dragons, or Druids, are fabulous and extremely well-developed. A caution: It may be a bit unsettling to see Merlin as a villian, especially if you have read Mary Stewart's wonderful "The Crystal Cave" and its sequels.

Borchardt is an amazing story teller, and this book will leave you breathlessly awaiting the two sequels in the trilogy. Highly recommended!

I love fantasy books and I liked Alice Borchardt's previous wolf books and the Devoted books. But this book jumps from character to character, from story to story, from one "world" to the next "world" with very little in the way of transition, explanation or logic. I understand that this book is about "magical" things and events, but for goodness sake, I found myself wondering what the heck was going on WAY more often than is necessary. And I kept thinking that at the end it would end up making some sort of sense...but no such luck. Get Ms. Borchardt's other books and skip this one.

I totally agree with the reader from Long Island, and I wish I would have taken what she said to heart before I bought this book. I'm about halfway through, and Borchardt is all over the place-between the talking dragons, Guinevere's hand that acts as a torch, and an evil Merlin and Igraine, I'm not finding this to be a very satisfying book. I'm the kind of person that won't put a book down once I find a decent one, and let's just say it's been a few days since I've picked The Dragon Queen up. I also find it strange that Maenial can turn into a wolf, and the whole story just seems weird-I would strongly suggest that someone interested in Arthurian legend try either Stephen Lawhead, or my all time fave Jack Whyte, who takes an ancient Roman viewpoint on it all, in his Camulod Chronicles.

I tried so hard to give this book the benefit of the doubt--I read it cover to cover, even though it was at times almost physically painful. I usually avoid arthurian fiction because the topic has been done to death, but I was drawn in by the reviews and the beautiful graphic design of the cover. When it comes down to it, no one has mastered the arthurian legends better than Marion Zimmer Bradley, and I'd recommend any reader try the Mists of Avalon, rather than this grotesque disappointment.

READERS BEWARE! The editorial reviews LIE! I was suckered in by claims of historical accuracy (the San Jose Mercury News claimed that this book was "well grounded in the history, politics, and religions of the time...")
There's a certain smattering of genuine history, politics, and accuracy, but this book mostly reads like a childish flight of fancy... Or maybe a series of disconnected vignettes/short stories. I was unconvinced by the strange and apparently unintentional mingling of pagan and christian theology, and I have NEVER heard of a Celtic god names "Dis", much less any Celtic god of 'Hell' which is flatly impossible--Hell is, after all, a purely Christian invention. Even beyond the confusing religious aspects, the main characters are supposed to be children, but hardly ever act like it; they've even been hyper-sexualized in places, too, which is disturbing in the extreme.
To make matters worse, the plot rambles in strangely disjointed directions until I could no longer suspend disbelief. (Case in point: Guinevere is hauled back in time by a nameless goddess to fight a dinosaur. That's not what they call it, but that's essentially what the author described. And then, for no explicable reason, that dinosaur turns into a Greek faun.) If you are looking for a well-researched and legitimate alternative interpretation of Guinevere's origins, look elsewhere!

I found this entire book hard to follow--it flitted between characters and situations that seemed only loosely related. The 'magic' was not thought out, in as much as that it had no logical rules or structure. Strange things just happened, and the reader is left wondering why.

Let me just conclude by saying that this unfortunate impulse purchase was the WORST book I've read in years (I don't usually feel compelled to write reviews at all, so it's a testament to the negative power of this book that I actually took the time to do this!) It could have benefitted from a very diligent and strong-willed editor. And I have heard that Anne Rice prides herself on having her books published 'as-written' and with no editing... I wonder if her sister has made the same tragic mistake.

Sadly enough, I bought the Raven Warrior with the Dragon Queen, though I can't imagine ever forcing myself to read it.

I picked this book to read because 1) I liked the cover, 2) I liked the Arthur/Guinevere legends, and 3) I read the first bit of the book and it had a lot of potential.

Unfortunately, as I kept reading, this book became more and more confusing. As many other people already mentioned, there are quite a few moments when I had to re-read the scene because I had no idea what was going on.

I also liked the character Guinevere, but in a way she was too perfect!! And I'm also still wondering why Alice Borchardt decided to make Merlin evil.

I kept reading this book hoping that my questions would be answered, but sooner than I thought, the ending was already there and I was more confused than ever.

However, the great thing about this book is that I actually kept reading it. Alice Borchardt writes magnificently, and I was really swept away into her world.

I'm currently about halfway through this book and am finding the intense desire to skip pages to get to a decent plot. This is not to see that the actual plot is bad - unfortunatly it's difficult to find. One must wade through page after page of pointless subplot before getting to anything of substance. If I would have known that, I probably wouldn't have picked this book up.

i found this book in my teacher's stash, and since i was stuck in one of the boring beginnings of jordan's WoT series, i picked this one up, and surprisingly couldnt put it down. i was a little daunted at first when i found out borchardt's rice's sister, she's a 'wee' bit on the sensual side, so ive heard, but it was surprisingly good. at times you do have to reread a paragraph or so, i dont know if it's because my mind borders miniscual or if it really requires you to do so, but i did. im not an arthurian legend fanatic, and from the vastness of the books in the catagory i dont want to be, but this is an excellent spin on the sometimes annoying retellings. it's shall we say uncanny.

Apparently you either love this book, or loathe it. I am the latter. I typically read a book a week, and this book has been sitting on my nightstand for 3 months. That is HIGHLY unusual. Borchardt is an interesting writer- not bad at all- but this book is just terrible. It's very confusing; she writes as though this was the third book in a volume and not the first- the characters all have history from the first pages but she does not go into any detail, leaving the reader extremely confused. She dashes between times and locations very abruptly. It's also apparent that she, like her sister, has an obsession with legenday monsters (in Borchardt's case, the werewolf), but honestly, werewolfs don't belong in an Arthurian tale- it just comes off stupid. I know where she was trying to go with it, but it just never got there. If you are looking for a different take on the Arthurian legend, take the other reviewers advice to heart and pass this one up. I also suggest A.A. Attanasio's tales of Arthur, starting with The Dragon & The Unicorn... its a powerful series.