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Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword of Avalon
 
 
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Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword of Avalon [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Diana L. Paxson (Author), Lorna Raver (Narrator)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Avalon December 28, 2009
<DIV>Marion Zimmer Bradley's legendary saga of Avalon's extraordinary women continues with a tale of fiery visions, a lost king, and a forthcoming destiny.</div>

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anyone familiar with Arthurian lore knows of the magical sword given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake, but the origins of the sword itself have been a mystery until now. Paxon continues Marion Zimmer Bradley's beloved Arthurian saga in this sprawling epic that traces the provenance of the sword to the iron of a meteor—and the gods themselves. It's a detailed plot and a long listen, but Lorna Raver reads with the immediacy and intimacy of a fireside storyteller. She creates believable characters, juggles the diverse cast, adds pulsing momentum—all while staying ethereal enough to convey all the romance and magic of the legend. A Roc hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 12). (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Paxson is an excellent choice as successor to Bradley for this series. Her style and the details of the plot retain the sense of the mysterious past and the feminist awareness that was an underlying theme in the originals." <BR>-<I>Chronicle</I> --Chronicle

[Audio Review] Anyone familiar with Arthurian lore knows of the magical sword given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake, but the origins of the sword itself have been a mystery until now. Paxon continues Marion Zimmer Bradley's beloved Arthurian saga in this sprawling epic that traces the provenance of the sword to the iron of a meteor and the gods themselves. It's a detailed plot and a long listen, but Lorna Raver reads with the immediacy and intimacy of a fireside storyteller. She creates believable characters, juggles the diverse cast, adds pulsing momentum all while staying ethereal enough to convey all the romance and magic of the legend. --Publisher's Weekly

[Audio Review] Diana Paxson continues the Avalon series with this prequel, set at the end of the Bronze Age. The Lady of Avalon rescues the baby Mikantor, the son of a hundred kings and subject of a prophecy that makes him a target of the evil sorcerer Galid. Some of Lorna Raver's male voices, particularly that of Galid, sound a bit strained, but they re effective portrayals and do not detract from the overall quality of the performance. The intensity of her narration rises and falls with the drama of the plot. Raver clearly reflects the reverence of those who consider the Lady of Avalon their holy priestess and the passionate contempt shown to the lady by Galid. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine --AudioFile

Product Details

  • Audio CD
  • Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged Library - CD edition (December 28, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1400141877
  • ISBN-13: 978-1400141876
  • Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 7.1 x 1.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,289,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was brought up in southern California, but came north to attend Mills College and never left. I got my M.A. in (medieval) Comparative Literature from the University of California in 1966, the same year I put on the first tournament of what was to become the Society for Creative Anachronism. Since 1971 I've lived at Greyhaven, a hundred-year old house in Berkeley, with successive generations of family, friends, cats and dogs.

It's a literary family, including my husband, Jon DeCles, and the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, who was my mentor as a writer as well as colleague in founding Darkmoon Circle. My first published novel was Mistress of the Jewels, which began the chronicles of Westria. After I had written several historical fantasies, Marion, whose health deteriorated after she wrote Mists of Avalon, asked me to help her with The Forest House, which is how I ended up writing the Avalon series.

Much of the spiritual experience in my novels comes out of my work in the pagan community. I have now begun to publish that material in a series of non-fiction books, the most recent being Trance-Portation. My most recent novel is Sword of Avalon, set at the end of the Bronze Age, which gave me an opportunity to explore the end of the Homeric Age and the techniques of bronze- and iron-forging.

For more about my work, see:

www.westria.org
www.avalonbooks.net
www.seidh.org

 

Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars super prequel, December 4, 2009
At the end of the Bronze Age on the Island of the Mighty off the western coast of Europe, traitors kill the royal rulers of Ai-Zir; burning to the ground the village of Azon. Fearing for her nephew the rightful ruler and believing in a vision that once the mists clear he will be king, pregnant Anderle the Lady of Avon flees with young Mikantor before he is assassinated. Although she regrets having to do so, she leaves him with others to raise. Anderle gives birth to Tirilan before returning to Avalon with sadness in her heart.

After being sold into slavery. Mikantor eventually works for blacksmith bastard Prince Velantos whose father is the King of Tiryns on the Achaea Peninsula in the Middle Sea. Meanwhile back home in Avalon, while evil sorcerer Galid tries to take control of the kingdom with only Anderle opposing him, rumors abound that the rightful heir to the throne is returning so killers are sent forth to find and assassinate him without understanding the fulfilling prophecy they start. Tirilan, who loves Mikantor, assumes he is dead in spite of her mom's belief so she becomes a celibate priestess.

The latest Avalon fantasy is a super prequel that will grip fans of the saga and should lead newcomers to seek the backlist. The story line is fast-paced throughout while the cast is as strong as Excalibur. This is a winner as Diana L. Paxson provides a strong tale that will surely leave the late great Marion Zimmer Bradley smiling with joy with this entry in her beloved saga.

Harriet Klausner
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Asatru and Celtic influences, January 3, 2010
By 
Rede Seeker (League City, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
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I have all the 'Avalon' series. The 'Sword of Avalon' is a quick read for it's 400+ pages. It answers some questions which, for me at least, lingered from earlier stories but left several unanswered.

I cannot speak to the Celtic influences in this story, however I find many Asatru parallels: Ragnarok represented as the battle between Britons with Hope and those without Hope; the formation of a Warrior Band/Commitatus around a hereditary hero (Son of a Hundred Kings); a foreign-born smith who forges the Sword of Power; initiation of the Warrior-King.

As a hand-spinner, myself, I appreciated the appearance of the Three Queens with their spindles 'spinning glistening threads from the flowing streams of light that swirled across the land...'. However, it is the drafting motion of the spinner's fingers which pulls the fibers down, not the weight of the spindle as described in the story.

A problem I have with most of the 'Avalon' series is that I find it creepy to see Marion Zimmer Bradley's credits without also acknowledging that she passed in 1999. I suppose that is an issue for the editor or publisher more than the author. We are fortunate that she had collaborated closely with someone so that the stories could continue with some consistency.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "Sword of Avalon" Kindle edition, December 29, 2009
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I have read several books in the Bradley/Paxson "Avalon" series and found them to be good but deep reading, so I chose "Sword of Avalon" as my first download to my Kindle. It is set in the late Bronze Age and describes how Excalibur, the Sword of Avalon, was crafted -- one of the first swords to be crafted in bronze rather than steel. We see the Priestesses of Avalon, we see ancient Celtic celebrations, and we see a fast-paced story, just as we would expect in this series.

Those who know the series are aware that there are many pages of front matter (lists of characters, places, and other information) and often back matter describing how and where the author found the facts to back the tale. Though this book was good, its complexity coupled with mastering the usage of the Kindle make it a less than the best choice for a first-time Kindle user. It kept my interest well enough, however, for me to want to keep it in my Kindle and try again after I've mastered the usage of the Kindle better and read a few less complex works with it.
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