17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Hypnotic, June 9, 2010
This review is from: Merlin's Harp (Paperback)
Reading Merlin's Harp, I realized something about novels that portray the interaction between the human world and Faerie. They usually don't tell the stories of fae folk in their own homeland. There are exceptions, of course, but authors tend to focus on faeries stuck in the human world, or humans encountering Faerie. I think I may know why that is. When writing about faeries living in Faerie, it's all too easy to have nothing happen.
Anne Eliot Crompton uses beautiful, if occasionally stilted, language to draw us into her take on Arthurian legend:
"When I was yet a young woman I threw my heart away.
I fashioned a wee coracle of leaf and willow twig and reed, a coracle that sat in the hollow of my two palms. In this I placed my wounded, wretched heart, and I set it adrift on the rain-misted wavelets of the Fey river, and I watched it bob and whirl, sail and sink. Ever since I have lived heartless, or almost heartless, cold as spring rain, the way Humans think all Fey live. Humans I have known would be astounded to learn that I ever had a heart that leapt, brightened, fainted, quickened, warmed, embraced, froze or rejected, like their own."
The narrator is Niviene, daughter of the Lady of the Lake. In the ensuing chapters, Niviene endeavors to tell us how she came to the point of throwing her heart away. This ornate, image-rich prose continues, and Niviene meanders and digresses in her tale. She'll mention an old family friend, then backtrack and tell us all about how she came to meet him before going back to the main thread of her narrative.
By combining the flowery style with a narrative that is ever looping back on itself, Crompton conveys a sense of what Faerie is said to be like. It's beautiful and hypnotic, and time doesn't flow in Faerie the way it does in the human realm. The trouble is, it's *too* hypnotic. Lulling. Dreamlike. Reading Merlin's Harp made me sleepy. While falling into an enchanted slumber and waking on the cold hillside is very much in keeping with Faerie tradition, it doesn't help propel one through a novel.
It also doesn't help that not much happens in the first hundred pages or so, which is as far as I got before giving up. Roughly the first ninety pages are taken up with an interpretation of the Lady of Shalott tale, and a rather uninteresting one. The main problem is Gwenevere, who spends this entire sequence drugged and being toddled around like a doll. Sure, she's gorgeous, but can physical beauty alone account for the trouble she unwittingly causes here? I've seen sympathetic Gweneveres and unsympathetic ones, but all the best portrayals afford her some charisma that helps explain why she is so loved.
This is followed by a four-page sequence (I counted) in which Niviene gets pregnant and gives birth to a son, the son grows to the age of five, and then the son goes missing. All in four pages. That was when I decided to give up. If it takes ninety pages for a young boy to break a young girl's heart in favor of a pretty woman in a stupor, and four pages for a fetus to become a five-year-old, the pacing is just a little too strange for me, Faerie or no.
Merlin's Harp contains some lovely language and an interesting perspective on the Matter of Britain, but finally the pacing and the hypnotic effect were too much for me. I recommend it to fans of lush prose who have plenty of coffee on hand.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The writing is lyrical; the plot twists are original. Great!, December 20, 1996
By A Customer
Merlin's Harp is an exquisite addition to Arthurian literature. Anne Crompton's writing is lyrical and beautiful. It
leads you into the story and keeps you there. Her very
original presentation of well known characters, well known
story lines, and even objects such as the Grail is so very
intriguing that you do not want to put the book down until
you have finished it. Her central character Niviene is
delightfully "odd" and fantastical. This is a Niviene no
one has seen before. I cannot recommend this book highly
enough. It is one of the few books that really does take
you into another world. When you put it down, when you have
read every page, you are left with a feeling of amazement
and sheer delight in the experience.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What Merlin Was Really Doing At Camelot, April 23, 2004
This is a rather unique look at the legend of King Arthur. This is the tale of Niviene, daughter of the Lady of the Lake.
We see Niviene grow up from a young Fey still learning about her surroundings and follow her through becoming a mother and a companion to Merlin at the Court of King Arthur. Arthur starts as just a tale Niviene hears from Merlin during his visits to Avalon. Then there is their chance encounter and finally Niviene encounters him at Camelot.
But While this is an Arthurian tale there is very little about Arthur actually in it. Instead we learn about the Fey, how they feel about this human king and the plots and reasons of Merlin. We find out the truth behind Sir Lancelot and where he came from. We learn about Mordred's shadowed history. We even learn the truth behind the Holy Grail and why someone as wise as Merlin sent the knights of the Round Table looking for it.
All in all a very entertaining book that is both well-written and freshly plotted. I recommend this one to anyone interested in Arthurian legend.
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