Customer Reviews

Parsival or a Knight's Tale

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the first of a now out of print four volume series based on the Arthurian Grail quest of the hero Parsival. The other three volumes are: The Grail War; The Final Quest; and, Blood and Dreams.

This first volume follows Parsival from his overprotective mother and his childhood home on his first quest to become a knight at King Arthur's round table. Once he is a knight, he begins his second quest to find the Grail Castle and discover its secret.

A parallel story tells of Broaditch, a servant from his mother's castle, who sets out soon after to find Parsival. The two quests compliment each other with short episodic chapters from each telling the tale of the book.
The book is not for the squeemish. There is a war and lots of bloodshed. The people are bawdy rather than chivalric, and the sexual relationships are not always consensual. However, it is an exciting and humorous retelling of a medieval tale. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

PARSIVAL's fascination lies in its dark, complex characters, macabre myth, and archetypal battles of good vs. evil. And it's written with carefully crafted style: alternately naturalistic, lyrical, and mystical. That's an unusual and wonderful mix. It lends a dreamlike aura to the events of the story. The poetic descriptions of nature and character are a rare find in fantasy.

Monaco's accomplishments as a writer would probably have gained greater recognition had he written in a more 'mainstream' genre. Paradoxically, his talent goes under-recognized in the fantasy genre.

I've read all nine of his books, and PARSIVAL, his first, is one of his best. Monaco hasn't published since 1987. What a shame! At least one can re-read PARSIVAL.

Although the author writes well, this was an unpleasant book to read throughout. By its end, after having been dragged through fields of corpses, bodiless heads, manure, blood, pointless sex, and futility, I wanted no more. With the exception of Parsival during the time of his complete innocence, I didn't care what happened to the characters. Although the writer probably gave a realistic picture of just how unclean and vile the age of knighthood might really have been, he did not balance it with any hint of beauty. All this might have been forgivable if justified by the ending, but the whole story just dribbles away at the last.

This series is not for the feint of heart. There are 4 in the set, and can get quite hard to find. The good guys and bad guys are really hard to tell apart. Like 'Unforgiven' in that regard. Arthur is a warlord. Lancelot is an idiot. Gawain steals peasant's gold. The priest is a demagogue. Even Parsival falters, but does have a path to redemption. Or does he? The best line has 2 teenage girls in a castle : "You should have slept with him." "No, I think not. I shall wait until I am married to go sleeping with strange knights. Like these fine ladies." Strong commentary on the human condition.

The apparent fact that Monaco has written only two fiction books that I know of, (Parsival: Or, a Knight's Tale and its sequel), is nothing short of a travesty. There are several authors whom I feel are geniuses with plot and character development. Monaco is the only one who utilizes a pen as if it were a paint brush and a page as if it were the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. From page one his words ceased to be abstract symbols and became visual images as clear and epic as if they were playing an IMAX screen. Parsival's only flaw was that it ended

Just to let it be known that there is a 5th Monaco Parsival novel, LOST YEARS: THE WAR FOR AVALON, as yet unpublished. Monaco is intending to create a blog where the material can be seen.

This 4 volume set is easily some of the best writing I have come across. The images and prose of these books are very hallucenigenic, similar to the style Zelazny used in his Amber series. Shows the King Arthur legend in a different light. However these books are not for the squemish.

If you're really into blood, guts, and sex, this one's for you. After 100 pages of this filth I threw the book into the trash compactor. Watching the "innocent" Parsival wandering around fondling and raping women and wallowing in blood was enought to make me vomit. If I could give this a negative rating, I would. Don't waste your time or money on this garbage.