Customer Reviews

Percival's Angel

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

 

 

Percival's Angel uses the Arthurian legend the setting for a new story. If you are a fan of Arthurian legend and enjoy reading the stories that focus on faerys and their relations with humans you will enjoy this book. If you are looking for a more standard retelling of the legend however you should try Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon.

I could not read this book all the way through. I didn't know the characters, and for me I didn't like the writing. There were too many talking and I couldn't tell what was real or not. You might like this book, but I didn't.

I didn't relate to any character nor could follow the story. I think next time I will read the other books in the series. I only made it about page 100 and tried to understand all what was happening with in th story and all the conversations.

This is beautiful cover

There were so many points of views and so hard to keep track of who was talking.

I hate to say this, but there was honestly nothing I enjoyed about this book. I almost feel worse giving the book a 1 star rating instead of just giving it none, like I'm leaving a penny as a tip at a restaurant instead of leaving nothing. But I've promised to give honest reviews, so here are my opinions:

First, let me say that I really love Arthurian legend. While I tend to favor the Saxon versions (think "Gawain and the Green Knight"), I'll take the Norman ones, as well (Le Morte d'Arthur, by Thomas Mallory). This story really isn't either. It's some kind of weird new version where Percival grows up with fairies and has a romantic relationship with one while he's searching for the Holy Grail.

Weird? I think so.

I'm a huge fan of retellings, and I realize that authors can't go exactly by the original, or else there would be no creativity. However, I think you can take a retelling too far so it's completely lost the spirit of the original. For me, Crompton went too far. In most legends, Sir Percival is not a lusty knight; he's one of the righteous few that actually makes it to the end of the quest for the Holy Grail. While he isn't the knight who actually retrieves it (that would be Sir Galahad), he's the only other man to make it that far, while other knights like Lancelot fell by the wayside because they had too much sin weighing them down. But in Crompton's version, Percival is the one who finds the Grail. He is also romantically involved with a number of women.

...and he's a bumbling idiot.

While I understand that Crompton is trying to portray the importance of women in Arthurian legend, I felt like she did this at the expense of the male characters. I love a girl empowerment story, but I don't like it when authors take a beloved story and try to twist it into something it's not. The Arthurian legends were not feminist. They were written by men, praising men. Why try to pretend that there is some secret feminist theme when there isn't? Or if you're going to add some girl power into a male-dominated story, please don't make the men seem like imbeciles or pigs simply to elevate feminine power. We as women don't need to degrade men to gain equality - we're born with it.

Besides the irritating themes, the prose is really awkward. Crompton often deleted words throughout the book like articles (a, the, etc.), almost like she was writing poetry. (A general rule in poetry is to take out as many articles as you can.) But instead of creating fluid prose, it was just unsettling. I found myself stumbling over syntax.

I also thought the story was incredibly vague at what was happening most of the time. I'm okay with some elevated language and even alluding to the action without ever stating it outright. But if you've confused me completely, you're being too vague.

Overall, this was a really rough read. It's less than 300 pages, and it took me literally 2 weeks to read. I could barely plow through 20 pages in one sitting. Honestly, this isn't even worth a trip to the library.

I did not enjoy this author's style of writing. I did like the story but the broken sentences and dialog were very hard to follow. I found myself having to go back and re-read too many sentences to enjoy this story as I felt I could have if it were easier to read. The relationship between the two characters, Percival (human) and Lili (Fey) was indescribable. I didn't know if they were real friends or just two companions on a journey and I definitely didn't see a love story here so the ending didn't make much sense to me. I love the cover and the characters are interesting to say the least but this just wasn't my type of story. If you're a fan of the Arthurian Legend you may enjoy this different twist.

*I received my complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for posting my thoughts on the book.*

Lili is fey, once part of the Children Guard. She yearns to learn about the human heart and this power called "Love", that Merlin speaks of. Her friend Percy is a human that was raised in the Fey Forest. Never knowing of King Arthur or his Knights. They embark on a journey together to the human world to seek out what they most desire.

Percival's Angel is the third book in Crompton's Arthurian series and my first time delving into the series. A mystical and magical tale. The writing is like nothing I've read before. It's written in such a way that is almost poetic, which made for a delightful story. I was most intrigued and in the end enjoyed reading it. I have always loved the King Arthur legends, especially from the female point of view. I think fans of Fantasy and Arthurian Legends will like this one too.

3 Stars = Good Read