Customer Reviews

The Swan Maiden

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Swan Maiden is a novel based on the Irish legend of "Deirdre of the Sorrows", written by J.M. Synge. When Deirdre was a babe, the druid Cathbad prophesied that she would grow into a great beauty and bring about the downfall of their land. Ignoring requests that the babe be killed, the King of the Ulaids, Conor decides to hide the child with plans to marry her when she becomes of age. Conor enlists the help of Levercham, who teaches Dierdre the ways of the Druids. Attempts to dissuade Conor from his mission of marrying Deirdre fail time and again, much to Levercham's dismay. When Dierdre hears of this, she can no longer wait around, being fattened up like a pig for the day when Conor comes to collect her. She runs away and crosses paths with three brothers, Red Branch soldiers famous for their fighting skills, and they decide to help her. When Conor hears that Deirdre has fled and who she is with, he is beyond furious and pulls no stops to get her back. Naisi and Deirdre eventually fall in love and despite the brothers' aching for home and their fellow Red Branch soldiers, they find a place of their own and settle in (for a while at least). They are found and persuaded home with the promises of forgiveness, only to be betrayed by their King, again. The rest you should read for yourself, I don't want to give it all away!

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book!!! See, I even put three exclamation points after that sentence, just to make sure you grasp the emotion! Ha!

What I really enjoyed about The Swan Maiden was the way Jules writes about the connection with nature and animals that Deirdre feels. She describes scenes and it's like you're there (or at least you really, really want to be). I could even stomach the hunting scenes which I usually skim over. So many descriptive words come to mind when I think about this book - mythical, surreal, spiritual, magical, echanting. And the love between Deirdre and Naisi...aaahhh pure magic....the connection they have with each other is so powerful and Jules writes it so well!!

Readers you are in for a treat with this one, you will not want to put it down! Thanks to Jules Watson for sharing such a wonderful story with me, one that I'll remember for a long time!

This was my first experience with this particular writer, and I have to say that I was deeply disappointed. What I had expected to read was a celtic lore love story. What i got, for lack of a better term, was a bodice ripping romance novel. I completely lost the story of the main character as the world of lust and passion crashed in from all sides. I read the entire novel in hopes that the story I had thought I would find was buried in the folds, but unfortunately, the best part was when the book was finally over. Perhaps this is just the authors style, but as a heads up for anyone who is interested, this book is less about adventurer folklore and more about the bedroom scene then the cover or back summery would dare to suggest.

This is the first, and probably the last, book I'll be reading by this author. I picked it up because I love a tragic love story, and I love Celtic lore. I suppose I was expecting something with the same feel of the Sevenwaters books, and that was way too high a bar for me to have set.

I thought it seemed a bit more obsessed with sex than reading the cover had led me to believe, and found myself somewhat embarrassed for the author when I read about Deirdre being molested by the wind early on in the book. It really seemed out of place in here.

I kept at it, though, and found throughout it that I had a great deal of difficulty identifying with or caring about a single one of the characters. I managed to keep going out of righteous feminist anger on Deirdre's behalf, I suppose, since there was so much about who she belonged to, and demanding her lover to give her up without anyone ever suggesting that she had any say whatsoever in her own fate.

I disliked her as a character, because I would have preferred to read about a flawed, human character than this person who speaks with the voice of the goddess and is therefore always right. I thought most people preferred characters they could relate to rather than paragons of beauty and wisdom, but maybe I was mistaken.

This is the fourth book that Jules Watson has written, the first three being part of a series called Dalriada, also set during the Celtic period of Britain. Despite the fact that her first three works are entirely fictional, the author has decided that in this her latest book she would re-tell a classic Irish fairytale, which has been compared to the tale of Helen of Troy. For me, this was a mistake.

Don't get me wrong, this book is just as well written as her previous books. Very engaging, and for me her use of language had almost a musical quality that I thoroughly enjoyed. I just didn't like the story itself. This is a fairytale that I have been told since childhood (and one which I have thoroughly enjoyed, in all its retellings), and, unlike tales set to paper by the Brothers Grimm, does not have a set format, just a basic plot, which varies on each retelling by different people.

To summarise it in the most basic of terms, this is the story of Deirdre, a girl whose destiny it has been prophesised will bring about the ruin of a Kingdom, in much the same way as Helen of Troy. The King, in his greed and cockiness, decides that rather than kill the babe, he will send her to the deepest parts of the forest, have her brought up to be entirely biddable and learned and when she comes of age, make her his Queen (it is also prophesised that her beauty will be unmatched). Deidre grows up to be far from biddable, and runs away as her days to become Queen fast approach. She comes across three brothers, who have their own issues with the King, and so offer her protection as she tries to escape the betrothal and fly free, like the swans whom she admires.

Naturally this story has all the elements of a traditional fairytale- love, lust, suspense, fear etc etc, and it is apparent that the author has done her research; hunting down all written forms of this tale and picking between them parts that will affect her story in the best possible way (as noted in the Author's Note at the end). Now, I'm all for retellings of fairytales, and have in fact been trying to find retellings for a while now, but, to quote a friend, by about page two hundred "the magic was wearing thin". I just wanted it to end, and at times, without going into detail (to do so would give too much away) when I thought that something had happened, in fact it hadn't and so I found myself to be quite confused at times.

As before, the author's writing is beautiful, her descriptions are vivid and she has a gift for capturing the very essence of a scene- whether it be the description of a setting, or the feelings of her characters, who, I might add, are all three dimensional and unique- no cardboard cut-outs here. The constant reference to the front of the book (the Index) for the correct pronounciation of names began to grate on me though, but I expected this when I bought the book (it being an Irish tale and all), and towards the end just pronounced the names as I read them.

In all honesty, I really don't know why I'm not particularly fond of this book. Based on all the above elements it is most definately a four star book- not as good as her others but still a good read, and the sort of book I would normally devour and rave about for weeks on end.

Sadly, the "magic" was a bit too much for me, and so for me this is a three star book. Apparently she is writing a 'prequel' to this book- I will still buy it but I fear my expectations wont be too high.

I agree with Angie- I love Celtic lore and enjoy a good romance, but I just couldn't stand all the time spent with Deirdre wandering around communing with nature. I also found it hard to connect with her perfect, Goddess channeling character. At least in The Mists of Avalon, Viviane is flawed. Not so with Deirdre. I just couldn't wait to get to the end of this book. I gave it an extra star since it didn't have a happy ending.

I have to say I was really looking forward to this book because I loved Watson's Dalriada Trilogy. Don't get me wrong, this book is beautifully written, poetic almost and Jules Watson is now one of my favorite authors. But I just was so sad at how the whole thing ended that I am still reeling. However, I could not put this book down and there were so many twists and turns that I truly did not know where it was going to go (good or bad). I will recover-- and I will continue to read Watson-- I just need to have tougher skin!!

This was the first book by Jules Watson that I read & I immediately loved it. I was familiar with the Irish myth of Deirdre before and I thought that this was such a beautiful telling of the classic story. The way the author writes so vividly, I could see everything so clearly in my mind. The spiritual connection that Deirdre had to the land was so real and evocative. Deirdre seemed to come alive. It instilled in me a deep desire to go to Glen Etive in Scotland for myself and see this place that Deirdre is said to have founded.
In response to the review that says it doesn't hold a candle to the Sevenwaters series, I think it is completely different from Sevenwaters and am wonderng why it's even being compared to the series. The authors are not the same, so why would you compare them? The premise of the books isn't even the same. I don't understand why people always have to compare books to other books and authors to other authors. Every author is different and should be appreciated for their own style. Just read the book and enjoy it.

I picked up this book and flipped through it with low expectations. The next thing I knew, an hour had passed, and with it, half the book, and I was so thoroughly mesmerised by the poignancy of the characters' interactions, it was all I could do to put it down until I had time enough to finish. The imagery was beautifully executed, a genuine joy to read, and absolutely enough to ensure re-reading at intervals just to recapture the magic of a superbly wrought story. Bravo!

I read this book for a book review group. I would never have picked it up from the cover illustration. A little to dreamy and romancy for me. Anyway, I read, let's say plodded, through. I couldn't really get a grasp on what kind of book this was.....fantasy/sci-fi? Adventure/romance? Steamy sex thriller? I didn't make a real point anywhere. However, despite the imbalance and lack of direction, the thing that I found to be the greatest barrier was the heavily, over done and overtly pretensious writing. Descriptions are one thing but....ok WE GET IT! Get on to the next thing.....I suppose I just needed some ACTION to balance out all the thinking and dreaming and whittling the time away that this character does. Despite all this I read to the end. Even a weakly written book needs good editing. Characters came and went without explanation. Scenes didn't have enough details to understand characters moving through them. Mostly, the relationships where not strong enough to know their motivations. If the brothers weren't known to be related I'd wonder why they were together. Without the sex, why were Deirdre and Maisi together? King Conor had the only real back story, clear motivation, and true pathos of all the characters. I won't be reading anymore of this author.

This book is so beautifully written, the language is otherworldly and utterly lovely. Deirdre of the sorrows steps out of legend and comes alive as a passionate, living woman in a legendary world that's brought to life by exquisite historical detail.