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    Merlin's Harp
    Merlin's Harp
    Merlin's Harp
    Ebook241 pages4 hours

    Merlin's Harp

    By Anne Crompton

    3/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    When I was yet a very young woman I threw my heart away. Ever since then I have lived heartless, or almost heartless, the way Humans think all Fey live.

    Among the towering trees of magical Avalon, where humans dare not tread, lives Niviene, daughter of the Lady of the Lake. Her people, the Fey, are folk of the wood and avoid the violence and greed of man. But the strife of King Arthur's realm threatens even the peace of Avalon. And while Merlin the mage has been training Niviene as his apprentice, he now needs her help to thwart the chaos devouring Camelot. Niviene's special talents must help save a kingdom and discover the treachery of men and the beauty of love…

    "The story glows…a mythical tapestry that is at once completely recognizable yet utterly fresh…"

    —Publishers Weekly

    "Like The Mists of Avalon, the Arthurian legend from a woman's point of view."

    —USA Today

    "Readers will be enchanted…the characters and strands of the famous legend are skillfully woven together here."

    —School Library Journal

    "Take heed: the feminist possibilities of the Arthurian legendary cycle were not exhausted by Marion Zimmer Bradley's bestselling The Mists of Avalon… A riveting good read."

    —Booklist

    What readers are saying:

    "A rather unique look at the legend of King Arthur."

    "An exquisite addition to Arthurian literature."

    "The writing is lyrical; the plot twists are original. Great!"

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateMar 1, 2010
    ISBN9781402246999
    Merlin's Harp
    Author

    Anne Crompton

    Anne Eliot Crompton grew up in a college town in the 1940s, a time when women’s roles in myth were less acknowledged than today. When she married and moved to the country to raise children and animals, she realized how much heavy lifting had been done by women throughout human history. Part of her life’s work has been to shine light on their immense contribution to the human story. Having come full circle, she now lives in a college town in Vermont.

    Read more from Anne Crompton

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    Reviews for Merlin's Harp

    3/5

    41 ratings5 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I have had this book to read for some time. I bought it for the Kindle when I first got my Kindle (years ago) and just finally got around to reading it. Some of the concepts in this book are interesting but overall it is poorly written and hard to follow.Niviene has grown up on the island of Avalon; the Lady is her mother and she doesn’t know her father. Her youth is highlighted by visits from Merlin, a half fey sorcerer. As Niviene herself grows in power she learns more and more about the mastery of her magic. Then one day Merlin requests her assistance in dealing with King Arthur; Merlin is desperate to save the peace that is slowly unraveling.This is a retelling of the tale of King Arthur but from the fey perspective and featuring fey characters. Some of the writing in this book is beautiful but it's very hard to follow. The author jumps back and forth between Niviene's past and present kind of willy nilly. It’s very hard to figure out if you are reading about what is happening now, what happened when Niviene was little, and what had happened in the near past.I like that Crompton did this King Author retelling with a heavy emphasis on the Fey. I also enjoyed how Merlin and Niviene are a bit high-handed and super powerful but also have weaknesses and admit that they have made mistakes in their lives.Unfortunately the poor layout of the plot and the jumping around in time made this a struggle to get through and really take away from what could have been an amazing King Arthur retelling. Overall I won't be reading anymore of this series and wouldn't really recommend it. The plot and way it is written is just too convoluted and confusing. I would recommend checking out Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeves for a better King Arthur tale retelling.
    • 4/5
      Wow. I can't believe all the haters in the review section here.
      After some contemplation, I'm guessing that it's because the book was repackaged for the newer edition with a wholly inappropriate cover. The original ROC edition has a pretty lovely, Pre-Raphaelite-inspired cover by Don Maitz. The new edition has this cheesy, pink-glittery cover that makes it look like a cheap romance for 13-year-old girls.

      You can't judge a book by its cover, but you can surely make certain that the wrong people read a book by its cover.

      This book is not aimed at young teens. It is also NOT: confusing, hard-to-follow, full of 'flowery' or 'verbose' language, OR for people who have no clue about the Arthurian mythos.

      Yes, the book's author absolutely expects that the reader is familiar with Arthurian legends, and that you will be able to recognize the elements of classic characters and events in hers. I don't think that's too much of a demand, considering the scores and scores of novels that have been written in this genre, and how much the Arthurian legends are part of the very underpinnings of Western society.

      The language of the story is very simple and straightforward. There are occasional poems, often presented as lyrics to the ballads that Merlin sings. But the bulk of the novel is basic, uncomplicated prose, with a nod to the styles of fairy tales and legends. At times, it reminded me of Patricia McKillip. I do like McKillip better - but she's one of my most favorite authors.

      The real success here is how Crompton brilliantly portrays events from the point of view of the 'Fey.' She makes the Fey real - portrays them as a believable people, with a convincing, well-rounded, but very, very foreign culture. And she does this without sacrificing their magic. (Other books I've read in the genre have made them just another tribe, feared, hated, and misunderstood - but Crompton does all this, AND keeps them truly fey.) Writing from the perspective of someone from a culture with a very different moral standard to the one we're used to can be challenging - but I feel that this book did it wonderfully. I felt that I came to understand Niviene. Sometimes her attitude shocked me, sometimes I agreed with her. But more importantly, the portrayal of her character led me to think of things from a perspective not my own - which is one of the main raisons d'être of fiction in general.

      I'd recommend this book highly to anyone interested in quality mythic fiction, Arthurian legend and faerie lore. It's not a perfect book, but it's a beautiful, worthwhile one.
    • 1/5
      Touted as a new and different interpretation of Arthurian legend I thought perhaps this book would be a good bridge into fantasy for a reader somewhat interested in exploring the genre. Unfortunately it fell short in that regard. It was such a tough read that it did more to turn me off the genre than on.The flowery and excessive prose made it, at times, difficult to follow. I never really got a clear picture of what either land looked like. Apple Valley (ie: Avalon) was slightly more vivid than Arthur’s kingdom but all things considered the characters hopped so quickly between different settings it was tough to grasp on to any sense of place or time. Speaking of which, I had no idea if we were in the present or the past or seeing some sort of Fey vision of the future.Not having read much in this genre or much in the way of Arthurian literature some of the intricacies were lost on me. However, I will say I found some of the characterizations and relationships developed to have quite a bit of potential. I would really have enjoyed seeing more of Lugh and the Fey girl he’d left behind. I actually found that element of the story (while extremely short lived) quite compelling. Heck I would have chucked the whole Arthurian aspect to just focus on that part of the story entirely.In the end, what I take away from having read this book is that this type of fantasy isn’t for me. Perhaps lovers of the genre will read it and find it’s strengths, I would certainly enjoy hearing a different perspective.
    • 1/5
      Nivienne lives among her Fey kin on Apple Island, known to humans as Avalon. She’s the daughter of the Lady of the Lake and an apprentice to Merlin, the half-human, half-fey sorcerer who knows King Arthur. Turmoil in Arthur’s kingdom threatens to affect the fey, however, and Nivienne must use her cunning and knowledge to navigate the treacheries of human men.I don’t get offended by books often. Premarital sex, abstinence until marriage, drinking, backstabbing, pranking, people killing people, etc.—everything is good in my opinion as long as it’s written well and doesn’t sound like an agenda that is out of place within the fictional world. MERLIN’S HARP, however, is a mess of a novel, poorly organized and weakly characterized—unfortunate, because the writing is beautiful and the story held such promise.For a generation that’s being bombarded with a multitude of sensations, experiences, and information left and right, we need stories that are far more organized—less ADD—than the lives we lead. The story of MERLIN’S HARP is exceedingly difficult to follow. It is almost impossible to tell without dedicating 110% of your brainpower to the task whether Nivienne is narrating something that’s occurring in the present or something that happened in her past—and if it is the latter, which part of her past it occurred, as, yes, she somehow attempts to provide us with multiple flashbacks at once. And it’s less than lack of chronology throughout the story as it is the fact that the flashbacks (or whatever we should call them) provide us with hardly any cohesive information about either the characters or the world in which the story is set.Crompton’s fey are fairly dissimilar to humans: they’re heartless, free-spirited sexual beings. They would’ve provided an interesting contrast to human characteristics, had their lustful behavior been better developed. I have nothing against any kind of sex in fiction, but when characters are objectifying and rubbing up on one another left and right without first having been developed into characters whose lustful actions are justified, then I DO have a problem with that. MERLIN’S HARP is a very sensual read, but my difficulty in connecting to any of the characters, of understanding their motivations, makes it an awkward read at best.Overall, I’m afraid MERLIN’S HARP is yet another example of a book that is being marketed to the wrong genre. Readers of adult fantasy may be better suited to appreciate its slow story, meandering plot, and sensual writing. YA fantasy fans, however, may find this book difficult to get through.
    • 3/5
      Nivienne is Fey. She is different than a human. Unbeknown to her, she spends the story trying to recover her heart. A touching story of King Arthur’s court and the intrigue that surrounded it Ms. Crompton did a nice job fleshing out the legend of King Arthur. Nivienne is a strong female protagonist. The characterizations are a touch shallow, more detail would have been nice. I felt it started slow but once involved it became more enjoyable. I’ve read a ton of King Arthur books and this turned out to be a good one. I recommend the book.

    Book preview

    Merlin's Harp - Anne Crompton

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