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

 

SPOILER ALERT!

Hello Bibliophiles, Quintin Fortune here, and I’m going to try my hand at book reviews.

To start off this whimsical journey is ‘Merlin’s Harp’ by Anne Eliot Crompton. Now, before we get into anything, let’s take a look at this cover. Take a good look. Drink it in. Now, on first inspection, you would probably think what everyone else thinks: “My god, that’s a euphemism!” And you would be wrong, unfortunately. If it was a euphemism, this would have been a completely different book and a completely awkward review.

No, Merlin’s Harp is about a Fey named Niviene, who lives in Avalon.

The story is a retelling of the Arthurian Legend from the point of view of someone that was mentioned briefly in the Arthurian Legends. Her part is expanded from merely hurling magical scimitars to interacting with a lot of the main characters from the stories. She doesn’t seem to have any major influence on any of the stories, just someone who’s there to make comments about everything.

There are a few interesting points in the story, and by few I mean one. The chapter about going up against Morgan le Fey was a nice change of pace. But mostly, the story just felt empty. It would be like watching a movie, and then hearing the behind-the-scene story from a friend that’s drunk off NyQuil.

Yes, the story’s from a first person perspective. Now, a lot of times that can work perfectly fine. It’s a good way to keep the reader in suspense. But when your main character is a Fey, a race of creature well known for their vanity, aloofness, and general air of discontent for all ‘lesser’ beings, the first person perspective just makes your character even less interesting and relatable. There were times I wish I could have grabbed Niviene and yelled “Have an emotion!”

Unless you like Fey characters, I wouldn’t really recommend this book. The characters were shallow, the plot was vague, and the pacing was choppy. Oh, and referring back to the harp in question, it’s only used maybe twice in the entire story. That just annoys the hell out of me.

I’m Quintin Fortune, and I read these books because, well, someone has to.

 

Reviewed by:

Quintin Fortune

Added 19th August 2015

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Quintin Fortune