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King's Blood by Judith Tarr
Dec. 31st, 2009 07:52 pmA sequel to Rite of Conquest, but operating largely independent of it, this is a historical fantasy about two sons of William and Mathilda, William Rufus and Henry, and Edith (later Mathilda), who became Henry’s wife when he became king. I found Rite of Conquest enjoyable if not stunning, and entertaining despite the revisionist history. This, though, I was rather “meh” about.
William and Henry are both pretty whitewashed, and the romance between Edith and Henry, which is delivered as Epic True Love, is literally based on “I fell in love with you when we had sex without knowing each other’s names.” There was also way too much “those nasty Saxons were killing England with their icky Christianity, but the Normans will save England by invading and reestablishing awesome pagan ways.” Though nowhere near to the degree of that one Marion Zimmer Bradley book I read, and without the severe “the only way to make a maligned mythic woman look good is to demonize the ‘good’ mythic woman” thing.
William and Henry are both pretty whitewashed, and the romance between Edith and Henry, which is delivered as Epic True Love, is literally based on “I fell in love with you when we had sex without knowing each other’s names.” There was also way too much “those nasty Saxons were killing England with their icky Christianity, but the Normans will save England by invading and reestablishing awesome pagan ways.” Though nowhere near to the degree of that one Marion Zimmer Bradley book I read, and without the severe “the only way to make a maligned mythic woman look good is to demonize the ‘good’ mythic woman” thing.
