It took me two whole months to get through this 876 page tome. Not that it wasn't two months well spent, but in the scheme of things, even with my slow pace of late, two months is a long time.

MZB's well crafted world of Avalon and Camelot is not a bad place to spend two months; I actually quite enjoyed the book, up until the last hundred pages or so. She creates a rich tapestry of characters and circumstances (one of those books that probably needs a map and family tree in the back, but hasn't.) Generally, I'm not a big fan of books that have to give you character maps, but because of the epic nature of the novel, you're introduced to the characters gradually, over time as they move in and out of the story, and some die off, some are born, so you're not trying to keep all of their stories straight at the same time.

There are times when the time line itself gets a little confusing, simply because of the effort to tell all these congruent tales. Ultimately, they blend together pretty well into something that's pretty readable and often captivating, if sometimes a little wordy. (Like fantasy tends to do.)

Something I'll only mention briefly is the issues of sexuality/sexism that are addressed through the characters lives. Bradley creates women who are strong-willed, born into a tradition of matriarchal hierarchies and yet, when brought into the increasingly Christian court of Arthur, they seem to meld themselves right into the "traditional" female roles - sitting in gossipy group, spinning and weaving all day. Kinda frustrating. Stop whining about how you want to be included in the court talk and go down there, dammit!

As I mentioned earlier, my biggest problem with the book is the end, really. In the last coupl of chapters, the whole story seems to dissolve into mists and uncertainties; suddenly a lot of people are dying. The main character, who's spent the majority of her time being very strong willed and self-assured starts to break down into mush. The religious talk gets very mealy-mouthed in the Druid/Christian/Pagan debate. Overall, it just sort of felt like she spent the first 700 pages creating this great world, and then realized in the last 100 that she had to destroy it somehow to get back to "reality".

All told, I really like her retelling of the Camelot story. Her characters are real, and the three-somes/pagan sex rituals are kept to a tasteful minimum. I do have to say that its length worked against it in one respect - it took me so long to read that I was kinda wanting to be done and move on to the next thing about two thirds of the way through. So, if you're a quick reader, or you find yourself with lots of free time on your hands, I would recommend this classic fantasy novel.