From the Bookshelf of Reading List Completists…

The Mists of Avalon (Avalon, #1)

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Start date: October 1, 2017

Finish date: December 31, 2017

Discussion: Mists of Avalon

Why we're reading this: Big Read Poll Winner - October through December 2017
[close] Big Read Poll Winner - October through December 2017

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Mists of Avalon

Mists of Avalon - Book Four - The Prisoner in the Oak
By Matthew , Assistant List Master · 6 posts · 14 views

last updated Mar 03, 2018 02:49AM

Mists of Avalon - General Discussion
By Matthew , Assistant List Master · 6 posts · 20 views

last updated Jan 01, 2018 05:34AM

What Members Thought

Oct 01, 2017 Matthew rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, 2017, completist-book-club, at-home-reading, library

My final book of 2017! I did not think I would finish it before the end of the year. I started it back on October 1st and it was slow going. I often found myself not reading it for days at a time. It really wasn’t capturing my interest. But, with a week to go in 2017 and about 300 or so pages left, I buckled down and finished it at around 8:15 on December 31st!

You might think that my opinion of this book will not be stellar considering it was slow going. About a week ago when I committed to fini My final book of 2017! I did not think I would finish it before the end of the year. I started it back on October 1st and it was slow going. I often found myself not reading it for days at a time. It really wasn’t capturing my interest. But, with a week to go in 2017 and about 300 or so pages left, I buckled down and finished it at around 8:15 on December 31st!

You might think that my opinion of this book will not be stellar considering it was slow going. About a week ago when I committed to finishing it before the end of the year that was where I thought it would end up, too. However, the story really came together for me and I actually quite enjoyed the storytelling. It is indeed a large book and quite a commitment, but if you love fantasy and Arthurian legend, it is worth checking out.

In some of my discussions with my book friends we were trying to figure out what Bradley was going for with this book. Having finished, I am not sure it is much clearer. Here are a couple of topics that came up frequently:

Feminism – If she was going for the feminist viewpoint, why are pretty much all the female characters unlikable and devious throughout the book? Some of them do come around, but it seems to make women generally seem either sneaky or annoying.

Christianity vs Paganism – What amazed me the most about this was that many said they did not remember the opposing religious viewpoints from the book when they read it; that seemed to be the main point of the story. Reading up on Bradley it sounds like she was a practicing Pagan, so it would make sense that she might want to bring this discussion in, but it seemed quite repetitive after a while. It does definitely come into play with the overall resolution of the plot, but I am thinking if you don’t like reading debates on religion on Facebook, you probably wouldn’t want to read 876 pages of it either.

Finally, I can say that my overall feelings about this book were skewed by what I found out about the life of the author when I was partway done with the book. I won’t go into it here, but if you Google her or check out her Wikipedia page, you will see what I am talking about.

Summary: Many will enjoy this book. It is a big commitment. Some subject matter may be controversial and preachy - but, some really good storytelling.
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