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The Well Between the Worlds (Lyonesse, #1)

Sam Llewellyn

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Feb 12, 2009 Mir rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, younger

Lyonesse is not the Lyonesse of Arthurian legend, although it is sinking slowly beneath the water, and we learn quite, late, is a neighbor of Ys, which has a king named Mark. Our protagonist Idris is not Arthur, although clearly that is the basis for the character. There is a Kay who is a jealous braggart, but he is not related to Idris. Neither is the sole female character of significance, Morgan, who is no witch or enemy. Ambrose is a powerful man, with strange abilities, and he has an interes Lyonesse is not the Lyonesse of Arthurian legend, although it is sinking slowly beneath the water, and we learn quite, late, is a neighbor of Ys, which has a king named Mark. Our protagonist Idris is not Arthur, although clearly that is the basis for the character. There is a Kay who is a jealous braggart, but he is not related to Idris. Neither is the sole female character of significance, Morgan, who is no witch or enemy. Ambrose is a powerful man, with strange abilities, and he has an interest in Idris' fate, but he is not Merlin, although, again, that is clearly the basis for the character and his role in the story. There is a sword in a stone, but the stone is in a wall of a Well. The Wells let in water from another world, and in that world there are strange creatures called in Lyonesse Monsters. They are loathed but are let in on purpose so they can be burned as a source of energy, despite the fact that this is causing the land to sink into the sea. The monsters vary considerably and some are intelligent, and their queen has a plan. They can breed with humans, although this is forbidden and Crosses, halfbreeds, are put to death.

The elements with the monsters and wells and telepathy were original and somewhat interesting to me, although I never quite got clear in my mind how they worked. I don't get why these are being combined with the Arthurian story. I found it hard to believe the institution of monstergrooms: it is a profession of importance, we're told, and children from the most powerful families train for it, but they're treated as disposable and their teachers seem to almost go out of the way to get them killed. This is simply not how elites function.

Idris was too bland as a main character. He was too nice, too naive, and at the same time too indifferent to things like monsters screaming for help as they were burned to death. Sometimes he behaves too stupidly for the situation in which he is trapped, and other times too smart to be believable based on his background. His foil character, the vicious and spoiled prince Kyd Murther (that name, seriously?) is a cliche of no interest. I yawned any time he was on the page. I quit with less than a hundred pages to go rather than read about Idris and Morgan's visit to his and his mother Fisheagle's palace. It seemed wrong to stop so near the end, but this isn't a stand-alone and I can see nothing will be resolved in this volume. And I don't really care.

This had potential. I wish Llewellyn had scraped the whole Arthurian side of the story and focused more on developing the monsters and their world in an entirely original setting. ...more

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Jan 31, 2009 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: old-reads, mt-bookpile-pre-2010

I'm an Arthur-legend junkie, so this book was one I looked forward to reading (well, that and the Lewisian Well in the title). I wasn't disappointed: Lyonesse is sinking, due to too much water being pumped from the Wells as the men hunt, capture, cut and burn monsters from another world. Idris is clearly born for greater things and escapes drowning only to have to flee his city and home; lucky for him be becomes an apprentice with Mage Ambrose.

Ambrose is the Merlin here, and Idris' coming into h ...more

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Feb 11, 2009 Krista the Krazy Kataloguer marked it as to-read

Shelves: to-read-jervis, to-read-sci-fic-fantasy

May 22, 2010 katayoun Masoodi marked it as tbr-e-pdf

Shelves: ebook, fantasy

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