The Wicked Day - Book I (The Boy from the Sea)

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽, Moderator]

The usual rules apply with respect to spoilers. Have fun!

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Hi I'm a little overloaded with reading, but should be ready to start tomorrow. :)

[debbicat *made of stardust*]

Same with me Carol. Hopefully the next few days.

[Bobbie]

I am on Chapter 5 and was hooked immediately, must quicker than with the trilogy. I think this is going to be very enjoyable.

[debbicat *made of stardust*]

I did start today. Curiousity got to me! Wow! What a beginning!

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Enchantress debbicat ☮ wrote: "I did start today. Curiousity got to me! Wow! What a beginning!"

Yes very good start. I'm just about to start Chapter 3.

[Hana]

I'm just getting started with this. I love the scene with the young boy, Mordred rescuing another boy on the cliffs--he certainly has no lack of courage, skill and level-headedness. Even for professional climbers with modern gear these cliffs are scary.

[Hana]

This is a modern climbing team scaling "The Castle":

[Hana]

A Peregrine Falcon nest on a cliff. Peregrine's are the world fastest animal. I can well imagine any falconer wanting one of these awesome birds.

[Hana]

I, and the pictures, are back where they belong. I accidentally posted them in the Book II thread where I had no business being since I'm still reading Book I. I love how MS develops Mordred's character over these first chapters. He is clearly a young man of high courage but his early upbringing by the fisherman and his wife encouraged him to be a loner. Then ch 6 (view spoiler)[ given his outsider status and questionable birth, it's nearly inevitable that he stands apart from the four other boys. (hide spoiler)]

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Hana wrote: "A Peregrine Falcon nest on a cliff. Peregrine's are the world fastest animal. I can well imagine any falconer wanting one of these awesome birds. "

Oh he (the preegrine) is so beautiful.

Just looking at those cliffs makes me feel sick!

I'm just about to start Chapter 5. (view spoiler)[Watching Morgause play this child like a violin is making me feel ill. & the outcome for his unfortunate parents! Stewart is making me care so much! (hide spoiler)]

[Bobbie]

Thanks for the pictures. I love Scotland and have a daughter-in-law from there. She and my son made a trip to the tip of Scotland, to John O'Groats and the Orkneys are above that. Must be very cold on the Orkneys.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

I'm up to the start of Chapter 11 now. In Chapter 9 (view spoiler)[Morgause is jus pure evil! (hide spoiler)]

[Hana]

I just checked Wikipedia and the Orkney's aren't actually that cold (at least compared to New England!) The average low in February is 1.7 C (35.1 F). The big weather problem is the gale force winds--an average of 52 hours each winter, with terrifying waves, of course. The other tough aspect of winter is the long nights--the sun rises at 9 am and sets at 3 pm on the shortest days.

[Hana]

This is a fun site about the Orkney Islands from a native: http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/in...

[Karlyne]

Hana wrote: "I just checked Wikipedia and the Orkney's aren't actually that cold (at least compared to New England!) The average low in February is 1.7 C (35.1 F). The big weather problem is the gale force wind..."

I would be more than happy to spend the summers there, even if it included winters, at this point...

[Hana]

Me too, Karlyne!

[Hana]

I'll second Carol on Morgause!

[Hana]

Mary Stewart's action sequences are always brilliant. Ch. 11 (view spoiler)[I was practically holding my breath during Mordred's desperate attempts to escape from the castle in Rheged.

She also has a genius for small details that reveal character like the scene with Mordred and the captured wildcat. "...it was little more than a kitten--so small, so fierce, so braved, caged and stinking for a queen's pleasure. And what pleasure? They could never tame it, he knew. It would be teased and made to fight, matched maybe with dogs that it would blind and then maul before they killed it. Or it would simply refuse food, and die. The rat had not been touched."

I love it that Mordred helps the wildcat escape--even though he cannot! (hide spoiler)]

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

& many years ago I was on one of the Orkney Islands (would have to look on a map to remember which one) So lovely & unspoilt.

[debbicat *made of stardust*]

Starting ch 14. I’m
On the phone. Will have more time tomorrow to look at spoilers and comment accordingly.

[Bobbie]

I've finished Book I and moving on to the next. This is very absorbing.

[Karlyne]

I got the book at the library today and have just finished the prologue. Merlin's eyes opening up and staring into Morgause's while she is " seeing" him in her secret pool - brrrrr!

[Karlyne]

Ok, so just finished this section and, again, I'm finding Mordred very likeable, not the sneaky, magic-dabbling boy I seem to remember from other re-tellings. This will, of course, create some very different scenarios, and I can't wait to see what twists are in store.

And Morgause! Evil to her core, but also a bit stupid? She's completely arrogant and self-assured - except for the moments fear creeps in. But she's just dumb enough to not listen to those moments.

[Hana]

That scene in the prologue really was chilling!

Such an interesting idea about Morgause being rather stupid. Her evil magic that can poison or bind a person to her is her one trick--and, as they say, if the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.

[Hana]

Just going back over my notes and thinking about Karlyne's comment on Morgause being a bit stupid. Chapters 12 and 13 in Book I has a good example of that. (view spoiler)[Morgause insists on bringing the boys to Camelot the first evening they arrive, rather than waiting until the Council is in session the next day as she has been instructed. Then when Arthur comes out to the courtyard to meet her she starts jabbering away in a self-pitying way and doesn't have the sense to shut up. "Still no reply from the from the King, nor any movement of welcome. The light pretty voice went on, the words like pebbles striking against the silence." Mordred has much more emotional sensitivity to the moment and to Arthur's reactions. (hide spoiler)]

[Karlyne]

Hana wrote: "Just going back over my notes and thinking about Karlyne's comment on Morgause being a bit stupid. Chapters 12 and 13 in Book I has a good example of that. [spoilers removed]"

She's a really good example of a woman who thinks she's brilliant, but in reality is not. What's the old adage? Be careful you don't cut yourself on the sharpness of your wit?

[Hana]

Hahaha! She doesn't have much in the way of emotional IQ.

[Hana]

Nimue is entirely different--but that post belongs over in Book II :)