Status Updates From I Mabinogion

you know you're a red flag when the character you relate to the most is arianrhod

the last book in the quartet, the island of the mighty, was originally called the virgin and the sow. and yes so far it is exactly as fucked up as you might infer from that name

literally the best version of this book I've read, so far. The prose is so lovely and sweet.

Like five pages in and was already about to cry

the song of rhiannon is just so lovely

wow.
the children of llyr are crazy.
but in a way that at least makes for a good tragedy.

oh my god oh my god oh my god
what the fuck
wow

the first branch, the prince of annwn, felt a bit like a child's bedtime story, like the hobbit but with more women/sex. the second branch, the children of llyr, is a political tragedy slowly marching towards inexorable doom.

loving it all so far. walton's prose are pure pleasure to read, and she has a distinctly ~70s hippie/divine feminine ideological overtone which i enjoy, even if i don't subscribe to it myself

Glad to get back to reading this. Can already tell it's going to be in my top fantasy of all time!!

Feels like I'm reading the Silmarillion, but with more druids and faeries. Pretty awesome so far but very dense.

Breakneck plot progression without sacrificing depth, powerful writing with some beautiful observations thrown in but not so much as to overpower the narrative, fascinating characters.
So happy to have found and read this book.
I hope it gains a wider readership.

A leetle less than the previous two installments but still very good and please please let the finale be great.

I have no words to explain how good this book is.
A hidden gem.

My blurb for this book so far in the style of George R R Martin:
"Mythology retelling as it ought to be written" 😄
Slightly unrelated but in today's oversaturated market of retellings, this is such beautiful writing and storytelling by a female author from an era when she received no support or promotion. All hail Ballantine Books for printing this first. And all hail Christopher Paolini for reviewing it!

This is a compendium of connected myths so more like The Silmarillion than Lord of the Rings.
Very simple but elegant writing.
The story, the atmosphere - everything just feels right.
P.S. I found this from Christopher Paolini's Goodreads. Maybe I really should retry Eragon once. He also likes Gormenghast which is an all-time favourite of mine.

fuck everything, lets's just go, let's see how it fares against the OG text

I put it down after a few chapters.

I put it down. Not to my taste. Not what I wss expecting.

Into Book IV, the final chapters of Walton's fantasy-mythology masterpiece!

Book II was a bit more politics and lineage-talk than I would have preferred. Still, Walton is doing her subject proud.

Walton was a gifted writer. This is such a neat story. On to Book II...

This is amazing. A totally different mythology - Welsh - that I know little about.

I haven't even finished the Introduction and I have 5 new books to read! And I am down a rabbit hole about Welsh medieval literature and poetry... Love it!

omg kocham to

IL PRINCIPE DELL'ANNWN

Coinvolgimento: 4/5
Stile: 4/5
Personaggi: 4/5
Vicenda: 3/5
Word building: 3/5
Finale: 3/5

****Giudizio: 3.5/5****

Taking a break at the start of book 4, because I have reached my saturation point of “oh, myself or my woman has been insulted, the only option is MURDER” and/or “Huh, that grey man on a grey horse I insulted is actually the Lord of Death...oops?”

Un giorno mi deciderò a leggere l'Iliade integrale, ma un giretto nella mitologia dei Celti di Britannia può essere altrettanto educativo.

That's book two done. Two to go!

Book one, The Prince of Annwn, is done!