Nicola Griffith

As a young child growing up in what is now England in the 7th century, Hild has been told by her mother that she has purpose as the light of the world, the seer that gives advice to her uncle, King Edwin, after her father, Hereric, is poisoned in exile. Navigating the court is no small feat, but Hild has powers of observation that she uses to influence her uncle and survive all the changes brought by the Christian religion being introduced to the country.

This detailed, immersive historical fiction begins when Hild is seven, and as she grew into her own, made friends, and worked to observe and influence even as a young age, I started with a lot of interest even though I have very little knowledge of the place and time period. However, as Hild grew older, I had a harder and harder time following the thread of what was happening - this character here, this other one there, this current threat to Edwin, or that one. I was less interested in her growing romantic attachments, and it became less of a clear plot and more of a list of political machinations of various small kings trying to consolidate power.… (mais)

This book is very short at under 200 pages, but it took me forever to read it. It wasn’t bad, and there were things I liked, but for some reason it just didn’t hold my interest at all.

I think I was most interested during the beginning, when I had absolutely no idea what this story was about. We’re introduced to a young girl with no name, who lives with her somewhat crazy mother in a cave in the middle of nowhere. She ventures further from her home in her explorations, she can communicate with animals, she observes people from hiding and sometimes does them small favors, and she seems to have special abilities. Something is calling to her, and she eventually leaves her home to search out her destiny.

I was pretty far into the story before I realized what it was based on. I doubt most people would consider it a spoiler, but this book is so short anyway that I’m reluctant to reveal it and possibly ruin a surprise for someone. It wasn’t until the point where Nimuë was first mentioned that I realized this story was based on Arthurian legend. As soon as I saw that name, some of the other character names flashed back through my head and I was like, “Oh… duh.” My knowledge of Arthurian legend isn’t great, and it wasn’t until I skimmed the author’s notes at the end that I learned who the main character, Peretur, was supposed to be.

This is a non-traditional retelling of… the thing in my spoiler tags. I suspect a lot of it went over my head anyway, but I did find the author’s choices that I recognized to be interesting. I was relieved that the thing I most associate with these retellings and thoroughly dread (the love triangle between Arthur, Gwen, and Lance) played very little role in the story and wasn’t a source of drama.

I liked the main character and was moderately interested as more of her back story was revealed, and there was nothing about the story that I found unpleasant to read, but for some reason there just wasn’t anything that gripped me or helped propel me toward the end.

I’m rating this at 2.5 stars and rounding up to 3 for Goodreads.… (mais)