Book Review: Nothing New in Camelot

 The Cleaving, by Juliet E. Mckenna (Angry Robot)

I was initially intrigued by the description of this book as being a “retelling that follows the tangled stories of four women: Nimue, Ygraine, Morgana, and Guinevere, as they fight to control their own destinies amid the wars and rivalries that will determine the destiny of Britain.” It began auspiciously enough, from the viewpoint of Nimue, who hides her magical abilities while in her service to Queen Ygraine. The story unfolded with the ascendency of Uther Pendragon and his schemes to unite Britain under his rule and to seduce Ygraine and father Arthur. Beat after emotional beat intensified my disappointment as I discovered very little that was fresh and new. Instead of being a ground-breaking reinterpretation of the Arthurian story cycle in the footsteps of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s groundbreaking The Mists of Avalon (1984), The Cleaving read as a tepid retelling of a story we all know from having seen The Sword in the Stone.  We know Uther is going to sleep with Ygraine (although I found the rape scene gratuitously violent), just as we know Arthur is going to pull the sword out of the stone (and survive all the fights he gets into).

Without dramatic suspense to keep me reading, I found the characters inconsistent, acting only to serve the needs of a pre-determined plot, and often downright annoying. Nimue came across as passive-aggressive, without a meaningful goal that she consistently strives for; she reacts rather than initiates. Uther was one-dimensional as a blustering bully. Ygraine mopes around, a paralyzed victim whose meaning in life seems to be her daughters (not Arthur). Merlin’s sole care is for the nebulous “future of Britain,” although he meddles freely in the lives of others without thinking through the consequences. As for Arthur, he’s a tantrum-prone brat with very little noble about him.

Pedestrian prose and inconsistent motivation would be less detrimental to a more original vision. If you’re a dedicated fan of Le Morte d’Arthur and don’t mind a story that adds little to the established literature, give this one a try.