If you also loved "Mists of Avalon" as a tween/teen, but now it's tainted because you've heard about MZB's real life, you should read this book. So many of the same themes are found here, with the intense friendships and multiple loyalties of Camelot. This retelling looks at some of the familiar moments from the tales of King Arthur, and imagines what could possibly have led there, with a focus on the women around Arthur.

My Review: I am always excited for new Arthurian re-tellings, especially ones focused on the characters that are more on the side lines, because their stories can be played with a bit more. I was really excited for the premise of this story, Lady of Shalott taking control of her own destiny, more feminist driven story. Unfortunately, I struggled quite a bit with this one. I really didn't get much of a feminist voice from this one, yes we know how the story goes, but I was hoping for a bit more of a backbone from the ladies, more of a leadership role. I also really struggled with the way the timeline jumps around throughout the book with no warning or break you jump from current timeline, to a memory and into the visions of the future, it gets rather difficult to keep straight and really slows the pacing of the book down. Sebastian did throw some twists on the original stories which were intriguing but I wanted them to be taken further. Sadly, I found this one a bit unsatisfying and not really jumping for more.

My Rating: I am honestly a bit bummed about this one, I think maybe I hyped it up a bit too much in my mind after reading some really fantastic re-tellings in the past couple of years. Maybe if I was in the mood for a slower more meandering story it would have hit me better. I give it a rating Two Paws.

Laura Sebastian’s Half Sick of Shadows is an Arthurian retelling told from Elaine, Lady of Shalott’s POV. No lovely but helpless Elaine in this story, dying of unrequited love for Lancelot as she does in Tennyson’spoem “The Lady of Shalott.”

Sebastian’s Elaine grows up in Uther’s Camelot, dosed with potions to keep the Sight at bay by her half-mad mother. Elaine’s friendless, bullied by Morgause. Until Morgana, Morgause’s twin from Avalon visits Camelot and convinces Elaine to return with her.

In Avalon, under Nimue’s tutelage, Elaine learns to use her gift. She also meets Lancelot, Guinevere, and Arthur. All of them play a part in Nimue’s plan to unite Avalon, land of the fey and magic, with Camelot and Albion, land of mortals who fear magic and magic users.

The author pulls off the difficult task of telling Elaine’s story in the present, flashbacks, and her visions which tell different, sometimes conflicting possible futures. She also gives each of the five well-rounded characters with individual desires and purposes.

The difficulty with retellings is to make them interesting because the reader already knows the bones of the story. I loved this Guinevere - almost feral, a warrior with magic and a kingdom of her own. Morgana, who loves her younger half-brother and is willing to sacrifice everything to see him crowned king. And Elaine, not just a pretty Lily Maid fated to drown but smart, loving and resolute. She’s Arthur’s most trusted advisor.

This managed to feel both true to the source material but also made it feel contemporary where women are more than just sorceresses or prizes to be won.

There’s still Mordred, this time Arthur’s half-brother instead of his son. But still, he’s plotting Arthur’s downfall.

This is a story about the women in Arthur’s life and how their abilities and loyalty to him shaped his story.

For fans of The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White.


CW: Bullying, suicide, talk of madness and rape.

I am choosing not to do a full review for this book as I feel it would be unfair towards it. When I read Sebastian's Ash Princess trilogy I felt that her writing had a lot of room to grow and had hoped that in this, her adult debut, it would have flowered. Unfortunately, I just think Sebastian's writing just isn't for me.
All of the technical points were there for this to be a good story. We had fleshed out characters, conflict, magic, tension, this should have picked me up and transported me away. Instead of that lovely feeling of being sucked into a story and living there in your mind, even for a short while, it was like reading a research paper. It was thorough, sure, but there just wasn't any life to it. I couldn't read more than a few pages at a time without getting sleepy.
If you are the kind of person that is in love with Arthurian retellings and lore and snaps them up every chance you get then yes, absolutely read this book. If that isn't your passion and you are just hoping for a bit of fantasy escapism for a few hundred pages then I would perhaps reconsider before picking this one up.

As much as I wanted to like this book, I didn't. It was hard for me to get into it or connect to the characters. The way the story was told was confusing. I had trouble getting through sections and trying to remember what was happening. I am not familiar with Arthurian legend, so I cannot be sure how much was changed.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the characters and the pacing. I came into this not knowing much about the King Arthur story, and enjoyed it immensely!

See this review and more at my blog, The Scribe Owl!

Thank you to Ace and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

4/5 stars

This was a pleasant surprise! I honestly wasn't expecting much out of Half Sick of Shadows, but I enjoyed my read. It was a bit of an emotional roller coaster, but it ended up working out.

When I first heard that this was a retelling of the legend of Arthur, I thought that Elaine would end up being a side character in her own story. That was corroborated by how shy and uninvolved she was in the beginning and the flashbacks. I'm so glad that she wasn't! Elaine is the main character and a strong one at that.

I loved that this was a character-/relationship-centric book! All of the secondary characters were fleshed out and important to the plot. They were also unique and honestly very different than I expected.

While I enjoyed most things about this book, I wish I was more familiar with the legend of Arthur. Half Sick of Shadows seems to occur before and during the beginning of the story, but the ending is presumably everything that happens in the legend it's based on. The ending is a little abrupt because it assumes the reader has read the legend and knows what's coming.

All in all, Half Sick of Shadows was a solid four-star read.

4 stars. My heart is still hurting from this one and I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

As an Arthurian legend geek, I recognized the title immediately as a line from Tennyson's Lady of Shalott poem and was excited to read an Arthurian story from Elaine's point of view. We already knew about Elaine's death, supposedly inspired by her love of Lancelot, and the author certainly did a good job with her trigger warnings in the beginning of the novel, but WOW this was intense and beautiful and powerful.

I loved that instead of being a side character who is only mentioned in passing in the original stories, here she is a main character who wants a better world alongside her friends Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot. While striving for this, she struggles with the severe strains of prophecy (which she makes through her weaving in her loom, just as in the original legend) on her mental health. So many times I wanted to hug her and hold her and tell her that everything was going to be okay... even though legend dictated it wouldn't be.

A powerful feminist addition to the Arthurian canon and a great exploration into a psyche under significant emotional strain. If you can handle a heartbreaking ending and have a box of tissue ready, I highly recommend this one.

Thank you Berkley publishing group and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really wanted to love this because I do like Arthurian stories with a twist. This suffered from the fact that I read another Arthurian book right before this, so I was making too many comparisons. The timeline in this story was distracting and really bothered me. I usually don’t have the historical fiction/fantasy anachronism problem with Arthurian tales, but I did with this one and it was distracting. Ultimately jumping around really quite bothered me and made it hard for me to really care what was currently happening in the story.

Zitat
"Not all men, fine, but enough of them. Enough to drown out the few good ones. More than enough to ruin the whole damned world." - Kapitel 36.

Meine Meinung
"Half Sick of Shadows" ist das erste Buch von Laura Sebastian, welches nach ihrer "Ash Princess"-Trilogie erschienen ist. Diesmal widmet sich die Autorin einer Camelot-Adaption aus der Sicht der Lady of Shalott. Ich habe das Debüt der Autorin geliebt und bin ziemlich blind in dieses Buch hineingegangen, da ich von der Artussage kein tieferes Fachwissen besitze.

Der Schreibstil ist erneut genauso packend, wie bei der "Ash Princess"-Trilogie. Ich hatte zuvor über ein halbes Jahr nichts lesen können, da mir der Kopf dazu fehlte. Bei "Half Sick of Shadows" habe ich allerdings sofort wieder die ersten neun Kapitel verschlungen. Ich musste mich anfangs erstmal in die Welt und Elaine hineinfinden. Nach einer kurzen Eingewöhnungszeit war ich aber drin und konnte, wie gesagt, das Buch kaum aus der Hand legen.

Das Spannende an "Half Sick of Shadows" ist, dass Elaine ein Orakel ist und man die Geschichte aus ihrer Sicht erlebt. Daher weiß man genauso wie sie, was in der Zukunft passieren könnte. Doch wie Elaine und Nimue selbst sagen, die Zukunft steht erst fest, wenn sie Vergangenheit ist. Zugleich spielt die Geschichte auch noch immer mal wieder in der Vergangenheit, wodurch man die Ursprünge der Freundschaft zwischen Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot und Morgana miterlebt. Mir gefiel diese Mischung aus Gegenwart, Vergangenheit und möglicher Zukunft, wobei sich manche Vergangenheitsabschnitte für mich etwas hinzogen.

Mein größer Kritikpunkt ist das Ende. Eigentlich nicht das Ende an sich, sondern wie schnell es kommt. Der große Konflikt wird mir einfach zu schnell gelöst. Zum Teil lag das aber auch an den Visionen, die Elaine einem vorher erzählt hatte. Dagegen fehlte diese mEnde für mich die selbe Dramatik, obwohl es immer noch mehr als genug Drama hat. Aufgrund des Endes würde ich das Buch auch niemandem empfehlen, der unter 16 oder psychisch labil ist. Nicht umsonst ist dieses Buch der Erwachsenenfantasy zugerechnet wurden und nicht der Jugendfantasy.

Ich muss ehrlich zugeben, dass mein Lieblingscharakter übrigens nicht Elaine sondern Morgana war, obwohl ich auch Elaine sehr mochte. Ich fand, dass diese Morgana sehr stark der Morgana in ihrer Beschreibung und ihrem Handeln aus der BBC Serie Merlin ähnelte. Nicht, dass das unbedingt schlecht wäre, aber ich fand die Inspiration schon sehr auffällig. Sehr gut gefallen hat mir allerdings, dass Laura Sebastian erneut es geschafft hat weibliche Sexualität als etwas vollkommen Normales darzustellen ohne es zu einem großen Thema zu machen.

Fazit
Mit "Half Sick of Shadows" kann Laura Sebastian nicht ganz an ihre "Ash Princess"-Trilogie anknüpfen. Dennoch war es unterhaltsam und lässt Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft kunstvoll miteinander verschmelzen.

Lot of thoughts about this one! It took me a while to read, but I did really enjoy it.

I will be back to post a full review soon.

I featured this book in a round up on my blog, sent links to facebook & twitter, and created an IG story. The details will be shared with the publisher in the next round of this review process.

I'm just going to say it: I didn't like this book.

I had high hopes. I love a good Arthur retelling, I like the Lady of Shalott, and I enjoyed the other book I read by this author (Ash Princess), but this one was boring, and the plot didn't make much sense. Anytime you have a character that can see the future, the plot better be rock-solid or else everything gets lost in ridiculous justifications about why characters are making dumb decisions despite their literal ability to see the future (see: Twilight). Unfortunately, this book did not pull it off, and the result is that much of the plot feels silly and pointless (why exactly did Morgana have to give up her powers? And why was she even there in the first place if it was always going to lead to her/everyone's downfall????).

There's more. The writing style was way too casual and modern--instead of Arthur and his knights/advisers, it reads more like a high school friend group. This is labeled as an adult novel and the main characters are in their 20's, but everything was PG-rated, and it read exactly like a standard YA fantasy novel (complete with fairies). There are also many out-of-place references, for example, a reference to "candy floss". That one got me to chuckle a little--the (American) author made sure to use the British term for cotton candy because it is King Arthur/England, but failed to consider that cotton candy wasn't invented until the 1800's. There are a lot of examples like this, but that one was my favorite.

The worst part was that I felt no emotional connection to any of these characters. The development of the relationship between the main characters is told mainly through flashbacks, and it just doesn't work--I don't buy that this is a friend group that would kill and die for each other. And honestly, I didn't see much to convince me that Arthur becoming king was the absolute necessity that everyone else seemed to think it was. This is a big problem, given that Arthur becoming king is the point of the entire book.

And then, to top it all off, at the end the book swerves and completely skips all of the potentially-interesting conflicts and war that the book had been building too. Just flat out skips it all--the Lancelot/Guinevere affair, the war between Arthur and Mordred, absolutely everything of interest happens mostly off page or is only seen in glimpses through Elaine's powers. This book was long and it took me many days to get through it, so I was extra disappointed that everything I wanted to read about was left out.

I'd pass on this one. There is better YA fantasy out there, and there are better Arthur retellings.

*eARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

while i enjoyed most of the story and how it developed i felt the writing to be a bit lacking which was my main issue (rtc)

I am a HUGE Arthurian fan and this book did not disappoint. From the perspective of Elaine the mad, we get such a different way for the story to be told. I’m sort of upset it’s only a stand alone cause I want MORE! I realized I will read everything this author writes… no matter what. Highly recommend

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

CW: bullying, suicide, sexual assault

2.5 stars. This is going to be the most pedantic review I'm ever going to write, because my enjoyment of this book hinged on historical authenticity. Not accuracy; authenticity.

Over the years, I learned to silence my inner nitpicker while reading historical fiction. When anachronisms pop up, I trained myself to make a note of it, then let it go, provided they didn't detract from the larger scope of the story.

But this book. This infuriating, maddening book that I had been so excited about undid all of that careful training.

I'm going to just preface this review (more like a complaint) that this was actually a decent Arthurian retelling. It was definitely slow, but this was meant to flesh out the Lady of Shalott, Morgan le Fay, Guinevere, and the Arthurian court through the post-modern (but very white) feminist lens as well as explore the dominant theme of destiny vs. choice. I enjoyed the way the author experimented with structure and time (I have a particular fondness for non-linear story structures), the serviceable - if one-dimensional - characterizations of the main five players that recalled the popular source material, and the overall writing style.

That said, I'm going back to the foundation of this book. This is a retelling of the Arthurian myths - so why does it feel like I'm reading a Regency soap opera with magic and the fae thrown in?

It's amazing how just the repeated mentions of corsets and tea made me throw this book across this room.

What we know as corsets - both the term and the actual supportive undergarments with boning - did not exist until the 17th century. Its predecessor were called stays, which did not exist until the 15th century (barring the outerwear that resembles a corset on a 1600 BCE Minoan figure) and were not popularized until the 16th century.

And tea, as we know, had only arrived in England in the mid-16th century when the Age of Exploration was underway.

So why the mini history lesson?

Because this book constantly, constantly mentions corsets and tea to the point that deliberately not wearing corsets became half of Morgana's personality and tea and tea time ("TEA TIME"? Are you trying to be Bridgerton?) were significant periods of daily life at the Camelot court.

I brushed it off the first time it was mentioned, but by the fifth and certainly not the last time, I had to put the book down and scream out my frustration.

I'm not even asking for historical accuracy in every minute detail, especially since this is a fantasy retelling. But for goodness' sake, having those anachronisms thrown at me in every infernal chapter is so jarring; it takes me completely out of the flow of the story.

If you're going to write something that has been speculated to have taken place between the late 5th and early 6th centuries, I expect you to immerse me at least (AT LEAST!) in the feel of the time period, even if it's a fantasy. Heck, throw in some anachronistic details from the 12th-14th centuries when most of the tales were being written and sung! But heavens, have the decency to keep modern aspects that completely undermine the setting and the historiographical sources out of the story you're trying to sell me.

And it's 2021. Can we move on from using corsets to symbolize the oppression of women? It's trite and UNTRUE.

What a spectacular, aggravating disappointment. You're better off reading The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White or Queen of Camelot by Nancy McKenzie if you're really itching for an Arthurian retelling.

(By the way, women prior to the 15th century wore chemises and strips of cloth as underwear. Before the 13th century, women wore loose-fitting clothing so as not to draw attention to their the shape of their bodies - so wearing shapewear like a corset makes no sense in this context.)

I've always been a fan of Arthurian legend - as an English major, I read "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and The Once and Future King. This year, I picked up Legendborn, which resparked my fascination with the myth and fortunately, I had the chance to pick up this retelling, as well. And when I started, however, I kept trying to figure out, who is this Elaine character? After some quick research, I remembered the poem "The Lady of Shalott" and Elaine's tragic ending. It was a stark reminder of the misogyny and sexim present in so many of the original Arthurian tellings - Gwen being a seductress, Elaine being so lovesick she'll do whatever for Lancelot, Morgana being the evil witch... all while the men get off scot-free.

What I loved about Half Sick of Shadows is how it felt so true to the original Arthurian legends with the writing style, tone, setting, and characters, yet it managed to bring a much-needed feminist spin on it. Elaine, Guinevere, and Morgana were all complicated, gritty, intelligent characters. Honestly, much more fascinating than Arthur or Lancelot! But I feel like Sebastian did that on purpose -- it was to breathe new light into this classic story by making the women the focal point. Nearly the entire plot revolves around them and their decisions. It was an absolute stunning decision.

The other thing that set this book apart so much from anything else I've read like it is the interchanging of past, present, and future tense. The very few times I've read a books that do that, it can be challenging as a reader to keep things straight. Sebastian did a great job writing it in a way that made sense but also showed the slippery, tricky nature of the future -- after all, nothing is set in stone until it has already happened.

And best of all in this story is Elaine. While the traditional Elaine of "The Lady of Shalott" fame is no one too memorable, she is certainly a narrator I'll not forget anytime soon. Her character was so dynamic, and while I didn't agree with every action she took, I loved watching her character arc unfold.

TW: the author left a very good, detailed content warning in her forward. There are some suicidal ideation portions of this book which could be very triggering for some readers. Sebastian's conclusion, however, was super valuable in letting readers know why she made the decision she did and how personal this book was for her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for an eARC of this book. I definitely loved reading it from start to finish and recommend it for fantasy lovers and those interested in Arthurian legend, albeit with a feminist twist.

I’m not sure that there are any truly “new” ways to reinterpret the core of the Arthurian mythos, but Laura Sebastian introduces some interesting tweaks to the most commonly accepted/popular versions of the story that are out there, including a couple of large and unexpected changes to character histories. These changes will probably not please readers who expect every story about Camelot to march to the standard beats of the childhood of Arthur, the Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot love triangle, the Arthur/Morgana/Mordred history, the quest for the Holy Grail, and the final battle between the forces of Arthur and Mordred. But I found Sebastian’s rearranging of relationships and histories intriguing and would love to know more about how she made the story choices she made. To say “this is not your grandfather’s Camelot” is probably accurate. And I think that’s perfectly okay. (Your mileage may vary, of course.)

Sebastian riffs on the traditional idea that Arthur’s childhood was spent away from his father’s court – but instead of Arthur being unaware of his true heritage and raised by Sir Ector as younger brother to Sir Kay, Arthur is traded by King Uther to the magical island nation of Avalon as a hostage to prevent further war between Albion and Avalon (a fairly common practice in medieval times), and grows up with a half-fae Lancelot as well as fellow human transplants Guinevere and Elaine along with half-sister Morgana. She deals with the on-going confusion about Arthur’s half-sister’s name (sometimes Morgan le Fey, sometimes Morgana, something Morgause) by giving him two half-sisters, twins named Morgause and Morgana. These are foundational changes that add new breath to the story without veering too far from the familiar. She also takes the somewhat daring step of making Mordred Arthur’s bastard half-brother rather than his bastard son. I’ll admit that this particular change threw me, as it didn’t seem to add anything to this narrative other than giving Arthur a blood relative rival for his father’s throne. I didn’t hate this change, but it didn’t seem as smooth a fit as the other changes Sebastian makes, especially since Mordred is pretty ineffectual as a foil, appearing in a bare handful of scenes. Likewise, the expected Arthur/Guinevere romance is present but is somewhat tangential to the Elaine/Lancelot romance. In a book inspired by The Lady of Shallot, this should not surprise anyone. Also fair warning: Merlin fans will be disappointed. He’s in a couple of key scenes, but he is not the master manipulator/mentor figure he’s usually portrayed as.

Elaine is the narrator, and she tells the story in three time frames, only one of which is linear. The “present day” time frame starts with the friends being told it is time to leave Avalon because Arthur’s father had died and it’s time for him to claim the throne. The flashbacks to how Elaine came to Avalon, met the others, and studied under Avalon’s head oracle, Nimue, are revealed when current events inspire Elaine to remember key moments of their past – thus, not in chronological order but mirroring the way we all tell people about our pasts: “Oh, then there was the time we…” And then there are Elaine’s disjointed and sometimes contradictory visions of the future, of the ways in which Arthur will come to that final battle, and even what will happen after. These are of necessity also not linear/chronological, because in this world the nature of visions is to change as present-day decisions strengthen or weaken the possibilities the future holds. This is the way I prefer to see prophecies handled in fiction: not as a single immutable “must happen” event, but as something open to interpretation and change. One of the central ideas of the book is that the future is only solidified once it is in the past. Jumping across these time frames, sometimes in mid-chapter, kept the book interesting for me.

I’m also not sure just how much this qualifies as a “bold feminist retelling” the way the cover copy claims. Yes, Elaine is the narrator of the story, which focuses equally on her friendships with Morgana and Guinevere and touches slightly on her mentoring by Nimue. But an oft-repeated refrain in the book is that the friends must do “All For Arthur” – meaning whatever it takes to get him on the throne of Camelot. Throughout the book, the female characters (and Lancelot) subvert their own needs, sacrifice their own happiness, to assure Arthur meets his destiny – even though Arthur himself doesn’t seem really capable of accomplishing the tasks set for him without his friends’ interference. Half Sick of Shadows is definitely a bold, one could even say controversial, take on the Arthurian legend – but I’m not convinced it’s really “feminist” in the way the cover copy claims. (In fact, I’d go out on a limb and say that it possibly fails the Bechdel test, as most of the conversations between the female leads are about the two guys.) That being said, I do wonder if this is just the first book in a series, and that the major decision Elaine makes at the end of the book will in fact lead to a much broader reinterpretation that further centers the female characters. If this is a series, I’ll definitely be signing on for book two.

I received an Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Half Sick of Shadows is a historical fantasy that centers on Elaine, the Lady of Shallot, but a far more consequential Lady of Shallot than the passive victim of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem. She is a seer, blessed or cursed with the ability to see the future, though all futures form a metaverse of possibilities depending on choices made. Her problem is she can see too many futures with too little guidance as to which decisions lead to them.

Elaine grew up in Camelot, unlike Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot, who she met when Arthur’s half-sister visited Camelot and befriended her, taking her to Avalon to finish growing up there away from her mother who tried to stifle Elaine’s ability with potions. There she grew up among the magical folk who were banned from the strictly mundane Camelot where all magic was banned.

When Arthur’s father died, Arthur, Elaine, Lancelot, and Elaine travel to Camelot while Guinevere travels to her home. In Camelot, Arthur is not welcomed as Mordred claims the through and Morgause allies with him. Merlin is ambivalent, though he leans more toward the sure thing in Mordred. Arthur is set the challenge of traveling to Guinevere’s home and making peace with them. It is not as easy as it would seem.

Meanwhile Elaine is haunted by all the possibilities, none of which seem good.



While Half Sick of Shadows is well-written with a true sense of place and with complex characters, I was disappointed in the story overall. I found the several iterations of the future tedious. At first, they were intriguing, but there were just too many. I suppose you could say we were given insight into the difficulty of being a seer, constantly plagued with possible futures with no certainty how to achieve or avoid them.

There were intriguing conflicts in the story, of course, there is the well-known conflict between Arthur and Mordred who is his half-brother rather than his son in this story. There is a conflict between Morgause and Morgana, as though the mythical woman has been split in two. There is the conflict between the church represented by Merlin and the magical represented by the Lady of the Lake, a conflict Elaine is asked to take sides in. These are all fascinating, but rather than engage, Elaine and the author sidestep the main event. We never learn how the inevitable comes to pass, a strange and disappointing decision.

I received an e-galley of HalfHalf Sick of Shadows from the publisher through NetGalley

Half Sick of Shadows at Berkley | Penguin Random House

Laura Sebastian

I’m always up for an Arthur story. I’m also - and this is probably related - always up for the kind of story where you know it’s going to end in tragedy, the narrator keeps telling you that it’s going to end in tragedy, but then you get your hopes up anyway even though you really *do* know better, and when it all ends in tragedy just like you knew it would it ends up hurting like 1000x times worse. So an Arthur story told from the perspective of a Cassandra-esque figure, able to foresee the way it is all going to end but unable to change it, is exactly the kind of misery I love.

The actual PoV here is Elaine, the Lady of Shallot. According to the classical legends of the Matter of Britain, she falls in love with Lancelot and eventually dies of unrequited love. She is not to be confused with the other Elaine who loved Lancelot, Galahad’s mother Elaine of Corbenic; nor should she be confused with Elayne Trakand, Daughter-Heir of Andor and Supergirl; nor should she be confused with Elaine of Benes, downfall of soup Nazis.

The story centers on Elaine, Artur, Guinevere, Morgana, and Lancelot. The five of them have been raised on Avalon, but with the death of Uther they leave the safety of Avalon for Arthur to claim his throne before his (in this telling) half-brother Mordred can. The five of them are extremely close. Guinevere and Arthur love each other, and Lancelot and Elaine love each other, but the bonds between all five are very strong. And poor Elaine, as an oracle, knows exactly how everything will (or at least might) play out: Lancelot and Guinivere betraying her and Arthur, Morgana betraying Arthur, Arthur failing in a thousand ways, and so on and so on. That tension between the love Elaine has for the other four, and the love that she knows that bear for each other, and the way fate has decreed it will end is the tension in this story.

Sebastian takes a lot of liberties here, which is fine, but there are a lot of what I would consider key parts of the story that are absent. There’s nothing about the recently departed Romans, nor about the conflict between Christians and Pagans. There’s practically nothing about Arthur’s reign at all: this story is focused on him claiming the throne and, through Elaine’s visions, him falling. The focus is on the five of them and the relationships among them. It’s a much smaller-scale than the epic thing that the Matter of Britain usually is.

I got rather turned off in the middle, when it seemed like the story had more or less gone off the rails. There were also some points in the plot that veered a little too close to high school-esque melodrama for my taste. But I’m very glad I stuck through; despite some rough spots in the middle, Sebastian sticks the landing. And it’s exactly the right kind of miserable heartbreak when she does.