Book 1), The Crystal Cave (The Arthurian Saga

So many commercials at the holiday time. To have a 900 page triple novel, sweet! Over half way through, thinking about the next one. I do love the store's quality service and infinite selection at unbeatable prices. Open a book America! There is a reward under the covers!

Mary Stewart's writing will transport you to the mists of Wales, and the cave of Merlin. This is the first in a series of great books by Mary Stewart. This book is filled with action and suspense. If you like stories about Merlin you must have this book.

For all its flaws (and there are many), Mary Stewart chose the oldest of all known sources, pre-French-Romance. This source is a mix of actual oral traditions and pure fiction Geofrey made up. Mary Stewart did a superb job of rendering this historical/fictional fruit salad into a very readable, plausible story. A truly legendary effort by a writer better known for her romance novels, as this took her far outside her comfort zone and into the international bestsellers' lists.

Exciting and magical, Stewart gives England's history a touch of romance without making it too fantastic or cheesy. She writs Merlin as very smart, straitforword guy, without losing his aura as one of the greatest magicians. No wonder it's a classic.

The story of Merlin's formation is told masterfully, almost poetically. I've always found this to be a great story.

However, the Kindle edition is exceptionally poorly formatted. The prelude is missing. Where is the Edward Muir poem? And most importantly, where is the map? The map in particular makes the story easier to follow if you don't happen to be well versed in Welsh geography. The justification is so poor that it is difficult to differentiate between paragraphs. I think it is a shame that such an excellent book is so poorly presented.

I was amazed at how quickly the book arrived. Fantastic! Also the condition of the book surprised me. It is in mint condition. It is just like the one I had as a child so I am very happy. My experience with this first time buy has left me with a feeling of confidence. I will be doing this again.
Sandy

I've read this trilogy before, all three stories in paperback. I lost them somewhere along the way, and saw that all three books were in a hardcover so I bought it. Wow, who proofread this? There are so many mis-spellings in this edition that someone must have used their blackberry to error check!!! You know, one little letter can change the whole context of a paragraph LOL !!! But hey, I know what the book's about, so it was good for a laugh, and made me pay more attention to each word in the end. Maybe I enjoyed reading it more out of this edition than the other paperbacks!

USED: Very Good??????????????????
This book looks like it's been through the wringer. Pretty embarrassed to give it to my granddaughter.....it's ripped, scribbled on and the corners of the pages are bent. WHY WOULD YOU CALL THIS VERY GOOD?

Never again!

This review is only about the Kindle edition. This is one of my favorite books and I have been waiting to have it available on Kindle. The book is so poorly formatted, completely left justified with page numbers embedded in the middle of pages. It gives the impression of having been scanned in and badly converted

I can't wait for a well formatted digital copy of this enchanting book and then the whole series

This book is missing the prelude, which is a very important part of the story. Also the cover looks blurry, suggesting to me that it is not an authorized copy. I would not recommend this particular publisher but the story itself is wonderful. I'm just going to have to get a copy elsewhere.

The Crystal Cave felt like history more than fiction. I guess that's why it's called a legend.  What's real and what isn't?  The mixture of real places, possibly real events and wars, ancient religions like the Druids, and completely made up magic make this legend so interesting to read.  Since not much is known about the druids, you can make anything up and who knows, it could be true!  The map at the beginning of the book is of England with Stonehenge marked on it.  The plot of The Crystal Cave ends up with someone buried at Stonehenge.  I had no idea that Stonehenge is actually a cemetery until I read this book.  And then when I thought there was another cool location I could visit in real life, a fictional place would be thrown in (or maybe a place that just doesn't exist anymore??) Sadly, I could not find a place called Killare Castle in real life.

The magic was very subtle which made it feel more realistic.  It almost doesn't even feel like magic since Merlin has no control over it.  Is his sight instinct or magic? Arthurian legend has always had that hint of this could have really happened.  I found myself looking things up like the mysterious Mithras religion, which I learned is Roman in origin and has some similarities in symbolism to Christianity.

Speaking of symbolism, The Crystal Cave was full of animal symbolism that I didn't get until we discussed them at book club.

The Bear represents King Arthur
The Dove represents Merlin as a boy
The Falcon represents Merlin as a man
The Wolf represents Vortigern and his  dirty tactics
The red dragon represents Ambrosius
I haven't read a lot of Arthurian legend and I like that Mary Stewart explained where her version came from at the end of the book.

Historically speaking, the Historia Regum Brittaniae is appalling, but as a story it is tremendous stuff, and has been a source and inspiration for the great cycle of tales called the Matter of Britain, from Malory's Morte d'Arthur to Tennyson's Idylls of the King, from Parsifal to Camelot.

-Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave (Author' Note) pg 492

In the Author's Note she explains where location names came from, how her story differs from the other Arthurian legends mentioned above, and why she chose certain character names.  This nerd loved reading it.

As much as I liked the story and the rich world building that you expect from fantasy, there were a few things that I didn't like.  There is some foreshadowing that doesn't amount to anything.  Merlin says that King Gorlan is his real father but it doesn't turn out to be true.  It doesn't make sense because all his other premonitions end up being true.  Is this a plot hole? Or did I miss something?  The rampant and casual sexism was probably accurate for the time but I still found it awful to read.  The Crystal Cave has a huge cast of characters that have similar names and complicated relationships that I found hard to keep straight.