"Nimue used to say that there was peace in knowing the future, but I have never felt that way. Knowing the future set me on edge, it made me act rashly, and I used it to drive wedges between myself and the people I loved. It did not bring me peace."
I had been waiting eagerly for this book to be released at the end of last month and I finished reading it today. It did not disappoint. It is, of course, as the title suggests, a novel retelling based on Tennyson's famous poem, The Lady of Shalott. I've loved the poem since I was a teenager, along with the painting by Waterhouse, which is featured on art prints and cushion covers dotted around my house, and also a pretty locket I like to wear. I've written about it before, here on my blog.
The novel tells the story of Camelot, but from the perspective of Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat and the Lady of Shalott. In this novel, Elaine is a Seer, gifted with the ability to foretell the future. Her loom is a scrying vehicle and the tapestries she weaves are images of future events - romances, tournaments, wars - all play out upon the loom, her hand guided by a powerful, psychic gift, nurtured in Avalon by the Lady of the Lake.
Elaine has been given the job of trying to prevent the tragedy of Arthur's last battle against Mordred. She travels with him to Camelot, determined to see him crowned king and along the way she falls in love with Lancelot. However, her gift makes her distrustful, for how can she really trust someone when she has already seen and felt the pain of their future betrayal? She is plagued with visions of treachery by her friends, of Camelot's destruction and the fall of the king, even of her own death by drowning. Night after night, she feels the water close in above her head, the weight of it pressing her down, keeping her under as her lungs burn for air.
As Fate pulls her along its path, Elaine does all she can to effect a different outcome for Arthur and her friends, but eventually, she lets go of control and allows Fate to take her where it will. Her gifts weighs heavily upon her. It is one thing to be able to share foresight of happy events such as a pregnancy, but quite another to be compelled to foretell the death of a loved one, knowing that there is nothing to be done to save them, only prepare them to face the worst. Elaine pushes people away because all she can see in the end is her own powerlessness to protect them, her own limitations, their betrayals and eventually, her loneliness and drowning.
The book is nicely written, but there are some stonking inaccuracies you will need to overlook. As an example, the author has hung lace curtains at the castle windows and has her characters drinking hot cocoa and tea from porcelain cups! As these beverages didn't reach English shores until the mid-seventeenth century, it is highly improbable that they would have been enjoyed in pre-Medieval Camelot! Ditto with the lacy curtains, but if you can get past such inauthentic bloopers, then you will probably enjoy the book. The story also veers into the realms high fantasy for a few chapters, and while this doesn't diminish one's enjoyment of the novel, I did wonder what real purpose it served. Just bear in mind that it is written by an American - which kind of explains it all.
Overall though, inaccuracies and lycanthropian monsters aside, I did enjoy the book. It wasn't quite what I was hoping for. but it was entertaining and a good read. It's also the first newly published novel I've read in a long time that hasn't jumped all over the gender-bending, LGBTQ, WOKE diversity bandwagon - and that in itself was a wonderfully refreshing change! I don't know about you, but I get thoroughly annoyed when I pick up what I think is going to be a straight forward novel, only to be aggressively spoon-fed political agendas. This book, however, is just a classic boy-love's-girl tale of Camelot's once and future king. And for that reason, I recommend it to anyone who enjoys novels of Arthurian legend. Happy Reading!
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