Seeing as how I've already written Retro Friday reviews of both my favorite Robin Hood retellings, it was really only a matter of time before I started in on my favorite Arthurian novels. Somehow the two have always gone together in my head--Robin Hood and King Arthur--the best of the best when it came to British mythology and lore. Truth be told, I've been mildly obsessed with both ever since I was a girl and I have a soft spot in my heart for the first encounter I had with each in novelized form. As far as Robin Hood goes, that was Robin McKinley's The Outlaws of Sherwood. With Arthurian lore, it was Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence. The sequence is actually a five-book series following two groups of people embroiled in the centuries-old conflict between the Light and the Dark. The first group are the three Drew children--Simon, Jane, and Barney--who become involved through their connections with their mysterious Great-Uncle Merry. The second is a long line of warriors for the Light known as the Old Ones. They culminate in the last (and youngest) of the Old Ones--a deceptively ordinary boy by the name of Will Stanton. The books weave back and forth between these two groups, sometimes crossing paths, sometimes flying solo, until they all join forces in the final volume. For the purposes of this post, I decided to focus on the fourth (and my favorite) book--The Grey King.

The Grey King opens with Will Stanton delirious with fever. He is certain he has forgotten something vitally important, but cannot for the life of him remember what it was. Having contracted hepatitis, he is sent to stay with his aunt and uncle in Wales for his convalescence. Slowly, as he begins to regain his strength, his memory returns and it becomes clear why he has been sent to an all-but-forgotten valley in Wales at this particular moment in time. The key is in these lines from prophecy:

On the day of the dead, when the year too dies,

Must the youngest open the oldest hills

Through the door of the birds, where the breeze

breaks.

There fire shall fly from the raven boy,

And the silver eyes that see the wind,

And the Light shall have the harp of gold.

By the pleasant lake the Sleepers lie,

On Cadfan's Way where the kestrels call;

Though grim from the Grey King shadows fall,

Yet singing the golden harp shall guide

To break their sleep and bid them ride.

When light from the lost land shall return,

Six Sleepers shall ride, six Signs shall burn,

And where the midsummer tree grows tall

By Pendragon's sword the Dark shall fall.

Y maent yr mynyddoedd yn canu,

ac y mae'r arglwyddes yn dod.

Will soon encounters an unhappy young boy named Bran who lives with his father on a neighboring farm. With his white dog Cafall at his side, Bran introduces Will to the mist-shrouded land he calls home and, bit by bit, the lines of the prophecy begin to take shape. Together these two lost boys must join forces to defeat the Dark that is on the rise.

This book is hauntingly beautiful and redolent with the lyrical Welsh language and an atmosphere as thick and rich as the fog surrounding the peak of Cader Idris. I love this entire series, but The Grey King is where it all comes together for me. And the character of Bran Davies is one of the main reasons why. What a compulsively sympathetic character Cooper created in Bran! Somehow she crafted a young boy with a heart full of pain and confusion, slammed on his head a powerful legacy, and managed to keep him so real it's breathtaking. My heart went out to him when I met him at 11 years old and it does the same today so many years later. The friendship between the two boys is tenuous and riveting to watch unfold as they both embody that incongruous and contradictory blend of youthful anguish and wisdom beyond their years. The supporting cast of characters is just as wonderful and varied, none of them fully good or evil, but inhabiting the many margins in between those absolutes. This is the most moving and heart wrenching of the books in the series and it is where the Arthurian legend comes into play most strongly as the identities of the raven boy, the eyes that see the wind, and the Sleepers themselves are revealed. The results are stunning and spur the reader on to read the next and final volume in the sequence. This, my friends, is a book of the finest kind. Winner of the 1976 Newbery Medal, and fully deserving of that honor, I recommend it (and the whole series) for fans of Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L'Engle, and anyone with a penchant for Arthurian tales.

Reading order: Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, and Silver on the Tree.

I don't know why it's so funny. But it really is. Enjoy.

(Thanks to DH for the link. You take care of me, baby.)

Maggie Stiefvater has revealed the cover for her upcoming Wolves of Mercy Falls novel, Linger, along with the first paragraph as a teaser! As you probably know, this is the sequel to Shiver and it follows Sam, Grace, and the whole crew as they find out what happens after. And here it is:

• grace •

This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one.

Just a few months ago, it was Sam who was the mythical creature. His was the disease we couldn't cure. His was the good-bye that meant the most. He had the body that was a mystery, too strange and wonderful and terrifying to comprehend.

But now it is spring. With the heat, the remaining wolves will soon be falling out of their wolf pelts and back into their human bodies. Sam stays Sam, and Cole stays Cole, and it's only me who's not firmly in my own skin.

So what do you think? I love the first paragraph and like the consistency of the covers. I confess to being pretty intrigued to find out where she's going to take these characters after the end of Shiver, which, for the record, I thought would have worked perfectly well as a final ending. No idea where this one's gonna go, but definitely interested to see.

So guess what? Today is my blogiversary! That's right, the very first post here at Angieville went up on Halloween of 2005. I'm even posting this at about the same time in the evening as that one was. I can't believe it, really. Things have changed a lot, including focus, layout, posting frequency, and (best of all) all of you who stop in to say hi and share your thoughts. I love this blog. I honestly get sad imagining my life without it and I hope I can keep it going for as long as we're all game.

But this does seem to call for a celebration, does it not? So, in honor of the occasion, I'm giving away an anniversary mega-pack to one lucky commenter. The pack will include one brand new, signed paperback copy of Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, one brand new paperback copy of Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols, one brand new hardback copy of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins with accompanying limited edition T-shirt and mockingjay pin, one brand new paperback copy of Bright Star: the Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne by John Keats, and one brand new copy of the Bright Star soundtrack. That's four books and one CD to a randomly selected commenter!

If you haven't read these three excellent young adult novels yet, I highly recommend you do. They are each quite different and I thoroughly enjoyed all three. You can read my reviews of them here, here, and here. I've already gone on about how much I loved the spectacular film Bright Star, although I failed to mention the gorgeous soundtrack that went with it. Even if you have not seen the film, I know you will enjoy the music. And if you haven't seen the film yet, you really must. To whet your appetite, here is a video clip with director Jane Campion:

Now, all you need to do to enter is comment and share your favorite (or funniest) anniversary memory. This can be absolutely any kind of anniversary: wedding, birthday, blog, death, or other significant event! One extra entry if you become a follower, two for current followers. Unfortunately, given the state of the Angieville coffers, this giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. It will be open for a week and will close at midnight on Saturday, November 7th. I'll announce the winner the next day. Please make sure to leave me a way to contact you.

It's Halloween tomorrow and everyone's dressing up. If you're my boy, you get to dress up for the school Halloween parade and class party today as well as tomorrow night for the actual trick-or-treating. I'll be walking around with him, carrying babygirl in my arms. Any of you out there dressing up and/or attending Halloween parties?

As I was making the rounds, I came across Carolyn's hilarious Reading Personality Quiz: Cinderella vs. Little Red Riding Hood over at The Thrillionth Page (link via See Michelle Read). Not a pairing you see very often. I highly recommend you head over and answer the questions to see which one you are. You probably think you already know, but the result may surprise you. I was leaning LRRH but I ended up with my answers split right down the middle. Of which Carolyn has to say:

You want it all! Drama, conflict, crazy devotion, HEA, heroines who can take care of themselves...extra points for a cool outfit.

Yep. That pretty much sums it up, actually.

You Can Have It All - Yo La Te...

As I was looking for images I came across these killer versions of Red Riding Hood by artist Jerry Cai:

Seriously cool, no? That's my kind of girl. You can see more of Jerry Cai's artwork here. Happy Halloween!

Awhile back I won an ARC of Lisa Matchev's Eyes Like Stars. I was even more excited to read it when the book arrived and I saw the tagline: Theatre Illuminata, Act I. Loved it. Love the whole title, the lush, edgy cover, and the main character's incredibly apt name--Beatrice Shakespeare Smith--known to the inhabitants of the Theatre Illuminata as Bertie. So I was happy to see Eyes Like Stars nominated for a Cybils award in the YA Scifi/Fantasy category so that I could kick my panelist reading off with a book I'd already been looking forward to reading. That it was about the stage and included numerous references to Shakespeare was icing on the cake.

Bertie lives in the Theatre Illuminata. Eighteen years ago she was left on the doorstep as a baby and taken in by the Wardrobe Mistress and adopted by nearly every denizen of this most unusual theater. You see, every character in every play ever written lives in the Theatre Illuminata. And in the Theater Manager's office there is "The Book." Spoken of in hushed tones and never really approached, "The Book" contains the script of every play ever written. Something of a charming rebel, Bertie loves her adopted home. She love sleeping in her bedroom on stage. She loves getting into mischief with her four fairy friends: Moth, Peaseblossom, Cobweb, and Mustardseed. And she loves just hanging around with dreamy pirate Nate and, just occasionally, watching him climb the rigging or swing his cutlass about. Then one day the Stage Manager, who's always been out to get Bertie, announces before the entire company that she's out on her ear come end of day. Bertie is shocked, refusing to believe it. Turns out, it's true. She's caused one too many catastrophes and the Theater Manager is sending her packing--back into the real world where she came from. Terrified of leaving and determined to stay in her home, Bertie mounts an unheard of production of Hamlet in order to prove her worth. What she doesn't count on is Ariel, the airy spirit of The Tempest fame, who longs to claim his freedom and sees Bertie as his ticket out.

Lisa Mantchev's debut novel jumps right into the fray with an endearingly devil-may-care attitude. This attitude is reflected note perfectly in its protagonist. Bertie of the blue dye job, slouching striped socks, and penchant for sticking her fingers in every pie. It took me several pages to figure what in the world was going on and, as I've mentioned here before, I like that. It makes me feel like I'm immersing myself in a fully-formed world that's exists independent of myself. The entire premise of Eyes Like Stars is full of potential and very fun indeed. An orphan girl who grows up literally on the stage. An impossibly sexy air spirit hell bent on freedom. A host of familiar characters flouncing around being dramatic. A couple of chapters in and I was all set to pull up the chair and break out the popcorn. But I ran into problems after that. It turns out that in a story peopled with famous (and infamous) characters, it's pretty dang hard to flesh those familiar faces out. I loved Ophelia, constantly wandering the theater looking for puddles to drown in. I liked Ariel and his smooth-talking, butterfly-ridden ways. But they never leaped off the page at me. They remained two-dimensional and vaguely uninteresting. Now if Bertie herself had been dynamic and compelling, I might have been okay with this. But she, too, wore thin for me over time. I couldn't understand her insistence in demonizing Ariel. His motivations and actions, though underhanded at times, felt true to me. Though I enjoyed Bertie's antics with the sprites, they felt forced and couldn't maintain my attention for the near 400 page count. Her opinions changed at the drop of a hat and for inexplicable and underdeveloped reasons, which bothered me repeatedly. Overall the pace remained frenetic and uneven, the characterization flat and uninteresting, and I finished feeling apathetic at best. With the way it ended, I am interested to see where she takes the sequel, but sadly not enough to pick it up when it comes out.

Linkage

Book Blather Review

The Book Smugglers Review

The Book Spot Review

The Compulsive Reader Review

GreenBeanTeenQueen Review

The Hiding Spot Review

A Journey of Books Review

Melissa's Bookshelf Review

Presenting Lenore Review & Interview