The Dragon Queen
Alice Borchardt
Random House
R180
Reviewed by Gail Jamieson, 2003
This is the first novel in a new trilogy of a very different tale of Arthur
and Guinevere.
In this first book we learn that Guinevere is no ordinary mortal woman -
she is born with the marks of the Dragon and is raised by a wolf family who
themselves are very different as the male shifts from wolf to human. She
considers the female wolf as her mother and the cubs as her siblings. She is
also watched over by a bad-tempered druid and, of course, the Dragons.
Central to the story is Merlin - but also a very different Merlin from the
one we have become used to in Arthurian legend. This is a dark Merlin who
practices the Dark arts. He knows that Guinevere should become Arthur's Queen
and that between them they will bring peace to a disturbed land but
that in doing so Merlin's power will be drained away. So he does all in his
power to ensure that she does not fulfill her destiny.
But by the end of the novel she has saved Arthur from entrapment in a
seemingly inescapable spirit world and taken her place on the Dragon Throne
from where she promises to make Arthur her King.
The front cover of the book promises a "thrilling re-imagining of a
timeless tale" and it is indeed a very different story about characters
that I have come to know in a different guise. I enjoyed it but I am not sure
that it is the best idea to put such a different spin on a well-loved legend.
It would have been just as readable as the beginning of a new fantasy
trilogy.
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