The Book of Gaheris: An Arthurian Tale by Kari Sperring. A Library Thing Early Review
I know the “basic” legends of Camelot so I was looking forward to delving a little deeper into some supporting characters and I’m glad I got that opportunity. The writing is sound but the similarity of the names, flipping to the use of pet names and the various parts told from three points of view disrupted the flow for me. I do understand that all three areas concerned one character, but because the stories slid into each other without a clear division between narrators, I felt lost and frustrated at each junction. Clearly, the author is far more knowledgeable about the Arthurian cast than most. ( )

A well-crafted collection of Sperring’s Arthurian novellas focussing on Gaheris of Orkney and his relationship with his brothers and their interactions with the Pellinore family. Very much to my taste, the novellas focus on the psychology rather than the more familiar High Victorian melodrama. I am reminded of Phyllis Ann Karr’s Idylls of the Queen. This collection fills out the earlier novellas Rose Knot and Serpent Rose and adds additional material making more of a seamless story.

I received a free copy of this book as an Early Reviewer on Library Things and this is my honest review.

I really liked the idea of this book, telling the stories of King Arthurs four nephews. Whilst the ideas of the story were good, I found that switching between the characters too often, disrupted the flow of the stories. There was a lot of descriptions of talking and not much "showing" of what was happening. My attention lagged a few times, and it was an effort to finish.

All praise to the author who has a great imagination and stories to tell, the way they are told just need a little polishing. There is great potential here. ( )

A collection of four novellas set in the high medieval Arthurverse popularized by Thomas Mallory, which is not my favourite setting for this kind of story, but anyhow canon. The author adding some anachronisms of her own into the stew did not bother me greatly.

What did bother and even annoy me was the way the reader is expected to have all the subplots at hand, having her characters hold full conversations in hints and innuendos. Yes, we could of course look the background stories up to find out what's it all about, however my point is, we should not have to, it is the author's job to tell the story.

The actual story dragged a bit, having me feel very tired very soon by the endless squabbling and bickering of the dysfunctional Orkney family Also, I had to retrace my steps several times, having been thrown by the popping of the names of Gavin, Gary, Agrin, Heris, Loval, which took me a while to realise were not separate characters at all but nicknames for Gawain, Gareth, Gaheris, Agravain and Aglovale respectively.

All in all, an OK-ish read, no more. ( )

Three Arthurian tales written by a historian, some expanded and some reinvented, that offer new twists on old concepts. At first, after reading most of the first tale, I was leaning toward a 3 Star rating because the flow of the writing was slowing the pace of the story; however, upon viewing another review that mentions the layout and the author's note at the end, I pushed on through and was pleasantly surprised. The rest of the first tale and the two remaining ones were much easier to navigate. I ended up loving the interpretations of the characters and thoroughly enjoyed the stories. Although at the end, I think the Afterward would help readers understand the author's intent if included near the beginning as an introduction instead. For history buffs and fans of Arthurian legends.

LibraryThing Early Reviewer ( )