Spear

No cover

Spear (2022, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)

192 pages

English language

Published Nov. 25, 2022 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.

ISBN:
9781250819338

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (1 review)

2 editions

Good but... not great?

4 stars

First the positive: I have a bit of a soft spot for retellings of the Arthurian legend, and this seems a particularly good one. Not only does it do a really good job of tying in Welsh/Irish life and legends, but much of the prose is beautiful and dense. The less satisfying aspects of the book, however, include the pacing and the incomprehensible motivations of some of the characters. Worst of all, though, is that the main character comes across as a bit of a Mary Sue and, while that kind of makes sense in the context of the story, it does feel a bit... I don't know, 'YA', which is very much at odds with the other aspects of the book. I guess I'd say that I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad it's over :(