Mood: April showers bring May... snow? *Grumble*

Two books checked off my list for the month of April! Recaps and thoughts:

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

A retelling of the famous King Author and days of Camelot tale, only Bradley delivers the whole lengthy 876-page package told entirely from the eyes of the lead female characters in the story. I've always really enjoyed the Authurian legend, and in a story usually dominated by male characters it's interesting to see a version of the the King Author story from the female perspective. With that said, I have to admit that I found myself very badly missing the predominance of characters like Merlin and Author at certain times. I was disappointed at the lack of iconic moments such as the pulling of the sword from the stone simply because a female lead wasn't conveniently present to witness it, or perhaps in Bradley's version of the story that event simply never existed at all. Most of the female characters themselves were enjoyable enough, with one particular exception -- I admit that often times I really hated Gwenhwyfar and her all-consuming piety; I physically cringed at parts when I could practically hear her high-pitched whine in my ear, and each time hated Author just a little more for buckling to her obsessive faith-based demands over and over again. Irksome.

Looking back, Mists of Avalon was a cross of being both a very entertaining read and at other times being incredibly slow and dry. I found the latter half of the novel became overly theological for my tastes. I understand that the main plot of the Authurian legend is based around the war between the old pagan and new Christian faiths, but it seemed redundant and at times I found myself even skimming the paragraphs of long-winded religious babble until I found a point where the dialogue and plot rebounded again. The depictions of the pagan faith and traditions were fascinating, I admit -- but then I suppose that's to be expected when you consider the pretty negative slant Christianity is given by comparison through out the novel.

Overall opinion? It was all right, not a book to completely dismiss but not anything to write home about either. It was interesting comparing characters and variations between Bradley's retelling and versions such as Mary Stewart's Merlin saga. There were a couple of times I got very confused because my brain was mixing up characters, scenes, and plot points from the two different versions, but for me in this case Stewart's Merlin series still beats out Bradley's Mists of Avalon.

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

After a month of trudging through Mists of Avalon, this was a bit of fresh air in the form of a simple, straight-forward read about a lawyer who begins an affair with her best friend's fiance only months before the wedding. Oh noes! Now our female lead is torn between her new found chance for love with our hot, intelligent, and already involved stud; or her moral obligation to her best friend for whom she is supposed to be maid of honor for. Cue light humored drama!

I didn't really know how to feel about the two main characters, Rachel and Dex. It seemed like Giffin was trying to garner sympathy for these two tortured lovebirds and make you want to cheer them on to happily ever after, but I found them both to be very bland... and when you have nothing but bland it's hard to get invested at all in the relationship between two people and not focus solely on the whole "you're both giant cheating bastards" aspect of it. Not to say that I felt that much sympathy for the cheated party either -- Darcy's eventual plot twist aside, she behaved less like the snobbish, selfish adult she was intended to be and came off more like a petulant sixteen-year-old girl. (Actually, truth be told, I kept imagining that the 30-year-old protagonist and most of the other characters were ten years younger than they actually were, like some ensemble from a teen movie. Or maybe I'm just too old and crotchety for my own age?) The characters I actually enjoyed in fact ended up playing very minor supporting roles.

I don't really mean to bash this book as much as it sounds like I am, because for a light read it was actually okay. Something Borrowed kept me reading and was a continuously entertaining, if not cliche, piece of chick lit. (Though strangely cliche in the way where I thought it was leading up to one predictable outcome and ended up surprising me with a completely opposite yet still predictable outcome.) *Shrug*

Next up on the reading list: the Napoleonic Wars being fought out on the backs of flying dragons! :B I have spectacularly high, if not nerdtastic hopes for this one.