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Blood of Kings

de Billy Wong

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An action-packed new take on Arthurian legend from the eyes of an unexpected protagonist.Illegitimate Mildred "Mildy" Pendragon wants just one thing: To prove to Camelot that she's as much a warrior as her daddy, King Arthur. With her cowardly Greek squire Ares and metrosexual best friend Lance at her side, she strives to prove her legendary bloodline through knightly deeds. But no matter what she does or who she beats, she cannot seem to win over chivalric society.On quest to save the fey from destruction by an evil mage, Mildy meets the mother she has never known and learns the bitter truth of her incestuous birth. She continues to fight for good despite her disillusionment, but accidentally kills Arthur's favorite knight and makes a bitter enemy of her father. Can she defy fate and save her family from imploding, or is the saga of the Pendragons destined to end in tragedy?… (més)
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A very nice take on the story of King Arthur and Camelot. Fairies, unicorns and a warrior princess. A good read for all ages including teenagers ( )
  joannemonck | Jul 18, 2014 |
Blood of Kings by Billy Wong

Mildred "Mildy" Pendragon is the illegitimate daughter of King Arthur. When she meets her mother she learns the shameful and scandalous truth about her birth. She continues on her quest for good and justice, and ends up killing one of her fathers favorite knights. This of course angers her father. Soon she is up for the battle of her life time.

I loved Blood of Kings. Mildy was one of my favorite characters from all of Billy Wong's books. I loved the very original story line with Arthurian characters, with Mr. Wong's fantasy/action/adventure writing. Once again he hits 5 stars with this fabulous read. ( )
  SheriAWilkinson | Apr 7, 2014 |
Aquesta ressenya s'ha escrit per al programa Donatius de membres de LibraryThing.
Not Rose but Milady or mylldy Love them both. Her story over evil and villians is guttsy. To become Queen finally and find its not all its thought tobe. She would rather be out slaying Dragons. Good story to the end. Thanks Billy
carmenmaranda ( )
  Carmenmaranda | Nov 3, 2013 |
Aquesta ressenya s'ha escrit per al programa Donatius de membres de LibraryThing.
Someone is killing the faeries of England. Mildred (Mildy) Pendragon, illegitimate daughter of King Arthur undertakes the task of finding the killer and along the way finds the Holy Grail. When Mildy accidentally kills Percival, Arthur reacts badly, forcing the ultimate battle.

In this version of the story, Mildy essentially takes over the role of Mordred. I found this book quite interesting, but also slightly disconcerting as it does not follow the traditional story line. We have become so accustomed to the traditional story that it seems odd to have a book take a slightly different viewpoint. But, I did enjoy this book. It will be interesting to see where the author takes the story-line from this point. ( )
1 vota GayleBitker | Sep 29, 2013 |
Aquesta ressenya s'ha escrit per al programa Donatius de membres de LibraryThing.
I received a free ebook copy through a LibraryThing giveaway in exchange for an honest review. I signed up for the giveaway because I've followed Wong's short fiction casually for years (not least because we've frequently wound up in the same places, such as Firefly in Amber etc etc). While his style is fine for short fiction, where it's of the essence to be concise, I struggled through this novel.

An in media res opening perplexed me, especially because the characters were introduced with so much telling (rather than showing) that I wondered if this was a sequel. Perhaps I should already be familiar with these characters and the curt introductions were only to refresh my memory. Lady Mildred, a knight and rumored daughter of King Arthur, and her Greek squire Ares were both novel and interesting characters, and I found myself liking them despite the awkward introduction, but they're so novel and interesting that it seems a shame to present them so blandly.

The prose remains lax and the tone uneven throughout. Without evocative language, it's hard to feel sense of wonder at the faeries and magic, awe at Mildy's feats of strength, or grief or horror at the many deaths, some of characters I really hoped would survive. There's a lot going on in this story, including lots of refreshing twists on the original Authurian legends, but reads more like the detailed outline of a story instead of a finished product.

The voice and dialogue can also get jarringly modern. Surely this is the first time Morgan le Fay has ever been anybody's "Mom." This despite the fact that she has been distant enough from both her children, Mildred and Gawain, that I could buy her being called "Mother" anyway. Overall, a lot of the dialogue just wasn't working for me.

I was glad to see some new twists, since a faithful retelling of Arthurian legend seems superfluous at this late date. We've had more than five centuries of that. The first plot twist, of course, is that Mordred has become Mildred. I don't think switching the gender of the protagonist impacted the plot as much as it could have: Mildred faces some derision, overcomes some prejudice, and juggles contrasting visions of proper behavior for a woman, but this is more flavor text than thematic (my distinction is that a theme guides the writer's choices in plot events, characterization, and even setting--it's not just a paragraph or two of characters wondering aloud). She's a warrior first and a woman third. This is fine, too--not every story about a woman needs to be about *being a woman*--but given this story is billed as being about a warrior woman, I wouldn't have minded a little more development of that idea. And there is one line about Mildy refusing to wear a helmet because of "feminine vanity" which made me shake my head.

The plotting is very tight from the beginning, although things start to get complicated when Nimue appears with her dubious plans, and Mildred briefly gets sidetracked from her Grail quest and growing conflict with her father by falling for Galahad. It doesn't last--and the sudden, brutal, and completely unexpected way that relationship is ended permanently makes Mildred's feud with her father completely believable. Moreso because this is Morgan le Fay in one of the most sympathetic representations I've ever seen of her, a victim of rape by her brother. The best we can say for King Arthur is that he didn't know it was his sister at the time. But by being the sort of man who violates a vanquished enemy just because she's female (I'm grateful that, unlike some would-be "gritter" writers, Wong chooses to show this as an exception among the knights, who may be jerks and may be violent but are no all rapists), he's firstly veered very far from the classic ideal of King Arthur, and secondly sealed his fate. Mildred's power is rising, and the son of a bitch is going down.

Some people might be disappointed by seeing Arthur as a bad guy, but it's not like there are enough heroic Arthurs out there. Heroic Mordreds are a little more rare, heroic Mildreds completely unprecedented. So I was eager to watch her confrontation with her father. Unfortunately, it barely lasts a chapter of this 88,000 word book. The actual war is about 2-3 paragraphs, with a little more for the actual confrontation scene. Then the last forth of the story or so documents Mildred's efforts to consolidate her kingdom. Realistic, and potentially gripping, but not in this particular narration. I did like how Ares, the squire, becomes Mildy's loyal and supportive right hand man--not necessarily a love interest, either. I'm sure it could go that way in the future, but they are first and foremost friends.

As I said, this is an 88,000 word novel (hardly short, if not epically long) and it's largely told in summary. This makes it dense and honestly a bit exhausting to read. I'm sure the style itself could be improved without making the story much longer, just by making descriptions more active, action more vivid, and using more period and tone-appropriate word choice. I say "period appropriate" because, although fantasy, this story is in a medieval sort of world, with allusions to Christianity (one of the villains is a religious fanatic who believes the faeries are unholy) and a pretty solid description of siege warfare.

I wish I liked Wong's style better, because the concept of stories like Iron Bloom look like something I'd enjoy a lot (warrior women, warfare/pacifism conflicts, and a side of romance for leavening).

A longer version of this review can be found at Story Addict. ( )
1 vota T.Arkenberg | Sep 24, 2013 |
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An action-packed new take on Arthurian legend from the eyes of an unexpected protagonist.Illegitimate Mildred "Mildy" Pendragon wants just one thing: To prove to Camelot that she's as much a warrior as her daddy, King Arthur. With her cowardly Greek squire Ares and metrosexual best friend Lance at her side, she strives to prove her legendary bloodline through knightly deeds. But no matter what she does or who she beats, she cannot seem to win over chivalric society.On quest to save the fey from destruction by an evil mage, Mildy meets the mother she has never known and learns the bitter truth of her incestuous birth. She continues to fight for good despite her disillusionment, but accidentally kills Arthur's favorite knight and makes a bitter enemy of her father. Can she defy fate and save her family from imploding, or is the saga of the Pendragons destined to end in tragedy?

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