When I went to England recently I had this great idea that I’d take my
Kindle with me and have lots of books at my fingertips to fit whatever mood hit
me! Of course, I forgot to take into account that the Kindle is an electronic
device and as such must be turned off for more than half the 50 minute flight
time – argh! This book was my emergency purchase to give me something to read.
Luckily it was one that I’d been interested in for a while!
Information:
Title: The Swan
Kingdom
Author: Zoë Marriott
Publisher: Walker
Target Audience: YA
Genre: Fantasy / fairy
tale retelling
Length: 263 pages
Story: When
Alexandra’s mother is slain by an unnatural beast, shadows fall on the
once-lush kingdom. Too soon the widowed king is entranced by a cunning stranger
— and in one chilling moment Alexandra’s beloved brothers disappear, and she is
banished to a barren land. Rich in visual detail, sparked by a formidable evil,
and sweetened with familial and romantic love, here is the tale of a girl who
discovers powerful healing gifts — and the courage to use them to save her
ailing kingdom.
Thoughts and
impressions: Fairy tale
retellings are one of my more prominent reading interests. This particular
fairy tale is one that I’m not as familiar with as perhaps I should be. I did
read Grimm’s once upon a time, but it was a long, long time ago and this is the
first retelling of this one that I’ve picked up. As with all typical fairy
tales there’s the princess in distress, an evil queen, a handsome price, a
curse, and an absent father who allows all these atrocities to take place
(unless he’s dead, but in this case he’s alive and kicking).
In The Swan Kingdom a fearsome, unnatural
beast kills the loving queen then takes her place in human form. The royal
children, three sons and a daughter, are protected from her mass mind control
spell by their mother’s blood and set themselves the task of trying to uncover
the talisman the evil queen is using to keep her human form. In doing so, they
inadvertently set off an alarm and she unleashes her magic on them. The three
brothers are all transformed into swans and the princess is bundled off to live
in exile with her aunt in the neighbouring kingdom.
There Alexandra meets
a young man, Gabriel, who shares an affinity with nature and the enaid (Alexandra herself has a powerful
connection with the enaid). They
sneak off together every evening to share stories and soon attraction forms
between them. Unfortunately, we’re mostly just told about their evening
exploits rather than seeing them, so we don’t get to observe enough of their
interactions to form an interest in their budding romance. Or at least I
didn’t. I wanted to like Gabriel as
well, but his character just wasn’t developed enough in those original scenes
together for me to feel at all invested in it.
When Gabriel has to
return home with his family, he makes Alexandra promise to meet him one year
later, but the day before she was meant to meet him again she is called back to
the land of her birth only to discover that is has been drained of life. This
is the kick she needs to break her from the lethargy that she’s been wallowing
in for the past year as she waits for her brothers to return to her (she has no
memory of them turning into swans). She
realises that she needs to be proactive in order to get her brothers back from
their magical imprisonment so that they can reclaim their kingdom together. The
only way that she knows of doing this is to weave a vest of a particularly
nasty species of nettle while keeping a vow of silence.
This was an
interesting and intriguing fantasy tale but possibly a little too short to do
the author’s ideas justice. I would have liked to have seen more of the
interactions between the characters that would have allowed them more
development. As it was, I didn’t really feel like I got to know any of the
characters very well other than Alexandra herself.
The magic system was
particularly interesting and refreshing. It was all based on the natural
energies that flow through the lands. Because Alexandra’s mother never properly
explained her role in this magic system, as well as that of her ancestors,
Alexandra doesn’t realise how central she is to everything, how tied to the
land she really is. I’m not entirely sure that it can be called original but I
did like the person twists that the author put on it.
Style: Good. It flowed well and didn’t have a clunky feel
to it, though this is the author’s debut novel so it should get even better as
she improves with each book! (I hope).
Final verdict: Lacking in some places but overall a good read that
kept me interested from start to finish! I’m now feeling particularly inspired
to pick up Juliet Marillier’s Daughter of
the Forest, which is a retelling of the same fairy tale. 3.5
stars
Extra notes: No bad language. No sex.
Wow, this sounds really interesting. I admit that I haven't heard of the book before. Despite the few shortcomings I'd still love to read it.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting book! I've never heard of this fairy tale or book. I like that it's set in a time of kingdoms and swords and royalty, because I love that sort of stuff. And no bad language of sex is rare! That's a nice touch. I might pick this one up. It seems pretty interesting, and 3.5 stars isn't too bad. I'm going to go see if it's in my library system.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review!!!
Alyssa Susanna