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The Pendragon Chronicles #1
Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur
"Once upon a time beyond history, in an age almost beyond imagination, there was a girl as fair as the moon, sitting on a horse and watching a fire. The bonfire is a part of history, but the princess is a part of legend.
"Tristan and Isot, Tristram and Isolde, Essyllt and Drust, Yseult and Drystan: the spellings have changed, but they have always been lovers - the greatest lovers the world has ever known. Most accounts of their story have begun with the man.
"This one begins with the woman."
- From YSEULT
For the price of a truce, Yseult is sent to a world where magic is dying - to marry the father of the man she loves.
Marcus's son Drystan would have saved her from a loveless marriage, but with her relatives being held hostage, Yseult cannot endanger them and must go through with the wedding. The tragic love story of Yseult and Drystan plays out against the backdrop of a violent world threatening to descend into the Dark Ages - only Arthur's battles to push back the Saxon hordes can save what is left of civilization. With her background, Yseult could act as a bridge between the old age and the new - but will the price be too high?
"Tristan and Isot, Tristram and Isolde, Essyllt and Drust, Yseult and Drystan: the spellings have changed, but they have always been lovers - the greatest lovers the world has ever known. Most accounts of their story have begun with the man.
"This one begins with the woman."
- From YSEULT
For the price of a truce, Yseult is sent to a world where magic is dying - to marry the father of the man she loves.
Marcus's son Drystan would have saved her from a loveless marriage, but with her relatives being held hostage, Yseult cannot endanger them and must go through with the wedding. The tragic love story of Yseult and Drystan plays out against the backdrop of a violent world threatening to descend into the Dark Ages - only Arthur's battles to push back the Saxon hordes can save what is left of civilization. With her background, Yseult could act as a bridge between the old age and the new - but will the price be too high?
579 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
106 people are currently reading
789 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Nestvold
71 books66 followersRuth Nestvold has published widely in science fiction and fantasy, her fiction appearing in such markets as Asimov’s, F&SF, Baen’s Universe, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, and Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, Tiptree, and Sturgeon Awards. In 2007, the Italian translation of her novella “Looking Through Lace” won the “Premio Italia” award for best international work. Since 2012, she’s been concentrating her efforts on self-publishing rather than traditional publishing, although she does still occasionally sell a story the old-fashioned way. She maintains a web site at http://www.ruthnestvold.com and blogs at https://ruthnestvold.wordpress.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
February 20, 2015
For some reason it took me a long time to get into this LibraryThing Member Giveaway. Once in, I didn't want to leave, for about half of it. The second half was another story – I didn't much want to pick it up.
It's a famous story: Drystan or Tristan or Tristram, and Isolde or Yseult or Iseult, an offshoot (or rather predecessor) of the Arthurian legend. I knew this story; that's a major challenge for a writer, to take a story with a foregone conclusion and tell it again in such a way that knowing the end doesn't negate the suspense of the middle. And there was suspense here, and engagement. But. It's a long book, compared to my average of about 311 pages this year, and knowing (or believing I knew) how it ended along with knowing I had a long ways to go before that end began to be painful. As it turned out, the ending did surprise me – but given that this is based on legend, I didn't really consider it a good thing.
One thing I had a little trouble with, and this is probably not something which will trouble the vast majority of readers, was the variation of "Tristan" used by the author: Drystan. I've had allergies all my life, you see, and what got me through the 80's was an antihistamine called Dristan. It made a tad bit hard to take the hero seriously in the beginning. And the middle. And, ah, the rest.
I had a much greater problem with the language in a few specific places. The writing on the whole is unpretentious, more of the sort that gets out of the reader's way than that which flaunts an attempt at sounding historical, and this is positive. However, in the scene depicting the first sexual encounter of our main characters, the language surprised me and let me down. That scene was almost a deal-breaker for me. Suddenly it was like a common or garden variety romance novel, only instead of "roosters and kitty cats" it was "roosters and something a bit more Anglo Saxon". What is commonly called "the c-word" is not something I ever expected to encounter here. (I generally loathe it when someone resorts to political correctness, shying away from using a "bad word" – but this isn't a word I choose to use. Ever.) It might have been meant as trying to avoid anachronisms, but came off as crude and aimed to shock, and fitted poorly with the rest of the book. My take on the scene was that the book would have been better without the scene entirely rather than with a scene pretending at linguistic accuracy. Especially given that the handling of later love scenes was perfectly balanced with the rest of the storytelling, that one scene stood out – in a bad way, as though it had been roughed out in whatever words came to mind, and never edited to meld with the rest.
The other problem areas I mentioned are occasional other bits of what I would consider modern slang that just did not sit well within the context. Drystan "took out" an enemy soldier: killed, not went on a date with, but either way this usage jarred. At one point the story says that Yseult has trouble wrapping her mind around something. I can't track down too much info on the phrase, but Merriam Webster (online) states that it's an informal American usage. Again, it jars – suddenly Yseult went from medieval wise woman in my head to modern girl wearing Prada. There are more.
There is a lot in here – the growing power of Padraic (Patrick) and Christianity in what will one day be Ireland, versus the waning strength of "paganism"; the struggle of the Irish kings and the British in the wake of the departure of the Romans; the Tuatha De, and Arthur and Gawain and Bedwyr, bards and druids and kings and kingmakers. And, oh look – there's Guinevere (Ginevra)! It's a terrific job of world-building … except that I kept trying to balance the story in front of me – Yseult and Drystan and, eventually, and Londinium and Dumnonia and old Uncle Tom Cobley and all – with what I am familiar with – Isolde and Tristan (and not Dristan) and London and … Dumnonia kept throwing me. I had some vague idea for some reason that it was somewhere in what's now Germany. It wasn't; it's at the southwestern tip of England. I knew Eriu was Ireland. Armorica (which, yes, became "America" in my head a couple of times – Dristan in America. *sigh*), Laigin, and all the rest of it – I never thought I was an expert on medieval Europe, and – I was right! I was completely lost in the sea of place names, and I finally got online about halfway through the book and printed a map of the UK and wrote in the 5th century names from the map at the end of the book. I would have loved that map to be available on the author's website or something, but I didn't see it. It's awkward (at least for me) to click over to the map at the 99% point in the book every time I need to place a character – and it makes a difference whether a character is in Wales or in Germany.
Having Arthur running about was a huge distraction; I kept trying to fit the ancient-ized names in with what I knew, trying to cope with the surprise of Arthur's favorite whore and the son they had, and wait, what? How does he fit in? I wonder why, when Guinevere was Ginevra and Merlin was Myrddin and Mark was Marcus, Arthur wasn't Arcturus or Arturius or something. And I kept waiting for Lancelot.
Part of me admired the way Kustonnen became Constantine to Marcus, and Dyn Tagell is Tintagel and Caer Leon compacts to Caerleon, the river Sabrina is the Severn, and the character names are familiar yet strange. The rest of me wanted to tear my hair out. I can usually keep a lot of plates spinning while I read – that's how I sometimes manage to have eight books in my "currently reading" list. But Erainns and Saxons and Romans, oh my – all with a wild variation of names (those fighting at Drystan's side at one point include Tuthal, Gerenhir, and Flavius). There's no telling players without a scorecard. (And a map.)
All else aside, the overriding problem I had with the book is the central relationship. Again, I knew it going in: boy meets girl, boy loves girl, girl marries boy's father, boy and girl keep relationship going anyway – for starters. And if that was it, the bare bones of it, with only three people involved who could be hurt by the couple's lust-blinded stupidity, or if there was the oft-used excuse of a love potion determining the lust-blinded stupidity, that would be one thing. I can see an almost clean tragedy coming out of that, Romeo and Juliet-esque maybe. (I feel I should clarify here that by "clean" I mean not Victorian/bowdlerized clean, but as in no collateral damage, either decisions made by adults affecting themselves only or decisions made under the influence of a spell which left them no choice. The word refers more to my feelings about the plot rather than anything within it. Adultery is never going to be clean.) But it all begins with a lie. An understandable lie, but still a great huge life-changing lie. And once that's overcome, it's too late for them: Yseult is on her way to marry Drystan's father, and cannot just run away with Drystan because it would endanger someone else.
It's when (no spoiler this, as there wouldn't be much of a book if it didn't happen) the two of them carry on the affair under the roof of Yseult's new husband (Drystan's father, remember) that I lost all patience with them. On the boat over was one thing – stupid, since they took the song from Avenue Q as their motto ("You Can Be As Loud As the Hell You Want") and sailors talk, but still: only putting themselves at risk. Sneaking around – ever so subtly – under Marcus's very nose: good lord. (It was often noted in the narration how loud they became. Which to me means they're even dumber than the politically lethal adultery already painted them.) Even then, if they were shown as having the sense God gave a dormouse (if I could have been on their side), enough to keep it quick and quiet, I could have gone along with it: life sucks, take what joy you can, stick it to the Man (so to speak), yadda yadda. But their stupidity ends up hurting Yseult's best friend, Brangwyn, whose troubles were part of the reason Yseult let herself be sold off as a foreign bride in the first place. It made me angry, and sick. And it escalates. Of course. Any enjoyment I might have been able to find in the suspense and "romance" of the story vanished at that moment; it just left me feeling sick and angry.
Drystan I can cope with. He wants what he wants, and at times this singlemindedness can almost supersede his duty. He genuinely loves Yseult and wants nothing more in the world than to be with her. My issue is with Yseult. She is supposed to be a wise woman, raised by Yseult the Wise, a Queen, surrounded by the wise of their clan. She behaves for the most part with a deep grace and maturity – she is bred to be a leader and healer and to solve problems. With Drystan, though, she becomes wishy-washy, in a bull-headed way. She makes a decision with great determination, then regrets it, abruptly changes her mind; flings herself into the affair with no heed of repercussion and then without warning pulls away and turns cold. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I was interested, in looking into the Tristan and Isolde legend, to see a mention that in many versions the love triangle here is very like that in the Arthurian legends: like Arthur and Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde and Mark all love and respect each other. That's the part that always rips my heart out about Guinevere: she does love both men. That aspect is completely nonexistent here. Marcus is Drystan's father (not adopted, as in some versions), and as of the beginning of the story the two have not seen each other in years, as Drystan has been fostered in Dumnonia, and when they meet again there is no love lost. Marcus is ambitious, has at least one illegitimate (and rather incestuous) child, and wants Yseult for the power she brings and for her beauty. (She could have Fran Drescher's voice, the brains of a Snooki, and the personality of Ann Coulter and he wouldn't care as long as she kept her beauty.) Nobody's ever rooting for Marcus here, especially not the reader. That turns the adultery into something more palatable, and rather undercuts the historic tragedy of the story.
The theme of the book is, I think, betrayal; the central focus is Yseult betraying her husband, Drystan his father. But as the story wears on, it seems like just about everybody betrays someone at some point. It's depressing.
As I mentioned at the top of the review, the ending surprised me. There's a sequel, which explains some of it. The fact that the surprise of the ending was an unpleasant one to me was in part down to my expectations. I'm not a huge fan of tragedy, on the whole, Shakespeare aside – but this was a bit like doing a version of Romeo and Juliet in which Romeo wakes up, sees Juliet dead, and says "Well, damn. So… does anyone still have Rosaline's number?" I said earlier that it was painful working through 500-odd pages knowing that with every chapter the heartbreak was only going to intensify. By the end of the book I wanted something to make the trek worthwhile. I wanted to need a box of Kleenex. I wanted grand, operatic, searing tragedy. Honestly, I wanted something out of Shakespeare, with half the cast of characters lying dead or dying – not because I hated anyone; I didn't dislike anyone (even Marcus) enough to want them dead. (I never felt as though I'd gotten to know anyone enough to love them or hate them or grieve or cheer or … care. They all just were.) It just seemed a fitting payoff (and in keeping with the legend). Instead, there was a muted melancholy and a general air of "To be continued…"
I was thinking that part of me would like to see what this author does with the rest of the Arthur saga; Yseult is part one of "The Pendragon Chronicles". However, Arthur Pendragon seems to be still a background character in the second book, Shadow of Stone, in the description for which I found this: "The threat to their way of life throws [Cador] together with Yseult, the woman he has secretly loved since he was a youth." So much for the great and tragic love of Tristan and Isolde – I was being facetious when I put words into not-dead Romeo's mouth a minute ago, but as it turns out I was … sadly, kind of accurate.
It's a famous story: Drystan or Tristan or Tristram, and Isolde or Yseult or Iseult, an offshoot (or rather predecessor) of the Arthurian legend. I knew this story; that's a major challenge for a writer, to take a story with a foregone conclusion and tell it again in such a way that knowing the end doesn't negate the suspense of the middle. And there was suspense here, and engagement. But. It's a long book, compared to my average of about 311 pages this year, and knowing (or believing I knew) how it ended along with knowing I had a long ways to go before that end began to be painful. As it turned out, the ending did surprise me – but given that this is based on legend, I didn't really consider it a good thing.
One thing I had a little trouble with, and this is probably not something which will trouble the vast majority of readers, was the variation of "Tristan" used by the author: Drystan. I've had allergies all my life, you see, and what got me through the 80's was an antihistamine called Dristan. It made a tad bit hard to take the hero seriously in the beginning. And the middle. And, ah, the rest.
I had a much greater problem with the language in a few specific places. The writing on the whole is unpretentious, more of the sort that gets out of the reader's way than that which flaunts an attempt at sounding historical, and this is positive. However, in the scene depicting the first sexual encounter of our main characters, the language surprised me and let me down. That scene was almost a deal-breaker for me. Suddenly it was like a common or garden variety romance novel, only instead of "roosters and kitty cats" it was "roosters and something a bit more Anglo Saxon". What is commonly called "the c-word" is not something I ever expected to encounter here. (I generally loathe it when someone resorts to political correctness, shying away from using a "bad word" – but this isn't a word I choose to use. Ever.) It might have been meant as trying to avoid anachronisms, but came off as crude and aimed to shock, and fitted poorly with the rest of the book. My take on the scene was that the book would have been better without the scene entirely rather than with a scene pretending at linguistic accuracy. Especially given that the handling of later love scenes was perfectly balanced with the rest of the storytelling, that one scene stood out – in a bad way, as though it had been roughed out in whatever words came to mind, and never edited to meld with the rest.
The other problem areas I mentioned are occasional other bits of what I would consider modern slang that just did not sit well within the context. Drystan "took out" an enemy soldier: killed, not went on a date with, but either way this usage jarred. At one point the story says that Yseult has trouble wrapping her mind around something. I can't track down too much info on the phrase, but Merriam Webster (online) states that it's an informal American usage. Again, it jars – suddenly Yseult went from medieval wise woman in my head to modern girl wearing Prada. There are more.
There is a lot in here – the growing power of Padraic (Patrick) and Christianity in what will one day be Ireland, versus the waning strength of "paganism"; the struggle of the Irish kings and the British in the wake of the departure of the Romans; the Tuatha De, and Arthur and Gawain and Bedwyr, bards and druids and kings and kingmakers. And, oh look – there's Guinevere (Ginevra)! It's a terrific job of world-building … except that I kept trying to balance the story in front of me – Yseult and Drystan and, eventually, and Londinium and Dumnonia and old Uncle Tom Cobley and all – with what I am familiar with – Isolde and Tristan (and not Dristan) and London and … Dumnonia kept throwing me. I had some vague idea for some reason that it was somewhere in what's now Germany. It wasn't; it's at the southwestern tip of England. I knew Eriu was Ireland. Armorica (which, yes, became "America" in my head a couple of times – Dristan in America. *sigh*), Laigin, and all the rest of it – I never thought I was an expert on medieval Europe, and – I was right! I was completely lost in the sea of place names, and I finally got online about halfway through the book and printed a map of the UK and wrote in the 5th century names from the map at the end of the book. I would have loved that map to be available on the author's website or something, but I didn't see it. It's awkward (at least for me) to click over to the map at the 99% point in the book every time I need to place a character – and it makes a difference whether a character is in Wales or in Germany.
Having Arthur running about was a huge distraction; I kept trying to fit the ancient-ized names in with what I knew, trying to cope with the surprise of Arthur's favorite whore and the son they had, and wait, what? How does he fit in? I wonder why, when Guinevere was Ginevra and Merlin was Myrddin and Mark was Marcus, Arthur wasn't Arcturus or Arturius or something. And I kept waiting for Lancelot.
Part of me admired the way Kustonnen became Constantine to Marcus, and Dyn Tagell is Tintagel and Caer Leon compacts to Caerleon, the river Sabrina is the Severn, and the character names are familiar yet strange. The rest of me wanted to tear my hair out. I can usually keep a lot of plates spinning while I read – that's how I sometimes manage to have eight books in my "currently reading" list. But Erainns and Saxons and Romans, oh my – all with a wild variation of names (those fighting at Drystan's side at one point include Tuthal, Gerenhir, and Flavius). There's no telling players without a scorecard. (And a map.)
All else aside, the overriding problem I had with the book is the central relationship. Again, I knew it going in: boy meets girl, boy loves girl, girl marries boy's father, boy and girl keep relationship going anyway – for starters. And if that was it, the bare bones of it, with only three people involved who could be hurt by the couple's lust-blinded stupidity, or if there was the oft-used excuse of a love potion determining the lust-blinded stupidity, that would be one thing. I can see an almost clean tragedy coming out of that, Romeo and Juliet-esque maybe. (I feel I should clarify here that by "clean" I mean not Victorian/bowdlerized clean, but as in no collateral damage, either decisions made by adults affecting themselves only or decisions made under the influence of a spell which left them no choice. The word refers more to my feelings about the plot rather than anything within it. Adultery is never going to be clean.) But it all begins with a lie. An understandable lie, but still a great huge life-changing lie. And once that's overcome, it's too late for them: Yseult is on her way to marry Drystan's father, and cannot just run away with Drystan because it would endanger someone else.
It's when (no spoiler this, as there wouldn't be much of a book if it didn't happen) the two of them carry on the affair under the roof of Yseult's new husband (Drystan's father, remember) that I lost all patience with them. On the boat over was one thing – stupid, since they took the song from Avenue Q as their motto ("You Can Be As Loud As the Hell You Want") and sailors talk, but still: only putting themselves at risk. Sneaking around – ever so subtly – under Marcus's very nose: good lord. (It was often noted in the narration how loud they became. Which to me means they're even dumber than the politically lethal adultery already painted them.) Even then, if they were shown as having the sense God gave a dormouse (if I could have been on their side), enough to keep it quick and quiet, I could have gone along with it: life sucks, take what joy you can, stick it to the Man (so to speak), yadda yadda. But their stupidity ends up hurting Yseult's best friend, Brangwyn, whose troubles were part of the reason Yseult let herself be sold off as a foreign bride in the first place. It made me angry, and sick. And it escalates. Of course. Any enjoyment I might have been able to find in the suspense and "romance" of the story vanished at that moment; it just left me feeling sick and angry.
Drystan I can cope with. He wants what he wants, and at times this singlemindedness can almost supersede his duty. He genuinely loves Yseult and wants nothing more in the world than to be with her. My issue is with Yseult. She is supposed to be a wise woman, raised by Yseult the Wise, a Queen, surrounded by the wise of their clan. She behaves for the most part with a deep grace and maturity – she is bred to be a leader and healer and to solve problems. With Drystan, though, she becomes wishy-washy, in a bull-headed way. She makes a decision with great determination, then regrets it, abruptly changes her mind; flings herself into the affair with no heed of repercussion and then without warning pulls away and turns cold. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I was interested, in looking into the Tristan and Isolde legend, to see a mention that in many versions the love triangle here is very like that in the Arthurian legends: like Arthur and Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde and Mark all love and respect each other. That's the part that always rips my heart out about Guinevere: she does love both men. That aspect is completely nonexistent here. Marcus is Drystan's father (not adopted, as in some versions), and as of the beginning of the story the two have not seen each other in years, as Drystan has been fostered in Dumnonia, and when they meet again there is no love lost. Marcus is ambitious, has at least one illegitimate (and rather incestuous) child, and wants Yseult for the power she brings and for her beauty. (She could have Fran Drescher's voice, the brains of a Snooki, and the personality of Ann Coulter and he wouldn't care as long as she kept her beauty.) Nobody's ever rooting for Marcus here, especially not the reader. That turns the adultery into something more palatable, and rather undercuts the historic tragedy of the story.
The theme of the book is, I think, betrayal; the central focus is Yseult betraying her husband, Drystan his father. But as the story wears on, it seems like just about everybody betrays someone at some point. It's depressing.
As I mentioned at the top of the review, the ending surprised me. There's a sequel, which explains some of it. The fact that the surprise of the ending was an unpleasant one to me was in part down to my expectations. I'm not a huge fan of tragedy, on the whole, Shakespeare aside – but this was a bit like doing a version of Romeo and Juliet in which Romeo wakes up, sees Juliet dead, and says "Well, damn. So… does anyone still have Rosaline's number?" I said earlier that it was painful working through 500-odd pages knowing that with every chapter the heartbreak was only going to intensify. By the end of the book I wanted something to make the trek worthwhile. I wanted to need a box of Kleenex. I wanted grand, operatic, searing tragedy. Honestly, I wanted something out of Shakespeare, with half the cast of characters lying dead or dying – not because I hated anyone; I didn't dislike anyone (even Marcus) enough to want them dead. (I never felt as though I'd gotten to know anyone enough to love them or hate them or grieve or cheer or … care. They all just were.) It just seemed a fitting payoff (and in keeping with the legend). Instead, there was a muted melancholy and a general air of "To be continued…"
I was thinking that part of me would like to see what this author does with the rest of the Arthur saga; Yseult is part one of "The Pendragon Chronicles". However, Arthur Pendragon seems to be still a background character in the second book, Shadow of Stone, in the description for which I found this: "The threat to their way of life throws [Cador] together with Yseult, the woman he has secretly loved since he was a youth." So much for the great and tragic love of Tristan and Isolde – I was being facetious when I put words into not-dead Romeo's mouth a minute ago, but as it turns out I was … sadly, kind of accurate.
February 3, 2012
I've been wanting to read this book ever since the German version came out, and I'm so glad it's finally available in English :) This is a retelling of the legend of Tristan and Yseult (Drystan and Yseult, here), placed in a historical setting of divided territories, where Britain struggles to choose a High King, and Ireland (Eiru) has to deal with the encroachment of Christianity on druidic values and the retreat of the Fair Folk to the hills. I loved that it's mostly centred on the women, rather than on the battle scenes--it's a neat way to remind us that war isn't always about men with swords, but also about their spouses and lovers and children, and the endless waiting.
Ruth Nestvold paints an exquisite picture of lovers Drystan and Yseult, and peoples the story with a host of secondary and memorable characters, from Arthur, the Dux Bellorum of Britain (yes, *that* Arthur), to Drystan's man-at-arms Kurvenal and his fraught relationship with Yseult's cousin Brandwyn, from lecherous Marcus to proud Yseult of the Fair Hands. It's more a historical with a bit of magic (think Christian Jacq or Marion Zimmer Bradley rather than Naomi Novik), but it's nice to read.
(warning though, there's some graphic sex scenes, so definitely not for kids--there's also a fair bit of implied rapes, though I don't think they're shown on stage).
Ruth Nestvold paints an exquisite picture of lovers Drystan and Yseult, and peoples the story with a host of secondary and memorable characters, from Arthur, the Dux Bellorum of Britain (yes, *that* Arthur), to Drystan's man-at-arms Kurvenal and his fraught relationship with Yseult's cousin Brandwyn, from lecherous Marcus to proud Yseult of the Fair Hands. It's more a historical with a bit of magic (think Christian Jacq or Marion Zimmer Bradley rather than Naomi Novik), but it's nice to read.
(warning though, there's some graphic sex scenes, so definitely not for kids--there's also a fair bit of implied rapes, though I don't think they're shown on stage).
January 7, 2016
This is a beautifully written re-telling of a beautiful legend. I greatly enjoyed reading it.
December 25, 2011
What is there to say about this book? It's certainly not horrible, but not brilliant either. Mixed.. Let's start at the beginning.
We start with Isolde, not the famous one, but her mother who is also conveniently called Isolde. The image the writer paints is one of a world torn between two religions, a world on the brink of something new. That in itself is an interesting storyline to incorporate in the main storyline. But unfortunately for Nestvold, I've already read a series of books on the Arthurian Legend, which incorporates the change in religion into its main story-arc; the books by Bernard Cornwell. And Cornwell did better. Cornwell manages to weave that changing world throug all three books, with Nestvold it disappears after 100 pages or so. That bothered me, I started to expect something, and both the elder Isolde and the world Nestvold tries to bring alive disappear after about 100 pages. Pity.
The book gets repetitive over time. Without trying to spoil too much, the way Isolde and Tristan, our main protaganists play their dangerous game can only hold my attention for so long. It gets boring after a while. The third time Isolde rejects Tristan ( only for them to come back together again after 20 pages ) and when the poor sod finally decides to move on and marry someone else ( by sheer coincidence also called Isolde -that's the third one in one book- ), Isolde throws a tantrum when the stupid git -again- realizes he can't live without the damn woman and gets turned down agaín. I'm siding with Tristan's best friend Kurvenal on this; that woman is more trouble than she's worth.
A horrible read? No, not really. If you're looking for some easy reading, you'll probably enjoy it just fine. I liked the Cornwell version better -which, to be fair, focuses on Arthur instead of Tristan and Isolde, but the world he describes is the same, he just does a much better job.-.
We start with Isolde, not the famous one, but her mother who is also conveniently called Isolde. The image the writer paints is one of a world torn between two religions, a world on the brink of something new. That in itself is an interesting storyline to incorporate in the main storyline. But unfortunately for Nestvold, I've already read a series of books on the Arthurian Legend, which incorporates the change in religion into its main story-arc; the books by Bernard Cornwell. And Cornwell did better. Cornwell manages to weave that changing world throug all three books, with Nestvold it disappears after 100 pages or so. That bothered me, I started to expect something, and both the elder Isolde and the world Nestvold tries to bring alive disappear after about 100 pages. Pity.
The book gets repetitive over time. Without trying to spoil too much, the way Isolde and Tristan, our main protaganists play their dangerous game can only hold my attention for so long. It gets boring after a while. The third time Isolde rejects Tristan ( only for them to come back together again after 20 pages ) and when the poor sod finally decides to move on and marry someone else ( by sheer coincidence also called Isolde -that's the third one in one book- ), Isolde throws a tantrum when the stupid git -again- realizes he can't live without the damn woman and gets turned down agaín. I'm siding with Tristan's best friend Kurvenal on this; that woman is more trouble than she's worth.
A horrible read? No, not really. If you're looking for some easy reading, you'll probably enjoy it just fine. I liked the Cornwell version better -which, to be fair, focuses on Arthur instead of Tristan and Isolde, but the world he describes is the same, he just does a much better job.-.
July 18, 2012
Knowing the basic story of Tristan and Isolde (one of its incarnations) to be a love story, I was a little dubious about buying and reading Yseult (another name for Isolde). I bought it on the strength of Ruth Nestvold's short fiction which I'd read a little of.
I was extremely and pleasantly surprised. The ups and downs of the love story actually kept me ( a guy!) interested all the way to the end. And the book has plenty of "Dark Age" history, Irish magic, battle scenes and fist fights, and steamy sex woven throughout.
An epic, beautifully polished saga which I thoroughly loved. A great author, a great tale well told.
I was extremely and pleasantly surprised. The ups and downs of the love story actually kept me ( a guy!) interested all the way to the end. And the book has plenty of "Dark Age" history, Irish magic, battle scenes and fist fights, and steamy sex woven throughout.
An epic, beautifully polished saga which I thoroughly loved. A great author, a great tale well told.
the-kindle-black-hole
October 23, 20123/26/12. Free on kindle.
February 3, 2016
Recensione dell'11 marzo 2011
La storia d’amore di Tristano e Isotta ha radici antichissime nelle leggende celtiche, ma ha attraversato i secoli indossando innumerevoli vesti, dalla versione “comune” del narratore normanno Béroul a quella “cortese” di Tommaso d’Inghilterra del XII secolo, dalla novella in versi Lai du Chèvrefeuille di Maria di Francia al più famoso Tristano in prosa, cui ancora non è stato attribuito un autore certo, che lega la vicenda al ciclo bretone e alla leggenda arturiana, sino ad arrivare ai nostri giorni e alle moderne rivisitazioni.
Difficile quindi ridurre a un’“unica storia vera” ciò che in realtà non ha mai finito di essere scritto, ma che invece sembra continuare a vivere e trasformarsi con l’andare dei secoli e delle mentalità, acquisendo nuove forme e nuovi messaggi a ogni nuova interpretazione. Infatti se è vero che la storia d’amore di Tristano e Isotta in sé ha indelebilmente acquisito un posto tra le più struggenti ed eccelse, pochi forse ne conoscono bene la trama originale e pochi ancora le infinite varianti; eppure è certo che possieda una potenza intrinseca tale da permetterle di rimanere vitale nell’immaginario collettivo e di adattarsi ai secoli e alle nuove visioni della vita e dell’amore…
Ad esempio la palese connotazione immorale e asociale dell’amore che lega i due amanti, che finiscono con l’infrangere quasi tutte le leggi etiche e i tabù esistenti all’epoca (adulterio, incesto, rapporti pre-matrimoniali, tradimento del legame feudale), con l’andare dei secoli, nelle nuove versioni della vicenda, viene in qualche modo smorzata, o facendo ricadere la colpa sulla magia che obbliga e istiga i due giovani a infrangere la propria rettitudine, oppure addirittura facendo di Tristano un fiero e leale cavaliere della corte di re Arthur. La rilettura fantasy della Nestvold arricchisce di elementi magici, di personaggi, di paesaggi la storia, e porta in un certo qual modo a compimento questa “tendenza riabilitativa” dei protagonisti.
In molte versioni, a partire da quella originale, l’amore tra Isotta e Tristano ha una determinazione non reale, perché nasce grazie a un filtro d’amore, così che risulta avere un che di artificioso, di costretto. Invece nella versione della Nestvold, Yseult e Drystan si innamorano in modo naturale, ingenuo persino. E continuano ad amarsi, profondamente, al punto da superare tutti gli ostacoli che li separano: il rancore, la menzogna, la separazione forzata, le differenze culturali.
Il libro è talmente ricco che è impossibile raccontarne ogni sfumatura, ogni emozione trasmessa, ogni scelta dell’autrice di discostarsi dalla tradizione o di riprenderne gli elementi, anche manipolandoli a favore dell’economia della narrazione. Racconta la guerra con crudezza e realismo, l’amore con sentimento e sensualità, la magia con naturalezza e fascinazione. E tratteggia in un meraviglioso affresco due mondi straordinariamente credibili e affascinanti. Quello di Eriu (Irlanda), dove la magia è ancora forte e vitale e, rappresentata dall’Antica Razza, la Feadh Ree, mantiene un potere politico e religioso; un mondo che però sta lentamente soccombendo alle fascinazioni del Cristianesimo e di una facile pace con i nemici al di là del mare. E quello di Britannia (Inghilterra) e Armorica (Bretagna) che vive un insolito sincretismo di influenza romana, antichi retaggi tribali, e speranze per un futuro di indipendenza, sempre in guerra a causa delle pressioni ai confini e delle macchinazioni politiche interne.
Yseult appartiene alla prima realtà, Drystan alla seconda, ed entrambi sono costretti ad adattarsi l’uno al mondo dell’altro riuscendovi talmente bene da non voler più tornare a quello di appartenenza. Sono loro e il loro amore la mediazione possibile, quasi suggerita, in questo confronto di culture segnate dalla magia e dalla romanitas, in questi due macrocosmi guidati dalla genuinità l'uno e dalla razionalità l'altro. Macrocosmi che l’autrice popola di numerosi personaggi singolarmente tridimensionali e concreti, in una ricchezza di personalità, di sentimenti e di intenti che rende il libro al contempo armonioso e vivido, reale.
Citazione nelle Editorial reviews su Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Yseult-Tale-Art...
Intervista all'autrice
http://greenyellowale.blogspot.it/201...
Recensione completa
http://greenyellowale.blogspot.it/201...
La storia d’amore di Tristano e Isotta ha radici antichissime nelle leggende celtiche, ma ha attraversato i secoli indossando innumerevoli vesti, dalla versione “comune” del narratore normanno Béroul a quella “cortese” di Tommaso d’Inghilterra del XII secolo, dalla novella in versi Lai du Chèvrefeuille di Maria di Francia al più famoso Tristano in prosa, cui ancora non è stato attribuito un autore certo, che lega la vicenda al ciclo bretone e alla leggenda arturiana, sino ad arrivare ai nostri giorni e alle moderne rivisitazioni.
Difficile quindi ridurre a un’“unica storia vera” ciò che in realtà non ha mai finito di essere scritto, ma che invece sembra continuare a vivere e trasformarsi con l’andare dei secoli e delle mentalità, acquisendo nuove forme e nuovi messaggi a ogni nuova interpretazione. Infatti se è vero che la storia d’amore di Tristano e Isotta in sé ha indelebilmente acquisito un posto tra le più struggenti ed eccelse, pochi forse ne conoscono bene la trama originale e pochi ancora le infinite varianti; eppure è certo che possieda una potenza intrinseca tale da permetterle di rimanere vitale nell’immaginario collettivo e di adattarsi ai secoli e alle nuove visioni della vita e dell’amore…
Ad esempio la palese connotazione immorale e asociale dell’amore che lega i due amanti, che finiscono con l’infrangere quasi tutte le leggi etiche e i tabù esistenti all’epoca (adulterio, incesto, rapporti pre-matrimoniali, tradimento del legame feudale), con l’andare dei secoli, nelle nuove versioni della vicenda, viene in qualche modo smorzata, o facendo ricadere la colpa sulla magia che obbliga e istiga i due giovani a infrangere la propria rettitudine, oppure addirittura facendo di Tristano un fiero e leale cavaliere della corte di re Arthur. La rilettura fantasy della Nestvold arricchisce di elementi magici, di personaggi, di paesaggi la storia, e porta in un certo qual modo a compimento questa “tendenza riabilitativa” dei protagonisti.
In molte versioni, a partire da quella originale, l’amore tra Isotta e Tristano ha una determinazione non reale, perché nasce grazie a un filtro d’amore, così che risulta avere un che di artificioso, di costretto. Invece nella versione della Nestvold, Yseult e Drystan si innamorano in modo naturale, ingenuo persino. E continuano ad amarsi, profondamente, al punto da superare tutti gli ostacoli che li separano: il rancore, la menzogna, la separazione forzata, le differenze culturali.
Il libro è talmente ricco che è impossibile raccontarne ogni sfumatura, ogni emozione trasmessa, ogni scelta dell’autrice di discostarsi dalla tradizione o di riprenderne gli elementi, anche manipolandoli a favore dell’economia della narrazione. Racconta la guerra con crudezza e realismo, l’amore con sentimento e sensualità, la magia con naturalezza e fascinazione. E tratteggia in un meraviglioso affresco due mondi straordinariamente credibili e affascinanti. Quello di Eriu (Irlanda), dove la magia è ancora forte e vitale e, rappresentata dall’Antica Razza, la Feadh Ree, mantiene un potere politico e religioso; un mondo che però sta lentamente soccombendo alle fascinazioni del Cristianesimo e di una facile pace con i nemici al di là del mare. E quello di Britannia (Inghilterra) e Armorica (Bretagna) che vive un insolito sincretismo di influenza romana, antichi retaggi tribali, e speranze per un futuro di indipendenza, sempre in guerra a causa delle pressioni ai confini e delle macchinazioni politiche interne.
Yseult appartiene alla prima realtà, Drystan alla seconda, ed entrambi sono costretti ad adattarsi l’uno al mondo dell’altro riuscendovi talmente bene da non voler più tornare a quello di appartenenza. Sono loro e il loro amore la mediazione possibile, quasi suggerita, in questo confronto di culture segnate dalla magia e dalla romanitas, in questi due macrocosmi guidati dalla genuinità l'uno e dalla razionalità l'altro. Macrocosmi che l’autrice popola di numerosi personaggi singolarmente tridimensionali e concreti, in una ricchezza di personalità, di sentimenti e di intenti che rende il libro al contempo armonioso e vivido, reale.
Citazione nelle Editorial reviews su Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Yseult-Tale-Art...
Intervista all'autrice
http://greenyellowale.blogspot.it/201...
Recensione completa
http://greenyellowale.blogspot.it/201...
May 14, 2012
I’m so glad Yseult is available in English now. I first read Yseult when it was an audio book in German and in all the bookshops here (in Germany). I wanted a great escape to more mystical times and a way to improve my German, and I found both! I listened to Yseult’s story every night for several weeks while I churned away on my exercise bike. She took me to a time when love, war and religion were lived more intensely than now, or at least in my life now J. Thank you, Ruth Nestvold, for such a wild and poignant ride into the past! I wish I were Yseult. The world needs more strong women with wills of steel and hearts of gold.
April 26, 2012
Similar writing style to Marion Bradley. Wish I could find more like this.
July 24, 2018
Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur by Ruth Nestvold was slightly disappointing. It wasn’t the WORST Arthurian Legend based book I’ve ever read, but it wasn’t the best either. I picked it up because I LOVE books about King Arthur, Merlin, Morgan Le Fay, you name it - the legends just lend themselves to just fantastic re-tellings. Not so much in this case. In this book I found both Yseult and Drystan (Isolde and Tristan) just...annoying, boring, and unlikable - traits that you don’t really want to see in main characters. I found myself skimming ALOT in this book.
I did enjoy the first half of the book though - there was a lot of promise with a plot line of melding the Pagan and Christian traditions, Yseult had a little more depth to her character and the pacing of the book kept things interesting. Then Yseult goes across the sea, marries a douche and continues her affair with her step-son. Once that happened the book got boring and repetitive. Also - while Yseult maintained her healer aspect of her character, the warrior aspect got completely lost - which i thought was strange for a character who worked so hard to be respected as a warrior in the beginning of the book.
If you enjoy reading about toxic relationships and repetitive battle scenes - this book is for you. If you want a little more complex story about the women of King Arthur I would advise The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
* I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book, through Reading Deals, and I gave an honest review.
I did enjoy the first half of the book though - there was a lot of promise with a plot line of melding the Pagan and Christian traditions, Yseult had a little more depth to her character and the pacing of the book kept things interesting. Then Yseult goes across the sea, marries a douche and continues her affair with her step-son. Once that happened the book got boring and repetitive. Also - while Yseult maintained her healer aspect of her character, the warrior aspect got completely lost - which i thought was strange for a character who worked so hard to be respected as a warrior in the beginning of the book.
If you enjoy reading about toxic relationships and repetitive battle scenes - this book is for you. If you want a little more complex story about the women of King Arthur I would advise The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
* I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book, through Reading Deals, and I gave an honest review.
September 13, 2020
I appreciated the different perspective of the classic story. I love when tales of antiquity are retold and give women more agency.
Some other things I liked:
The way Arthur was presented - as a general. It seems much more likely than a sword from a stone, as cool as that story can be.
The initial storyline of paganism vs Christianity. It's such an important element of the Pendragon story.
Some things I wasn't sure about.
Yseult seemed to lose her agency a little bit and became a vehicle of romance. Can't we have both?
I think the Pendragon bits - while interesting - were a little unnecessary to the story on a whole. I think the book could have been 50-100 pages fewer.
Maybe I was getting a little word weary, but it seemed like important things happened away from our eyes, and I found it difficult to catch up.
Some other things I liked:
The way Arthur was presented - as a general. It seems much more likely than a sword from a stone, as cool as that story can be.
The initial storyline of paganism vs Christianity. It's such an important element of the Pendragon story.
Some things I wasn't sure about.
Yseult seemed to lose her agency a little bit and became a vehicle of romance. Can't we have both?
I think the Pendragon bits - while interesting - were a little unnecessary to the story on a whole. I think the book could have been 50-100 pages fewer.
Maybe I was getting a little word weary, but it seemed like important things happened away from our eyes, and I found it difficult to catch up.
January 4, 2019
I received an ARC of this story through Hidden Gems and this is my honest and voluntary review.
Tristan and Isolde, or as they are named in this book, Drystan and Yseult, is one of my favorite Aurthurian era love stories. I have read several versions of the story, I think my favorite was by Rosalind Miles, so I had certain expectations going into this story. I have to say I felt a bit let down. This felt more like a historical war fiction than the fantasy romance the tale of these two should be. It was very well written and a great book, just not what I thought I was going to be reading!
Tristan and Isolde, or as they are named in this book, Drystan and Yseult, is one of my favorite Aurthurian era love stories. I have read several versions of the story, I think my favorite was by Rosalind Miles, so I had certain expectations going into this story. I have to say I felt a bit let down. This felt more like a historical war fiction than the fantasy romance the tale of these two should be. It was very well written and a great book, just not what I thought I was going to be reading!
May 28, 2021
Living on the edge of the Black Forest in Germany, Ruth Nestvold writes numerous award winning fiction. I pretty much enjoyed what she imagined for the story of Yseult and Drystan drawn from the mists when the kingdoms of Briton were in great turmoil and Saxon invaders come over the seas to conquor. Love mixed with the constant warfare.
I read the Kindle format and had to set the display lettering on the next to the highest setting to be able to read the print at the normal size.
I read the Kindle format and had to set the display lettering on the next to the highest setting to be able to read the print at the normal size.
September 18, 2016
Yseult reached the semi-finals in the 2nd annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. This review was originally published on Fantasy-Faction on 31st August 2016.
Romance in fantasy is a contentious issue. Lots of readers (myself included) are relatively indifferent to it, and neither seek it out nor avoid it. On the other hand, I’ve seen many an online discussion on the topic in which the majority of comments fall into two categories: ‘love it’ and ‘oh dear god MY EYES’. And this is a real shame, because it means that the latter will always miss out on well-written, beautiful stories such as Yseult.
Ruth Nestvold’s retelling of Tristan and Isolde is a solid adaptation that manages to capture the mischief and high spirits of Béroul’s original translation, as well as evoke a convincing sense of Arthurian Britain. From the humble roundhouses of Eriu to the dramatic promontory of Dyn Tagell, Yseult is rich in vivid settings that draw us in and anchor us firmly in the characters’ place and time.
Nestvold’s writing has a charming quality, suffused with the quiet confidence of long familiarity with her characters and the world in which they play. The tone and style – along with the carefully-researched druidic, Celtic and Roman place names – sound authentic but not archaic; and while I did find myself a little bewildered at times (particularly at the start!) the wonderfully comprehensive glossary quickly cleared up any confusion.
Another aspect of Yseult which I admire is the skillful way the author maintains a cohesive timeline – without feeling the need to fill in all the gaps. The first section in particular is very well structured, cutting between important scenes with minimal disorientation; and the epistolary-style segments are a nice way of bridging the later chapters in a way that avoids repetition and unnecessary detail. On the whole, the pacing is similarly controlled, though some of us felt that it was perhaps a little *too* languorous in places. This, along with the occasionally ponderous prose, was the main issue cited by those of us who struggled to engage with Yseult. In fact, it was the only real sticking point on which we just could not seem to agree!
Speaking for myself, the issues I had with the book arose from what I perceived as unevenness. The entirety of part one – which is excellent, by the way – centres on the trials and inner strength of Yseult’s mother in addition to the childhood and adolescence of Yseult herself. So when the fabled romance finally began in part two I was somewhat taken aback by the way it was presented. It begins sweetly, and is interwoven with other events that keep the story rolling. But when our two protagonists finally get frisky, the frequent use of (for example) words like ‘ass’ and ‘cock’ when describing sex scenes felt jarring and not at all consistent with the subtle character development, beautiful Irish words and mellifluous descriptions to which I’d become accustomed.
Not only does it feel as though the sex scenes were written by a totally different author, the story itself seems less compelling the more it focuses on Drystan and Yseult. In fact, I almost abandoned the book at one point: despite thoroughly enjoying part one, I began to find the story tedious. Increasingly frequent repetition – particularly the author’s fixation with describing Yseult’s ‘moonlight’ hair and Drystan’s ‘forest-green’ eyes – started to really grate on my nerves. But it wasn’t until I reached the 44%-mark that I realised – with much disappointment – I just wasn’t enjoying Yseult enough to justify continuing with it.
Thankfully, I went back to it a few days later; and after a bit of perseverance I started to realise that Nestvold’s ‘tale of love’ encompasses far more than ‘just’ romance. Each and every character is motivated by different kinds of love, sometimes simultaneously and often conflicting. Yseult finds herself torn between her romantic love for Drystan and filial love for her mother, cousin and son. Marcus is motivated by self-love; Kurvenal, by platonic love for his best friend. Arthur is driven by love for his country, and everywhere deeds both good and evil are committed in the name of love and loyalty to one’s religion.
On the whole, Yseult is strongly reminiscent of Mary Stewart’s fantastic Arthurian Saga: a patient, introspective narrative that concerns itself mostly with magic, politics and belief. Nestvold takes the same murky time period, adds a familiar legend and then remoulds it with enough creative flourishes to make it feel fresh and original. The author develops her characters well (although antagonists such as Marcus and Andred are too-quickly painted as unsympathetic villains) and makes sure to give them and her readers a suitably poetic send-off at the last.
The Verdict: After reading a swathe of SPFBO entries that tended more towards the traditional/epic we found this historical fantasy to be a rather captivating change of pace. However, while we all agreed it was well written, not all of us found it engaging. We acknowledged that others’ opinions would likely differ as vastly as our own, which is why we’ve made the decision to eliminate Yseult in favour of others with the potential to appeal to a broader audience.
Romance in fantasy is a contentious issue. Lots of readers (myself included) are relatively indifferent to it, and neither seek it out nor avoid it. On the other hand, I’ve seen many an online discussion on the topic in which the majority of comments fall into two categories: ‘love it’ and ‘oh dear god MY EYES’. And this is a real shame, because it means that the latter will always miss out on well-written, beautiful stories such as Yseult.
Ruth Nestvold’s retelling of Tristan and Isolde is a solid adaptation that manages to capture the mischief and high spirits of Béroul’s original translation, as well as evoke a convincing sense of Arthurian Britain. From the humble roundhouses of Eriu to the dramatic promontory of Dyn Tagell, Yseult is rich in vivid settings that draw us in and anchor us firmly in the characters’ place and time.
Nestvold’s writing has a charming quality, suffused with the quiet confidence of long familiarity with her characters and the world in which they play. The tone and style – along with the carefully-researched druidic, Celtic and Roman place names – sound authentic but not archaic; and while I did find myself a little bewildered at times (particularly at the start!) the wonderfully comprehensive glossary quickly cleared up any confusion.
Another aspect of Yseult which I admire is the skillful way the author maintains a cohesive timeline – without feeling the need to fill in all the gaps. The first section in particular is very well structured, cutting between important scenes with minimal disorientation; and the epistolary-style segments are a nice way of bridging the later chapters in a way that avoids repetition and unnecessary detail. On the whole, the pacing is similarly controlled, though some of us felt that it was perhaps a little *too* languorous in places. This, along with the occasionally ponderous prose, was the main issue cited by those of us who struggled to engage with Yseult. In fact, it was the only real sticking point on which we just could not seem to agree!
Speaking for myself, the issues I had with the book arose from what I perceived as unevenness. The entirety of part one – which is excellent, by the way – centres on the trials and inner strength of Yseult’s mother in addition to the childhood and adolescence of Yseult herself. So when the fabled romance finally began in part two I was somewhat taken aback by the way it was presented. It begins sweetly, and is interwoven with other events that keep the story rolling. But when our two protagonists finally get frisky, the frequent use of (for example) words like ‘ass’ and ‘cock’ when describing sex scenes felt jarring and not at all consistent with the subtle character development, beautiful Irish words and mellifluous descriptions to which I’d become accustomed.
Not only does it feel as though the sex scenes were written by a totally different author, the story itself seems less compelling the more it focuses on Drystan and Yseult. In fact, I almost abandoned the book at one point: despite thoroughly enjoying part one, I began to find the story tedious. Increasingly frequent repetition – particularly the author’s fixation with describing Yseult’s ‘moonlight’ hair and Drystan’s ‘forest-green’ eyes – started to really grate on my nerves. But it wasn’t until I reached the 44%-mark that I realised – with much disappointment – I just wasn’t enjoying Yseult enough to justify continuing with it.
Thankfully, I went back to it a few days later; and after a bit of perseverance I started to realise that Nestvold’s ‘tale of love’ encompasses far more than ‘just’ romance. Each and every character is motivated by different kinds of love, sometimes simultaneously and often conflicting. Yseult finds herself torn between her romantic love for Drystan and filial love for her mother, cousin and son. Marcus is motivated by self-love; Kurvenal, by platonic love for his best friend. Arthur is driven by love for his country, and everywhere deeds both good and evil are committed in the name of love and loyalty to one’s religion.
On the whole, Yseult is strongly reminiscent of Mary Stewart’s fantastic Arthurian Saga: a patient, introspective narrative that concerns itself mostly with magic, politics and belief. Nestvold takes the same murky time period, adds a familiar legend and then remoulds it with enough creative flourishes to make it feel fresh and original. The author develops her characters well (although antagonists such as Marcus and Andred are too-quickly painted as unsympathetic villains) and makes sure to give them and her readers a suitably poetic send-off at the last.
The Verdict: After reading a swathe of SPFBO entries that tended more towards the traditional/epic we found this historical fantasy to be a rather captivating change of pace. However, while we all agreed it was well written, not all of us found it engaging. We acknowledged that others’ opinions would likely differ as vastly as our own, which is why we’ve made the decision to eliminate Yseult in favour of others with the potential to appeal to a broader audience.
September 11, 2018
Absolutely loved it!
The story of Tristan and Iseult has never been so heart-wrenching, passionate and powerful. I knew how it would end, but I liked the story so much I let myself hope the author had somehow changed the finale.
Such great characters, such great narrative abilities, such a great love story!
The story of Tristan and Iseult has never been so heart-wrenching, passionate and powerful. I knew how it would end, but I liked the story so much I let myself hope the author had somehow changed the finale.
Such great characters, such great narrative abilities, such a great love story!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2019
Ruth Nestvold brings us back to a darker time in Yseult. This great retelling of the tragic tale of Drystan and Yseult mixes the gritty realism of the Dark Ages with the magic of fantasy. It’s a weird combo but Nestvold’s writing makes it work really well. Yseult was an interesting and gut-punching addition to the Arthurian legend perfect for any fans of historical fantasy out there!
July 30, 2017
I received a free copy of this book for the purpose of review.
This is a beautifully constructed retelling of Tristan and Yseult. The book is extremely well researched, giving it vibrancy and reality. The author captures the wild swings of emotion skillfully.
This is a beautifully constructed retelling of Tristan and Yseult. The book is extremely well researched, giving it vibrancy and reality. The author captures the wild swings of emotion skillfully.
May 29, 2020
Definitely one of the more unique takes on the Tristram and Isolde tale I've seen, with a good balance of humanity and magic.
The scene where it turns into straight up porn was definitely jarring, though.
The scene where it turns into straight up porn was definitely jarring, though.
abandoned
December 3, 2021Abandoned
April 3, 2022
Very engaging and interesting!
November 3, 2023
Their story gets pretty repetitive, sometimes it just takes 20 pages. It's not bad but I'm not going to read the other books.
April 13, 2012
Warning: If you don’t know anything about the legend/myth of Tristan & Isolde, but you still want to read this book and don’t want to know about the legend beforehand, please don’t read my review. It’s quite difficult to review this book without spoiling the legend.
I LOVE the legend of Tristan & Isolde, it’s one of my favourite classic ancient stories. I read a children’s book about it when I was younger and I really like the movie (with James Franco) they made about it. So I was really looking forward to reading this book. The back says this book tells you the story in the perspective of Isolde, which is, according to the blurb on the back, quite uncommon.
The first 50 to 100 pages of this book dragged on so long. There is way too much information to process in the beginning of a book. So many names, so many places, and they’re all uncommon names which are very difficult to remember. Also Isoldes mother was also called Isolde, which made it very confusing, as in the beginning the point of view alternated between the two Isoldes. That made it very hard to get through.
After the first 100 or so pages, the point of view changed to Tristan, which I didn’t expect, because it was described as Isoldes take on the legend. This is where the book picked up for me, as I liked reading in his perspective a bit more and also because Tristan and Isolde finally meet. After that the point of views alternated between Tristan, Isolde, Brangwyn (Isolde’s niece) and Kurvenal (Tristan’s best friend) for the rest of the book.
For the most part I liked the story after the first 150ish pages, but sometimes it went a bit too much in circles. Of course the author had to incorporate the difficult affaire between Tristan and Isolde. But there was a time in the book were it was just about the same part over and over again: they start their love affaire, something happens, one of them decides they should not see each other anymore, they suffer from it, they meet again and they restart the love affaire etc.
This book contains quite a big amount of very graphic sex-scenes and some rape too. If you’re not comfortable reading about that, then this book is not for you. It’s an adult novel, so...
I also thought that she missed some opportunities to pick up the story and make it interesting again. She dwelled a bit too long on some battles and some wars, in my opinion. After a while I started skimming through the battles.
The author can write a good love story. It was captivating for the most part (apart from the first 100 pages. God, those were boring). But other than the love story, I didn’t really care for the rest of it. The different wars didn’t grab my attention as they usually do with high fantasy novels.
One thing I should mention which annoyed me was the poems in the beginning of each chapter. Although they were pretty and I’m sure they were relevant, I couldn’t see them as anything else than just page-fillers and after a while I just didn’t pay attention to them anymore. Did not like that, at all.
And the ending was too long. The author could have made the ending way shorter and less complicated.
Overall, this book is not particularly good , but it wasn’t the worst either. I give this 2 stars out of 5.
I LOVE the legend of Tristan & Isolde, it’s one of my favourite classic ancient stories. I read a children’s book about it when I was younger and I really like the movie (with James Franco) they made about it. So I was really looking forward to reading this book. The back says this book tells you the story in the perspective of Isolde, which is, according to the blurb on the back, quite uncommon.
The first 50 to 100 pages of this book dragged on so long. There is way too much information to process in the beginning of a book. So many names, so many places, and they’re all uncommon names which are very difficult to remember. Also Isoldes mother was also called Isolde, which made it very confusing, as in the beginning the point of view alternated between the two Isoldes. That made it very hard to get through.
After the first 100 or so pages, the point of view changed to Tristan, which I didn’t expect, because it was described as Isoldes take on the legend. This is where the book picked up for me, as I liked reading in his perspective a bit more and also because Tristan and Isolde finally meet. After that the point of views alternated between Tristan, Isolde, Brangwyn (Isolde’s niece) and Kurvenal (Tristan’s best friend) for the rest of the book.
For the most part I liked the story after the first 150ish pages, but sometimes it went a bit too much in circles. Of course the author had to incorporate the difficult affaire between Tristan and Isolde. But there was a time in the book were it was just about the same part over and over again: they start their love affaire, something happens, one of them decides they should not see each other anymore, they suffer from it, they meet again and they restart the love affaire etc.
This book contains quite a big amount of very graphic sex-scenes and some rape too. If you’re not comfortable reading about that, then this book is not for you. It’s an adult novel, so...
I also thought that she missed some opportunities to pick up the story and make it interesting again. She dwelled a bit too long on some battles and some wars, in my opinion. After a while I started skimming through the battles.
The author can write a good love story. It was captivating for the most part (apart from the first 100 pages. God, those were boring). But other than the love story, I didn’t really care for the rest of it. The different wars didn’t grab my attention as they usually do with high fantasy novels.
One thing I should mention which annoyed me was the poems in the beginning of each chapter. Although they were pretty and I’m sure they were relevant, I couldn’t see them as anything else than just page-fillers and after a while I just didn’t pay attention to them anymore. Did not like that, at all.
And the ending was too long. The author could have made the ending way shorter and less complicated.
Overall, this book is not particularly good , but it wasn’t the worst either. I give this 2 stars out of 5.
January 7, 2012
(For transparency's sake, I should mention that the author and I belong to tje same online writer's community.)
The key to Yseult is knowing what you're getting yourself into.
This book is very heavy on the history. If you are interested in the British Isles/Ireland of King Arthur's time, then you will indeed enjoy this book. Or if you enjoy books that delve into Kings and wars and political maneuvering, you will also enjoy this book.
It's got quite a lot of historical cast of characters mucking about with swords in historically-accurate sounding locations and ladies using mugwort, marigold, and comfrey to heal and detailed descriptions of Bretain, Eraiin, and Saxon Kings and generals fighting battles and raiding coast against a backdrop of Post-Roman colonnization of the British Isles.
As well as some authentic-sounding religious portrayals of St Patrick and the pagan religion of those times. (which I enjoyed. This Patraic is very believable as a Christian in the middle of a Pagan land trying to prove his God is the only God, while dealing fairly with the tension between Brehon law and Christian morality. I liked how possible the magic element of this book was portrayed. Yseult is of the Feadh Ree, a race in ancient Ireland who have 3 powers: the power of knowing, the power of calling, and the power of changing. The first two powers are always used in the book in such a way that they could be just force of personality and coincidence..while the third one is slightly more magical.
I also enjoyed meeting well-known characters and trying to guess where they fit into the Arthur mythology in general. We meet Mordrun and Myrrdin in this story, thought they play no big part.
On the other hand, if you're looking for romance, this book is probably not so much for you. Don't get me wrong, in the middle of the political maneuvering is some romantic maneuvering between Drystan and Yseult as they contrive ways to be together despite their social circumstances driving them apart. And there are certainly two or three very steamy scenes (my 10 year old daughter won't be reading this one quite yet) but it is easy to lose their thread of romance in the overall fabric of the story.
This Book's Snack Rating: Buffalo Wing Blue Cheese Kettle Chips, because of the intense historical flavor. If you like Buffalo and Blue Cheese, you'll love it, but if you don't care for Blue cheese, I don't recommend opening the bag.
The key to Yseult is knowing what you're getting yourself into.
This book is very heavy on the history. If you are interested in the British Isles/Ireland of King Arthur's time, then you will indeed enjoy this book. Or if you enjoy books that delve into Kings and wars and political maneuvering, you will also enjoy this book.
It's got quite a lot of historical cast of characters mucking about with swords in historically-accurate sounding locations and ladies using mugwort, marigold, and comfrey to heal and detailed descriptions of Bretain, Eraiin, and Saxon Kings and generals fighting battles and raiding coast against a backdrop of Post-Roman colonnization of the British Isles.
As well as some authentic-sounding religious portrayals of St Patrick and the pagan religion of those times. (which I enjoyed. This Patraic is very believable as a Christian in the middle of a Pagan land trying to prove his God is the only God, while dealing fairly with the tension between Brehon law and Christian morality. I liked how possible the magic element of this book was portrayed. Yseult is of the Feadh Ree, a race in ancient Ireland who have 3 powers: the power of knowing, the power of calling, and the power of changing. The first two powers are always used in the book in such a way that they could be just force of personality and coincidence..while the third one is slightly more magical.
I also enjoyed meeting well-known characters and trying to guess where they fit into the Arthur mythology in general. We meet Mordrun and Myrrdin in this story, thought they play no big part.
On the other hand, if you're looking for romance, this book is probably not so much for you. Don't get me wrong, in the middle of the political maneuvering is some romantic maneuvering between Drystan and Yseult as they contrive ways to be together despite their social circumstances driving them apart. And there are certainly two or three very steamy scenes (my 10 year old daughter won't be reading this one quite yet) but it is easy to lose their thread of romance in the overall fabric of the story.
This Book's Snack Rating: Buffalo Wing Blue Cheese Kettle Chips, because of the intense historical flavor. If you like Buffalo and Blue Cheese, you'll love it, but if you don't care for Blue cheese, I don't recommend opening the bag.
January 27, 2013
I'm going to save my review of Yseult for later... I'm still processing the story as I read it. I will say I enjoyed it immensely, and when I was reading it, I had trouble stopping. I would say it's a must for anyone who loves Arthurian legends, and that Ruth Nestvold's Post-Roman Britain was lush and terribly real.
However, like far too many books I've read lately, I stopped reading it for a long time and found I could not restart until the time was right. (Disclaimer: that could be the fault of the medium I was using--the PC application for Kindle books--which made bringing the book with me when I had free time but didn't want to be tied to my desk a challenge.)
UPDATE: I said I would finish this review, and Life seemed to want to test my willpower on that point. But here it is, and here is my reason for not giving a book that kept me up at nights because I was so emotionally invested in its characters and their lives a four-star rating as opposed to a five.
It was the sex.
Basically, that's all there is to it. It was the sex.
Or as Yseult the White Handed said:
It really was impossible, and it didn't feel like love. But it certainly was passionate, it was hot and it was erotic. But without a sign of anything else when they were together... It rang untrue to me.
However, like far too many books I've read lately, I stopped reading it for a long time and found I could not restart until the time was right. (Disclaimer: that could be the fault of the medium I was using--the PC application for Kindle books--which made bringing the book with me when I had free time but didn't want to be tied to my desk a challenge.)
UPDATE: I said I would finish this review, and Life seemed to want to test my willpower on that point. But here it is, and here is my reason for not giving a book that kept me up at nights because I was so emotionally invested in its characters and their lives a four-star rating as opposed to a five.
It was the sex.
Basically, that's all there is to it. It was the sex.
Or as Yseult the White Handed said:
It really was impossible, and it didn't feel like love. But it certainly was passionate, it was hot and it was erotic. But without a sign of anything else when they were together... It rang untrue to me.
January 10, 2016
I have to be honest. I was not very familiar with the tragic love story of Yseult and Tristan when I picked up Yseult, which is book one in Ruth Nestvold’s The Pendragon Chronicles. However, as I started reading the five hundred-pages plus re-imagining of the Arthurian legend, I found myself engrossed in the story.
Trigger Warning! This book contains graphic scenes of sexual nature!
Even if you aren’t into stories set in “Dark Age” history, and Irish lore, you will still find Yseult enjoyable. Author Ruth Nestvold does an amazing job detailing the history of the time she explores and introducing her characters to the readers. Some of you might feel a bit confused at first with all the unfamiliar names and Gaelic that’s in the book, because I know I was. However, there’s a glossary at the end for you to go over, and it makes things easier.
Not only that, there are three characters named Yseult. This might throw you a bit off track if you aren’t focusing on the story and know which Yseult the author is talking about.
While there’s a lot of political maneuvering going on in the book, and the old age clashes with the new, the major focus is the love affair between Yseult and Tristan (or Drystan in this book). Our heroine, Yseult, has to marry the father of her lover. And things get complicated for the two love birds because they refuse to stop having a relationship with each other even after Yseult’s marriage. There are instances where they try to stop, but they always rekindle their passion for each other. Considering the tone of the book, you know things are going to end badly for them.
(You can read the review in its entirety at http://thegeekiary.com/yseult-is-an-e...)
Trigger Warning! This book contains graphic scenes of sexual nature!
Even if you aren’t into stories set in “Dark Age” history, and Irish lore, you will still find Yseult enjoyable. Author Ruth Nestvold does an amazing job detailing the history of the time she explores and introducing her characters to the readers. Some of you might feel a bit confused at first with all the unfamiliar names and Gaelic that’s in the book, because I know I was. However, there’s a glossary at the end for you to go over, and it makes things easier.
Not only that, there are three characters named Yseult. This might throw you a bit off track if you aren’t focusing on the story and know which Yseult the author is talking about.
While there’s a lot of political maneuvering going on in the book, and the old age clashes with the new, the major focus is the love affair between Yseult and Tristan (or Drystan in this book). Our heroine, Yseult, has to marry the father of her lover. And things get complicated for the two love birds because they refuse to stop having a relationship with each other even after Yseult’s marriage. There are instances where they try to stop, but they always rekindle their passion for each other. Considering the tone of the book, you know things are going to end badly for them.
(You can read the review in its entirety at http://thegeekiary.com/yseult-is-an-e...)
May 28, 2012
Audiobuch A new version of Tristan & Isolde Good story!
Die erinnische Prinzessin Yseult wächst in einem Land auf, in dem zwar viele Stämme um die Vorherrschaft auf der Grünen Insel kämpfen, andererseits jedoch der Stellenwert der Frauen und der überlieferten Traditionen hoch angesiedelt ist. Als ein schwer verletzter Fremder die Hilfe ihrer Mutter erbittet und sich als Barde ausgibt, ahnt Yseult nicht, dass sie in Wirklichkeit ihrem geschworenen Todfeind gegenüber steht, der für den Tod ihres Onkels verantwortlich ist. Als die Wahrheit ans Licht kommt, ist es zu spät und die beiden jungen Menschen haben sich rettungslos ineinander verliebt. Nur eine räumliche Trennung scheint Hilfe bringen zu können. Doch das Schicksal meint es nicht gut mit ihnen, denn eine Verkettung unglücklicher Umstände zwingt Yseult, den britischen Kleinkönig Marcus zu heiraten - Drystans Vater. Obwohl sich beide gegen das scheinbar Unvermeidliche wehren, ist es vor allem ihren engsten Vertrauten - Yseults Base Brangwyn und Drystans bestem Freund Kurneval - klar, dass es weder der erinnischen Prinzessin noch dem britischen Fürstensohn gelingen wird, ihre Gefühle langfristig zu unterdrücken. Und so nimmt in den unruhigen Wirren des nachrömischen Britanniens bald ein gefährliches und verbotenes Spiel seinen Lauf, das über alle Beteiligte nichts als Unglück zu bringen droht.
Die erinnische Prinzessin Yseult wächst in einem Land auf, in dem zwar viele Stämme um die Vorherrschaft auf der Grünen Insel kämpfen, andererseits jedoch der Stellenwert der Frauen und der überlieferten Traditionen hoch angesiedelt ist. Als ein schwer verletzter Fremder die Hilfe ihrer Mutter erbittet und sich als Barde ausgibt, ahnt Yseult nicht, dass sie in Wirklichkeit ihrem geschworenen Todfeind gegenüber steht, der für den Tod ihres Onkels verantwortlich ist. Als die Wahrheit ans Licht kommt, ist es zu spät und die beiden jungen Menschen haben sich rettungslos ineinander verliebt. Nur eine räumliche Trennung scheint Hilfe bringen zu können. Doch das Schicksal meint es nicht gut mit ihnen, denn eine Verkettung unglücklicher Umstände zwingt Yseult, den britischen Kleinkönig Marcus zu heiraten - Drystans Vater. Obwohl sich beide gegen das scheinbar Unvermeidliche wehren, ist es vor allem ihren engsten Vertrauten - Yseults Base Brangwyn und Drystans bestem Freund Kurneval - klar, dass es weder der erinnischen Prinzessin noch dem britischen Fürstensohn gelingen wird, ihre Gefühle langfristig zu unterdrücken. Und so nimmt in den unruhigen Wirren des nachrömischen Britanniens bald ein gefährliches und verbotenes Spiel seinen Lauf, das über alle Beteiligte nichts als Unglück zu bringen droht.
May 10, 2013
This book is simply Epic! Not only for the length of it (came as a shock after reading novellas for a while!) but also for the amount of history, information and detail given.
This book actually starts the story with Yseult and you get a very indepth idea of what her life was like in Ireland. Her character is very well rounded which makes a very pleasant change from some of the one dimensional Yseults that have been written about.
You will get a very good idea of the fosterage system that Britain had in place and used for centuries. You will also get taken back to the past, where battles are bloody and love is something not usually found in a marriage.
If you have ever read a tale of Tristan and Isolde, or Drystan and Yseult, or any one of the other multitude of names used, if you enjoy reading about Arthur, if you like tales of "Old Times", then this is definitely the book for you!
Fantastic
This book actually starts the story with Yseult and you get a very indepth idea of what her life was like in Ireland. Her character is very well rounded which makes a very pleasant change from some of the one dimensional Yseults that have been written about.
You will get a very good idea of the fosterage system that Britain had in place and used for centuries. You will also get taken back to the past, where battles are bloody and love is something not usually found in a marriage.
If you have ever read a tale of Tristan and Isolde, or Drystan and Yseult, or any one of the other multitude of names used, if you enjoy reading about Arthur, if you like tales of "Old Times", then this is definitely the book for you!
Fantastic
December 13, 2009
Zuerst einmal: Bevor man anfängt zu lesen, wissen die Meisten ja bereits, wie die Geschichte ausgeht, denn fast jedem ist das Schicksal von Tristan und Isolde schon zu Ohren gekommen.
Trotz allem, das Buch lässt sich unglaublich gut lesen und ist bei aller Liebe kein typischer Frauenroman im Stil von „Die Nebel von Avalon“ oder ähnlichem (Allerdings wird das Werk doch mehr weibliche Leser finden, nehme ich mal an. Zuviel Romantik und Herzschmerz.). Drystan wird ein großer Raum innerhalb des Romans eingeräumt, genau so den Schlachten gegen die Sachsen. Selbst der allseits bekannte Arthur spielt eine Rolle. Kurz, die Action kommt nicht zu kurz.
Man fiebert und leidet mit bei dem ständigen Auf und Ab der Beziehung von Yseult und Drystan, hofft auf ein gutes Ende und weiß doch genau worauf es letztendlich hinauslaufen wird.
Ich kann das Buch mit guten Gewissen empfehlen.
Trotz allem, das Buch lässt sich unglaublich gut lesen und ist bei aller Liebe kein typischer Frauenroman im Stil von „Die Nebel von Avalon“ oder ähnlichem (Allerdings wird das Werk doch mehr weibliche Leser finden, nehme ich mal an. Zuviel Romantik und Herzschmerz.). Drystan wird ein großer Raum innerhalb des Romans eingeräumt, genau so den Schlachten gegen die Sachsen. Selbst der allseits bekannte Arthur spielt eine Rolle. Kurz, die Action kommt nicht zu kurz.
Man fiebert und leidet mit bei dem ständigen Auf und Ab der Beziehung von Yseult und Drystan, hofft auf ein gutes Ende und weiß doch genau worauf es letztendlich hinauslaufen wird.
Ich kann das Buch mit guten Gewissen empfehlen.
January 21, 2021
Yseult the Fair is the daughter of a powerful Eriann queen Yseult the Wise. She is traded for peace to a King in Britain.
Drystan is the son of the king and a soldier of Arthur's.
Ysuelt is a basic love that can never be type of story. No surprises, you can pretty much guess what's coming the entire way through the book.
It was well written.If you don't already know the story of Isolde and Tristan,you may find it interesting. The story involves war, betrayal (both political & personal),& religious upheaval, along with the love story.
I found the book to be a bit long with many unnecessary sidelines. The first few chapters threw so many characters at you, it got alittle confusing. Although later you figure out who's who. The little intros to each chapter were also unnecessary & a little irritating.
Drystan is the son of the king and a soldier of Arthur's.
Ysuelt is a basic love that can never be type of story. No surprises, you can pretty much guess what's coming the entire way through the book.
It was well written.If you don't already know the story of Isolde and Tristan,you may find it interesting. The story involves war, betrayal (both political & personal),& religious upheaval, along with the love story.
I found the book to be a bit long with many unnecessary sidelines. The first few chapters threw so many characters at you, it got alittle confusing. Although later you figure out who's who. The little intros to each chapter were also unnecessary & a little irritating.
September 5, 2012
A very well written re-telling of the Tristan and Isolde legend. There were a lot of elements I did not expect to be included such as the focus on the actual war between the Britons and the Saxons but it was well done. It did drag at some points but I kept coming back to it. It made me want to get the next book in the series as well to see where Nestvold is going to take the character of Iseult. I do not know if anyone can state with absolute certainty that everything in the book is historically accurate but it was one of the more accurate ones that I have read. If you love Arthurian legend the way I do, you will go and pick up this book.
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