Joseph’s Reviews > The Crystal Cave > Status Update

What are you TALKING about, Ygraine?! You want Merlin to make you Uther's wife, but without Gorlois dying. These things are mutually exclusive! You can't give Merlin two contradictory tasks and then blame him not only doing one!

To be fair, Ygraine is the three-dimensional female character in this book other than Niniane. The problem is that she's awful and I hate her.

"The words came clearly to me, from nowhere, without thought."

You'd think that Stewart would stop reminding us that Merlin has no agency or motivation.

"I am not 'many women.'"

Translation: "I'm not like other girls! They would have just thrown off their clothes and fucked Uther in the middle of the royal banquet, but I'M smart enough to plot my husband's death first!"

"Was that right?"
"You were guided."

Merlin literally can't even understand the idea that someone might have thought for themself.

I think it says something that Merlin agreed to help Uther sleep with Ygraine before he thought of asking whether she'd consent to it.

It seems he's not going to think at all about the moral implications of helping Uther screw the wife of their mutual friend and ally.

"That is what I call dunghill stuff, Cadal. I meant, what is she like?"
"Well, that's just what they don't say, except that she's silent."

I feel like this sums up every women in this book except Niniane.

I'm also kind of annoyed that we had this established pattern of twelve chapters for each "part," and now we're switching to ten.

I am annoyed that, once again, that this book pulled a "and then I did the thing we spent multiple chapters building up to, but I'm not going to describe it because the author doesn't want to."

Finn MacCool wasn't a king.

You know what? Kudos for writing that and admitting that it's bad, Ms. Stewart. A lesser writer would have had all the other characters gushing about how great it is.