White's premise in The Guinevere Deception is genius: the real Princess Guinevere is dead, and in her place, Merlin sends his own daughter (we don't learn her original name, at least not in this book) to protect Arthur from magical attack. Merlin himself has been banished from Camelot, and all use of magic has been outlawed there, rather against Arthur's own wishes. So our Guinevere is immediately in danger on two fronts -- her identity as Merlin's daughter must be kept secret, and also the fact that she is using her own magic to guard Arthur. She is also terrified of water -- why, exactly, we're not sure yet.
I love the fact that Guinevere's magic uses knots, and later we discover another feminine version of magic using sewing -- a clever, almost invisible, female form of enchantment. In this version, Lancelot, the Queen's champion, also holds a secret, which is a nice surprise. I also enjoyed the twist that because Arthur and Guinevere's marriage is a sham, there is no sex and therefore no heirs will be produced -- a very good explanation for their traditional lack of offspring.
Naturally The Guinevere Deception ends on a cliffhanger, and I'm looking forward to part 2, The Camelot Betrayal.
In its premise of magic being outlawed and Arthur being secretly protected by the use of magic, this sounds rather like the BBC series 'Merlin' - which is excellent fun by the way. It sounds like a good twist to have Guinevere be the one with the power!
ReplyDeleteI forgot about the Merlin series, I only watched the odd episode of that but it looked great. Maybe I'll try and track it down again! Yes, I love Guinevere as the centre of the action, she is so often written off as the helpless little woman or a purely passive object. It's a lovely twist.
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