Customer Reviews

Blackmantle

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

** NB - this review contains some potential general spoilers.

This was my first exposure to Patricia Kennealy-Morrison & her Keltiad. Although other reviewers familiar with the series rate this as one of the poorer volumes, I must say I enjoyed it, with some considerable reservations. Briefly, I loved the Keltic atmosphere and the more mythic aspects of the work -- like C.S. Lewis, I read SF/Fantasy/exotic adventure for the sense of being admitted to a world so different from ours, the sense of otherness painted in vivid colours, and the strange power that true myth holds over us.

The autobiographical elements were obvious enough, even to someone like me who is not a Jim Morrison expert - if they weren't, the author was kind enough to underline them in the afterword and blurb for her someday-to-be-published biography & unpublished writings of Jim M! But how many authors could stand the test of a searchlight on the autobiographical aspects of their work and their use of fiction to deal with unresolved conflicts? It is, after all, common enough to constitute a major branch of traditional literary criticism. I say, if it doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the book, then disregard it - unless you're writing a thesis.

That said, regardless of the author's personal conflicts that may have energized them, there were parts of the book that I didn't like and that lost my interest. The book seemed to me to fall into three main parts:

1 - Athyn growing up, going through her training, and coming to her power. This I enjoyed; a fairly typical fantasy of that sort, but well told, with good elements of the numinous and marvellous (e.g. the Sidhe). I also greatly enjoyed the Celticisms, particulary as I was familiar with many of the concepts and terms from my recent reading of other works such as Peter Tremayne's fiction & non-fiction.

There is one serious mistake, as I take it, that I cannot let pass: The author repeats several times that the Kelts practise the rule of succession solely by primogeniture. This may have come to be true of the Celts in the later, parallel era on our Earth (I am no historian), but in the time of Brendan from whom the brehonic law of these Kelts is derived, and for some centuries after, in Ireland at least, succession was by an enlightened form of elected aristocracy, and the Irish of the "dark ages" were quite bemused by most other cultures' reliance on this chancy rule that so often left the worst possible candidate in charge.

2- Athyn's war of revenge and ethnic cleansing (I do not use the term lightly); this left me mostly cold, bored and irritated. The only justification for the war to drive out the Incomers/Firvolgi seems to be that they aren't Kelts; most of their characters presented in detail are pleasant and sympathetic human beings. Worse, these few are adopted as honorary Kelts, unpleasantly reminiscent of similar special classes in racially-troubled parts of our own world, not excepting North America's own history. People died in this jihad, and were driven from their homes of many generations. This may be a realistic part of the Keltic -- & human -- temperament, but it is an unlovely side of us, and hardly to be glorified. I prefer Tremayne's 8th century Ireland, tolerant, open to immigration and change, and with more freedom and equality for the underprivileged than much of our 21st century world. I do not greatly enjoy longwinded tales of battle either, but perhaps for that very reason I should not criticize this section unduly -- there are others who enjoy this sort of thing, and they are welcome to it.

3 - the last part of the book, to my mind, rescued it from the mass of teen-growing-up and war SF/fantasies. Here is high fantasy indeed, entitling Kennealy-Morrison to take a place with the modern mythepoeics such as Zelazny and Guy Gavriel Kay (I will save her from comparison with the terribly over-invoked T*****n). That the basic material, the descent into the underworld to rescue a dead lover, is familiar, and as old as the Greeks and Egyptians, is no criticism; the essence of true myth is that it will stand up to endless retelling. Lewis once defined myth as a story that can be summarized in a few sentences and still have power to move us strangely, and I believe the last part of the book passes the test. Moreover, it is well told, and I found myself moved by it as I am by perhaps only one fantasy in a hundred.

Overall, then, I enjoyed the book for its best parts, and I look forward to reading more of this author.

I was bored with this book. Could not read the whole thing because I felt like I was reading "strange Days" all over agian. Her whole focus is Jim Morrison. Boring book.

While I'm quite fond of the Keltiad series, I have to say this is the weakest of the series. If your both a fan of Patricia Kennealy-Morrison and her late husband Jim, then yes, you might like this book, both for the inside references and what might have been.

However, if you're not a Doors fan and have no interest in their music, this book becomes a painful exercise in patience. Ultimately, one has to realize that this book is Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's attempt to exercise the ghosts of her past and is in fact her therapy. It's a shame her readers had to foot the bill though. It's a shame her husband died, but life and the wheel goes on, and Ms. Kennealy-Morrison needs to let go of her husband's ghost and live for herself again.

Besides which, this book, (along with "The Deers Cry"), has horrid, vile, "romance novel" style covers. This hurts the book worse than the writing does, because those who might be interested in Fantasy/Science Fiction tend to avoid romance books, and romance readers will get turned off by the F/SF elements.

I really enjoyed this book. Yes it has Patricia and Jim (Morrison) story woven in to it, but it also has hints of Eurydice and Orpheus against the world of Keltia the author has created through several books. It is an epic saga worth reading full of beautiful descriptions of characters and settings, proving the writer is at the top of her game. You'll be swept up by it, (even if you haven't read her other keltaid novels--which are great too) and you won't forget it.

When I first read Patricia's book of the Keltaid, I was hooked. The Tales of Aeron were fantastic, but unfortunatley, I picked up Blackmantle. It is my firm opinion that Patricia's writing is being destroyed by her own bitterness and anger. After reading the other reviews, I agree that this is an autobiography of Patricia and her time with Jim Morrison. Throughout this book were lacunae that seemed to be Patricia reminiscing over her own relationship with Jim Morrison. This distracted from the book greatly as I got the book to read a tale of the Keltaid and not about Patricia and Jim.

On top of that, Patricia gets very vindictive in this book towards all those who she perceives as betrayers of Jim Morrison. She meets out vengeful and harsh punishments on those who betrayed the great bard Morric Douglas. This is just the way for Patricia to get even with all those who knocked Jim Morrison over the years. It gets pendatic very fast and distracts from the story.

And her supposed heroine, Athynn, who never forgets or forgives is really a horrible person. Athynn is supposed to be great and full of justice, but don't tell that to her enemies as she goes out of her way to brutally murder all of them. Not my idea of an ideal king or queen, but Athynn is the greates queen of Keltia. If that is so, I don't ever want to go there!

I hope that Patricia gets some therapy to help her with her fixation on Jim Morrison and her own bitterness and anger. Once she does that hopefully she can write further good stories about Keltia; otherwise, I think she needs to stop writing period.

Once again, the formula of red-haired woman married to a dark-haired man facing the rivalry of a white-blond woman emerges, but this time freighted with more personal baggage than the hold of the Titanic at its maiden voyage. Ms. Kennealy-Morrison has accomplished two things with this book; both accomplishments should have rated a warning label on the cover.

The author's primary accomplishment was to aid her therapist by building an entire novel around her version of events with Jim Morrison in the long-ago; her therapist, presumably better-paid and with more leisure time than I, could in good conscience be expected to read this novel. WARNING: This novel contains very little artistic merit, and is designed to get back at someone who died before the author could sufficiently abuse them because of how they treated her husband.

The secondary accomplishment (though by no means a small one) is the production of a book whose prose style forces the reader to examine it "through a hill, greenly." Although usually an excellent writer, Ms. Kennealy-Morrison strings parenthetical asides and stilted faux-Gaelic expressions together in this work like some demented cartoon leprechaun, producing endless run-on constructions that would shame Darby O'Toole at his most drunken. WARNING: May cause the reader to decide the only useful product of Ireland is whiskey.

These points having been made, an author as (usually) excellent as the one who brought us Aeron and Arthur deserves our support despite the occasional stinker. Here's hoping that the Brendan series is better!

I put down this book with some mild queasiness and an uneasy feeling, similar to when I read "Strange Days." This book had the possibilities of a fantasy classic, but is bogged down by Ms. Kennealy-Morrison's past and present....

"Blackmantle"started out with great promise--the events of Athyn's childhood and youth are simply dazzling, such as when she is asked for help by a lord of the Sidhe. But the moment Morric comes onto the scene with Amzalsunea, the thing starts to come apart at the seams. It becomes painfully clear (honestly, was Amzalsunea REALLY necessary, except as the author's way of getting back at Pamela Courson if she couldn't in life?) that the book is a retelling of the romance of Patricia Kennealy and Jim Morrison--only with Athyn determined to resurrect her hubby.

Athyn herself is supposedly an honorable and admirable person, but she strikes me as over-angry and determined for vengeance. (Can there please please PLEASE be a heroine somed!ay who is a warrior AND not off her cadooba?) Many of her actions in the book strike me as being part of the catharsis for the author, acts of violence against people she knew.

Morric is the same--he's difficult to define. He's also described as admirable and noble, but I found him a bit... well, manufactured. He's Jim Morrison with a great deal of his personality amputated, the manipulative and sometimes irrational parts.

Normally, this would only take one star from the book overall, but I was disturbed by two things that notch it down to two overall. It was kind of disturbing to read about Athyn and the other Kelts driving off the Incomers, whose main crime appears to be that they aren't Kelts (frankly, I didn't see a single reason other than the ugly cry of bigotry)

Second, I was horrified to read the descriptions of what Athyn does to people after Morric's death. If they'd had some part in his death, I would not have complained. But de-boning a live ma!n? Killing people for unfavorable reviews? Eww...

If the above paragraph does not trouble you, then you may wish to read this book, as Ms. Kennealy-Morrison has her usual excellent style and descriptives.

I have read all of the Keltiad produced to dae and found this one very disappointing. If you are new to Patricia's work start in one of her other books. Black Mantal gives some more background to characters we meet in Aeryn and Arthur's trilogies; however, the characterization in this book is incredibly weak. Start with The Copper Crown or another one of the books of the Keltiad and return to this book later so you aren't so terribly disappointed.

My introduction to Kenneally's work was the Aeron series, and I loved every word of it. I had much the same reaction to the three Arthur books, piqued by the fact that the Arthurian material, and particularly women in the Arthurian material, is my academic specialty. So when Arthur's hero and role model appeared on the book store shelf, I grabbed the book, sped home, fed the cats and dogs, ditched a whole pile of English II essays, ordered out and prepared for an all-nighter.

Well.

I slept like a baby. To date I have tried three times to read this book and have now given up. The book is not about Athyn, it's about the author and her relationship with Jim Morrison. It's a roman a clef that could be picked by a geriatric nun with a hairpin. Truth: I don't care about Kenneally's private concerns, her marriage or lack of it to Jim Morrison, or her personal acrimony toward the other people in the man's life. When I pick up a novel about Keltia, I want it to be about Kelts, drat it! Blackmantle is autobiography, it may be therapy, but it's not "A Novel of the Keltiad."

I feel for Kennealy-Morrison, I really do. But I must agree with other reviewers here that this book is far below the quality of her earlier work. I loved the original Copper Crown series, they were vivid and engaging. This book is so obviously and painfully autobiographical that it's quite hard to read.

I sympathize with what she's been through. And I know writers are supposed to "write what you know". But this was too much for most of us, we don't want to share this stuff. Let Jim go Patricia, and get on with your life. We'd like to read more excellent fiction the like of which we know you're capable of, but this, sadly, just isn't it.