Twisted Kingdom

I first came across this trilogy on the blog, Chappy's Mom. It is an out of print author, so it was hard to track down, but worth it.

From the flap:

With her bestselling Keltiad trilogy, Patricia Kennealy wove a magical tapestry of Celtic mythology, science fiction, and fantasy to create a future tale of chivalry and warfare, love and honor, among star systems far distant from earth.

Now Kennealy takes us to an earlier age in the history of the worlds and people of Keltia, a time out of legend, when Arthur himself fought to regain the throne for the royal House of Don. Arthur's enemy was the usurper Edeyrn, more than a mortal man greatest of Druids, who has sworn to detroy the House of Don. And Edeyrn has all but fulfilled his vow. After seizing power than two hundred years earlier, he sought to cut the people off from their greatest strengths-from the ancient lore and training of true warriors, bards, and druids.

Yet down through the centuries there were those who kept the secret knowledge alive, training chosen ones of each new generation in the skills they would need when the time of prophecy came upon them, the time of destiny when the House of Don would strike openly against the hated enemy.

Told by Taliesin, Arthur's beloved foster brother, and the greatest bard Keltia would ever know, THE HAWK'S GRAY FEATHER is the opening volume of a trilogy that both recaptures all the wonder and reveals as well still mor of the spellbinding tale of Patricia Kennealy's own magnificent Keltia.

I love Arthurian retellings. It has been one of my favourite type of things to read for quite some time. This one is not your typical novel about Arthur. It has many different aspects to it. Instead of taking place in the past, it takes place in the future with historical aspects. It was just amazing, I wish it would be reprinted so future generations can enjoy it. I personally had never even heard of it before, and I am very excited to not only read the othe two book sin the trilogy but to track down her other trilogy.

This trilogy takes place on Keltaid, for whatever reason the people have had to leave Earth and move on to another planet. The other trilogy also takes place on Keltaid, but doesn't have an Arthurian connection. I can not say enough good things about this book. I was very interested in the rules of the sexes in this book. It has women and men as equals, which interests me. I am always interested in novels that portray men and women equally.

Instead of the Saxons having to be overthrown, there is a race of magical men in power. One in particular who is half human, half a magical fairy-like folk. It means that the leader has special abilities, which means he is harder to overthrow. all your favourite characters are there, though, just with slightly different spellings of their names. The relationships between the characters is different as well. For example, Gwenivere and and Arthur are cousins. It is a much more fictionalized telling of the "typical" Arthurian tale.

I suggest it to anyone that enjoys Arthurian novels. It was a great first book, I hopefully will read the next one soon.

4.5/5