The Wicked Day

It was coming now, surely, the future he had dreaded, and yet longed for, with the strange, restless and sometimes violent feelings of rebellion he had had against the life to which he had been born, and to which he had believed himself sentenced till death, like all his parents kin Well, once again Mary Stewart did not fail to captivate me I adored this In this fourth book of the Arthurian saga, Mordred takes center stage Stewart takes the legend and dissects the whole into its many layers Char [...]

4.5 stars The wicked day of destiny, as Malory calls it, is the day when Arthur s final battle was fought at Camlann In this battle, we are told, Arthur and Medraut fell from the author s notes provided at the end of this book.This is what we know of Mordred, and the subsequent legend has painted him to be a cunning and selfish bastard, who rose against his father, Arthur, and in an attempt to seize his kingdom brought them both low What if he were none of those things What if he were caught in [...]

Holy moly this was bad I lost any sense of interest in this book about 1 3 of the way through I think that Stewart did the best she could She wanted to keep the legend of Arthur and his Round Table on point as much as possible However, the characterizations in this whole book were off for me Arthur pretty much is not that smart Mordred is just misunderstood And Guinevere is not bright at all, and is only wanted by every man it seems due to her beauty I don t read any of Marion Zimmer Bradley s b [...]

So, this was the last book of four and I must say thoroughly enjoyed them An epic telling of the Arthur saga if ever there is one I would give 5 to the series as a whole if this was possible, but as individual books tend to lean to a very solid 4 for each All books written with a wonderful descriptive style that keeps the reader enthralled from beginning to end What I liked about this last book which rounds off the story was the slant given to Modred In the first three books we learn very littl [...]

The Wicked Day explores the story of Mordred prophesized to bring doom to Arthur Mordred in this version is certainly an ambitious young man but not a villain or evil as Stewart herself notes other accounts may have made him out to be, but instead perhaps a victim of circumstances Mordred is sensible and level headed very different from his half brothers, who are inclined to fly off the handle The other Arthur book I read earlier this year was for younger readers, where although the characters w [...]

What a great culmination to the series i love the way Mary Stewart portrays Mordred in this version I don t want to give too much away but don t expect the bad guy traitor of Arthur we have so come to accept This is a re read and I still consider it a fantastic series.

Arrrghhh, this book Okay, on the good side Stewart knew the Arthurian material well and handled it with confidence, often bringing in small details in ways which were a delight to spot but which didn t particularly harm the narrative if you didn t spot them And it s an interesting take on Mordred a loyal son to Arthur, once he knows about it, taking up much the same sort of relationship as between Merlin and Ambrosius, or Arthur and Merlin His emotions are for the most part really well done his [...]

Leaving back the story of Merlin, the author leads us to the story behind the ultimate and fatal battle that is the epitome of King Arthur s history This story is followed through the look of Mordred, who has the role of the bad guy in the whole affair The author, however, follows a different approach presenting him to have much complex motivations By watching him from childhood to the end, we see a man who wants to do the right thing, is sensitive to injustice, has logical thinking, and can co [...]

This was one of the best books ever It was just enchanting, and yes, it was a wicked day at the end, but I expected that, and although the last chapter was rather dismal, I found that the beauty of the last paragraph of the epilogue made up for it.The characters were all well crafted and intriguing Even the characters just introduced in this book, like Mordred and the Orkney boys, were so fun to follow And building on Arthur and Morgause from previous books was great too, because you can really [...]

The Wicked Day is the final volume in Mary Stewart s Arthurian saga, which began with The Crystal Cave Unlike the first three books in the series, where Merlin is the first person narrator, The Wicked Day is told in the third person but focuses on the life of Mordred, Arthur s illegitimate son, born of his incestuous tryst with his half sister Morgause In Stewart s vision of Arthur s Britain, he and his son are hapless pawns in a tragic fate that neither desire It would make for a great story tw [...]

I like Stewart s retelling of Arthur Mordred s story We now the sad ending I enjoy her inclusion of the Legends and her reasons for telling the story as she did.

Mary Stewart wrote the quintessential Merlin Arthur legends I ve read all the Arthur books I could find, from Le Morte Darthur, John Steinbeck s try at it The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights to Lawhead Nothing written can stack up to Stewart s obvious background of the history of the British Isles, and her love for the land She breathes life into these legendary characters and makes them hers To prove their excellence you can still buy the four books of the series in bookstores.

The Wicked Day is a wonderful addition to Mary Stewart s Arthurian trilogy The strength of this book is in Mary Stewart s depiction of Mordred as an intelligent young man who tries very hard to escape his fate Told with the same interesting and exciting narration that I have come to expect from Stewart, this tale completely satisfied this Arthurian enthusiast I have far too many passages marked to include in this review but if you will indulge me, you will see how skillfully Stewart paints with [...]

I did not read this as a historical treatise nor do I want to dwell on the academic veracity of the story At the end of the book there is a section The Legend which summarises the relevant parts of Geoffrey of Monmouth s 12th century History of the Kings of Britain Malory s Le Morte d Arthur of the 15th century The subsequent author s note and the table of known historical dates makes clear the viewpoint of the author from which this tail note to her Merlin trilogy was written.I found it strange [...]

The book that made me realize how much I liked Mordred, and how much it would suck to be him.

3.5 5A random thing that I noticed Bedwyr, still with the gentleness that Mordred would never have suspected in him, said, half to himself She has a lovely face God give her rest This reminded me of the ending of the poem The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Tennyson Lancelot mused a little space He said, She has a lovely face God in his mercy lend her grace,The Lady of Shalott Not to mention, the lady in the book is named Elen while the lady from the poem is supposed to be, I think, named Elaine Coinc [...]

Po slab m za tku jsem takhle monstr zn rozjezd a konec ne ekal Nejepi t j popis osud Artu e a Mordreda co zn m.

The Wicked Day is the fourth and final book in Mary Stewart s Arthurian Saga It s sort of interesting that the first three books are referred to as The Merlin Trilogy but when the fourth book is added it becomes The Arthurian Saga This time, Ms Stewart applies her considerable talents to the story of Mordred, telling the entire story from his birth, through his growing up, and to its inevitable conclusion.This has to be one of the most difficult things to do in fiction writing Take a well establ [...]

Earlier I commented that Mordred s head, even painted as sympathetically as Stewart does, wasn t a comfortable place to stay for long I think I know now what Lewis was talking about when he said that writing his Screwtape Letters gave his mind cramps I think my heart s got a few new knots to be untangled thanks to this book Don t get me wrong the style is not bad though not, I would venture, on the same level of beauty as the Merlin trilogy And its not even that Mordred himself is particularly e [...]

The epic consolidation of Mary Stewart s Merlin Quartet it is, perhaps, ironic that this last edition to the series is not about Merlin at all, but rather Mordred, the bastard son of Arthur Pendragon and his half sister Morgause Yet despite this unusual switch of main character, The Wicked Day closes the Arthurian legend with grace and elegance and leaves the growing legend of Merlin delightfully unfinished, fated to haunt the mists of Bryn Myrddin as either man, myth, or both As for the tale of [...]

I loved the first two books in this saga In the third book, I felt like I lost a loved one at the end of the novel, and while it was sad, I made my goodbyes and was ready to move on from this character and this story When I heard there was a fourth novel, I was excited because everyone is always excited to revisit beloved characters but also somewhat confused The end of the 3rd book had a very clear ending, at least for Merlin, and for me, that was the only character I really cared about If you [...]

I d read her Merlin books the Crystal Cave, etc 30 years or ago Didn t know there was a fourth in the series and ran across this at a used book store Retells the latter part of the Arthurian tale in a sort of mash up of Monmouth Mallory from Mordred s point of view, and portrays him as a better man than is traditional Of course that bar is set pretty low An absorbing read.

Ahhhhhhh this series Favorite version of the Arthurian saga, favorite rewrite of complex source material, favorite redemption of someone who always seemed to be a caricature villain in most other versions This is so good, and so sad at the end, and so beautiful, and I love that Stewart wanted a rewrite to make sense of it all.

This is a great end to a wonderful series I really wish people in my generation would read this series because even though it has been many years since it was published, this is a series that I have read multiple times If you have read the rest of the series and are wondering whether or not to finish it, I would definitely recommend finishing the series

An intriguing and attractive retelling of the latter part of Arthur s legend from the point of view of Mordred, who is much interesting than the black villain of tradition Review carlanayland reviews w

I give this one extra credit for presenting events through the eyes of the much maligned Mordred I think Stewart pulls it off.

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book I wasn t sure where the story would go after the ending of part three, but it was a very logical sequel The writing was superb and I ended up really liking Mordred as a main character I loved the sense the characters had There was drama, but it was mostly due to misunderstanding, not because either Mordred or Arthur stopped thinking sensibly Aah if only people had better faster forms of commuication back in the day The Orkney brothers and the legacy their m [...]

This is a very interesting take on the fall of Camelot especially in contrast to Stewart s earlier three books The notes at the end are very informative about why she gave us the version she gave us basically the historical record is virtually non existent and the versions which make Mordred the embodiment of evil contradict early stories She does explain, in those notes, the sort of mad errors that Arthur makes at the end those are in the source material Interesting stuff.

I did really enjoy this book I find Mary Stewart a great story teller and as a history buff I am enthralled with the Arthurian legend I had read the other 3 books many years ago and hadn t realized there was a fourth Although one is forwarned it is hard to accept the tragic ending It makes me want to research what happened next in terms of all of the different factions in play at the time Norse, Saxon, Celts etc This is a period in history I know very little about.