I really enjoy this series. Realistic treatment of early Briton and how Arthur might have established his rule. The seeds of trouble are here. Good characters, good interactions, good setting. ( )

“Fresh Meat” by Laura K. Curtis for Criminal Element

I grew up on the Arthurian stories. Loved everything having to do with Arthur, Excalibur, the knights of the round table...you name it, I read it. And later I studied it. And read more, much of it in obscure languages like Latin and Old French. But the more I read of the original tales, the less I liked reading modern interpretations until eventually I began to automatically avoid anything having to do with Arthur.

So it was with some reluctance that I picked up Tony Hays’ The Stolen Bride. I’d heard the series was excellent, so I plunged on in...and was very pleasantly surprised!

It’s a difficult thing to write about a history that everyone feels as if they know to their bones, but that never actually happened. Depending on which tales of Arthur you read as a child, you might have a very different idea of what that period looked, sounded...and smelled...like than someone else. Which leaves Hays in a bit of a quandary. He solves it by grounding you almost immediately in his picture of history, which is a Britain just after Roman abandonment, what “would have been” in the age of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Arthur.

Read the rest at: http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/03/the-stolen-bride-by-tony-hays-arthu...