Before Mordred challenged Arthur for the leadership, he was a knight of the Round Table, headstrong and sarcastic, but also courageous and skilled in battle.We see Mordred from three women viewpoint’s: Alayna, whose daughter Kiera is kidnapped for her visions, the sorceress Nimue, and Kiera herself. In the last segment, Mordred and his brothers invade Guinevere’s chambers to reveal what everyone already knows – the Queen and Lancelot are lovers. Guinevere is sentenced to death, Lancelot rescues

I'd rate this one a 7 out of 10. It was simplistic and even though I know it's targeted for young adults, many teen readers could handle more complexity and more thorough character development....heck, I loved Mists of Avalon when I was 15. That said, I've always found Mordred interesting and felt hegot a bum rap. It wasn't his fault how he was conceived or how hewas treated as a child....I mean we are talking serious unhealed trauma,adolescent angst, and major Daddy and Mommy issues here!! Any...

I checked this out because I often like Vande Velde's books, and I hoped she could come up with a new twist on this tale--you know, make it readable and everything. Nope, no such luck. If anything, her version is even more depressing than the Mort d'Arthur, which is saying something. Give it a miss. If you want to feel depressed after a violent book, read War and Peace. The writing is better.

Hooray another book about Mordred... or so you'd think. Let's get right to it, shall we?The main monster in this book is the lack of character development on Mordred's part. You'd think the gals would get into some intimate relationship with him, but then, there's nothing. You've fallen into a pit trap. His descriptions are mainly based on what the girls say about him. His actions are basically those of the average, introverted man. He's just a girl's fantasy. Actually, three girls' fantasy.All

I finished "The Book of Mordred" by Vivian Valde and now I have all these conflicting feelings. If I should give it a vote I would give it 4/5 or 3.8/5 just for the ending because even if I liked most of it I didn't like the very ending.And now, spoilers.(view spoiler)[I started this book knowing it had two OC and that many people didn't like the last part with the last point of view. I'll start with what I loved which is a lot, actually. I liked the fact that even if the book should be about Mo...

First of all, let me declare that I will read (and probably enjoy) almost anything related to the Arthurian legend.We learn about Mordred through the eyes of 3 women, Alayna, Nimue, and Kiera, and the story is told in three parts over time, each focusing on one of the women. Only Nimue was familiar to me from the tradition Camelot story. Alayna, a young widow, is befriended by Mordred while rescuing her daughter, Kiera. They supposedly have a deep and lasting love between them, although the stor...

So when I picked up this book, I was thinking that we were going to get a retelling of Mordred where he was not as evil as the original story. There was certainly an attempt at this, but I think it fell short. The reader sees Mordred through three different women. In the first two sections, the women have just met him, and they end abruptly. Basically I found myself not really caring about Mordred because I was merely shown the same cold, calculating side of him repeatedly. Mordred is not portra...

The book of mordred is a great book there are three main characters there a bunch of action its about a girl named alayna and while she is making bread three knights bust into her house and take her daughter Alayna travels through the woods all the way to camlot she talks to the king so she can

This book wasn't great. It was fine, but it wasn't that intriguing to me, and I don't think it was written very well. There were a few typos throughout, and the dialogue and descriptions were not very compelling to me. But, I picked it up because it was $0.50 to buy from the library, and I enjoyed watching the BBC show "Merlin" and wanted to see how the character of Mordred differed between the two. It was interesting because although both stories are rooted in Arthurian legend, they had some cr...

Everyone knows Mordred is King Arhtur's illegitimate son, destined to destroy his father's kingdom and bring the golden age of Camelot to its knees. Or is he? Several modern authors have re-examined the life of Mordred in a more sympathetic light, and the latest of these is THE BOOK OF MORDRED by Vivian Vande Velde. In Velde's work we get to know Mordred primarily through his interraction with three women named Alayna, Nimue, and Kiera. Arthurian readers will already be familiar with Nimue, thou...

It was a good read. I enjoyed following Mordred through his 3 different quests that led up to the climax. I liked how each of the women involved in each of the quests fates were all intertwined with Mordred and the fate of Camelot.Though it had all the qualities of a medieval that we all want in a tale of knights and the round table, I wished to have more character development from Mordred. Because it was never told from his point of view, only from the 3 ladies, we never got the insight of Mord...

4/5 Stars.It had a plot that revolved around Mordred. The main parts of the book were about hunting some wizard that wanted to steal Keira's power. The book mostly focused on that. While the book mentioned some romance between Mordred, Nimue and Alayna, I felt that it could have been developed further. It did take some effort to read, mainly because I felt that part 2 was a repeat of part 1, from the perspective of a different character. The last part, which focuses on the fall of Camelot was a

This book reminds me of what I would pick up as a middle schooler in terms of writing style. Content, however, is what high school me would have stayed for. Very rarely have I ever found myself enthralled by the mythology of the round table, but Velde manages to draw me in and keep my entertained. What I enjoyed most about this book was the varying perspectives and the time spent trying to figure out Mordred's character. The author managed to make me wish I could be a lady at King Arthur's court...

I read this book years ago in middle school and absolutely loved it. It's sat on my bookshelf since then and I just revisited it. It doesn't hold the same charm it held then... I would definitely still recommend it to young fans of magic and medieval, but the story didn't hold enough fullness for me. The characters weren't as rich as I remembered, the plot not nearly as well-woven. The romance was consistently hinted at, but not brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Perhaps I've just grown up to...

Parts one and two were the best. In part three, motives became muddled and the main character was connected weakly to the main plot. I cared most about the characters in part one. Throughout the whole book, Mordred would have been more likeable if less time had been spent setting him up as attractive and mysterious. That said, I liked his introduction, and his character was interesting.The setting and atmosphere could have been stronger, but the attention given to minor characters was interestin...

I loved the writing style if this! It reminded me a lot of Robin Hood. I guess they both have that same sort of care free but serious children's book. And as the story progresses it gets decidedly less carefree. I loved this other look at the Arthurian legend, this time coming from Mordred's side of things. I suppose they did this in Merlin as well. I really liked Kiera's character. She was the right mix of the timidness a young woman/girl who I think is realistic for her time and her instincanc...

I have read numerous versions of Camelot. Several mention the snake causing the final battle, and that Mordred wasn't truly evil. This novel focuses on Keira, a young girl with a touch of magic that spends time with the Arthur and Mordred clans.There is an abundance of time, character, and location jumps in the novel that often left me trying to figure out what was going on where and when. It's an interesting viewpoint; I think a longer novel with more background might have been a better option....

Personally, I was excited when I picked up the book because I love Camelot stories and in that regard, it did not disappoint—it had all of the elements a King Arthur-era story could want. But I thought the writing style was difficult to understand, the story was slow, and the plot was boring. I struggled to stay interested throughout the story—not to mention the bland characters and predictability of just about every element. Not one of my favorites.

This book was interesting but the divide of having three separate books in one made this feel a little choppy to me. I had a hard time connecting to the characters which is very important for me. I also felt that since this book was about Mordred I would learn more about him. Unfortunately, I don't feel any new connection with him or that I came away with much more knowledge about him.

For a volume called "The Book of Mordred," there is remarkably little Mordred. Just three women, two of whom are original to this author, and all we hear about is their forebodings and desperation...of which we feel none, because I, at least, was already asleep. As an Arthur and Mordred fan, I was deeply disappointed.

The essay is really good.

One of two books I've ever read more than once. An interesting portrait of a character often overlooked.

More of a narrative than a story (meaning that it felt as though events were observed and transcribed, but that it didn't BUILD to something, you know?)

It doesnt stack up to Vande Velde's other work. It feels unfinished. Good ingredients, not put together well.

Ah, yes. The Book of Mordred. I still have this book, and I'm actually surprised by that. I thought for sure I'd have gotten rid of it by now. Not because it was bad; it wasn't bad by any means. But it wasn't impressive either. It was very middle of the road. And that was VERY disappointing, especially in hindsight. So why, then, did it still get three stars? Because I think I forced myself to like it more. Told myself it was much better than it was. And why the hell did I do that? Because I was...

*spoilers* I usually really enjoy Velde's books, and I love Arthurian legend, so I thought I'd like this one. It is supposed to uncover the background story of Mordred, which was never revealed by Sir Thomas Malory in his book Le Morte D'Arthur. The book is split into three parts, one told by Merlin's lover Nimue and the other two by the random characters Alayna and her daughter Kiera, the latter of whom has inherited magical ability from her late father. The first section started out promisingl...

CAN I JUST SAY HOW MUCH I EFFIN' LOVE THIS BOOK?Mordred has to be, by far, my favourite character from Camelot. He's characterised as the baddie, the knight who's really more of a joke to everyone else. And eesh, he's amazing. xD I'm not quite sure why, however. Maybe it's the fact that he's destined to overthrow Arthur's perfect kingdom. Maybe it's the interesting fact that he's a result of incest between Arthur and Morgaine -- And yes, I believe it is Morgaine, not Morgause, as people seem to

Cover: I’ve admired this cover for a long time. The illustration is beautiful, and while I don’t always like faces on my covers (I am of the type who like to picture the characters for myself), these ones really worked. The front cover goes perfectly with the book and I feel it captured the characters and mood well. (I believe it is Mordred and Keira on the front cover.) Characters: I knew most of the characters in this book already, as I enjoy reading Arthurian stories. Vivian kept true to the...

Read the full review at Pica Reads.... I really did not like this book at all, and I thought it deserved mention just to say how much I disliked it. (Also, I have just been reading a lot of Vivian Vande Velde recently.) The story itself is about Mordred, the illegitimate son of King Arthur. The book is split into three sections, each told by a different person. One of the things I didn't like about the book is how disjointed and separate each of the sections seemed. They all sort of came togethe...

I'm usually a big fan of Velde's writing, and I'm always a huge fan of telling the story from the loser's perspective. Velde telling the story of Mordred? How could it be any less than awesome?Unfortunately, Velde's trademark dialogue, writing style, and (maybe most importantly) brevity are completely lacking from The Book of Mordred. It's not even about Mordred. As one reviewer wrote, it might as well have been called The Book of Halbert for how much time Halbert got in the spotlight. The book