Title: Interesting, but a bit disappointing after its prequel, Firelord
Product review: In Firelord, Arthur tells his story from his deathbead, while in Beloved Exile Guinevere tells her surprising story of the next forty years. In Beloved Exile, more so than in Firelord, Godwin's imagination is free to run. The result is interesting, but with less of the high drama of Firelord.In both novels Godwin explores the difference between British and Saxon societies: the former being aristocratic, kin-based, honour-bound, poetic and chivalric; the latter much more democratic, land-based, law-bound, prosaic and pedestrian. These are stereotypes, for sure, but it gives the novels a sense that something is at stake in the struggle between the two societies.Godwin's portrait of Guenevere as a woman of power is compelling. Her power comes from her intelligence, pragmatism, and royal birth (unlike in lesser novels where she is often portrayed as a warrior-princess, or mystical priestess, or girl-next-door).
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