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Oct. 13th, 2018 11:52 amI forgot how short these Elizabeth Wein Lion Hunters books are! I zoomed through A Coalition of Lions and The Sunbird, the first two sequels to The Winter Prince, on my last trip out of town. In these books, Elizabeth Wein decides that she is bored of Arthuriana and picks up and moves 100% of the action over to the kingdom of Aksum, in Ethiopia. A Coalition of Lions focuses on Medraut and Lleu's sister Goewin, a character who has no analogues in any existing Arthuriana; The Sunbird follows Medraut's eleven-year-old Aksumite son Telemakos.
From my booklog at the time it seems I was not super impressed with A Coalition of Lions ten years ago but I find myself fonder of it now, in part because I appreciate more the change of pace from The Winter Prince -- The Winter Prince is SO DRAMATIC, ALL THE TIME and it's somewhat endearing how little actual plot A Coalition of Lions contains. Goewin goes to Aksum to meet her betrothed, has some doubts about his character, then spends the rest of the book wandering through the Aksumite court learning about local culture and politics until everyone can come to an agreeable negotiated solution. How pleasant!
I still find it wildly hilarious that ( spoilers )
That said, I still think Wein does Goewin better service writing her from the outside than from within; she's great as Spymaster Aunt in The Sunbird, which focuses on Telemakos' very first adventures as a child spy during a plague quarantine. I mean, everyone judges her for sending Telemakos into situations that are significantly too dangerous for an eleven-year-old, AND THEY ARE CORRECT, THAT WAS A BAD IDEA AND SHE SHOULD FEEL BAD, but, like, I know it, she knows it, we all know it, and her bad choices are really interesting choices, even if they occasionally lead to scenes in which Telemakos' entire family has an incredibly public sobbing fit while the emperor of Aksum looks deeply uncomfortable and eventually asks them to leave.
As I did ten years ago, I still love Goewin attempting to explain The Winter Prince to Telemakos, with a sense of mild embarrassment. Haven't we all had that overwrought stage of teenagerhood where we had uncomfortable sexual tension with our siblings and then tried to murder them? Ah, youth!
From my booklog at the time it seems I was not super impressed with A Coalition of Lions ten years ago but I find myself fonder of it now, in part because I appreciate more the change of pace from The Winter Prince -- The Winter Prince is SO DRAMATIC, ALL THE TIME and it's somewhat endearing how little actual plot A Coalition of Lions contains. Goewin goes to Aksum to meet her betrothed, has some doubts about his character, then spends the rest of the book wandering through the Aksumite court learning about local culture and politics until everyone can come to an agreeable negotiated solution. How pleasant!
I still find it wildly hilarious that ( spoilers )
That said, I still think Wein does Goewin better service writing her from the outside than from within; she's great as Spymaster Aunt in The Sunbird, which focuses on Telemakos' very first adventures as a child spy during a plague quarantine. I mean, everyone judges her for sending Telemakos into situations that are significantly too dangerous for an eleven-year-old, AND THEY ARE CORRECT, THAT WAS A BAD IDEA AND SHE SHOULD FEEL BAD, but, like, I know it, she knows it, we all know it, and her bad choices are really interesting choices, even if they occasionally lead to scenes in which Telemakos' entire family has an incredibly public sobbing fit while the emperor of Aksum looks deeply uncomfortable and eventually asks them to leave.
As I did ten years ago, I still love Goewin attempting to explain The Winter Prince to Telemakos, with a sense of mild embarrassment. Haven't we all had that overwrought stage of teenagerhood where we had uncomfortable sexual tension with our siblings and then tried to murder them? Ah, youth!
