Books like 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. Characters become multifaceted individuals, not just prototypes. We find Mordred living in the seclusion of the Orkney Islands. Raised by peasant foster parents, he can’t help but feel the pull of another and better life than the one he lives, albeit a happy and peaceful one. We see him as a young boy with hopes and dreams like any other - not some intractable youngster that grows to become the willfully wicked adult Mordred of my own recollections. When Mordred unknowingly happens upon Gawain, son of Morgause and King Lot, the tides will turn and Mordred’s life will change forever. It is not just one man’s ambitions and one man’s misunderstandings that mold the future of a kingdom. Nor is it in the hands of the gods themselves. Stewart’s characters are so well drawn and each of them plays a role in the culmination of that wicked day. From the venomous Morgause, to the hotheaded Gawain, to the inveterate Arthur, to the aspiring Mordred, and to the old prophecies foretold by Merlin – all these linked together along with unrest in the far-reaching British lands will come together to decide the fate of the High Kingdom.While I missed dropping in on Merlin, I still thoroughly enjoyed the retelling of this legend. I would venture to say that this series is an all-time favorite and one which I know I will revisit again. Stewart weaves a story that is so full of life, rich with historical detail, and remarkably vibrant. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5."Fate is made by men, not gods. Our own follies, not the gods, foredoom us. The gods are spirits; they work by men’s hands, and there are men who are brave enough to stand up and say: ‘I am a man; I will not.’"