“Queen of the Summer Stars” is the sequel to “Child of the Northern Spring,” reviewed here. Guinevere has now been married to King Arthur for a couple of years, and life at court is sweet to her. Her reservations about the union long gone, she loves her husband, but he doesn’t seem to share her emotions. He treats her as a friend and an ally, but he has never said he loves her. She badly wants to hear those words.
Also causing her concern is the fact that she’s not yet pregnant. She wants to give Arthur an heir, but as the months and then years pass by, she wonders if she ever will be able to give birth. She wishes she could ask Merlin for advice, but he left long ago and has not returned.
A new champion joins Arthur’s court, by the name of Lancelot. He’s handsome and dashing, but cannot seem to treat Gwen with anything but contempt. When Gwen is accused of attempting to poison the king, Lancelot is assigned to be her champion in a battle to prove her innocence, and when he comes out the winner, he apologizes to Gwen for ever doubting her. He quickly becomes her friend, and they, together with Arthur, work to build a better Britain.
Meanwhile, Arthur’s sister Morgan has something up her sleeve. Gwen has never trusted Morgan, but her words fall on Arthur’s deaf ears. When Morgan is proved to be a traitor, Arthur is crushed, and commands her to be banished from his presence, along with his other sister, Morgause.
Gwen has no idea why Morgause has been banished. Whatever it was happened long before she came to be Arthur’s wife. When she does find out, she’s nearly destroyed.
Just as I cautioned you with “Child of the Northern Spring,” these books are earthy. Procreation and things of that nature were much more openly discussed in medieval times than now. In fact, I would encourage you to skip pages 34, 43, 51, 98, 239 to the middle of 241, 339, and the bottom half of page 382, if you’re concerned about content.
I recommend this book with these cautions because I believe the story is well told and highly interesting, and well worth skipping over a few parts to get to the meat of the story. It’s intriguing to me how the story of King Arthur is being told through Guinevere’s eyes, a perspective we don’t often get.
(This book was published in 1990 by Simon and Schuster.)
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