The Du Lac Chronicles

The Du Lac Chronicles by Mary Anne Yarde
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a YA historical novel, based on the legends of King Arthur. I was very excited to read this book, because I love the "dark ages" time period of England, and enjoy reading about historical applications of Arthurian legend. Romance between the hero and heroine also added to the book.
It is easy to see that the author thoroughly researched and history and legend in order to write this novel. One can look up various characters or historical incidents in the book and learn more about the history of England after Rome left the island and during the Saxon invasions. Based on that, I thought this book is definitely worth reading.
The characterization, however, could use some work. The heroine, Annis, really came across as one-dimensional. Aside from being very brave in the first few pages to rescue Alden, the boy she has loved from afar for years, Annis and her actions appear weak and pathetic. She cries, cowers, and drags Alden down--both physically and figuratively. More than once when seemingly on the verge of death, she thinks to herself, "Well, I'll just look at Alden's face. Knowing he is the last thing I see will make death palatable." Her attitude becomes very annoying. She does develop a back bone in the later fourth of the book, but then it just seems to vanish again after a chapter or so.
I also had a problem with one of the main conflicts of the book: Alden's friends and family couldn't seem to accept Annis because she was "the daughter of the enemy." Everyone despised her and actively sought to hurt her, or send her back to her father. This just did not ring true to me. I feel as though it would have been much more realistic for everyone to have been excited that they had something that Alden's enemy would have found valuable, and use that as a bargaining chip or a way to "show up" Cerdic, Annis' father. They should have seen it as a victory that they had won over him--a way to show their power over him and make him look weak. Then the conflict could have arisen from whether or not anyone believed Annis could really be trusted as she became closer to Alden, not from the simple fact of who her father happened to be.
I also felt the last big major conflict at the end of the novel was not resolved well. It seemed to be "solved" (which may even be too strong a word) much too easily and almost left the reader hanging or wondering if something had been missed. It was very anti-climactic. I wasn't sure why certain people were mad at other people, or who had committed crimes in the past, or why it was just "over." One other big issue I had with the book was how the POV and the timeline switched so often and abruptly. At the very beginning of the book, the point of view switched between 3 characters in about a page and a half. I had to stop and reread, which took me out of the action of the book. Also many things happened in flashbacks which just seemed too long and stuck in awkward places. With a little tweaking this could be fixed to make everything flow much better. If Annis was a stronger character, certain conflicts were more organic and less forced, and POV and timeline issues were resolved, this would be a fantastic book. As it is, the history of the book is very good and worth reading for that alone. I would say it is appropriate for older teenagers.


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