The Legend of Lady Ilena -- Patricia Malone, 2002 (read 21-24 June 2007)

I have a lot of different favorite kinds of books. The Legend of Lady Ilena is several of them!

• Believable historical fiction: Well, Ilena is completely fictional; we have no evidence that anyone like her existed. It was a stroke of genius, in my opinion, to situate her lightly in Arthurian times, a setting where it's easy for modern readers to suspend disbelief. I'm easily annoyed by implausible details in historical fiction, so I really appreciate books that suck me into the past without making me stub my toes on what a normal person would consider minor errors. Of course, any writer of historical fiction has to make a lot of things up; what matters to me is that the fiction harmonize well with what we do know. Ilena is strong and smart and very much of her own time.
  
  
• Strong women who really fit into the stories being told about them: See the last sentence above. It helps, as I said, that we don't know too much about sixth-century Britain, and it probably helps me that so much of what I do know is colored by all the historical fiction I read growing up. I also have a decided weakness for lady knights -- not the easiest characters to write into real history! Whatever their story, it's always a great pleasure for me to read characters I both like and believe in.
  
  
• Traditional stories re-explained: Malone has managed (against the odds!) to contribute something really new to the masses of historical fiction set in Arthur's time. She's done it in part by avoiding Arthur himself, leaving him a vague, faraway presence, but she's done it well.
  
  
• Just plain good writing: This is one of my basic litmus tests, of course. To really love a book, I have to enjoy its prose and its characters and the world it creates. It certainly helps if there are lines that makes me grin both with humor and with revelation. I don't know if Malone is the first one to have this insight, but I loved her idea that the unearthly barking of Hearn's Hounds (the ghostly hunt at Halloween-time -- you might remember it from The Dark Is Rising) might be the same sound as the honking of migrating geese.
  

I just love literary craftsmanship of all kinds.

I'm looking forward to checking out Malone's second Lady Ilena book; the Amazon reviews suggest that it won't be disappointing.