Wonderful concept, poor execution

books:


	• The Night Dance (Once Upon a Time) Suzanne Weyn Simon Pulse, 2005 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn

I really enjoyed this fairy tale combination. I had always liked the tale of the 12 Dancing Princesses but always found them a bit lacking. Why does the father lock them up in their room every night? Why doesn't the father just separate the daughters into different rooms? Why does the father hire strangers to find out what his daughters are doing? Can't he watch over them himself? Why do the daughters feel compelled to go out dancing every night and ruin their slippers? Aren't they tired???

By mixing the fairytale with Arthurian legend Weyn has a way to answer most of those questions. The girl's mother is the Lady of the Lake and is captured and imprisoned by Morgan LaFaye. The girl's father, wild with grief at losing his wife builds a great wall around their home to keep his daughters from getting lost and never coming back in the same way. The youngest daughter, Rowena has inherited some of her mother's magical skill and is desperate to try to get out of the prison of her home. One day she stumbles into Bedivere, the last knight of the Round Table and the bearer of the legendary sword Excalibur. King Arthur entrusted Bedivere with the sword and the mission to return it to the Enchanted Lake and the lady that lives there. Bedivere and Rowena fall instantly in love.

The sisters are eager to escape in the same way Rowena did but their father discovered her exit route and blocked it off. Instead the girls escape into tunnels and caves under their home and discover a lake deep underground. Unbeknownst to them that lake is where their mother is imprisoned. In an effort to distract the girls, Morgan LaFaye weaves a spell that changes their nightclothes into fine ballgowns and for barges to take the girls to a magical island on the lake where they can eat, drink and dance all night long. When they come home in the morning their slippers are ruined and their father is upset at them have left without his knowledge and the fact that he has to foot the bill (pun intended) for their ruined slippers.

Rowena is upset that she can't get back to Bedivere and she suspects her mother is captive beneath the lake but each time she goes down to the caves she is drawn off in the barges and forgets about her intention to search the lake. Finally the girl's father calls for his infamous contest of wits to see which man can figure out how his daughters are getting out every night and in return win one of their hand's in marriage. Luckily Bedivere manages to snag the card that shows he is the suitor for the second night of the trial (or the book might have gone on for far too long) and is able to help set the Lady of the Lake free, return Excalibur to her and win fair lady Rowena's hand and heart.

It's a charming retelling even if it does have a few flaws. As some other reviewers have noted the character development is a little lacking - only two of the sisters have any real role to play and the others are basically about as animated as store manniquins. We don't really get to see much of anyone's reasoning for anything although much of it is implied. On the whole it's not as good as some of the other stories from Weyn but it definitely is worth a quick read.

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Wonderful concept, poor execution

The concept of this book is brilliant: a melding of the fairy tale `The twelve dancing princesses' with some of the legends about the death of King Arthur. Unfortunately, Ms. Weyn's writing skills were not up to the task she set herself. Her prose is consistently stilted and overly ornate with such sentences as: "Rowena still sympathized with the trapped restlessness she knew her sister felt." and "There was a murmur of approval as this seemed like a fun enterprise."

Once I started reading, the story was compelling enough to pull me through. So, if you are willing to endure less than perfect writing for a good story, by all means read this book. If, however, you are like me and would be pained every time you read a sentence like the above, I advise you to skip this one and read `The twelve dancing princesses' by Robin McKinley.

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A Fairy Tale explained

Night Dance is an interesting tale of the 12 Dancing Princesses combined with the legend of King Arthur. It takes on the more modern version of the fairy tale with the one armed soldier ending up with the princess, but the tale itself becomes more explained. It gives a reason why the father locked up the daughters and how the island came to be, though the ending seems a little rushed. It better develops the personalities of the princesses and shows why the knight picked the youngest, plus having more action and magic. Besides the ending, the only corny part was when the island was created, but it least is explained throughly and for what reason. If you enjoy this series or fairy tales, this is a must read.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Under the stars, in a secret world...

Rowena, the youngest of twelve sisters, loves to slip out of the castle at night and dance in a magical forest. Soon she convinces her sisters to join her. When Sir Ethan notices that his daughters' slippers look tattered every morning, he is certain they've been sneaking out. So he posts a challenge to all the suitors in the kingdom: The first man to discover where his daughters have been is free to marry the one he chooses.

Meanwhile a handsome young knight named Bedivere is involved in a challenge of his own: to return the powerful sword, Excalibur, to a mysterious lake. While looking for the lake, Bedivere meets the beautiful Rowena and falls for her. Bedivere knows that accepting Sir Ethan's challenge is the only opportunity for him to be with Rowena forever. But this puts both Bedivere and Rowena in a dangerous situation...one in which they risk their lives for a chance at love.

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