I honestly don’t know. I don’t know if it’s because I’m still hung up on Marrow Charm or if these books just haven’t been for me, or if they’ve just been not good books. But Cursed by Frank Miller and Thomas Wheeler wasn’t my cup of tea. My goal for this week wasn’t to DNF two books in a row, and my goal wasn’t to post reviews about them either…at least not DNF reviews.
Title: Cursed
Author(s): Frank Miller & Thomas Wheeler
Pub. Date: October 1, 2019
Rating: DNF at page 50
The Lady of the Lake is the true hero in this cinematic twist on the tale of King Arthur created by Thomas Wheeler and legendary artist, producer, and director Frank Miller (300, Batman: The Dark Night Returns, Sin City). Featuring 8 full color and 30 black-and-white pieces of original artwork by Frank Miller.
Whosoever wields the Sword of Power shall be the one true King.
But what if the Sword has chosen a Queen?
Nimue grew up an outcast. Her connection to dark magic made her something to be feared in her Druid village, and that made her desperate to leave…
That is, until her entire village is slaughtered by Red Paladins, and Nimue’s fate is forever altered. Charged by her dying mother to reunite an ancient sword with a legendary sorcerer, Nimue is now her people’s only hope. Her mission leaves little room for revenge, but the growing power within her can think of little else.
Nimue teams up with a charming mercenary named Arthur and refugee Fey Folk from across England. She wields a sword meant for the one true king, battling paladins and the armies of a corrupt king. She struggles to unite her people, avenge her family, and discover the truth about her destiny.
But perhaps the one thing that can change Destiny itself is found at the edge of a blade.
This will be a very brief, spoiler free review.
I DNF’d this one early, fifty pages in and I wasn’t interested in the slightest. I wasn’t a fan of the artwork and found I highly distracting. I was excited for this going in, but it just doesn’t work. After reading a couple of reviews (something I rarely do before finishing but wanted to know if it was worth slogging through it) I gather that Thomas Wheeler is a screen writer and this book probably would have been much better in script form.
It’ll be interesting to see this adapted for Netflix, where I think it will probably thrive.
I didn’t feel any connection with Nimue and didn’t care about her journey – albeit I only read a small portion of it. Nothing in the first 50 pages hooked me enough to make me want to continue reading. I went in thinking that this was a gender bent King Arthur – it’s not, not really and that’s kind of disappointing and a common thread I’ve seen in YA recently. Market it as one thing, only for that story to not be reflected in the actual book. It sets readers up to have certain expectations and then they are not met and it’s highly annoying.
Anyways, this book wasn’t for me – I’ll watch the show when it hits Netflix (if it hits Netflix). I like the idea of art in the books, on the pages. I think it’s a really cool idea, and I’m totally on board. But maybe something a little less stylized. (Not knocking the artist, just not my style).
As far as Arthurian Legend retellings, I’ll keep my eyes on The Guinevere Deception and hopefully that one works out better for me.
Let me know if you read this and thought it was worthwhile to finish. I can’t promise I ever will, but maybe.
