Jennifer Povey is a long-time friend of mine, who’s been publishing for a dozen years or more. Recently, I picked up a recent novel of her, The Lay Of Lady Percival.
Yes, that Percival. Of the Round Table. She’s taken on what some people refer to as the Matter of Britain, Arthur… and she does it very, very well. Too many books have been written that, as she put it, are just straight fantasy, names and events *very* loosely reused, the rest of the serial numbers filed off.
Not this. She deals with it all head on: it’s semi-historical, although magic works (no fireballs, no Tensor’s floating disk, etc). This is Arthur, the Duc Bellorum, the brilliant leader and fighter who is terrible with personal relationships. Povey digs into the other conquest, of Pagan Romanized Britain by Christianity, and the bad side of both.
The characters are all well-drawn, and I will vouch for her use of actual myth*. It took me a little to get into it, but by the second or third chapter, I didn’t want to stop. This is not a takeoff on Tolkien, nor is it handled wrong. This is not Mists of Avalon, with its self-indulgence and preachiness. It’s far closer to Sutcliff’s Swords of Sunset. And it’s *brilliant*.
Go buy it.
Two things I forgot to mention: first, she’s a British ex-pat, so she actually knows the landscapes that the events take place in. Second, she rides, so the horsemanship (and the mules) are not fantasy.