#fyo reads grave mercy

[skeleton-richard]

I think I'd like this book more if it used actual Breton mythology/folklore rather than this made-up old god stuff. And if the narrator wasn't a little bitch.

[skeleton-richard]

hello! just saw your his fair assassin/grave mercy post pop up on my dash, and i wanted to let u know (as a fan of the book/fan of celtic mythology that has researched brittany lots) that lafevers couldn't use actual breton/celtic mythology because there are absolutely no sources on Brittany + few on Celtic gods/lore that are reliable, however, most of the saints/gods (such as Camulos + Brigantia) are actual known Celtic gods/goddesses! have a nice day xx

Hi! Sorry if I sounded insulting toward it! It's just really frustrating me with some things and I want to like it but it's just... Maybe part of my problem is I don't really like fantasy? I'm reading it because it has Anne of Brittany in it and she's one of my favorite historical figures.

I know that there isn't much in the way of reliable sources for a lot of Celtic mythology, what I've seen largely comes from, like, 19th century collections and we all know how those are always 100% accurate and authentic (sarcasm). I'd have to look back at the parts that mention the other gods earlier in the book and see what matches up with Celtic mythology (which I admit I know very little about), I may have missed something. It just feels really weird because the lack of detail makes it feel like it's not actually Brittany, just some generic medieval fantasy world. Like even if it used the folklore that's recorded, even if it doesn't actually date back to the late 15th century or earlier, it would feel more real. It doesn't feel like it has much reason to be Brittany, at least as far as i am (halfway through the first book) for all they bring up the Mad War. Idk. I don't study Brittany exclusively (my period is the earlier part of the century in France, my main research topic turns out to be weirdly adjacent to Anne and that's how I got here) so as I said maybe I'm missing something someone more familiar with Brittany would catch.

Does the series get better as it progresses? Right now it's kind of generic and it's not really holding my attention except I wish the worldbuilding was more fleshed out, it's an interesting concept but I don't like being given just pieces of it at a time. And I wish it didn't have all the tropes of historical fiction in it :/

Do you speak French? If you do, you might like Anne de Bretagne: Intrigues au Château by Cédric Tchao, it's a graphic novel biography of Anne of Brittany and involves a korrigan taking a modern kid back to the 15th century! Sadly it's not been translated into English. But if you like Brittany and fantasy and can read French I'd recommend it!

[skeleton-richard]

EXCUSE ME?

They're talking about Alain d'Albret, who as far as I can tell was only married once?

(Alain d'Albret was a French noble who sided with Brittany during the Mad War and wanted to marry Anne of Brittany. He was the great-grandson of Charles d'Albret, the Constable at Agincourt)

[skeleton-richard]

"Do not forget that she also is married to a d'Albret. She knows only too well what marrying into that family entails."

What does this author have against the d'Albret family??????

I think I'd like this book more if it used actual Breton mythology/folklore rather than this made-up old god stuff. And if the narrator wasn't a little bitch.