Lesbians And Gays Of The Past #9: Book Review of Queen’s Champion; The Legend Of Lancelot Retold by Cris Newport
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The mystery book review is finally here! I’ll have to start this review with a sort of spoiler warning I suppose. Even though it is hinted throughout most of the novel, the fact that Lancelot is actually a woman disguising herself as a man is only truly revealed at the very end. But in my opinion that doesn’t take away from the beauty of this story. I went into it already knowing Lancelot was a woman and if anything I think it just added to the beauty of everything.
Many of you probably know at least a little bit about the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Cris Newport does an exceedingly excellent job of melding the cannon of Arthurian Romance while putting her own twists and backgrounds into these characters. One aspect I truly enjoyed about this novel was that a few of the knights as well as Queen Guinever where actually raised together. It was so fascinating seeing these well known characters interact as young teenagers with them and was one of my favourite parts of this book.
For those who are unfamiliar with the myth, Lancelot was a knight of King Arthur and had an affair with his wife Guinevere, and many later interpretations of this have writings stating this affair to be the catalyst of the fall of Camelot. This novel is not one of them. Cris Newport goes back to the roots of Lancelot’s and Guinevere’s relationship and portrays it as the beautiful and tragic courtly love that it originally was portrayed as. For most of the novel,despite King Arthur being portrayed as a cruel husband, Guinevere and Lancelot don’t have a physical relationship, they just deeply love each other. Some people may not like romance stories where for most of the novel the most scandalous thing the couple does is touch hands, but I personally feel Cris Newport did a wonderful job of showing how deep their love was that I never felt I was missing out on anything.
The author states at the start of the novel that she took a lot of inspiration from works such as The Iliad with how she wrote it,and that certainly comes through. Which was just another aspect of the book I loved. It almost felt like I was reading a very old lesbian text at times which filled me with much joy.
Both Lancelot and Guinevere are wonderful female characters in my opinion as well. They were both so kind but strong at the same time. Their communication, intelligence, drive and love was awe inspiring to read. To see Lancelot be the best knight and fighter in the region and knowing she is a actually a woman was something that was amazing to see as well. There is one scene where she interacts with a young woman who wants to be a knight to, and in a round about way admits to also being a lesbian, and or was beautiful executed and just seemed to illustrate the relationship between older and younger lesbians so well.
This novel isn’t overly long but it has a pace to it that can make it feel as though it is. While this novel definitely won’t be for everyone , I still recommend giving it a read. I feel if you like classic literature or lesbian chivalry this would be the perfect novel for you as it blends both aspects together so well.
I also have to add, a bit of prior knowledge of the Arthurian Romamces is neeeded I think to fully understand and enjoy this book. It would involve a few spoilers, but if you aren’t already familiar with these characters and the basic cannon of the story I would really suggest checking out Overly Sarcastic Productions on YouTube. Their channel has two videos around King Arthur and it should catch you up enough so you aren’t completely confused.
Trigger Warnings: Mentions of r*pe, sexism, graphic depictions of violence
Spoilers: HEA for the couple