The Recruit by Debra A. Kemp

The day one of the Pendragon's equites recognize her, Lin is freed from her torturous life as a slave. But when her newly found father goes off and leaves her with her cold and unloving mother, expected to bend her will to that of the court and the life of a royal woman, Lin wonders if she hasn't fallen into a different sort of slavery. As she could never stand down when she faced Mordred, Lin cannot and will not change herself now. she must follow her heart, and it is not in sewing and arranged marriage. She longs for freedom, the kind she would have were she born a man. But does she ask too much of her father? And could she make it in the life she thinks she wants?

The Recruit is the sequel to The Firebrand. The readers return to Lin's epic tale of her childhood and life, as she recounts to her family the past she has covered up for years. 

I still am not a big fan of the way Kemp book-ends the story, beginning and ending it with Lin as an adult and after the fact of everything. My full rant about that can be found here in a previous review. I will say for this second book it was much smoother than the first one. I was grabbed in right away by the story and finished it quickly. Some of this I can account to knowing where and what was going on in the beginning before the real story got started. In the first book I was just lost and as a reader I was doing a lot of 'help! where am I?' until the story finally got started, especially with the triple beginning (Lin after battle, Lin older with children, and then finally FINALLY Lin as a child with the proper beginning of the tale). In this novel however it starts right where the last one left off so I was on solid ground as a reader. When the story launched in fully I was geared up for the ride. 

In retrospect, I suppose one could say that the way the story is set up mimics how stories were told back then: through oration to a group.

For all my issues with the set up of The Firebrand, I was still interested in its sequel and i was not disappointed. I really like Lin's character and I like the theme of her story. She is so firey and she will never back down. For being modeled after Arthurian lore, the story is rather feminist in the respect of Lin and her need to do what her heart pleas for, even is that means donning pants and fighting. I also really like the twist Kemp did in making this story. The series is worth the read, especially for The Recruit. I hope to read another book in the series and finish Lin's story. However it has been about 7 years since this last book's publication so I'm not sure I should be holding my breath. 

The Firebrand by Debra A. Kemp

I rate this novel 3 out of 5

Lin was born a slave, one among many of Dunn na Carraice. But from the moment she came to understand her position in life she knows she must fight it. when she catches the eye of the sadistic Prince Mordred, the youngest Prince of Orkney, he becomes hell bent on seeing her spirit broken and her already desperate life becomes a daily test of courage and strength as the young Lin is put through what no person ever should. She thinks she would rather die than give in, but as the threat of her brother being sold looms over her, she questions all her choices. Is her pride really worth the life of her brother? But a shocking revelation throws everything into a new perspective and Lin finally realizes why she had to fight all along.

This is the first novel in The House of Pendragon series. If it were not for the set up of this story I think I would have rated it as a 4 at least. As it was I think the book-end narration type was a real hindrance to the story. The novel begins with a grown up Lin in a battle that is vaguely talked about and really confusing for a reader who doesn't have any idea what is going on in the story yet. Then it skips ahead a number of years, explaining a bit more background as it goes, before finally getting to Lin telling her young son the story of her childhood as a slave. This brings us to the entire bulk of the story, which we remain in as readers until the very end where it again reverts back to the older story telling Lin.

I think the way the novel was set up was awkward and a disadvantage to the story. I know that as a reader, I nearly stopped reading it several times within the first part before it got to the real story. What's more, with the beginning the way it is, it basically gives away the entire surprise plot point of the ending. It's like telling the end of the story first. I'm not sure if Kemp felt that the real story couldn't stand alone and so she did it this way to give the story more structure and plot, however I found it disappointing. There was nothing I didn't know about how it was going to end and that was a major flaw in the story arc.

I personally think the story could stand on it's own. There was a little stiffness to the narration at first, and I don't quite believe in Kemp's version of how a six year old would think, but it smoothed out as the narration continued and Lin got older.

One last flaw of the set up that bothered me is, with her re-accounting her story, she produces full memory with complete narration. It stretched the believablity of her story telling. How could someone remember so much, so fully, so many years after the fact? Unless they had intense and frankly terrifying memory capabilities, they couldn't.  This story would have worked much better if Kemp had simply started with Lin as a child and then narrated the story normally beginning to end.

All my complaints set aside though, I very much liked the story (as in the the middle part that the book actually focuses on). I read the book fast, and I am interested in reading the second book out in the series. I hope the structure of the second is a bit better though. I usually like books that take place in tandem to the Arthurian legends and I wasn't disappointed with this twist on the story, just the way it was set up.

*A note for any still interested in reading this novel. This is not a YA novel. It is rather graphic and sometimes very disturbing. It is a very intense and interesting story, but the faint of heart should tread carefully.