I think Sword at Sunset is Sutcliff's best but all her books are very atmospheric.
These were intended for a teen audience rather than the adult audience intended for SaS (Sutcliff typically wrote for children and teens) but contain the emotive bittersweet quality of the Author at her best:
The Lantern Bearers (which includes Artos as a minor character and is set before SaS) Frontier Wolf Mark of the Horse Lord
Some years there is a Sutcliff Swap story exchange. It ran in 2018, did not run this year, but may run next:
Oh, absolutely. I read The Eagle of the Ninth years ago, and have now started on her YA Arthurian books, but SaS was unbearably lovely, perhaps because the Arthurian novel I saw discussed just before it was Mists of Avalon.
The Eagle of the Ninth (and Sutcliff's other early books) were really written for children. Mind you, "Young Adult" as a library classification didn't exist back then. You basically went from Children's to Adult with a brief look at the small Teens collection, which comprised high school romance and YA SF such as Norton and Heinlein.
By the late 50s, even though her stories were really no longer children's books, they were still shelved there by default. As you know Eo9, you might want to try its sequel, The Silver Branch, and then Frontier Wolf, both of which predate (internally) The Lantern Bearers, which ends a few years before Sword of Sunset starts. The dolphin ring is worked through later books as well.
I'm not sure which my own favourite is. As a kid, though, I adored The Eagle of the Ninth and found The Lantern Bearers virtually incomprehensible. The invention of "Young Adult" books was long overdue, really. And, frankly, LB made even more sense when I read it as an adult.
I remember this book! When I read it it depressed me to the point that I feel like I really need to go back for a reread because I didn't fully appreciate how beautiful it is; there were some absolutely heartbreaking passages, and the writing and characterization were both so, so good, as per usual with Sutcliff.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 08:51 am (UTC)These were intended for a teen audience rather than the adult audience intended for SaS (Sutcliff typically wrote for children and teens) but contain the emotive bittersweet quality of the Author at her best:
The Lantern Bearers (which includes Artos as a minor character and is set before SaS)
Frontier Wolf
Mark of the Horse Lord
Some years there is a Sutcliff Swap story exchange. It ran in 2018, did not run this year, but may run next:
https://sutcliff-swap.dreamwidth.org/
no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-02 07:27 am (UTC)By the late 50s, even though her stories were really no longer children's books, they were still shelved there by default. As you know Eo9, you might want to try its sequel, The Silver Branch, and then Frontier Wolf, both of which predate (internally) The Lantern Bearers, which ends a few years before Sword of Sunset starts. The dolphin ring is worked through later books as well.
I'm not sure which my own favourite is. As a kid, though, I adored The Eagle of the Ninth and found The Lantern Bearers virtually incomprehensible. The invention of "Young Adult" books was long overdue, really. And, frankly, LB made even more sense when I read it as an adult.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 10:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 06:39 pm (UTC)