A new age is coming...The King will come...and he will rule forever in Avalon.Through the generations the women of Avalon prepare for the coming of the Defender, the sacred king who will guard the old ways of the Britons and save their land from destruction. On the holy isle of Avalon, hidden in the mists between the world of Faerie and the world of men, they wait.For High Priestess Caillean, facing the Roman foe, salvation comes not through victory, but bitter sacrifice. Two hundred years later her successor, Dierna, faces a new enemy: the Saxon hordes who assail her people like savages. By the time of Viviane, Britain seems wholly lost. But a Merlin is made amongst the Druids once more, and the day of the Defender, who will come to be known as Arthur, draws close.A spellbinding historical fantasy, Lady of Avalon links the bestselling novels in the Avalon series-The Forests of Avalon and The Mists of Avalon.

This three-part fantasy, set in Roman-occupied Britain, creates the link between The Forest House and The Mists of Avalon and should satisfy fans of both those books. Spanning almost 400 years, it tells the stories of the high priestesses and ladies of Avalon. Recommended for fantasy collections.
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Bradley's sensational Arthurian fantasy, The Mists of Avalon (1982), could never have a sequel, not if Bradley wanted to keep women's power as the main theme, because after Camelot, you will recall, things went steadily downhill. So she retreated and wrote The Forest House (1994), a prequel about the struggle between native Celts and invading Romans in Avalon's home world. This sequel to House and prequel to Mists is set close enough to Arthurian times for such important figures as Merlin and Vivianne to appear, yet far enough before them to allow Bradley's imagination ample scope. In it, three characters capable of reincarnation--a priestess, a mother, and a son--appear in similar relationships in episodes set at the turn of the first to the second century A.D., the end of the third century, and the middle of the fifth century. In each time, Avalon is threatened; the mystic isle survives, of course, but only through sacrifice. Bradley's women are, as usual, strong and vibrant, but never before has she so effectively depicted the heroic male. Expect strong demand for this installment of an immensely popular saga; Viking does, to the tune of a 150,000-copy first printing. Patricia Monaghan