The Forest House

By: Marion Zimmer Bradley

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

She was Eilan, the daughter of a Druidic warleader and gifted with visions. In a land struggling to survive both Roman conquerors and her own people's enemies, surely fate had marked her to become a priestess of the Forest House.

But first Eilan had chosen a different, forbidden path - to love Gaius, a soldier of mixed blood among the legions sent to subdue her country. So she must hide a terrible secret when she is anointed as the new High Priestess. With mighty enemies poised to usurp the wealth of magic the Forest House sheltered, Eilan could only trust in the power of the great Goddess to find her destiny amidst the treacherous labyrinth in which fate had placed her.

©1994 Marion Zimmer Bradley (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"With the sure touch of one at ease in sketching out mystic travels.... Bradley writes with an unhurried pace and uncluttered staging." ( Kirkus Review)

Not my favorite

After listening to the mist of Avalon narrated by Divina Porter I guess I was spoiled. The story isn’t as strong, but the narration was not nearly as good. I disliked the role of women in this story. Definitely needs a stronger female lead character.

A fabulous prelude to the Mists of Avalon

be swept away by this story of love and sacrifice. visually laid out by this narrator

I like

this was the first book I've read from this
àuthor. what gift she has at writing telling stories

Good story, stay with it and you will enjoy it

Would you listen to The Forest House again? Why?

Yes, it is a large book and has a lot of details to get through in the first 5 chapters. If Rosalyn Landor had not made it so easy to stay with it, I may not have finished it. But after those first 5 chapters you have a great understanding of what is happening, time frame, and the lead people in the book. Then it gets good and I am going to read the next one of these books.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Forest House?

Beltane Fires

What does Rosalyn Landor bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She has a rich and engaging way of sharing a story that makes you feel like you are experiencing it. Very easy to listen to and like I stated above, without her reading this story I would have put it down.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Beltane, The Lady

Any additional comments?

Problem I have is finding out which is the next real book in this as there are two with Avalon that could be the next one. It is important with this novel to stay with the time frame so if you could make that happen it would be a great improvement. You have the series which are numbered, but the confusion is with the Lady of Avalon and the final book as the producer's information doesn't tell you where in the timeline they fall.

Great story line

Very good story, and read well. This is a great series, and I am on to the next of this series.

Emotionally Draining

I cannot recommend this audio book any more highly. The story kept me enthralled and the narrator was fantastic. I early on recognized that the story was derived from plot of Bellini's Norma which only made the inescapable ending more emotional for me. I liked this audio book so much that I have already purchased the next two books in the series, especially because they are performed by the same narrator.

Enjoyed more than Mists

I loved this story/book as it dives into the origins of The Lady of the Lake and how it kinda all started - kinda.
It was more mystic and frequently sad - but I really am interested in the Roman era in Britannia and this fills in some of that and I found it more interesting "cover to cover" than Mist of Avalon which always seems to peter out for me half way through and I never am able to finish listening to it. This one and the next one, Lake of Avalon, held my interest all the way through and I really enjoyed the stories. Good stuff -
Despite the author I enjoyed the books very much.

Tragic and difficult at times...

So much painful patriarchy.

At times it was difficult to continue with the story. There are glimpses of the beauty of the Goddess and preistesshood in this tale, but they are few and far between.

I've been desperate for more priestess novels so I caved a distended, but...

Dear women, if you think we have it hard now, this book will remind you of how far we have come and kindle the fight within!

I'm glad I stayed with it

I almost gave up on this one. I just couldn't care about the characters. It did get better, but still not on a par with Mists of Avelon.

what a great book

we'll written and we'll preformed it creates a wonderful story of love and betrayal from an era that wasn't well recorded and yet it feels like a true story.