Besides childhood reads like The Hobbit, this is one of the first (if not the first) fantasy read I ever tried. When I read this book, I knew bits and pieces of the Arthurian legend but this book brought it to life. It's a wonderful story of the legend told from the woman's perspective, specifically from Morgaine. In most Arthurian legends, Morgaine is the evil witch who seduced Arthur--because women are naturally the source of all evil. In my mind, Marion Zimmer Bradley was the inventor of Avalon and all other authors I've read since then have just made other interpretations.