A Coalition of Lions (Viking, 2003)
A Pennsylvania School Librarians Association YA Top Forty Fiction Title 2003 (2004)
LM_NET (Library Media on the Web) 2003 Best Books for Children
Baltimore County Public Schools “Strive for 25” 2005 Recommended Reading (World Cultures Grade 7)
Mentioned as one of the year’s best young adult novels in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 17th Annual Collection (2004),
edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
About the book:
With her own kingdom in a state of upheaval, Goewin—Princess of Britain, daughter of the High King Artos and his wife Ginevra—makes a desperate journey to African Aksum, to meet with Constantine, the British ambassador and her husband to be. But Aksum has its own political turmoil, and Goewin’s relationship with Priamos, Aksum’s ambassador to Britain, makes her position more than precarious. Caught between two countries, with the power to change or end lives, Goewin fights to find and claim her place in a world that has suddenly, irrevocably changed.
Reviews for A Coalition of Lions:
“Readers opening this sequel to The Winter Prince will find themselves swept up in a gripping tale of danger, nobility, power, and love. After a dizzying exposition of the treacheries and desperate acts attendant to the last days of Artos, high king of Britain…, the story focuses on [his daughter] Goewin’s flight to Aksum, in Africa, under the protection of Priamos, the Aksumite ambassador to Britain. The court in Aksum has its own intrigues: the British ambassador Constantine (Goewin’s betrothed and heir to the British throne) has been made viceroy of Aksum, and in his role as ruler he mistreats the loyal Priamos, who had the misfortune to be spared on the battlefield by his brother, a traitor. Goewin, who saw Priamos’s devotion on the flight from Britain, sets herself against Constantine, using a boy with a claim to the British throne as her pawn. The exotic culture and well-developed code of honor of the Aksumite court give this post-Arthurian/ancient Ethiopian fusion its striking flavor, and Wein has a perfect handle on the ruthlessness of power: Goewin’s familiarity and level of comfort with even its most extreme manifestations give her the unmistakable decisiveness of royalty. The book boasts plenty of action—e.g., a lion hunt and a midnight escape through a tomb—but it is the human scale and personality of the principal characters that provides the novel with its heart; when Goewin at last acknowledges her love for Priamos, readers will cheer the rightness of what they had felt long before. With her thorough command of historic characters, a grand scope, and a swift-paced, heroic plot, Wein has laid out an appealing and sumptuous literary banquet.”
—Anita L. Burkam, The Horn Book Magazine
“A gorgeously imagined and wildly exciting historical narrative, combining Arthurian legend with the kingdom of Aksum (Ethiopia). While Wein mines the inexhaustible treasury of Arthur, as she did in her first installment, The Winter Prince (1993), she makes it very new. Goewin, twin sister of Lleu, half-sister to Medraut, and daughter of Artos, high king of Britain, tells the story…. With Morgause, her father’s sister, calling for her…death, Goewin flees Britain for the court of Aksum in the company of the Aksum ambassador to Britain, Priamos. Her betrothed, Constantine, is Britain’s ambassador to Aksum, as [Goewin’s brother] Medraut was before him. Goewin can call Constantine home to Britain to assume the throne; she finds him harsh and unkind, though a good leader. In Aksum, she also finds Telemakos, the child who combines Medraut’s white-gold hair with the copper skin of his mother, and the preternatural calm intelligence of both parents. Constantine treats Priamos with fear, and Goewin uses what power she can wield to protect both him and the child, but not to her desired ends. Readers will eagerly await the next in Wein’s cycle. ”
—Kirkus
“Embroidering on the Arthurian, Elizabeth Wein’s A Coalition of Lions (sequel to The Winter Prince) follows the daughter of the slain High King Artos and Ginevra to Aksum (Ethiopia), where she is to meet Constantine, her father’s heir and the British ambassador. Steeped in historical and literary details and informed by detailed endnotes, the novel lays down a challenge to motivated readers.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Wein transports readers to sixth-century Africa in a richly spun historical novel that follows her Arthurian fantasy The Winter Prince (1993). The narrator, Goewin, is a passionate young woman who has recently lost her father, the high king of Britain... She and her ambassador friend Priamos venture 4,000 miles from Britain to Aksum (present-day Ethiopia), where Goewin seeks to determine her fate as princess of Britain and promised wife of the viceroy Constantine. The story perks up considerably when she discovers the charming, precocious, six-year-old Telemakos, grandson of the high king. Themes of loyalty and betrayal, imprisonment and freedom, brotherhood rivalry (the coalition of lions), and love fill the pages of this ambitious novel whose magic lies in its emotional intensity and in the unusual vibrancy and intelligence of its characters….Royal family guides are supplied, along with maps, a glossary of terms, and a historical note.”
—Karin Snelson, Booklist
“Elizabeth E. Wein’s viewpoint is unapologetically rarefied in A Coalition of Lions. She writes of royal succession in ancient Britain and the Horn of Africa without sentiment or awe. The result is a peculiarly stark cleanliness in this tale of youthful nobility.
“The second in a projected trilogy that started with the 1993 The Winter Prince, this book is a clear-eyed extrapolation of Arthurian legend freed of jousting, round tables and swords in stones.
“Goewin proves to be a handsomely capable figure before `a coalition of lions,’ a metaphor for fierce male loyalty among nobles. Wein paints the princess’ aristocracy with strokes of strong presence made believable by a regal, lucid vulnerability.”
—Porter Anderson, CNN
(Click here for the full review)
“Goewin arrives in Ethiopia after the devastation of her father’s death….[She] finds the Ethiopian royal family in disarray-feuding, accusing….She is in love with an Ethiopian prince, Ras Priamos, who has been the ambassador to Britain, but is now accused of being a traitor in his family. She is engaged to marry her cousin Constantine, Artos’s heir, now the Viceroy of Ethiopia. Somehow Goewin must secure the succession of the thrones, both in Britain and also in Ethiopia, to bring stability and peace to both nations.
“Wein, like Rosemary Sutcliff before her, is a scholar who has chosen to write historical fiction for young people. She treats her readers with great respect and honors them with careful re-creation of places and people in the past. Her style is haunting, her characters memorable. She writes in the context of the great themes of literature and life: the love and competition between brothers; the corruption of power; guilt; forbidden love; loyalty.”
—Claire Rosser, Kliatt
“A Coalition of Lions takes Arthurian legend—in the person of Goewin, Princess of Britain—to 6th century Africa. As it begins, the reign of Artos has come to a sudden and brutal end in the devastating battle of Camlan… When Artos’s illegitimate son, Medraut, vanishes, driven mad with grief, Goewin finds herself alone. To top it off, her treacherous aunt Morgause has put a handsome bounty on the princess’s life. Besieged, Goewin flees to the court of her father’s greatest ally, in the African kingdom of Aksum by the Red Sea. Goewin’s cousin Constantine is Britain’s ambassador to Aksum, and is next in line for the throne of Britain. Artos had expected the two of them to be married, and it only makes sense for Goewin to wed Constantine as quickly as possible before returning home to restore order.
“Instead, she becomes embroiled in the politics of the Aksum court. Upon meeting Constantine she finds him—and the prospective marriage—utterly hateful. A surprise waiting for her in Aksum also makes Constantine less necessary to her plans: during a lengthy stay in Africa, Medraut had a son. Six years old, grandson of Artos, and unnaturally bright and beautiful, the boy Telemakos has as legitimate a claim to the throne as Goewin’s cousin. As her conflict with Constantine intensifies, the princess cannot help but use his very existence as leverage against Constantine.
“Elizabeth E. Wein’s portrayal of Goewin as a capable leader of Britain begins in the stunning previous novel, The Winter Prince. Female and young, the throne is inevitably beyond her grasp. The injustice is keenly communicated to readers: she is smart, good with a bow, and understands politics thoroughly. She has the legitimacy that Medraut lacks and the health that her sickly twin, Lleu, could only envy. In A Coalition of Lions the princess is faced with an unenviable task: saving her kingdom from ruin has become synonymous with sorting out her personal life. The choices Goewin makes regarding her marriage and her nephew will affect her own happiness and the well-being of a kingdom, and her emotional needs and Britain’s political ones pull her in different directions.
“A Coalition of Lions adorns Goewin’s story with exquisite prose and an unbelievably rich setting. Wein tells her complex palace-intrigue tale with surprising directness and simplicity, letting the needs and desires of her characters draw readers deeply into their lives and concerns. She is especially deft in her handling of dialogue: a simple conversation can lead to twists that change everything—for the characters and the readers both—leading to unguessed-at conclusions that, upon reflection, nevertheless seem inescapable.”
—Alyx Dellamonica, Locus
“In this story set in sixth-century Africa, Goewin, Princess of Britain, journeys to Aksum (now Ethiopia)… to meet with Constantine, her cousin and intended husband, now the Viceroy of Aksum. There Goewin finds a kingdom mired in political unrest and intrigue amid divided loyalties. She also encounters a host of interesting people, including the son of her half brother; the boy’s mother; and Priamos, one of several [nephews] of the emperor, Caleb. The child Telemakos is wise for his years and he and his mother become Goewin’s confidants and protectors. Goewin is a strong character, asserting her rights… and finding her way into the more isolated parts of the extended family. She is willing to take risks, expanding her circle of people in defiance of Constantine’s wishes. For this she is eventually placed under guard and later, accompanied by Telemakos, escapes to safety through the dark tunnel of a tomb. This is a complex, but beautifully written story with many significant characters, some of whom are referred to by two different names. This makes it a fairly challenging book to read, but for teens who enjoy historical fiction, it will be a rewarding experience. This book is part two of a projected trilogy that began with The Winter Prince (Atheneum, 1993). The maps at the front and the appended list of characters and glossary will help keep readers on track.”
—Jane G. Connor, School Library Journal
“With her… aunt Morgause seeking her life, and her father’s enemy King Cynric looking to make her his son’s bride, Princess Goewin flees her native Britain. She travels to Aksum, the site of modern-day Ethiopia, in order to recall the ambassador Constantine, her father’s nephew and chosen heir… She is also betrothed to Constantine, but she finds him a distastefully haughty personage, cruelly efficient in his role as viceroy to the Emperor but personally despicable. When she discovers in Aksum the son of her elder brother, Medraut, who was the ambassador to that kingdom six years prior to her visit, she strikes a dangerous bargain-she will marry Constantine on the condition that she be allowed to name Telemakos, her newly discovered nephew, as heir to the throne of Britain. In this sequel to The Winter Prince, the setting of sixth-century Aksum is richly textured, with all of its contradictions of refinement and brutality rendered through apt, culturally specific metaphors. As far as retellings, extensions, and variations of the Arthurian legends go, this one offers a substantial amount of real history from a region and time seldom depicted in children’s literature—a nice reminder that the history of kings and empires happened in places other than just the British Isles. At its center is a strong and thoughtful heroine on whom the mantle of leadership weighs heavily as she tries to balance the moral demands of freedom with the exigencies of command. A historical note unravels the complex interweaving of myth, history, and storytelling in Wein’s compelling Arthurian cycle.”
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“This well-written, meticulously researched historical fiction is the second in a trilogy with its foundation set in Arthurian legend. Princess Goewin, the daughter of slain King [Artos], journeys to the African country of Aksum to seek assistance from her cousin and future husband, the ambassador to Aksum. Aksum is present day Ethiopia, which the author notes had a far more advanced culture and society in the sixth century than did [Artos’s] Britain. While in Aksum, Goewin meets a child who also has claim to the throne of Britain. Goewin encounters political rivalries, betrayal and intrigue, but she is unbowed by these obstacles.”
—Rosanne Zajko, Pennsylvania School Librarians Association