The relationship between Guenever and Lancelot carries the book ... loftily. With the exception of perhaps Elaine, most of the other characters feel half-realized. Arthur lacks any dynamism or variation. But these vagaries can be forgiven as the main story is breathtaking. The book lacks the innocent charms of the first book, contains some of the ill-considered dalliances of the second, but by the end it achieves something of a higher missing from all that preceded it.