BOOK REVIEW: Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher is a delightful YA pseudo-Arthurian romp set in Camelot generations after King Arthur’s defeat. 

Gwen is the daughter of the struggling King of England. She has been betrothed to the irritating Arthur, son of a troublesome lord, since they were both infants. Now that she is eighteen, and there is rising discontent in the kingdom, it is time for her to marry (and appease Arthur’s father.) So Arthur arrives in Camelot for the summer tournament season and immediately begins plaguing her. He doesn’t want this match any more than she does.

It’s a particularly bad time for Gwen to be forced into marriage. She has a developed a massive crush on a young knight, the only female knight in the land, Bridget Leclair, who is also in town for the tournament.

Gwen’s only ally is her brother, Gabriel, although she hasn’t dared confess her crush to him when she doesn’t quite understand it herself. Besides, Gabriel has enough troubles of his own. Quiet and bookish, he doesn’t want to be the heir to the kingdom, but knows it is not something he can get out of. So he spends all his time studying how to be a perfect king. This includes studying a good deal of Arthuriana, which gives him some understanding of and sympathy for the “cultists,” those English who believe Arthur will one day return. And who, meanwhile, have a pagan-ish style of worship of Morgana and a belief in wizardry. (As opposed to the prevailing Catholics.)

Arthur despises his father. He finds Gwen overbearing. He drinks far too much and has essentially given himself over to hedonistic pursuits. But he’s also nursing a broken heart over a fair-haired young lord who rejected him. 

Things heat up when Gwen spies Arthur kissing a boy and Arthur discovers Gwen’s crush on Bridget. Mutual threats turn into an agreement to cooperate. And Gabriel is inserted into the mix when he and Arthur grow attracted to one another.

The action is quick-paced. The interactions are amusing and often times touching. The young folks take charge as the fate of the kingdom falls into their hands. A very entertaining read!

ESCAPE TO THE PAST WITH: The Divine Sacrifice by Tony Hays

I don’t read a whole lot of mystery, but I do love Arthuriana. Two years ago, (I can’t believe it was that long ago!) I read Tony Hays’ The Killing Way, a political murder mystery set at King Arthur’s court. The "court" was not the typical court of Arthurian legend. It was a grittier, more brutal setting and the story was awash in political intrigue as well as the murder mystery. The hero of the story was Malgwyn, the keenly intelligent, one-armed counselor of the king who was damaged in more ways than one. I thoroughly enjoyed The Killing Way, so much so that I rushed out to buy book two in the series: The Divine Sacrifice. For no reason I can explain, that book has languished on my TBR pile.

Thanks once again to the Mount TBR challenge, I’ve rescued a must-read from that pile, which is really more of a bottomless pit.

In The Divine Sacrifice, we meet up with Malgwyn again, shortly after the goings-on of book one. Arthur has another task for his trusted counselor. He is making a trip to Glastonbury Abbey which is in the vicinity of a castle held by Lord Lauhiir. Arthur has some arguing (over taxes and church construction) to do with the abbot and he has even more unpleasant business with Lauhiir. The young lord is supposed to be strengthening the castle as an outpost for Arthur, but everyone knows that Lauhiir is not truly a supporter of Arthur’s kingship. So, Malgwyn is supposed to help check up on things.

While they are on their short journey, Malgwyn learns two unpleasant facts. One: Saint Patrick will be arriving at the abbey at the same time. This highly esteemed man of the church has come to root out a heresy that has supposedly infected the abbey and its surroundings. Two: an elderly monk has been murdered.

Malgwyn shifts to detective mode as he is asked to solve the mystery of the monk’s death. Naturally, there is more to it than a simple murder. Malgwyn finds layer upon layer of deceit, involving not only the abbot, but also Saint Patrick and another newly-arrived elderly monk in Glastonbury. How are all the lies related? And there are worse things afoot than the murdering of monks. Lauhiir has been up to something. He was involved somehow with the dead man. What is being hidden? And how will it affect the kingdom of the lord King Arthur?

Once again, Tony Hays has woven a tale of political intrigue around a murder mystery. This book also brings in religious debate and a dash of romance (a tiny dash- Malgwyn is still working his way around to that.) As in The Killing Way, familiar Arthurian names ground the story, but this is not a tale of King Arthur. The king stays well in the background. This is Malgwyn’s story all the way. If you enjoy a good detective story with twists and turns to keep you guessing throughout, Tony Hays’ series will keep you entertained. (You can probably read The Divine Sacrifice without having read The Killing Way, but I recommend you start with book one.)

And now, I’ve completed the Mount TBR challenge hosted by My Reader's Block, which means I’ve made it through all my 2012 challenges. Hooray!

BACK TO THE CLASSICS CHALLENGE: The Once and Future King by T.H. White

Why do I do this to myself?

Every once in awhile, I can’t help myself. Even though I know it’ll tear me apart, I immerse myself once again in the immortal story of King Arthur’s Camelot. I love the fantasy and the ridiculous chivalry. Each retelling is just a little different. You can choose to see different episodes from different points of view. One author may make one character very noble while another will make him more of a churl and give the nod to his rival. Was Lancelot really the greatest knight or was it Gawaine? (Or Galahad?) And who was the wickeder witch/fairy? Morgause or Morgan Le Fay? How guilty was Guinevere, really? Was she a conniving adulteress or a poor misguided lovestruck pawn?

In the end, the variations on the theme don’t matter. I fall into the story and am swept along. I’m always heartbroken as the love triangle plays to its inevitable, wrenching conclusion. I know what’s going to happen and yet, even in this book, EVEN IN THIS ONE!- a well-established classic- I caught myself hoping for something to divert the train from its track to avoid the wreck.

This book was The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Written in parts between 1938 and 1941, it is one of the classic Arthurian tales and is regarded as one of the epic masterpieces of fantasy. I chose it for my YA classic for the Back-to-the-Classics challenge. We can debate whether it qualifies as YA. I’ve had the book sitting on my shelf for well over twenty years but never got around to reading it. Somehow, I thought of it as a book for teens, but that probably wasn’t the original audience. It was written well before YA had carved itself out as a "genre." I do think that there are many things about it that today’s YA fantasy readers would enjoy.

The book is divided into four parts. The first is The Sword in the Stone. This part reads almost as a children’s book. It tells of Arthur's (Wart’s) upbringing in the care of Sir Ector. He is tutored by Merlyn who "lives backwards" and teaches Arthur by turning him into animals. Eventually Arthur pulls Excalibur from the stone and thereby claims his rightful place as the next king of England.

But things get darker from there. In the next part we meet Queen Margause and her sons, the Orkney Clan. Morgause is an awful woman and a worse mother. Her sons are psychologically damaged by her neglect and ill-usage. We know them as Gawaine, Gaheris, Agravaine, and Gareth. Later, they will become knights of Arthur’s Round Table, but for now, they are sworn enemies of Arthur.

The third part is The Ill-Made Knight. Oddly enough, Lancelot is portrayed as an ugly knight, and one who is filled with self-loathing. To combat this, he is determined to live out Arthur’s ideals and become the greatest knight of the Round Table. He wants to be so good he can perform a miracle. He succeeds at this, but he also falls in love with Guinevere. This part of the book chronicles their love affair. (The book is definitely no longer a children’s book.) The knights also search for the Holy Grail. This part is told by the knights returning to Camelot rather than as a series of adventures, so it’s narrated rather than shown. But we’re in nostalgia mode by this time, so it’s an effective way of doing it.

And in the fourth part of the book, everything falls apart. It’s been falling apart for awhile, but now, it collapses. Arthur’s splendid Camelot dissolves back into warfare and just about everyone dies. Why doesn’t this story ever change?

T.H. White’s version is based on Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. It’s jam-packed with adventures and episodes of established Arthurian lore. White’s interpretation of the stories, often witty, often poignant or thoughtful, and tending to be heavily laced with intentional anachronisms, are what make this an accessible and thought-provoking read. In some respects, it is a little dated. For example, he compares some of the knight to cricket players that must have been contemporaries back in the 1940's. But at other times, the deliberate mixing of past, present, and a vague view of the future work to make this book and its message endure.

The story of King Arthur is timeless. I suppose that’s why I can’t get enough of it, even though it breaks my heart every time. There is a hopefulness buried in the smoking ruins.

I’ve got two books left to read for this year’s Back-to-the-Classics challenge. And now it’s time to sign up for the 2012 challenge!

YA BOOK REVIEW: The Legend of the King by Gerald Morris

The only bad thing about the story of Camelot is that I know how it’s going to end.

   King Arthur has played a large role in my long love affair with the middle ages. Once upon a time, the Arthurian ideal of chivalry embodied for me all the romantic and glorious images the word "medieval" conjured up: gallant knights, noble ladies, castles, questing, the protection of the downtrodden etc. Of course I learned that the real middle ages were nothing like Camelot. But I was thrilled to learn how the Arthurian romances were born in the middle ages. These extraordinary tales have survived through the centuries. They have been told and retold. New generations of story tellers have built upon them, turned them on their heads, told them from the point of view of major and minor characters– the adventure and romance live on.
But there is no escaping the fact that Camelot ends tragically. Good and evil clash. Evil doesn’t exactly triumph but it is a pyrrhic victory for good. No matter how you slice and dice the tale, it will break your heart.

   Which brings me to one of my favorite series of books and my review for today. If you like adventure tales that will captivate you, make you laugh out loud, characters that will win your heart, and writing that will make you stand in awe of the cleverness of the author, try reading The Squire’s Tale(s) by Gerald Morris. This ten book collection is written for older middle grade kids (I swear they are equally entertaining for boys and girls) and for teens. But if you are a grown-up who likes Arthuriana and you have no convenient young person around, go ahead and read the books just for yourself. The obvious jokes will entertain kids while the more subtle humor will have parents chuckling as they read between the lines.

   Morris retells several classic Arthurian tales, remaining surprisingly faithful to original storylines, but inserting enough extra context to help modern-day readers make sense of medieval material. Most, but not all, of the books make use of the boy named Terence from book number one (The Squire’s Tale) who ends up being squire to Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew. Terence has other talents that I will leave you to discover. I read the book with my son, who was about 8 or 9 at the time. He was hooked. We’ve reread it more than once over the years.

   Still, it isn’t my favorite book in the series. My favorites are The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (Book III) and The Ballad of Sir Dinadan (Book V). I think Dinadan ranks up there with my favorite fictional characters of all time.

   So, after nine marvelous books, Gerald Morris brings his series to a close with The Legend of the King, which tells the story of the final confrontation between Arthur and Mordred, using for excuse the affair between Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot. We’ve seen hints of the end. Mordred, Arthur’s illegitimate son, (his only son and thus his heir), has been lurking for the past couple of books. Sensitive characters (like Terence) have felt something amiss. Therefore, anyone who knows the story of Camelot will pick up this last book with a bittersweet reluctance. Gerald Morris will tell the story and tell it well. But even he can’t change the course of well-known fictional history. Can he?

   Knowing it would break my heart, I had to read it anyway. I had to see the way this version brought Arthur’s legend to a close.

   These books don’t have to be read in order because each one is a pretty well self-contained tale. However, I do recommend that you read them sequentially since I think ALL series should be read that way. And I think this one also has a more pleasing chronology if read from one to ten. Save The Legend of the King for last, but by all means, read it. The legend of Arthur is not complete without its finale.

   Have I gushed enough?

ESCAPE TO THE PAST WITH: The Killing Way by Tony Hays

If you like historical mysteries, you might want to check out Tony Hays’s medieval detective series. I was attracted to book one, The Killing Way, because it was billed as "An Arthurian Mystery." Being a great fan of Arthurian lore, I thought, why not?

It wasn’t quite what I expected. It doesn’t rely on the typical legends. In The Killing Way, young Arthur is about to be named successor to the High King, but he has dangerous rivals. When a serving girl is found dead and mutilated at Merlin’s doorstep, Arthur calls on an old war comrade, the one-armed Malgwyn, to investigate. Malgwyn’s success in battle (so impressive that he would be remembered by Arthur) was due to a keen intelligence as well as a burning hatred of Saxons—they’d killed his wife. But his career ended when a Saxon lopped off his arm. Arthur saved him, but Malgwyn believes a one-armed man is useless. He hates Arthur for denying him an honorable death on the battlefield. He’s been a bitter drunkard ever since. Now this "hard-boiled" drunkard takes up the challenge and must solve the mysterious death before Merlin is blamed, compromising Arthur’s chances for the throne.

Familiar Arthurian characters are present in the story but portrayed in an unconventional way: Gareth is a bard; Kai is a young love-struck boy; Tristan is King Mark’s son and a bit of a sop. It caught me off-guard, but given the subject matter, this approach was better than interweaving conventional Arthurian fantasy into the mix. Instead of fantasy, the author blended politics, Druid religion, and a top-notch detective story. Malgwyn is a fascinating character. The series is off to a great start. I have book two, The Divine Sacrifice, on my TBR pile.