I love the comedic writing in this book! White manages to keep the grand, sweeping, epic scale of things, but also put in some lovely details and funny elements that make it approachable and real.

Being a die-hard fan of the traditional King Arthur tales, it is hard to swallow the many inconsistencies and gimmicks. So I try to forget that it is King Arthur at all, and read it as a new story on its own, completely separate from the original Camelot legends. I mean, it is absolutely stupid to think that Arthur would have known about the theory of evolution. And Sir Kay did NOT drink port. They didn't even have port back then; it would have been mead or something.

Don't even get me started on the language! There are so many idioms used in their dialogue that weren't even coined until the 19th or 20th century. There are tons of annoying impossibilities like that, but if you can manage to ignore them and just take the story as it comes, then it IS an enjoyable read.

I wish that the bit about the sword had been more drawn-out and detailed. Almost the entire book is about the education of young Arthur, and then there's one tiny chapter at the end about the actual sword being pulled from the stone.