drgnlv's Reviews (823)

While I think this book had great potential, after a few chapters I couldn't take the obvious and long-winded writing any longer. Spending several paragraphs of introduction on each new character, making said characters appear without any explanation or reason, and double stating each and every dialogue tag are writing mistakes which belong in a rough draft, but not a finished novel. Even skipping ahead proved the writing quality does not improve but only gets worse. With shallow characterization, hit-you-over-the-head foreshadowing, and contemporary opinions forced onto a vastly different time period, this story about a Regency England "sleuth" is clearly not worth my time.

I did not know what to expect from this book, but it was not a story rich with strong moral questions and insights into the world. I found myself filing away passages to read to my future children.

Merlin teaches Arthur to be an adult through lessons as different animals and experiences with knights, giants, and even the infamous Robin Wood (aka Robin Hood). Merlin is living from the future to the past, so acts as our anchor to this mythical medieval England, mixing modern conceptions of knights in ridiculous full suits of armor with the assumptions of everyone in the time. The old wizard is also surprisingly funny, with gags some may recognize from the Disneyfied version of this book, but also with a wise, funny, and lovable character all his own.

A child will enjoy reading about all the adventures Wart goes on during his free childhood and commiserate with his loving and brotherly relationship with Kay (who is not old or mean in the way he is made out in the 'film version'). An adult reader will find parallels to organized systems in our own world with the worlds of the animals Warts visits during his lessons and enjoy the metaphors in some of these teachings. In all, the story is engaging, insightful, and a wonderful retelling of the Arthurian legend.