.mau. reviewed Dark Age Monarch by Joseph J. Swope
Review of 'Dark Age Monarch' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
King Arthur between legends of the past and a modern revisiting
[Disclaimer: I got this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program]
There are a lot of stories about king Arthur and the Round Table. Notwithstanding The Sword in the Stone and its Disneyzation, many people would remember Marion Zimmer Bradley and her Avalon saga; I would like to add the books by Jack Whyte, who went into my mind while reading this work.
I found really interesting the idea of Swope to start many chapters with a recollection of what we can gather from the medieval Arthurian sources, with all their incongruences and dubious places. Swope starts from here to build his revisiting, adding some personal twists - for example, Merlin is Arthur's grandfather, besides having been a warrior when he was young; the knight Lamorak is black and of Arabian origin. However I think that the book lacked a …
King Arthur between legends of the past and a modern revisiting
[Disclaimer: I got this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program]
There are a lot of stories about king Arthur and the Round Table. Notwithstanding The Sword in the Stone and its Disneyzation, many people would remember Marion Zimmer Bradley and her Avalon saga; I would like to add the books by Jack Whyte, who went into my mind while reading this work.
I found really interesting the idea of Swope to start many chapters with a recollection of what we can gather from the medieval Arthurian sources, with all their incongruences and dubious places. Swope starts from here to build his revisiting, adding some personal twists - for example, Merlin is Arthur's grandfather, besides having been a warrior when he was young; the knight Lamorak is black and of Arabian origin. However I think that the book lacked a final check; many statements are repeated after a few pages, and some dialogues seem forced and way too formal. Besides this reading this book was nice.