Of Kings and Legends

If you search on "King Arthur" on Amazon's website, you'll get almost six thousand results.  Of those, T. H. White's The Once and Future King (rating: 9/10) is very popular.  Why would there be so many books about this legendary king?  There is something about Arthur and Camelot and the Knights of the Round table that thrills and inspires  us.  Of course, many movies have been made telling this story as well.  When I was young, everyone had seen the Disney movie, "The Sword in the Stone."  Watching that movie told us that exciting things can happen to you, even if you're only a child.  My favorite cinema-d'Arthur is "First Knight."

I've just finished reading a very interesting book, which is actually the first in a trilogy.  Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy's The Forever King (rating: 9/10) is a very original cross-genre fantasy/thriller that brings the legend of Arthur and Merlin and the Holy Grail into the present.  (I'd read and enjoyed Grandmaster (rating: 9/10) by the same authors.)  My willing suspension of disbelief may have been stretched a bit by thinking the protagonist, a ten-year old boy, could be capable of the thoughts and actions portrayed, but it was still fun to read.

One thing I hate with trilogies is when they come out over the span of a few years and I have to try to remember what happened in the earlier volumes.  Fortunately this trilogy has been out for several years and I can move on to the second book right away, The Broken Sword, and the final volume, The Third Magic.