Old Made New.

I have discovered that, when I have the time, I can use Character Map to make capital letters and all my missing punctuation marks. This is spectacular, and I'm only sorry the previous post suffered for my ignorance. I will leave it as-is for now, but I may fix it in the future.

I have read T.H. White's The Once and Future King perhaps a dozen times and even The Book of Merlin once or twice. My enjoyment of Arthur and his Knights actually started with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, so I suppose I wandered backwards into the stories, but I quickly moved to Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and, from there, Green, Pyle and Plummer, The Mists of Avalon, and even Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Steinbeck tried to get in on the Arthurian legends, but I admit I couldn't stay awake through any of them. All of this to say that I have made the rounds with Arthur and have expected nothing new to come of them. Until now.

Bernard Cornwell, in his Arthur trilogy, has removed the veil, so to speak, from the Arthurian tales. His stories read like history, not fantasy, and they move with suspense and realistic, not manufactured or romanticised, emotion. This is not a history that you want to miss. I believe Cornwell is, perhaps, one of the greatest writers of historical fiction (a personal favorite, that genre) that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Notice here that I did not name him a fantasy author.

I read the Arthur trilogy, which begins with The Winter King, shortly after coming out of the coma. Or, more sincerely, Mr. Collins read the first novel to me, and part of the second, and I took over the reigns for the third. I told him I was looking for something romantic and fantastic--an adult fantasy, so to speak, and he brought me Arthur (having been privy to my glorification of Sir Gawain). I admit I wasn't excited to know I'd be forced to endure another Arthur story, but I trusted him and took a chance. I've since pushed that chance on six or seven different readers, and it is for one of them that I am writing this review (of sorts).

My sister, long-since tired of Arthur, devoured the books. They are brutal, she says, and I agree. If you're looking for a story of the Round Table that sounds more plausible than the latest Sci-Fi reinactment of Malory or White or Bradley, but one that still stays true to the legend's heart, then Cornwell is for you.

As I read the books a while ago and did not have the ability to take notes, I will not be saying more about The Arthur Trilogy (The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur), but I am scheduled to begin his Holy Grail books this week, and so I will write about them in more depth. This means, for those of you still unsure, you will get a taste of his style and, if you like it, perhaps you'll try our Arthur one more time.

That said, if you have not read White or Malory or something similar, I would suggest reading those fantasies first. You will enjoy the nuances of Cornwell's story even more: of that I can assure you.