I have decided to spend the last half of 2025 to do a read of all the latest takes of the King Arthur myth. First up is the always reliable Bernard Cornwell, someone who I spend last year reading his Last Kingdom, figuring it would take 4 months to get thru. It took me 2 months to read the 13 books in the series, Mr. Cornwell write in a very readable way, I want to say literary popcorn.
So I headed out to Big Bad Wolf Book Fair here in Bangkok, Thailand, My main goal was to find some Graphic Novels in the Thai language, I was successful in that, but they also had table upon tables of books in the English language, And they had all 3 books in Bernard Cornwell Arthurian tale. I took that as a sign.
The tale is told thru the eyes of Derfel, In the series Derfel goes from an orphan taken in by Merlin to a Lord in the service of King Arthur. Hey, I am a sucker for the orphan does good trope, Defer is the POV that is used to spend the tale. Mr. Cornwell write in his afterword that he sought out the earliest tales of Arthur to find characters who have drop out of the story with the passage of time. One such character is Nimue, who play a major role in the life of Derfel. More than Merlin. If your a fan of Lancelot, be forewarned, Lancelot is portrayed as the greatest traitor in English history.
Next up in the reading list will be Giles Kristain's take of the Arthurian tale.
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