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 The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising #1)
The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising #1)
Kiersten White | 2019 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
9
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Authors own spin Shocking twists Revisiting camelot (0 more)
Waiting for the next book Might not be for everyone (0 more)
Camelot retelling
Guinevere is meeting king Arthur for the first time so they can be wed. Camelot has banned all magic, which Guinevere is skilled in.
I loved the authors twists on the classic arthurian ledgends. The big plot twist has me desperate for the next book.
  
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David McK (3402 KP) rated The Winter King - season 1 in TV

Feb 26, 2024 (Updated Feb 26, 2024)  
TW
The Winter King - season 1
2023 |
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Bernard Cornwell adaptations.

I (generally) like his books.

I've yet to encounter a good adaptation, with the possible exception of the 90s Sharpe series (with Sean Bean), although those definitely needed a bigger budget!

This is loosely based on Cornwell's 'Warlord' trilogy - The Winter King, Enemy of God and Excalibur - which Cornwell himself views as his best works.

They're a 'realistic' retelling of the Arthurian stories, basically.
  
Tom's Inheritance
Tom's Inheritance
T.J. Green | 2016
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
King Arthur is destined to return and Tom is destined to wake him.
When the Lady of the Lake summons Tom to the Other, she tells him he has to wake King Arthur from his long sleep on Avalon.
Tom starts a journey that will change his life forever.
He finds a world where magic still exists, and mythical creatures walk among fey. And he finds that the legends he thought were myth are very real.
So are ancient enemies.
If he’s to survive, he must learn to fight, and find courage he never knew he had.
He’s about to become part of a legend.
If you love magic, mystery, and Arthurian legend, you’ll love Tom’s Inheritance.

I have always enjoyed Arthurian tales but this beats the lot.
The characters are delightfully complex and intriguing, and all so different.
This is such a fun and magical adventure.
So beautifully written and descriptive.
I really, really enjoyed this story.
I am looking forward to getting started on the next book in the series Twice Born, which is about Merlin.
Can't wait to see where all the series leads.
  
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David McK (3402 KP) rated Arthur (The Arthurian Tales #3) in Books

Jun 30, 2024 (Updated Jun 30, 2024)  
Arthur (The Arthurian Tales #3)
Arthur (The Arthurian Tales #3)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the final entry in Giles Kristian's 'Arthurian Tales' trilogy, set after both 'Lancelot' and 'Camelot', and now told in the third person instead of the first person view of both those former works.

It's also the first one - I believe - to so heavily rely on flashbacks, paralleling the 'now' of the story with the background to one of the main characters Beran (whose identity I, personally, found quite easy to grok early on).

As a whole, I have to say, this trilogy is one of the best retellings of the Arthurian myths I have come across although retelling, however, may be too strong a word; perhaps a better on would be re-imagining as there's no mystical Green Knight (reimagined in 'Camelot'), search for the Holy Grails (again, see 'Camelot'), or mysterious women lying in ponds and distributing swords ("that's no basis for sound government..."), but which does cover the whole Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere love triangle (see, in particular, 'Lancelot') and the fall out thereof.

In short, all three novels are well worth a read - personally, I found I enjoyed these more than the 'Blood Eye' series by the same author.
  
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
1975 | Comedy
You can watch it 20 times (I have) and still find new gems of comedy genius (5 more)
The writing, quite unsurprisingly, is brutally intelligent
It manages to tickle your ribs at every opportunity
If you don't normally like Python, you can just remember bits of dialogue and sound like the master of wit in front of your friends.
Roger the shrubber, the Black Knight, coconuts, French insults and African Swallows. It's all in there!
Will distort your view of Arthurian legend forever
Makes Ben Hur Look Like An Epic!
  
I really enjoyed learning about the mythos of King Arthur and the legends and kinds that came before him and shaped his reign. Seriously, if you are at all into King Arthur and you want context on how these legends came about, pick this book up, it is worth the read.

In addition to this, I would read Pseudo-Ninnias' Historia Brittonum, Gildas' The Ruin of Britain, and Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. They will all help to understand all of the source material for the Arthurian Romances.
  
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David McK (3402 KP) rated Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) in Movies

Apr 10, 2022 (Updated Feb 22, 2024)  
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
1975 | Comedy
Ni!
Probably my favourite of the Monty Pythion movies - although I'm aware it gets short shrift next to The Life of Brian - with this being eminently quotable, and really just using the Arthurian Search for the Holy Grail legend as the clothes-line on which to lay skit after skit after skit:

In no particular order:

She's a witch!
Camelot. 'Tis a silly place
The Black Knight
There's some lovely mud over here!
The Knights who say Ni
Brave Sir Robin ran away ...

I could go on ...
  
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Liz Phair recommended The Mists of Avalon in Books (curated)

 
The Mists of Avalon
The Mists of Avalon
Marion Zimmer Bradley | 1982 | Fiction & Poetry
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"My mother gave me this book to read in high school when I was sick with malingering cold and missing out on social events. But it was absorbing, unlike any other historical fantasy I’d read. Viewing Arthurian legend through the eyes of the female characters upended my sense of history altogether, showing me that even real world events can be viewed through many lenses. I loved identifying with the enchantress turned crusader. So dramatic! The heart strings it plucked—sexual frisson, jealousy, courage, betrayal, magic power—perfectly aligned with my turbulent emotional state as a restless young woman."

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