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Billie Wichkan (118 KP) rated Tom's Inheritance in Books

May 22, 2019

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 hes to survive, he must learn to fight, and find courage he never knew he had.
Hes about to become part of a legend.
If you love magic, mystery, and Arthurian legend, youll love Toms 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.

Kudos

Bird (1700 KP) rated Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) in Movies

May 4, 2017

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!

Kudos

David McK (3245 KP) rated Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) in Movies

Apr 10, 2022 (Updated Feb 22, 2024)

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 ...

Kudos

Liz Phair recommended The Mists of Avalon in Books (curated)

"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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Kudos

David McK (3245 KP) rated Excalibur: The Legend of King Arthur in Books

Jan 30, 2019

If I'm honest, I'm not really that much of a graphic novel/comic book kinda guy: I usually prefer to let my imagination do the work rather than have it 'shown' to me (which is also why I don't always like TV/movie adaptations).

Having said that, I thought I would give this one a go anyway. A retelling of the Arthurian legend, this takes in pretty much all the main characters and events of that legend, but not necessarily all how I was familiar with them (it involves the seelie/unseelie (i.e. faeries) which I don't remember ever having been part of the legend before).

Starting with Arthur's conception and ending with his 'death' at Badon Hill, the novel also glosses over some of the less savory actions that Arthur is supposed to have carried out (ref Tristan and Isolde).

An OK read, and while yes, I may pick up some of the others in the series, this failed to really change my perception of graphic novels as a whole.