Customer Reviews

Here Lies Arthur

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Synopsis:
Here Lies Arthur is an alternative take on the Arthurian legend, centering on the adventures of a young English girl named Gwynna. Made homeless when the Arthur of legend and his war band sack the homestead of her lord, she flees the battle and is later rescued in the woods by Myrddin, a bard who serves Arthur as an advisor and magician. Myrddin, a man who is agnostic by nature, uses Gwynna to masquerade as the lady of the lake and then raises her as a boy through the early part of her life. Gwynna watches the exploits of Arthur as she grows up, contrasting the rough, brutal man with the heroic stories Myrddin creates about him. The book ultimately follows her adventures and how they are intertwined with the legend of Arthur.

Review
Written by Philip Reeve, the author of the notable and very odd, Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles) science fiction series, Here Lies Arthur was originally published in England in 2007 to good reviews and a few awards. It now has made its way across the pond and has been published in the United States.

Unlike many of the fantasy style recountings of the Arthurian saga, Reeve chooses a realistic approach, framing the Arthurian saga in a more realistic world, made with politics and rough men who fit the period. Presented in the first person as narrated by the girl Gwynna, there is no magic in this story aside from that which Myrddin makes reference to in the many tall tales he tells to help establish Arthur as a hero.

Arthur himself is a rough and mostly non-heroic personage, who gains fame not through his own actions, but through the stories spun by Myrddin. Myrddin, who hopes to find a leader to unite England to stave off the depredations of the lawless world around them, is a charlatan with a ruthless nature. He only rescues Gwynna because she might serve a useful purpose to that effect. This is not the heroic tale of old, but a story of flawed men in a brutal world.

Reeve is a good writer. His style is solid and readable, and this book certainly is well written enough to keep one's attention. I have a few quibbles with his choice to switch from past tense to present tense on occasion. It breaks the flow of the story and seems to serve no purpose. But I suppose it was an artistic conceit.

I've always found the realistic take on legends to be an interesting artistic device. Reeve is not the first to do this sort of thing, though I think it's the first time I've seen it done with the Arthurian legend to such depth. And it's a fun tale in some regards, one which takes the old standards and characters of the legend and puts them into a realistic context. He does a good job of it too. It was fun linking the characters to the legend and seeing what he did with them.

That said, I have to admit that a lot of Young Adult fiction leaves me cold these days with its dark take on everything. In this case, it's almost like Reeve wanted to throw cold water onto all of the mythic and magical Arthurian legends by painting Arthur as much of a brutal product of his era as he possibly could. There is an underlying depressed tone to the whole tale, filled with the cynicism of its main character. The whole bent of the tale is that heroes are never what the legends say they are and that stories have more power than real people do. It's not really a worldview I subscribe to entirely, though I suppose it does have some truth to it.

In any case, if one is willing to overlook the tone of the novel, it is quite readable and somewhat entertaining. Reeve's fresh take on a well known legend will definitely appeal to a lot of readers.

in a sentence: Gwyna, a servant girl left behind after one of Arthur's raids, catches the eye of the famous wizard Myrddin. after Myrddin spots what might be some form of usefulness in the plain-faced orphan, Gwyna is in over her head and getting wrapped up in the legendary tale of Arthur.

we first meet little Gwyna as she's running away from the burning place she used to call home. a servant girl, used to being ignored (when she's not being kicked around), is shocked by the seeming kindness from the tall and clever storyteller. Myrddin has been spending his time weaving tales about wonderful and fantastic Arthur, although Gwyna knows just how crude, beastly, and aggressive Arthur really is.

without giving away any of the plot, Reeve takes the reader through some of the more famous people in the Arthurian legend. we meet Myrddin (Merlin), Arthur, Cei (Arthur's half-bro), Gwenhhwyfar (Guenevere), and others. this is not an "oh-my-gosh-Arthur-is-the-greatest-ever!" book. far from it. Reeve explores what some of the myths might have actually been like before the test of time and the romanticizing of the legend. mostly, the focus is on Gwyna, who is the narrator and Myrddin as the master behind Arthur's power.

while this is a clever idea with beautiful writing and turns of phrase, and creative characters, i found myself bored at points. Gwyna made a great narrator, though i felt that her self-professed plainness seeped through to her character development. there were insightful musings on what boys are like, what girls are like, why girls aren't mentioned in famous legends unless as a bad person or as a prize for the men, why war was glamorized, etc. the weaving of myth and reality made for excellent story-telling techniques, but i can't help feeling that there was so much potential to be tapped here, and it just fell flat for me.

fave quote: "The real Arthur had been just a little tyrant in an age of tyrants. What mattered about him was the stories." (331)

fix er up: the pacing of the book. the elaborate visual storytelling techniques and fresh ideas couldn't make up for the sluggish pace for me.

This book was a decent version of the Arthurian legend, although not my favorite. The main character is a girl named Gwyna who, after her village is destroyed, has to work for Myrddin, the novel's version of Merlin. Over the years he has her perform different roles for him in various diguises.

This was a rather dark retelling of the Arthur story - in this version he is a rather brutal king who is only famous because of the stories Myrddin tells about him. Teenagers and adults who are extremely interested in the subject might enjoy the book as a new twist on the story, but readers without much of an interest in the subject matter will probably want to pass on it, it's nothing special on it's own in my opinion, and I found it a bit depressing honestly.

I'm not sure if the title of the novel, Here Lies Arthur, is unconsciously apt or deliberately ironic. The narrator of this young adult novel purports to reveal the historical truth behind the myth and the grim reality hidden within the mystery. She deep sixes not only Arthur himself but the legend of Arthur, all the mystery and magic and heroism and nobility and we're left with a grim story in a world where honor and virtue do not exist. The author argues in his end note that this "is not a historical novel" and it is not meant to portray "the real Arthur." Nevertheless, the narrator claims to be revealing the truth behind the stories and the major theme of the novel is that stories are just pretty lies that cover up ugly truths and have no greater meaning than to make us feel good about ourselves.

Everything that makes the legend of King Arthur, the once and future king, the greatest story of English folklore, everything that makes the tale worth telling and retelling, has been ruthlessly eviscerated leaving a hollow shell of a story. In this version Arthur is a brigand, a petty warlord running a protection racket: "The real Arthur had been just a tyrant in an age of tyrants. What mattered about him was the stories." It's a cynical postmodern take that misses why the stories are important: that at the heart of the stories is a deeper truth and it is that truth that draws storytellers, poets and readers to revisit Arthur again and again.

I'm in my 40s, but I read a fair amount of YA fantasy because my teenager does, and I enjoy sharing a love of reading with him. 'Here Lies Arthur' is no Harry Potter or Brisingr, but it is one of the better YA fantasies I've read this year.

The concept is interesting. As many have said, this is a tale of a young girl, Gwynna, who is taken in by Arthur's bard, Myrddin (Merlin), after Arthur's gang of warlords burns Gwynna's home down. Myrddin doesn't take the girl in out of kindness - but because he sees in her a means to an end, a way to spin a tale about the Greatness of Arthur. Gwynna does so well in this first deceit that Myrddin can't bring himself to throw her out - he cuts her hair and says she's a boy in service to him, and he brings her everywhere. Since Myrddin follows Arthur everywhere, so then does Gwynna, and this is Gwynna's tale about Arthur and Merlin and 'what really happened'.

I loved this conceit, and the idea of bringing along a bard who tells so many stories about you that you start to believe them yourself, and so the man grows into the legend. A nice twist. And although my knowledge of Arthurian lore is pretty cursory, I did enjoy recognizing the emergence of several characters as familiar pieces in the traditional Arthur Legend. I also enjoyed the take on Christianity, and the various gender-switching storylines. All in all, a really different and engaging take on a familiar tale. I see that some reviewers complained that the book stripped the Arthurian Legend of magic and romance - but that's the point here. It's a peek behind the curtain.

The stories and action are interesting, the writing is solid and vivid, and slant is unique so far as I know. The book as a whole held my interest most of the way through- but it did lose me in a few narrative sections. Minor quibbles: First person is difficult, and one has to have a really unique voice to pull it off, and I don't think this book completely succeeded here. Further, although most of the book is in the past tense, there are spots where the author uses first-person-present tense. These moments pulled me out of the story and seemed pretentious to me.

Bottom Line: A well-written, engaging and different read for anyone who enjoys Fantasy as a genre or Arthurian lore in particular. Appropriate for Middle School - Adult.

I found this book to be a different, very interesting take on the Arthur legend. Much less romanticized than anything else I have read, it is easy to let yourself believe that this version is probably much more likely than many of the other tales. Keep in mind that this book is written for YOUNG ADULTS and the person who ranted about the quality, comparing it to Mists of Avalon, seems to have forgotten that. Yes, it was easy reading, but not so bad an adult couldn't enjoy it, as I am and did! I would recommend this to anyone, young or old, who is looking for a fresh look at an old legend.

My dissertation director told a story once, that after reading his paper on Malory at a conference, a large, red-headed Welshman challenged him thusly: "Sir, if you do not believe in King Arthur, then you have no poetry in your soul."

Mr. Reeve has no poetry in his soul.

I can only presume the title is a clever pun on the word 'lie', because that's the new twist that this author takes on the Arthurian legend. Arthur has nothing to recommend him: a brutal, womanizing, spouse-abusing pig of a man. Merlin (pretentiously Myrddin here) is a cunning atheist/arch manipulator. Nice to see Guenevere is still adulterous, but she's taken down a peg here, too: here, she's ugly. The whole point of the novel a screed on the evils and abuses of propaganda, where we *all* become the dummies who believe the pretty story instead of looking beyond them to the truth. Yes, that's how deep Reeve's cynicism goes--he obliquely attacks anyone with a sense of wonder and believer in larger-than-life as being just as gullible as the great unwashed of the sixth century.

This wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't a Young Adult title. I see my classrooms filled with hopeless, sighing, nihilism and unearned cynicism enough--Reeve's work feeds directly into that. No one and nothing is admirable, and the only recourse is to escape entirely. That's the theme of the book, and I really don't think that's a terrific message to a generation already half tuned-out.

Along its way of demolishing anything bright or admirable about the Arthurian legend, it also takes swipes at Gawain and the Green Knight (though thankfully Reeve was thoughtful enough to leave my beloved Gawain out of this wreck entirely), the Mabinogion, and a few other canonical works--even a vague nod toward Hercules hiding among the women. He claims it's not a 'historical novel', and he's right. He totally ignores the vital Celtic relationship of uncle to sister's son, for example, that makes/would have made the betrayals in the novel even more poignant.
He botches great amounts of history, starting with that no one, not even in the Celtic world, fought any time after harvest. In fact, the novel is anti-history, since, of course, it's all just a lie.

It's a very pretty lie, of course, and I can't fault Reeve's prose. He can write an evocative sentence. The costume/gender changes come almost comically too fast toward the end, and if you're freaked out by crossdressing, this might not work for you. He shifts POV a little roughly--most of the book is from Gwyna's perspective, but it jars out occasionally to someone else.

As a medievalist, I appreciate Reeve's spin, but I can't bring myself to like it. I like my wonder tales with a bit of wonder, and though he claims to love the Arthur mythos, this strikes me as bordering on blasphemy. Read Lloyd Alexander instead.

One of the reviewers here labels this a good historical fantasy, but this is not a fantasy at all. It's a very grim and gritty version of Arthur and Merlin/Myrddin where Arthur, The Bear, has a fleshy face, thick neck, and small and dark eyes and is a raider who in one scene kicks a man in the face until his teeth come out. Ribbons of blood are always flowing downstream. Gwyn/Gwyna the hero/heroine is always going through nettles and gorse and diving naked into pools in the middle of winter. It's brought up again and again how unattractive she is. It's one of those very simply written kids' books but with very adult themes: violence, bloodshed, adultery, suicide, etc. It's up for awards in England. Merlin, due to losing his family at the hand of the Saxons, and being made a slave by them tries to build this boorish raider into a great king and fails tragically. There's no magic, just conniving. Gwyn learns to be almost as big a conniver as Myrddin and helps broaden the Arthur legend after his gruesomely bloody death, one eye gone, blood slopping out. I guess the point I'm trying to get across is that the book is not for some kids, so don't buy it hoping for A Sword in the Stone to give it to some young one who loves the magic of the Arthur legend. Buy it for the realism of that period in England's history.

My giving it two stars is due to the failure of the book to keep me interested. I'm someone who doesn't mind realistic portrayals. I guess I thought it was too gritty at times, the negatives piling up again and again. The only beauty I seem to remember portrayed was the knights in red cloaks on white horses. Maybe this book can be used to lead kids gently into reading George R. R. Martin's series on the Lannisters (which I love, by the way). My big issue is with the simplicity of the writing: "The little girls laugh, the bigger ones chatter. Even Lady Gwenhwyfar, going ahead of us, is smiling. We are going to picnic by the riverside." I want something with a little more richness of detail.

Ah, King Arthur. Has any figure from legend become more... well, legendary? Just looking around at my personal possessions at home, I find that I own books about Arthur (Knight Life, One Knight Only and The Fall of Knight), as well as a couple movies (Excalibur and Monty Python's Holy Grail). I've even used it as a jumping-off point for my own works. As a storyteller within my own universe of role-playing games, I have a vampire character based of Sir Tristan and a story centering around the true origins of Excalibur and Merlin was a major turning point in my gaming universe.


Then of course there's all the other Arthur-related stuff out there. Everything from The Once and Future King to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, to things like Merlin and The Mists of Avalon and The Sword in the Stone. Truly, one would be hard-pressed to find a greater inspiration for much of Western culture than the stories of King Arthur. Only the Bible comes to mind as a great rival to the title.


Now comes Here Lies Arthur, a young-adult book that tries to tell a more "historical" version of Arthur, making him a borderline barbarian only made great through the efforts of his bard, Myrddin. Most of the major characters of the Arthur stories are here and recognizable, though often with names different from what we're used to (Sir Kay is named Cei, Sir Bevedere is Bedwyr, Percival is Perdur). Absent are Morgan le Fey, Modred and Lancelot (who, from what I recall, was originally a French character who got added to the mythos around the 12th century), but they aren't missed.

The tale is told through the eyes of a young sometimes-girl, Gwyna. She turns up when her master's farm is attacked by Arthur's raiders. She escapes and swims to safety where Myrddin rescues her. Impressed by her ability to hold her breath, he comes up with a plan to have her hide under water and pass a certain sword onto a certain barbarian warlord (though as well all know, watery tarts distributing swords is no basis for a system of government).

From there Gwyna winds up spending a great deal of time hanging out with Arthur's merry band of raiders. Most of this time she spends in the company of Myrddin, learning all she can from the old man (mostly learning about the power of stories, something fans of Terry Pratchett will find to be a familiar concept). She's present for some of the great moments of the myth, like the introduction of the Round Table and is the one who finds out that Arthur's wife is not perhaps as loyal to him as he might wish.

The book is well-written and entertaining and obviously heavily researched. It tells a good tale of what life might've been like during the time after the Romans left England but before the Saxons took over completely. It offers a good explanation for how much of the Arthurian legends might've come to be.

The one slightly weak point for me was the character of Gwyna. She's mostly a passive observer who doesn't do terribly much to advance the story (though she does help a young girl named Peri come to a realization about herself). Mostly Gwyna is just sort of there, watching and listening and being our eyes and ears. There's nothing really wrong with this per se, but a better story might've been done through the viewpoint of Myrddin.

Still, for anyone looking for a more historical, but still fictional, version of Arthur, you might well enjoy this book.

Call me old-fashioned, but as a parent and teacher, I have generally assumed that a book from Scholastic Press would not, if books were rated like movies, have an R rating for language, frontal nudity, gender confusion, and adult themes. Just because the narrator is a youth does not make the book suitable for all youth, and just because Philip Reeve has appropriated the King Arthur theme does not make his book suitable for schools.

That Britons fighting Anglo-Saxons use four-letter Anglo-Saxon words for body functions is ironic to the point of comedic. That Christians are consistently portrayed as hypocrites or villains while the "old gods" persist as better spirits seems a view of the twenty-first century, not the fifth. That the traditional good guy (Arthur) is the villain and the traditional bad guy (Mordred, or Medwrat) is a sensitive figure is just silly. Now, if Reeve had intended to show that Arthur and bishops, like all mortals, could have been flawed men, he would have had a more believable take on the characters. However, Reeve has simply transposed the villains and heroes. The persistence of unflawed characters in the book, then, renders its classification as a reality check on human nature an impossibility.

Holt's *Adventures in Appreciation*, a high school literature textbook published in 1996, points out that each generation takes the Arthurian legend and makes it its own, a principle that kept rattling around in my head as I read this book. If one combines that thought with another from Gene Veith--that post-modernists consider the primary use of language as a mask for the truth--it is easier to understand this book. For example, the Merlin figure (called Myrddin by Reeve) is presented as a storyteller whose primary purpose is to spin false legends about an evil warlord (Arthur) to enhance the "king's" prestige in an effort to consolidate Britons against the Saxons. In fact, the very title of the book, *Here Lies Arthur*, is a double entendre perceived more aptly as *Here Arthur Tells Lies*.

All of the supernatural elements of the old legend, thus, become circus tricks engineered by a nasty bard who commits acts of treachery and questionable behavior toward the young. Mix this together with the girl who is raised as a boy and the boy who is raised as a girl and you have a legend that leaves the reader wondering--why? Perhaps if Reeve had spun his tale of treachery and gender confusion in a Britano-Saxon setting without the Arthurian trimmings, the tale would have been more acceptable. As it is, I was simply left with the feeling that Reeve had piggy-backed his tale on the fame of King Arthur in order to make a few more sales. Unless students are researching how various generations adapt the legend of Arthur, I'd send them elsewhere for a tale of Camelot.