Customer Reviews

Legends of the Pendragon (Pendragon Fiction, 6211)

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Every now and then I get a hankerin' to read some tales of Arthur and his knights that were written in the modern era. Really, I'm too lazy to dedicate myself to a full novel, so it's fortunate that one can dig up Arthurian short story anthologies here and there. Since this volume at hand features a tale by Phyllis Ann Karr, author of the superlative "Idylls of the Queen" (starring the oft-maligned Sir Kay), I thought I'd give it a shot.

Besides Ms. Karr, the anthology also includes contributions by Cherith Baldry (author of another Sir Kay novel), Darrell Schweitzer, Peter Garratt, Keith Taylor (all of whom also were present in an unrelated anthology, "Shakespearean Whodunnits"), and more. Several of the authors are also RPG designers or have edited collections of fantasy game-related fiction.

My favorites from this volume were Alex Kolker's "Forethought", in which Merlin tells the story of Prometheus, "Tea and Company" by Valerie Frankel, about the domestic arrangements of Merlin and Niniane (Nimue), "A Spear in the Night" by Mr. Taylor, which tells of Merlin's meeting with a young Tor, Aaron Rosenberg's "Six for the Sword", which posits that Arthur was merely one of a half dozen possible candidates cultivated by Merlin to pull the sword from the stone, and John Steele's "A Time of Blood and Steel", which in some ways is about the unlikely friendship between Sir Brastias and Sir Ulfyus. Also good are Mr. Schweitzer's elegiac "The Last of the Giants of Albion" and Clarissa Akyrod's "Follow", which deals with Sir Pellinore and the Questing Beast.

This collection had a pretty good batting average: about half of the stories were very good, most of the rest were solid while not terribly exceptional, and only a couple were subpar. Overall, there's actually comparatively little written about Arthur himself and virtually nothing of Lancelot or Gawain or Guinevere. But quite a bit of Merlin, and of the pre-Arthur histories of Uther Pendragon and his predecessors, and much about the knights of lesser acclaim.

So if you crave a taste of Camelot, as it were, this should be quite your thing, especially if you'd like to delve into the dustier nooks and crannies of Arthurian lore. Whether you're a knight or damsel, or merely some contemptible churl, give it a shot.

I'm one of those people who grew up loving the Arthurian mythos, and never stopped. I always enjoy a new take on the legends, particularly when the alternate possibilities are explored--what would be "alternate history" if we could prove that the legends were real!

For those who are interested, here is the table of contents:

Keystones by Shannon Appelcline
Hel's Daughter by Nancy Varian Berberick
Dragons of the Mind by Peter T. Garratt
Nimue's Song by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
Forethought by Alex Kolker
The Time in Between by Beth Anderson
Tea and Company by Valerie Frankel
A Spear in the Night by Keith Taylor
The Likeness of Her Lord by C. A. Gardner
The Lesson of the Other by Steen Jensen
Squire Kay in Love by Phyllis Ann Karr
The King Who Is To Come by Cherith Baldry
Six for the Sword by Aaron Rosenberg
Jester's Luck by Gene Stewart
A Time of Blood and Steel by John H. Steele
The Enthronement of Arthur by Andrew H. W. Smith
The Last of the Giants of Albion by Darrell Schweitzer
The Scream of the Gulls by Joe Murphy
Follow by Clarissa Aykroyd
The Questing Girl by Cory Rushton