One King, One Soldier [Kindle Edition]

Alexander Irvine (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

More what-if fantasy than secret history like his well-received debut, A Scattering of Jades (2002), Irvine’s literate second novel asks some provocative questions: What if centuries of retellings of ancient myths actually convey disguised truths? What if the Holy Grail was really a piece of the Ark of the Covenant? What if the Grail controls much of human history? In 1953, wounded Korean War vet Lance Porter meets poet Jack Spicer in San Francisco. Spicer sees Lance as the Fisher King, destined to regain the Grail, heal himself and restore the land. The poet tells Lance he’s "a serious monkey wrench in a very old plan" involving the Grail. Nothing in his life is as it seemed and people want him dead. Two subplots involve barnstorming baseball player George Gibson, who becomes the bearer of the Grail and undertakes a journey across Africa, and Arthur Rimbaud, past his days as a youthful poet and now a gunrunner in Africa. Irvine mixes myth, history, baseball, poetry, several belief systems and clear prose for an enchanting read. Sketchy characterizations are more symbolic than substantial, but they don’t distract from the magic of the tale. FYI: Irvine has won Crawford, Locus and International Horror Guild awards, all for best new writer.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Still nursing a shrapnel wound from his recent Korean War service, Lance Porter repairs to an unlikely locale for a straight-laced small-town boy from Michigan-- 1950s San Francisco--in response to a cryptic letter from his girlfriend. She insists they rendezvous in nearby Berkeley, but before Lance can pinpoint her whereabouts, a chance encounter with homosexual poet and amateur magician Jack Spicer (an actual figure, 1925-65) opens the door to an exhilarating, sometimes disturbing adventure. As the two form an uneasy bond, Spicer draws startling parallels between the circumstances of Lance's life and the legend of King Arthur. Soon Lance forgets the girlfriend, surrenders his virginity to a Spicer acquaintance, and is almost murdered by a train-yard hobo as complications multiply. Relative newcomer Irvine, already widely and well noticed, here enhances his reputation with a sharply written blend of mystery and offbeat fantasy that should please fans of both genres as well as some, at least, of those caught up in the current, Da Vinci Code-inspired enthusiasm for Holy Grail mythology. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 319 KB
• Print Length: 352 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0345466969
• Publisher: Del Rey (July 27, 2004)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FC1TEY
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,503 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Native of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Writer of books, comics, games etc. Fan of Detroit sports, any and all soccer. PhD, former professor. Father of three. Resident of Maine. Favorite writers, in no particular order: Cervantes, Borges, Murakami, Dick, Pynchon, Herriman, Chaucer, Kelly. Ask me again tomorrow, the list would be slightly different.

Some favorite books, not written by people on the previous list (but all written by people who might have been on the list on a different day), and again in no particular order: Sarah Canary, Gould's Book of Fish, Geek Love, Midnight's Children, Song of Solomon...

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars cutting edge urban fantasy, July 28, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One King, One Soldier (Paperback)

After his knee shattered in the Korean War, Lance Porter goes to San Francisco to recover from his wounds. While in the hospital, he receives a letter from his girlfriend Ellie who tells him to wait for her to come to him because she has something important to tell him. Thinking that she is coming west because she has become a communist, he explores the Bay Area looking to see if there really are communists in Berkley where Ellie will be staying.

He meets Jack a gay poet who seems to believe that Lance is the Fisher King, the man destined to find the Holy Grail, the missing piece of the Ark of the Covenant. He learns from Jack that his twin brother Dewy, who disappeared when he was twelve years old, resides in a small Canadian town. He travels to see Dewy, who tells him that he was chosen by their father to carry out the family heritage but is abdicating in favor of Lance since death surround those who have the Holy Grail. Lance and Elle search for the Holy Grail and evade the people who are searching for it, intent on having it or kill his enemies in a holy war.

Readers who want something different in their fantasy reading will enjoy ONE KING, ONE SOLDIER. It is cutting edge urban fantasy and the protagonist must discover the truth about himself and his family if he is to fulfill his quest. This is a different archetype on the Arthurian legend, one that is keeping with modern day society. Alexander C. Irvine has written a fantastic work of speculative fiction that will change the way readers think of urban fantasy.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 3rd rate Tim Powers, July 24, 2005

By 

jeric_synergy (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One King, One Soldier (Paperback)

I might have liked this book a LOT more if I hadn't stumbled over one, maybe two factual errors in the beginning-- that set the stage for me to wonder how accurate the rest of the book's 'facts' were:

The author refers to an "MRE box" in the Korean War, 1953 to be exact. According to my sources, MREs weren't even in development until 1966, and not deployed until the 70's at the earliest. Korean soldiers still used C-rations. Definite big-time miss.

Secondly, and not so surely, he refers to a baseball game between the S.F. Seals and the Seattle Pilots. Now, I know the Pilots had a couple of instantiations, but I BELIEVE (but am not sure) that in 1953 the Seattle minor-league club was the "Rainiers".

If you're going to do the Tim Powers "Conflate modern history with ancient myth" schtick, you have to be rigorous in your research.

Other than that, the plot seemed jumbled, the motivations poorly delineated, and the characters' actions random. Too bad, I enjoy this type of thing, but "Last Call" did it far better.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very strange book, May 22, 2005

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One King, One Soldier (Paperback)

This book is really very strange, with combinaions of history, fantasy, Arthurian legends, and the myth of the Holy Grail. It goes from Korea to the United States, to Canada, Europe and Africa. There are historical characters mixed in with the fictional ones, and it's very difficult to tell when the historical folks are acting as they would have in reality. The story is quite convoluted, and keeps skipping back and forth in time, and also in place, so that your head begins to spin at times. I can't fault the writing, because it is good, but there's just too much oddity going on to rate it any higher than I have.