Here Lies Arthur, by Philip Reeve

Image Source

Welcome to the dark side of Camelot.

Gwyna is just a girl who is forced to run when her village is attacked and burned to the ground. To her horror, she is discovered in the wood. But it is Myrddin the bard, a traveller and spinner of tales, who has found her. He agrees to protect Gwyna if she will agree to be bound in service to him.  Gwyna is frightened but intrigued - and says yes - for this Myrddin serves the young, rough, and powerful Arthur. 

In the course of their travels, Myrddin transforms Gwyna into the mysterious Lady of the Lake, a boy warrior, and a spy. It is part of a plot to transform Arthur from the leader of a ragtag war-band into King Arthur, the greatest hero of all time. 

If Gwyna and Myrddin's trickery is discovered, what will become of Gwyna? Worse, what will become of Arthur? Only the endless battling, the mighty belief of men, and the sheer cunning of one remarkable girl will tell.

Before I read this book, I thought it was fantasy. Maybe this had something to do with THE PURPLE STICKER WITH  A UNICORN ON IT AND THE WORD "FANTASY" that some librarian had stuck to the spine, EVEN THOUGH THIS BOOK IS VERY BLATANTLY NOT FANTASY AT ALL. Seriously? 

Anyway. This book is not fantasy. And the opening chapters didn't interest me much. But I kept reading anyway, because I love King Arthur. 

Then Myrddin (read: Merlin) was introduced, and I couldn't stop reading. 

It's not fantasy. Turns out, that's why I love it. 

The main character is called Gwyna. If you're expecting her to turn out to be Guinevere, like I was, stop it. STOP IT! She's not. I thought she was going to, until the real Guinevere, Gwenhwyfar, showed up. Gwyna is a nice name, but to give it to a character in an Arthur story besides Guinevere is rather misleading.

The book opens with Gwyna escaping from her village being burned down - by Arthur. She escapes, swimming most of the way - she's an excellent swimmer, and she can stay underwater for ages. She runs into the bard Myrddin, and tells him what's happened to her, and he's like 

Image Source

as he sees how he can make use of her in his plans to turn Arthur into the greatest king ever.

IT'S LADY OF THE LAKE TIME! 

(...And because I have no self-control: 

Image Source

Let me tell you, nothing ruins reading stuff about King Arthur like that movie. Worth it, though.) 

So. The sword is given to Arthur, and everyone thinks it's amazing and magical and wonderful. Myrddin can't just leave Gwyna out alone in the wilderness to die, and he can't take her with him as a girl, especially since there's a risk of her being recognised, so he takes her along disguised as a boy named Gwyn.

The girl-disguised-as-a-boy is a ridiculously common plot device in historical fiction and fantasy. RIDICULOUSLY common. Because, I suppose, the boys had all the good adventures, but we want good female characters. I don't know what it is, but this is one of my favourite examples of it. It's just really really well done or something. I dunno. It was really good.

Now let's talk about characters. Gwyna is an excellent character. I like her. Other characters I like: Peredur (read: Perceval), and Cei (read: Kai) - I always like it when Kai is a likable character; there's no reason he has to be nasty!

I almost always like Merlin characters. I can't think of a Merlin who hasn't been a character I've liked. I thought I was going to like Myrddin. I don't like Myrddin. He's brilliantly written, but he's also utterly unlikable.

...Just like about every other character, actually. Arthur is a horrible man. So are most of his knights, with the exceptions of Peredur and Cei. And Gwenhwyfar is portrayed as extremely selfish. But all of them are well-written and fascinating, and no one was the way you'd expect them to be - and it WORKED.

Image Source

This book isn't about to dislodge my favourite King Arthur (even more favourite than The Sword in the Stone) from its top spot - that would be The Squire's Tales by Gerald Morris. They're about Terence, Sir Gawain's squire. They're hilarious and brilliant, and one of the reasons I love them more than this is because they're the ones I want to be true. This sounds stupid, but I want a world where magic is real, and King Arthur is wise and courageous and kind, and Merlin is a great wizard, and while some of the knights are idiots and some of them are awful people, many of them really are courageous and chivalrous and really do wear shining armour, and try to help people wherever they can, and don't fight if there's a better option, and some of them would rather be farmers, and some of them are brilliantly sarcastic. And sometimes they debate the proper past tense of the word "cleave" while they try to kill each other. And I ♥ Gawain. 

Here Lies Arthur is a great book and excellently written, but I don't want it to be true, and it's not about a world where I want to live.

I'm giving it five stars nevertheless.

In Six Words: Myrddin wants Arthur to be hero.