Lancelot Du Lethe [Anglais] [Broché]

Sir Thomas Malory meets Marion Zimmer Bradley head on in this unfocused retelling of the Arthurian legends. King began his version of the tales in Mad Merlin (2000); here, amid much gratuitous bloodletting, he finishes the job. As the title indicates, the book adopts the perspective of Lancelot, Camelot's greatest knight. Son to the king of Benwick, he loses parents and kingdom while still a child, and is reared by an "Aunt Brigid" of Avalon. Lancelot's capture by the Four Queens, his rescue of Guinevere from Meleagaunce and other familiar adventures are intermixed with a mishmash of Roman, Celtic and Christian mythology, loosely glued together by a paramysticism reminiscent of Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. Malory's and Bradley's works brilliantly exhibit their respective visions. Sadly, King's vision is less clear. In attempting to draw on Malory's heroic chivalry and Bradley's revisionist mysticism, he seeks the best of both worlds and ultimately achieves neither. King's flashes of brilliance, frequently found in his descriptions of natural images, don't compensate for a choppy, movie-influenced style that renders even potentially stirring scenes in laundry-list prose. Furthermore, too much of the book is devoted to a convoluted justification for Lancelot and Guinevere's betrayal of an unsympathetic King Arthur. Lovers of "The Matter of Britain" would do better to turn to King's sources rather than his results.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Destined at birth to be Camelot's greatest knight and its deadliest foe, the child known as Lancelot grows up on the Isle of Avalon, unknowing of his fate. The author of Mad Merlin continues his fresh approach to the Arthurian legend with a story of timeless love in a mythical world touched by magic and the land of the fey. King's talent for vivid descriptions and deft characterization makes this saga of the legendary knight and his ill-fated love affair seem new. Recommended for most fantasy collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

" ... a marvelous spin on the tale of Camelot and the Arthur - Guinevere - Lancelot triangle ... a wonderful weaving of various mythologies" --Locus

"Sir Thomas Mallory meets Marion Zimmer Bradley head on ... flashes of brilliance" --Publishers Weekly

"King's talent for vivid descriptions and deft characterization makes this saga of the legendary knight and his ill-fated love affair seem new." - Library Journal

The story of Lancelot is one of striving for perfection in the company of men only to fall short due to the sins of the flesh...but in Lancelot Du Lethe the most famous of the Knights of the Round Table is only partially of the mortal realm. He and Guinevere share a mystical bond of which Arthur can not be a part for they are both of the bloodline of the fey, and are immortally destined to be betrothed. This ensuing war of loyalties and love threatens not just the uneasy peace of the mortal realm, but of the entire netherworld of the multi-pantheons of gods as well.

Drawing from Joseph Campbell, and from sources both historical and literary, this is a new take on the story of Camelot's most famous knight as told as only the author of Mad Merlin can.

J. Robert King is an Origins Award-winning author for his gaming fiction. Lancelot Du Lethe is the second book of his Arthurian trilogy that also includes Mad Merlin and Le Morte D'Avalon. He lives in Burlington, Wisconsin.