Lancelot Du Lethe (Hardcover)

As good as Mad Merlin was, this book is just so much richer that it's hard to believe. Anybody familiar with the Arthurian legends knows of the ill-fated love between Guinevere and Lancelot, and how the betrayal of Arthur affects Camelot and everything around it. While sticking to the basics of the legend, King adds so much more to the tapestry that it reads like a new tale. While Mad Merlin added the war between the gods, Lancelot du Lethe adds a great deal of detail to the land of the Fey, and the magical world that lies beneath and between the real world of man. Guinevere is of this land, and while she is married to Arthur in order to bring peace and stability to the land, she is drawn to Lancelot and his otherworldness. He harbours a secret of his own and draws her to him even more, a secret that even he doesn't know about. They are fated to be lovers as well, and this adds the main conflict to the story. The choices that King has the characters make are hard choices, and there are always consequences to them. He doesn't give them an easy way out like some authors do.

Guinevere is much more developed in this book than the last one. It was about Arthur and Merlin, and Guinevere was mainly a means to an end, a character that served a purpose and wasn't a whole lot more. Here, though, she comes into her own. She is a kind and good queen, but she is a woman who is living in a sexless marriage because if she gives in to Arthur, everything will be destroyed. When Lancelot shows up, she is inexplicably drawn to him. Their romance is tragic, even more tragic than in many tellings of the legends. Lancelot is a good man as well, and he knows what he feels will hurt Arthur. He continues to try and deny his feelings but he feels like he must follow his heart. King masterfully tells the story of how they dance around each other and their feelings, and Arthur's feelings as well, until ultimately something has to give. These are all good people, and the reader feels the tragedy even more because of that.

Other characters are not so well drawn, as they interact with these three only peripherally. I sometimes questioned the choices King made in this. Morgan le Fay and her son Mordred don't really come across very well. Morgan has plans for Lancelot but these plans are foiled more out of authorial fiat than by anything Lancelot actually does. She does have a hand in the tragic ending, much like in the legends, but she plays a relatively minor role overall. This is a shame because she's in the book a lot, and always lurking in the background and behind Mordred's plans as well. Mordred also doesn't come across as very interesting, and if King wasn't keeping to the basics of the legend, I would have liked to have seen a more interesting villain. As it is, his character is given more weight by his place in the stories that King is using than by King himself. And Merlin only makes a couple of token appearances. His first appearance is superfluous, however, and his second only provides a story element before he goes back to his wonderful life with his lady love. I think it would have been a better book either without him, or with a meatier part to the story.

Again, King does a wonderful job with the tools he is given and extrapolates very well, giving the story a fresh feel even as we know the basics of what is going to happen. The prose is again wonderful, with rich descriptions and vivid scenes. The interesting thing is how he extends the tales, and King delivers in spades. Sure, there are familiar items: other knights (Galahad, Gawain), the Holy Grail and the Spear of Longinus). However, the rich descriptions of the fairy world, the way King uses the fairies to supplement the intrigue in the real world, and the tragic elements King adds to the romance, all do their jobs nicely. Even when you know what's going to happen, you really don't. That's the perfect way to retell a legend.

There is another minor problem with the book, however. This is the almost anecdotal feel to the book. It almost seems like a set of stories with an overarching theme, almost like a "Stories of King Arthur and the Round Table" with stories that mainly center on Lancelot. While this may give it a feel of the old legends, I found it kind of distracting in a 450 page book that's not really a short story book. This problem is alleviated later on once events start rolling down the hill to their inevitable oblivion. But at first, it is a problem.

I will say that the ending is very fitting, though. King really outdoes his first book there. It's tragic yet it also has a glimmer of hope. It also provides the perfect bookend with the first book. Together, they make a wonderful visit to the land of Arthur, taking you back to the old days of jousts, chivalry, warriors in plate armour, and romance. I had a great time on my trip.

David Roy

This book both adheres to the stock story of Mallory and varies wildly from it. It follows most of the major events of Mallory, such as the kidnapping of Guinevere, Lancelot's stewardship of the Joyous Garde, the birth of Galahad and his travails with the Holy Grail, and countless others. Its major departure, however, lies in the Otherworld origins of both Guinevere and Lancelot, their joint history as changelings, and the ensuing betrothals at their births. Mr. King uses these events to justify Lancelot and Guinevere's respective betrayals of Arthur and manages to have them all make nice-nice at the end. The ultimate end of the story and the impending end of Lancelot's days were downright poignant.

This is really obscure, but I found myself thinking of the fabulous baseball movie, "Eight Men Out", after I finished this book. The end that Lancelot came to in "Lancelot du Lethe" reminded me of the end that Shoeless Joe Jackson came to in the movie. If you saw the movie, you'll know what I mean. If not, I apologize for the oblique reference.

Anyway, I found this book to be a satisfactory addition to the genre of Arthurian literature and would recommend it to all fans.