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was an interesting take on the legends, but I felt that it didn't stay true to the spirit of the old stories.
That ruined it for me, It stripped away the magic, and instead of feeling like a historical take, it felt IMO too pessimistic for me to like it.


I don't recommend this to lovers of the legends, .stars

I read this book over two years ago, so it's definitely been awhile, What made me remember Here Lies Arthur was a conversation I overheard yesterday in which a mother was looking for more Arthurian tales to recommend to heryearold, who "just loved 'The Mists of Avalon.
'" When my eyes uncrossed themselves at the madness of ayearold reading that piece of crap clearly adult novel or watching the miniseries which I did accidentally atand was incredibly disturbed/scarred by it.
. . I remembered Here Lies Arthur, and how I would have offered it up as a suggestion just to be cheeky.


First, though, a confession: I have not had the best of luck with Philip Reeve books, I tried and ultimately gave up on that steampunk novel of his a few years ago, However, I remember liking Here Lies Arthur enough, and actually finding it rather interesting and entertaining, which brings me to my next confession: I have a deep loathing of King Arthur stories.
Seriously, I hate them with every fiber of my being, The only nongagworthy King Arthur story or rendition, in my opinion, is Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Ah, for the saving grace of humor, But like most people in the US, I'd reckon, I had to read the King Arthur legends in high school.
For us, we compared/contrasted Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur with White's The Once and Future King.
I am still waiting on someone to explain to me where "virtue" and "chivalry" come into the mix with these stories, because I've always seen Arthur and his knights except Galahad as wanton, misogynistic, and somewhat authoritarian.
I've never understood the "great truth" that these stories supposedly represent, Like I'm waiting for someone to come up and pull the wool over my eyes, too, so I'll see what everybody else sees.


So what do I do with a novel that imagines legendary, "heroic" King Arthur as a brute and a bully I devour it.
In the caes of Here Lies Arthur, Reeve goes in the direction of realism, trying to portray ath/th century England as it probably was: grim, gritty and violent.
Yeah, okay. Frankly, the work of any fiction author is, at the end of the day, just guesswork, no matter how much research they say was undertaken.
I don't actively seek out realism in the books I read, mainly because I get enough of the "real world" and all its amorality/existentialism in real life, so I actively seek out fantasy.

So while I'm not one to usually like stories in which humanityingeneral is devoid of goodness or virtue, I do think that it worked in this story.
Why Because like I said, I didn't think the original source material had any of these positive qualities, either, In my opinion, "huzzah" to Reeve for showing Arthur as I've always seen him: a brutish brigand who manages to achieve renown not by his own efforts, but by the ensemble cast working around him.


You can read other reviews to get theon the general premise of this book, A servant girl named Gwyna is drawn in by the bard Myrddin "Merlin," seen here as the ultimate Spin Doctor to create a legendary king out of a warlord thug.
In order to observe the action, girlGwyna spends most of the story in disguise as a boy yawn, I do remember thinking that most of the characters fell a bit flat but then again, one does not read Here Lies Arthur for the character exposition.
Rather, I'd say that the worth of this novel comes from the overall idea of taking a legendary premise and flipping it around.
The best part of the story, for me, was in reading the portrayal of the Mordred character he goes by a different, more Welshsounding name in this novel.
But I've always been intrigued by Mordred's character since I can't stand Arthur, see, , I have always had a "thing" for Mordred and though he only plays a supporting role in this story, I still thought that his scenes were among the best.


I do agree with many other reviewers who question the appropriateness of this book in the "young adult" label.
The violence is pretty excessive and I have a pretty high threshold for war violence, and some of the themes here are pretty mature yeah, Gwenhyfar still has an affair with Whosit, though she's thankfully given more sympathetic treatment here, from what I remember . The weirdest thing about the story, though, was the boywhodresseslikeagirl character, My WTFometer was off the charts with that one, But still, Here Lies Arthur is much, much more suitable to young adults than The Mists of Avalon although frankly, I wouldn't give either to a young reader.
Instead, I'd refer them to the first and second season of the BBC's "Merlin, " Good stuff, even if the writing is a little simplistic,

.stars

I did not enjoy this as much as I would have liked, but it was still fun to read.
I hadn't tried any of the author's books before, so I didn't know what to expect, The writing was good, but the book lacked a solid plot, and I would have liked it if something more had happened.
It was a unique take on the Arthurian legend though, and even as someone who has read many of those, I have not across one such before.


There are no spoilers in this review,

Plot/
The pacing was really good, and a lot of things seemed to be happening, but none of them was of actual consequence.
The same events took place over and over again, with different groups of people riding off to war, and a few of them dying along the way.
I cannot say anything about its overall predictability, as some happenings were surprising, while most were expected, I liked that everything felt real though, and nobody was forcefully killed nor unnaturally saved, To add a twist to something on which so many stories have already been written takes creativity, and the author's imagination showed.


Characters/
I liked reading about the characters, Gwyna's transition from a scared slave to an independent survivor was wellwritten, In the beginning, she was shown to be scared of wars and being awed when she saw warriors riding past.
By the end, she was used to all of it and could ride a horse as well as anyone else.
The author has also kept her basic nature constant throughout the book, She was never a great warrior and knowing that, she hid from battles rather than risk her life in them.
All her actions made sense according to her personality, and reading the whole book from her point of view was better than I'd initially thought.


Myrddin was fun to read about as well, His character stayed constant all through the story, and I was interested in knowing about him, Arthur has been depicted differently in this book, but it all makes sense with the backdrop of the story, He was said to be a bearish man, only interested in raids and conquests, and the spoils of war, He marries a woman on the advice of his men, for political advantage, without the intention of ever being good to her.
During the narration, Gwyna hints that she is perhaps being kinder to Arthur than he really was, The distinction between Arthur as a person and the one in Myrddin's stories has also been made clear, to account for the difference between him and how is he is remembered.


Writing/
I like the writing style of the author, but I thought a few parts were rather repetitive.
The pacing was good, without too many descriptions or dialogues, and the chapters were kept short, The story was concise and to the point, and I liked how the author did not delve too much into the character's histories and narrated the events in a simple, straightforward manner.


Allinall, though I liked reading the book, it would not be my first recommendation, The writing was good, and anyone interested in Arthurian legends should check this book out, Thank you for reading my review!,