Helpful Score: 3
Fantasy parody of the Arthurian myths/books in which King Arthur appears in modern-day New York in the guise of one Arthur Penn, and decides to run for mayor of the city. With his refreshing and bold new ideas, he quickly gains notoriety with the help of Merlin, now in the form of an eight-year-old boy, Gwen DeVere, his secretary, and Percy Vale, his accountant as well as a host of other familiar characters. I thought the humor was a bit forced at times, but it was quite funny in other places. Full of puns and wordplay, but not as skillfully written as the author's later fantasy parodies featuring Sir Apropos of Nothing, which I REALLY enjoyed. This one was good, but not great.
Helpful Score: 2
A fun, light-read, it's a wacky tale of King Arthur in modern New York City.
Helpful Score: 2
Great spin on the King Arthur Tale.
Helpful Score: 2
Great re-imagining of the Arthurian legend. Very clever premise. Light, but fun read.
From Amazon:
Arthurian legend gets another kick in the pants with this rollicking rewrite of bestseller David's first novel, originally published in 1987. Extensively updated and lovingly revised, this hilarious romp in today's New York features a cast of zany characters, zippy dialogue and enough action and plot twists to satisfy most satirical fantasy fans. After 10 long centuries spent trapped in a magical cave, King Arthur is finally rescued by a pint-sized, wisecracking Merlin, who has aged backwards enough to slip through the bars of his own prison. The "once and future king" arrives, in armor, no less, on the streets of the Big Apple. Soon, with the help of Master Merlin, the charmingly anachronistic and good-hearted "Arthur Penn" is running for mayor of New York. Meanwhile, much to Arthur's dismay, the reincarnated but unemployed Guinevere, aka Gwen DeVere Queen, is already living with Lance, an unpublished and also unemployed "misunderstood" writer. Morgan, aka Morgana le Fey, Arthur's half-sister sorceress, bored and gone to seed in a dumpy New Jersey apartment, becomes angry enough to get back into fighting form when she discovers her spell has been broken. With the help of Moe Dreskin (aka her bastard son, Modred, PR whiz and erstwhile murderer of his royal father), Morgan schemes to put Arthur and Merlin back where they belong. But she has no idea just how determined Arthur's eclectic election team is to fight back and reinvent Camelot in the "kingdom" of Manhattan.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Randi's review
This was just as fun as the first. If you like king Arthur you will love these books. They put the modern spin on Arthurian legend. This book took me two days to read.
Arthurian legend gets another kick in the pants with this rollicking rewrite of bestseller David's first novel, originally published in 1987. Extensively updated and lovingly revised, this hilarious romp in today's New York features a cast of zany characters, zippy dialogue and enough action and plot twists to satisfy most satirical fantasy fans. After 10 long centuries spent trapped in a magical cave, King Arthur is finally rescued by a pint-sized, wisecracking Merlin, who has aged backwards enough to slip through the bars of his own prison. The "once and future king" arrives, in armor, no less, on the streets of the Big Apple. Soon, with the help of Master Merlin, the charmingly anachronistic and good-hearted "Arthur Penn" is running for mayor of New York. Meanwhile, much to Arthur's dismay, the reincarnated but unemployed Guinevere, aka Gwen DeVere Queen, is already living with Lance, an unpublished and also unemployed "misunderstood" writer. Morgan, aka Morgana le Fey, Arthur's half-sister sorceress, bored and gone to seed in a dumpy New Jersey apartment, becomes angry enough to get back into fighting form when she discovers her spell has been broken. With the help of Moe Dreskin (aka her bastard son, Modred, PR whiz and erstwhile murderer of his royal father), Morgan schemes to put Arthur and Merlin back where they belong. But she has no idea just how determined Arthur's eclectic election team is to fight back and reinvent Camelot in the "kingdom" of Manhattan.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Randi's review
This was just as fun as the first. If you like king Arthur you will love these books. They put the modern spin on Arthurian legend. This book took me two days to read.
totally enjoyed it.
Really good book, and so is One Knight Only, the second one.
This was a fun read, as all Peter David books are. If you like the Arthur legends and don't take yourself too seriously, this is for you.
