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Title: The Camelot Papers
Author: Peter David
Genre: Revisionist Arthurian legend
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: A slave writes her own history of Camelot. It's not very flattering.
Thoughts: Wow, does this have a deceptive cover.
The tabloid parody cover image combined with the author, who often indulges in madcap humor and bad puns, led me to expect a comic romp. This is...not that. Deeply cynical, this has more in common with David's bitter Sir Apropos of Nothing, minus the puns. It's pretty much devoid of humor, in fact.
It's a clever enough retread of the rather worn Arthurian legend, though. I particularly liked the complicated relationship between Morgan and Guinevere. Other characters, such as Rowena the cook, are flat into ridiculousness, though. The dialogue see-saws between being too flowery and too modern, and there's some ridiculous anachronisms ranging from attitudes to Arthurian Britain being full of obsessive tea drinkers. And some plot points are never explained, especially the mute's muteness.
But it's entertaining and rolls along well. And turns out to not be quite as cynical as it leads you to believe.
Edited to add: By the way--you should be aware that this is pretty much modern political satire. David's clearly in favor of a certain amount of welfare and against the war in Afghanistan, and this comes through in really anachronistic ways. You've been warned.
Author: Peter David
Genre: Revisionist Arthurian legend
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: A slave writes her own history of Camelot. It's not very flattering.
Thoughts: Wow, does this have a deceptive cover.
The tabloid parody cover image combined with the author, who often indulges in madcap humor and bad puns, led me to expect a comic romp. This is...not that. Deeply cynical, this has more in common with David's bitter Sir Apropos of Nothing, minus the puns. It's pretty much devoid of humor, in fact.
It's a clever enough retread of the rather worn Arthurian legend, though. I particularly liked the complicated relationship between Morgan and Guinevere. Other characters, such as Rowena the cook, are flat into ridiculousness, though. The dialogue see-saws between being too flowery and too modern, and there's some ridiculous anachronisms ranging from attitudes to Arthurian Britain being full of obsessive tea drinkers. And some plot points are never explained, especially the mute's muteness.
But it's entertaining and rolls along well. And turns out to not be quite as cynical as it leads you to believe.
Edited to add: By the way--you should be aware that this is pretty much modern political satire. David's clearly in favor of a certain amount of welfare and against the war in Afghanistan, and this comes through in really anachronistic ways. You've been warned.
