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thejdizzler 's review for:
The Winter King
by Bernard Cornwell
Wow. This is now my favorite King Arthur retelling. Cornwell doesn't just use realism as trope here, but as a way to reinforce things he wants to say about the characters. Guinivere's chastity is called into question, Arthur's kindness gets him into wars, and Lancelot takes advantage of the work of poets to make himself more honorable than he his. Merlin is an aloof Gandalf-like figure that arrives precisely when he needs too, and mordred is the rightful, if awful king.
Throughout all of this is a tinge of sadness. We know how the King Arthur story ends, in part because Derfel is telling this in the future. And that's what King Arthur has always been about for me: sadness about faded wonder and glory, and hope that it will come again.
Throughout all of this is a tinge of sadness. We know how the King Arthur story ends, in part because Derfel is telling this in the future. And that's what King Arthur has always been about for me: sadness about faded wonder and glory, and hope that it will come again.