Thursday, June 18, 2020

Mordred, Bastard Son


Douglas Clegg
Completed 6/18/2020, Reviewed 6/18/2020
4 stars

This is a twist on the story of Mordred from the Arthurian legend.  The author tells you right at the beginning that he plays loose and fast with the legend and does it very well.  In this telling, Mordred is gay, and the story takes you from his childhood to early adulthood.  I really enjoyed this well-written story, with beautiful prose and great characterization.  I was sucked into the story quickly and disheartened to find that the author never wrote the rest of his planned series.  The book is a quick read, and I would have bought the other books.  Normally, Clegg writes horror and suspense, having won several awards in that genre.  This was his first venture into pure fantasy and it got him a nomination for the Lambda Literary Award for SF/Fantasy/Horror in 2007. 

The story begins when Morgan is pregnant with Mordred after being raped by Arthur, her half-brother.  There is a prophesy that Mordred will bring down Arthur’s kingdom if allowed to live.  Arthur’s men pursue Morgan, forcing her to leave the castle where she rules as Queen and flee to Gaul.  There she stays with others from Britannia who worship the same goddess and keep the pagan traditions.  Mordred is born and grows up, is tutored by Merlin, and falls in love with his best friend, who does not return his love.  When Morgan disappears and tries to commit suicide, Mordred swears his chastity to three witches in return for his mother’s whereabouts so he can save her.  Eventually he is tempted and forced to a terrible alternative promise that again threatens her life.

The narrative is told in first person by Mordred in a retrospective, relating the story to a young monk who is hiding him from pursuers.  It is mostly prose with some dialogue, though the prose is beautiful to read and keeps the plot going at a good pace.  Being told in first person, we get deep in Mordred’s head, making it easy to empathize with him.  He’s the victim of circumstance, never really understanding his father’s wrath.  He must deal with his mother’s growing despair and depression, basically PTSD after her rape and loss of her role as Queen.  He also struggles with the fact that he seems to be the only gay boy in the tribe where they live.  Though supported by the tribe, he is lonely and wants to experience love as all the other boys of his age do. 

Needless to say, the character development of Mordred is terrific.  So is that of his best friend Lukat, his aunt Morgause, and the wise old woman Vivienne.  Merlin is done well as a sort of super-Druid.  Despite her being central to the beginning of the story, I felt that Morgan Le Fey was the only major character not well developed.  She starts off well, but her spiral into despair and depression just sort of happens quickly.  It’s believable, but it happens in the background.  Lancelot and Guinevere also show up in the book, but not until the end. 

The book is a quick, easy read.  My only real exposure to the Arthurian legend is The Once and Future King, which I read in high school, Camelot, Excalibur, and Tolkien’s brief work The Fall of Arthur.  I never read Mallory’s Le Mort d’Arthur.  So really, my experience is based mostly on pop culture.  In a way, this was good.  I’m not an Arthurian purist and didn’t have any expectations going into this book.  I was able to enjoy it without thinking, “Hey, that’s not right.”  My only issue with the book is that it ends rather abruptly and the sequel, which should have come out in 2018, was never published.  If it ever does get released, I’ll pretty definitely read it.  I give this book four stars out of five.

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