It had an interesting plot. ( )

The story behind King Arthur's rise to power: a simple village girl and a spinner of tales conspire to bring forth a ruler like never before.

A great take on the King Arthur story, Arthur here is a unpleasant bully, being guided by Merlin and his half brother into being a symbol of unity. Told though the eyes of Gwyna, a slave girl rescued by Myrrdin (Merlin), this is a story about the power of story, about spin, and about how heroes don't exist until their stories are told by a warm fire and with plenty of ale.
I'd give this to fantasy fans, historical fiction fans, and also to anyone watching the new BBC series about teenaged Merlin. ( )

I love novels based on Arthurian myths and legends and this one is a great read. Reeve's book for teens presents a totally different take on the stories that is highly original, and uses the Welsh Mabinogion as the basis for the tale rather than Mallory or any of the later romances. What's more this interpretation of the story could so easily be the real thing!

The land it portrays is one of warring tribes; Arthur could be the one to pull the tribes of the west together to face the Saxons, and Myrddin (Merlin) is doing his best to make it so. However, Myrddin's chief weapon is not Earth magic - it's spin! Yes, you heard me right, 'twas ever thus.

Myrddin comes from the bardic tradition and is a master story-teller, embellishing and embroidering Arthur's exploits to the masses to put his man forward as the natural leader.
He's also good at creating illusions and using any opportunity to promote his master. As the novel opens, a young servant girl Gwyna, is hiding from the Arthur and his war-band who have just slashed and burned her master's home. She swims to avoid them, and is spotted by Myrrdin who immediately sees that he can use her to shine light on Arthur, and persuades her to become the Lady of the Lake and present him with a new sword (here named Caliburn). As all eyes will be on Arthur, no-one will notice that the Lady is just a girl who can swim like a fish. Gwynna is a bright girl and does well, and Myrrdin could use an assistant, so she joins him - dressed as a boy for safety.

And thus begins the story - told almost entirely from Gwynna/Gwynn's point of view. It takes us from the episode of the Lady of the Lake through to the deaths of Merlin and Arthur. All is seen from the slightly removed perspective which reveals the politics and spin underneath and the legacy it creates. ( )

Reeve's prose is lovely.
The "true" story of Arthur
and how myths are born.

In an interesting take of the King Arthur legends, Reeve paints Arthur as a untamed ruffian who cares only about fighting and looting. The myth of Arthur's greatness is completely fabricated by his magician friend Myrddin who is a bard, wandering the land, telling his carefully woven story of Arthur. Gwyn, a little girl rescued by Myrddin when Arthur's band burns her home, is our protagonist. She loves her travelling life with Myrddin as disguised as a boy she stays with him, serving as his squire. ( )

in a sentence: Gwyna, a servant girl left behind after one of Arthur's raids, catches the eye of the famous wizard Myrddin. after Myrddin spots what might be some form of usefulness in the plain-faced orphan, Gwyna is in over her head and getting wrapped up in the legendary tale of Arthur.

we first meet little Gwyna as she's running away from the burning place she used to call home. a servant girl, used to being ignored (when she's not being kicked around), is shocked by the seeming kindness from the tall and clever storyteller. Myrddin has been spending his time weaving tales about wonderful and fantastic Arthur, although Gwyna knows just how crude, beastly, and aggressive Arthur really is.

without giving away any of the plot, Reeve takes the reader through some of the more famous people in the Arthurian legend. we meet Myrddin (Merlin), Arthur, Cei (Arthur's half-bro), Gwenhhwyfar (Guenevere), and others. this is not an "oh-my-gosh-Arthur-is-the-greatest-ever!" book. far from it. Reeve explores what some of the myths might have actually been like before the test of time and the romanticizing of the legend. mostly, the focus is on Gwyna, who is the narrator and Myrddin as the master behind Arthur's power.

while this is a clever idea with beautiful writing and turns of phrase, and creative characters, i found myself bored at points. Gwyna made a great narrator, though i felt that her self-professed plainness seeped through to her character development. there were insightful musings on what boys are like, what girls are like, why girls aren't mentioned in famous legends unless as a bad person or as a prize for the men, why war was glamorized, etc. the weaving of myth and reality made for excellent story-telling techniques, but i can't help feeling that there was so much potential to be tapped here, and it just fell flat for me.

fave quote: "The real Arthur had been just a little tyrant in an age of tyrants. What mattered about him was the stories." (331)

fix er up: the pacing of the book. the elaborate visual storytelling techniques and fresh ideas couldn't make up for the sluggish pace for me. ( )

Here Lies Arthur
Philip Reeve
Scholastic Press, 2008
ISBN: 9780545093347
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com, 2008
4 stars
Anew perspective of King Arthur…
Philip Reeve offers a new perspective on King Arthur. Here Lies Arthur is a book for young adults. The story is told through the eyes of a young girl named Gwyna. Reeve’s perspective of Arthur is not complimentary. This King is not easy to recognize; he is crude and barbaric. There is no magic in Reeve’s Merlin.
Here Lies Arthur is a good read, but I found it hollow after growing up on The Midst of Avalon by Marion Bradley Zimmerman and Mary Stewart’s, The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment. When I hear of Arthur, I want to think of him as noble and elegant. I want Merlin to be magical. ( )

Everyone has stories that have had so much of an impact on them that attempts to revise them, to be "realistic", about them, are infuriating. I rejected the Star Trek Enterprise series in its first season, for example, because they made "my" Vulcans into a sneaking, deceptive race and I couldn't stand that. This version of the Arthurian romance has that same problem. Reeve's Myrddin (Merlin) has no power other than the power of a bard to shape a culture's tales. Arthur is a thug, warring only to gain wealth. Gwenhwyvar is selfish, grasping tightly a love she needs. Reeve does it well, and there is some power in the main character, Gwyna, a girl who is servant to Myrddin and does her best to help as many people as she can. Yet for me Reeves is fighting too many years of adoration of the Arthur story, particularly as told by T. H. White's The Once and Future king and Mary Stewart's Merlin series.

Still, if you like having your heroes debunked, Reeves provides a quick good read. ( )

Here Lies Arthur, by Philip Reeve, New York, Scholastic Press, 2008

Winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Nestle Children’s Book Prize Bronze Award
Review: Sure to become a modern classic, Here Lies Arthur is a fresh and original retelling of the Legends of King Arthur and a testament to the power of stories. The book is narrated by a young girl, Gwyna, who because of her underwater swimming prowess, is recruited by Myrddin (Merlin) to pretend to be the Lady of the Lake, and hand the sword Caliburn (Excalibur) up out of the water to a credulous Arthur. In this version of the legend, Myrddin is not a magician but a trickster and skilled storyteller, and Arthur is a brutal warlord whose only advantage over the many others marauding through the countryside in the Dark Ages is the fact that he has his own propagandist. So that no one will find out the truth, Myrddin disguises Gwyna as a boy. Reeve’s prose is full of atmospheric detail which immerses you in the sounds and smells of battle and scenes of crumbling Roman towns.

Booktalk: Have you heard of King Arthur? How he was given a sword by the white hand of a lady rising from the water of a lake? Everyone said it happened by magic, even Arthur himself. Actually though, it was my hand. My name is Gwyna, and I was only nine years old. Arthur’s war band came burning and killing. They destroyed my master’s castle. I dove underwater to escape, and Merlin found me swimming. He’s not really a magician like people say he is. He’s just a storyteller who knows a few tricks. When he told that story about Arthur, people believed Arthur was sent by the gods, and gave him land and gold. Merlin keeps me as his servant. But he doesn’t want anyone to guess that I was the Lake Lady. So I’m disguised as a boy. I wonder how long this game will last. What will become of me, and what will become of Arthur? ( )

http://www.bartsbookshelf.co.uk/2008/... ( )

3 4 5 ( )

This was a really enjoyable book. The author uses the myth of King Arthur as a basis to explore the character of Gwyna, an orphan girl who ends up as servant/surrogate daughter to Myrddin, who is the Merlin figure in the book. She has many adventures, helping out Myrddin in his tricks and she lives as both girl and boy, an interesting feat in ancient Britain. Arthur himself is presented as real king may have been at the time, greedy for power and not at all the noble Arthur of legend. This is a really good exploration of the nature of myth and storytelling as Gwyna and Myrddin create the story of Arthur around his 'real' exploits. Highly recommended. ( )

Here’s a Dark Ages Arthurian story; no magic, no high romanticism, and no chivalrous Lancelot. The story of Arthur is told through Gwyna’s voice, a young girl who is apprenticed to Myrddin. Gwyna is disguised as a boy for safety early in the story, and as the story unfolds she switches between male and female in response to changing circumstance. She becomes the ‘Lady in the Lake’ for Myrddin, and learns how easy it is to manufacture magical stories that grow with each retelling.

It is Myrddin’s role as bard to embellish the everyday tales of reality until they become mythical and majestic – and this is such a powerful theme carried right through this story. The ill-fated romance between the lovely character of Bedwyr and Arthur’s wife Gwenhwyfar, emphasizes the price of deceit and betrayal.

There’s a harsh feel to this story - life is tough, and battles are full of mud and blood and wounds and death. This Arthur is a brutal war-lord, and it is left to his bard to make his exploits presentably ‘heroic’ for the commoners.

An interesting and thoughtful reworking of the Arthurian tale. ( )

A lovely reworking of the Arthur stories. In this instance set in the England of Saxon invaders and British infighting just after the Romans left. And with a much smaller scope. Merlin is simply a bard who spins stories about Arthur, a warband leader with aspirations. But the heart of the book is how the stories Merlin spins become the myth and how they deviate further and further from the reality. And how this is a good thing. Lovely stuff. ( )