J. R. Campbell (2) (1963–)

Camelot’s Light Shines On
King Arthur may or may not show up in any particular story of this anthology but what does show up is a sincere, delightful and well-crafted set of stories that open the door into an intelligent and suspenseful experience of the Arthurian Legends.
While all the stories are excellent, two in particular elucidate the heart of the Grail legend. They are The Terrible Knitter by Simon Curtis Unsworth and The Root of All Things by William Meikle. Both stories grapple with show more the search for the Grail as a spiritual journey, an inner as well as outer process, and while neither shies from the pain of the acceptance of one’s birthright, one sojourner discovers new identity and the other sacrifices inner subjectivity for the sake of duty. Too much like real life? Not at all! These gems have all the castles, knights and quests you could hope for.
Speaking of identity, no modern writing would be complete without a nod toward gender identity issues and there are couple of good stories here that deal with these sensitive issues in an accepting and affirming way. My advice to you is to savor each story because before you know it your search for another anthology of this quality will be almost as elusive and transitory as a search for the grail itself. Highly recommended. show less

I received an ARC of "By the Light of Camelot" from Edge, the publisher, through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program. As the title suggests, these are original short stories (and 2 short poems which serve as front and end pieces to the book) having to do with the Arthurian mythos as interpreted by a baker’s dozen of contemporary authors. Of those, I had only known the work of Jane Yolen, Lawrence Watt-Evans and Diana L. Paxson before now, but I was happy to discover new writers, show more especially Fiona Patton, Wendy N. Wagner, R. Overwater and Renee Bennett in these pages. Most of the stories are set either during the fictional/fantastical period known as Camelot, or some time after the probable Roman soldier on whom Arthur is said to be based, say during the period after the Roman retreat from Britain, when Angles and Saxons and Danes arrived, followed by Franks. I was a bit surprised to note the Wagner story, “Loyalty of A Thousand Years,” which turns up early in the anthology, is the only one set in modern times; its placement in the book made me think there would be more stories told in the current era. Aside from that quibble, I liked pretty much all the stories here, especially editor Allen’s “Before All Else” (which of course put me in mind of Lloyd Alexander), Overwater’s “House of the Knight’s Nail,” Patton’s “Brannon and the Raven,” Watt-Evans’s “The Prisoner of Shalott” (I’ll never read the poem the same way again) and Paxson’s gritty “Shadow of the Wolf.” Many of the stories feature quests, but there is enough variety in both the types of quests and the individuals questing that I didn’t feel any sense of “sameness” to the book that might be tiring to the reader. Of course each reader will prefer certain stories over others, but if you’re either an Arthurian buff or Arthur-curious, this is a volume well worth reading. Recommended! show less

I'm a bit of a King Arthur nut and will read pretty much anything if you stick him or his knights in it, which has led to me reading more than a few crappy books. Fortunately, this collection was full of very good stories; some were more to my taste than others, but I don't think there was a single one I didn't like.

Review Written for Library Thing Early Reviewers.
From the book title, I didn't realize that the contents, ten short stories each written by a different author and each telling disparate plots, focused on the Gothic elements of the Victorian scene. Of course, some of the original Conan Doyle plots also incorporate certain Gothic storytelling devices as well, e.g., dark mysterious isolated mansions, heroines without supportive relations, mysterious noises in the night, and so on, all of which show more is elucidated in the preface to this book. As I am currently immersing myself in Sherlockiana, this preface was very helpful in sorting out these elements. Each of the stories involves the Consulting Detective but some are told from the point of view of Dr. Watson, while in others his role is assigned to other characters; I enjoyed those with Watson more, in general. A few of the stories could have been as successful without forcing the Gothic into the narrative. They all adopt a Victorian turn of phrase in the text.
In general, I would recommend this collection if you like the Conan Doyle originals and I do admire the creativity of the various and diverse authors who approached the project from novel and unique perspectives. Note that this is part of a series of Gaslight collections on Mr. Holmes - I believe that this is the fourth in the series - and I had not heard of these books before, so cannot compare this recently published release to those preceding it. show less