Arthurian and other legends with modern day characters

I have read a few of these that I can think of

Arthur War Lord by Davydd ab Hugh
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper et. al.
Song of Albion by Stephen Lawhead et. al.

I am sure there are others, does anyone know of any?

To be more clear - books with people from the present day, from the book's point of view, that become involved with legendary heroes, not just books where a modern character goes to a fantasy world like Steven Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane et. al. or Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame, Chronicles of Narnia et. al.

Or, even those written in a modern or send-up style I suppose, like the Hercules the Legendary Journeys books from the tv series.

Thanks,

bt

Mark Chadbourn's books, especially World's End, Darkest Hour and Always, Forever in the Age of Misrule series do this. His later books The Devil in the Green and The Queen of Sinister and at least one more I've yet to read in the Dark Age series also seem to fit this bill.

The basic premise is that one day modern humans wake up to find Faerie is crashing back into reality, dragons and all and various modern people become strongly identified with legendary characters. The tone shifts over the books from that modern world with an intrusion into a combination post-apocalyptic and dark fantasy genre though so you might disagree.

Yep, I have read those, except for the Queen of Sinister, but did read the third in that second trilogy The Hounds of Avalon.

I was thinking more of actual involvement or explicit appearance of the hero types, Arthur, Lugh, Gilgamesh, Robin Hood, Hercules, etc.or whoever although I guess faerie lords could qualify to some degree, I wasn't thinking explicity of them.

Jack appears to be an Arthur-analogue, and the dragon boys and girls do get super powered. Whether he explicity becomes Arthur or works with him is yet to be seen?

The Age of Misrule is an omnibus edition I read World's End and it's nicely done. As arthurian figure start to emerge on an apocalyptic landscape.

Peter David has a series with King Arthur in modern day New York. I'm not remembering all of them, but I believe Knight Life is one of the titles...

The Hounds of Avalon is near the top of my 'to read' pile.

Lugh appears as one of the faerie lords pretty clearly, as do quite a few of the heroes from the Mabinogion but I can see it's a bit borderline for involvement.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't think of American Gods and Anansi Boys earlier, I'm pretty sure both of those meet the modern characters meeting legendary characters in our world motif. Tim Powers has written some that are borderline in your mix too - he tends to have people who are pretty much outcast from normal society meet historical figures, but there's a strong Fisher King archetype in some of his books.

I'm starting to struggle: I can think of more where the modern day hero gets taken to a new world - Jack L. Chalker for example has written several series like that.

Yeah, I haven't read the Knight Life books etc., but I think that series is of a humorous bent?

In American Gods the protagonist certainly runes into a few deities, definitely not a heroic type fantasy though. Is Anansi Boys similar?

With Knight Life there is also A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain and Silverlock by John Myers Myers, which perhaps only borders on explicit, which is his point.

I did come across this one earlier in a list :-

The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor by John Barth, where a man apparently runs into Sinbad.

Two books by Rick Riordan are part of the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series: The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters. Greek gods (and other characters) in the modern world.

Ok, thanks. Sound like kids books?

Did think of some others, a bit more in the American Gods vein

The Return of Merlin by Deepak Chopra

and

The Forever King by Molly Cochran etc.

I absolutely adore Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy's book The Forever King. I mean, that book stands out in my memory so strongly and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's the first book in a trilogy, and I am distressed to say that the first is the only one I can recommend. However, it reads well as a standalone.

They also wrote an Atlantis-based one called, World Without End which was also absolutely fabulous.

Neil Gamain did write a short story called 'Chivalry' which I have in A quest lover's treasury of the fantastic in which the Grail is found in an Oxfam/thrift store...

>13 parelle:: Oh, I love that story! It's one of the funniest ones Gaiman has written, in my opinion, and it's especially entertaining when he reads it. I haven't seen him live as he's never been reading around here, but I have it on a DVD as an extra.
Btw, it's also in his short story collection Smoke and Mirrors.

I didn't even know until the other day that there were more books in The Forever King series, and I stumbled across the Atlantis title at the same time, thanks.

I'll see if I can find the Gaiman story.

On the kids book front, I saw elsewhere while looking at stuff one called Eight Days of Luke which appears to be a kid and Norse mythology story, by Diana Wynne Jones

lewisspike, re: 6 did you have a particular Jack L. Chalker series in mind? I have read most of the Well World books, and part of one or two others.

Rings of the Master, G.O.D. Inc and Changewinds all have that sort of modern character taken elsewhere structure as I remember it.

It's been ages since I've read them, from dim memory Rings of the Master is the best of the three and starts with Lords of the Middle Dark, the others start with The Labyrinth of Dreams and When the Changewinds Blow respectively.

When the Changewinds blow even (just to get the link for you)

If you are just looking for the whole "out of place" genre of fantasy - Many Waters by L'Engle is good, but it has to do with Noah, not King Arthur.

Jan Siegel wrote Prospero's Children which is another modern-day/Atlantis crossover. The second and the third book in the trilogy tie in more with King Arthur. The first book is fabulous, the second book is really good, and the third is trash, unfortunately. I hate it when trilogies aren't consistent!

Jan Siegel writing as Amanda Hemingway also wrote The Sangreal Trilogy which started with The Greenstone Grail. It was decent, but I'm reserving judgement on the trilogy because I haven't read the other two yet. A strange take on Arthurian legends but overall very readable.

Another possibility is just about anything by Charles De Lint his legendary characters are more usually characters from First Nations/Native American traditions than Arthurian or other Western legends but they're there as a possibility.

My favorite is Avalon by Stephen R. Lawhead. Much better than the Forever King trilogy.

Merlin seems a fairly ubiquitous character. He wakes up in Simon hawke's series The Wizard of 4th Street. He also awakens in C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength.

Tom Holt has Vikings running around in Who's Afraid of Beowulf in modern England. He is British-funny, which is quite different from American humor.

Thanks lewisspike, I haven't read any Charles de Lint for a long time, are these newer books, or older ones that slip my mind?

Avalon though is just a straight Arthur tale isn't it? Unless that is the one in the series I haven't read and he wakes up in the 20th century or somethng?

I'd say most of them touch on or around this sort of theme. The one that I'm particularly thinking of I can't find on the shelves, nor remember the name, but it's about a girl who is apparently normal but related to the descendants of Crow but friends with the descendants of Coyote (or the other way round, but I think it's that way round).

The Onion Girl, Moonheart, Spiritwalk and Trader touch on the theme too from memory, although it's been a while since I read them so I'm not 100% sure.

Thanks, a couple of those I haven't read, at least, so might be why I don't remember much.

In response to lewispike (message 24):

I've read a lot of Charles de Lint's books, though not in about a year. Could the one you're thinking of be Someplace To Be Flying?

The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay, particularly books 2&3 deal with the Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot triangle as one of the storylines. The main characters are modern day so these books fit the criteria.
Books: Book 1 ~ The Summer Tree, Book 2~ The Wandering Fire, Book 3~ The Darkest Road

There's also a light chick-lit book called Enchanted Inc. by Shanna Swendson which has Merlin as a not-main-protoganist character with story set in contemporary New York.

Thanks ryn, I had completely forgotten about the former.

Kerian (msg 26) Yes, thank you, that looks to be the one. Now all I need to do is find where my copy is!

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but how about Lord of light by Roger Zelazny and Ilium by Dan Simmons?

Both are sci-fi novels in which main characters kind of act out the roles of some of the ancient gods ... Lord of light involves Hindu/Buddhism and was fantastic ... Ilium uses the Roman pantheon (or Greek? I have this but haven't read it yet).

I haven't read Ilium as yet and hadn't really considered Lord of Light as you say, because of the 'kind of' thing.

Another couple that are more along the lines of Mark Chadbourn, although a completely different style and setting, are Gwyneth Jones and Bold as Love and Castles Made of Sand - these are an Arthurian riff, too.

Meg Cabot has one Avalon High that has the Arthurian characters as High School Teens. Interesting.

Here's one by the looks

The Robin Hood Ambush book one of Robert Silverberg's Time Tours, by William F. Wu

From majipoor.com :

http://www.majipoor.com/work.php?id=1434

Dark Ages by John Pritchard is a great one, very dark fantasy bordering on horror with warriors from the Dark Ages in the modern day. A very well written book with lots of historical detail.

Are they just normal people though, or some sort of monster? Not famous figures?

Some others :-
Earthquake Weather - Tim Powers

The Myth Hunters - Christopher Golden

Orphans of Chaos - John C. Wright

In a very offbeat kind of way there's Jasper Fforde's Thursday next series starting with the Eyre affair Thursday gets to meet Jane Eyre and other heavryweight names from fiction. Exceptionally funny, and well worth a read even though it is literary characters rather than 'historical' ones you were after. But if you are counting Merlin, Jane is at least as real as he is.

Calvin and Hobbes is very funny too, and Hobbes is more mythical than Jane Eyre.

Completely missing the point, though! :)

Now Gwyneth Jones Bold As Love etc. Rock and Roll Reich is quite a bit more relevant, as an Arthurian riff.

The Age of Misrule Omnibus is the obvious choice, its cheap (ish) and Mark Chadbourn weaves a very striking tale, i've only read the first two but they provided very good reading, i'm waiting to savour the ending book soon.

I also believe Guy Gavriel Kays Fionavar Tapestry trilogy contains some Arthutian elements, the modern context being a group of Canadian students ripped into another world.

Yes, and in fact both of those are already mentioned. :)

The second Chadbourn trilogy is ok, not as good as the first. Haven't read the new one in this third group though.

Here's a possible whacky one I stumbled across tonight

Keeper of the King by P. N. Elrod and Nigel Bennett it seems.

Apparently Lancelot is a vampire, working in modern day Canada! Or something like that. Anyone read these?

How about Simon R. Green's Nightside series, anybody read those?

I have, at least some of them, I think. If I'm thinking of the right ones they didn't ring any particularly Arthurian bells. Sadly I'm not at home right now and can't check.

Doesn't have to be Arthurian, ls, that is just the most common, I think?

Norse, Sumerian, Hindu, whatever.

Never really thought about it, but I guess if Asmodeus or Belial or someone was a pub owner and amateur detective that might count too. :) Didn't really consider that angle.

For example, the brief bits I have read say that Lilith is in the Nightside series, and there is at least a close descendant of Odin in Drinking Midnight Wine, so these are possibles. The only Simon R. Green I have read so far is a Deathstalker book though.

Elizabeth Bear has a book called Blood and Iron apparently, and most definitely some Arthurian bits it would seem, and an urban fantasy. Merlin and all.

Couple of kids books I remembered today while looking at stuff

Diana Wynne Jones - Eight Days of Luke Loki, Thor, Odin, etc.

and The Homeward Bounders is sort of relevant, Flying Dutchman, Wandering Jew, Prometheus - not the standard on earth type of setting though.

I highly recommend Knights of God by Richard Cooper. It is set in the near future vs. today, but it certainly has modern day characters. The book is a novelization of the British TV series, which was also written by Richard Cooper. I watched the series first, but I think the novel stands on it owns. Unfortunately it is out of print and may be hard to find.

Never heard of that, what is the storyline?

> lewispike:

You might be thinking of Someplace to be flying. there is a lot of kinship with Original People in that one. Raven is there and Coyote, and it is a good story:-)

If I recall correctly The Drawing of The Dark by Tim Powers has a reincarnation (?) of King Arthur traveling through Europe during the middleages and protecting a pub owned by Merlin. The dark in the title is a beer that ensures longevity.

A different myth, but How like a God is a similar theme

This is from the back cover of my copy of Knights of God:

The year is 2020. Great Britain has been devastated by civil war. Mass unemployment, riots, arson, murder, factories not working – in fact everything is at a standstill. North and South are utterly divided. London is completely destroyed, and Winchester is the new capital. Prior Mordrin, a ruthless dictator, rules, supported by his military élite, the Knights of God. Resistance is growing all the time. Seventeen-year-old Gervase, whose father Owen Edwards leads the resistance in Wales, is rounded up by the knights and sent to an Education and Re-Training Centre. There he meets another young rebel, Julia Clarke. Mordrin seeks out Gervase at the Centre. Why? What is so special about him? What bargain does Mordrin strike with Gervase so that Julia’s life may be spared?

There is more to the story, but I don't want to spoil it. As for the Arthurian legend, it is not a retelling, but is instead used to enhance the story and is, in my opinion, integral to it.

I'd say that there's only two details that might keep Ilium and Olympos from qualifying:

1. It's set in the future, not "modern day." Though there is a modern-day person who has been brought back to life in the future.
2. The characters contemporary to the setting don't go back in time or have the actual Helen of Troy, Odysseus, et cetera, brought to the future; they're interacting with figures from Greek mythology that have been created as a part of an experiment on Mars.

There's a bit of The Tempest in there, too.

The Sleepers by Jane Louise Curry; Earthfasts by William Mayne; The Whispering Knights by Penelope Lively and several books by Alan Garner such as The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Books of this sort are among my very favorites.

Nice work swimboy. I have actually read Earthfasts a long long time ago I think. Hadn't heard of The Whispering Knights though - what happens in that one? Presumably a kids book, too?

Thanks! The Whispering Knights is a kids book where Mordred shows up as a modern character intent on destroying King Arthur and his sleeping knights. The title refers to a circle of stones. The plot is similar to the Sleepers but that book has a few more levels at work.

Cool, thanks.

Have you tried Neil Gaiman's graphic novel about Sandman? A few interesting characters in the various stories interact with characters of heroic proportions.

Excalibur by Sanders Anne Laubenthal, though you might have a hard time finding a copy -- I lent mine out years ago, alas, and haven't seen it since, so my memory of details is fuzzy. Basically Laubenthal posits that Excalibur and the Grail were transported to Mobile, Alabama, at some point in their history, and sets two modern-day characters on the hunt for them. I'm not sure how many legendary characters bleed through; I do remember that Morgan le Fay is one of them.

The Knights of Breton Court has been on my TBR pile for an age.

There's the Promethean Age quintet by Elizabeth Bear, Starts with blood and Iron. I'm most of the way through the 2nd in the series and I'd recommend starting at the beginning! because having picked this up from STorybundle it doesn't make a huge amount of sense without the backstory.

A huge mingling of legendaey characters into modern lives. Mostly Fairy, but some King Arthur too.