The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight

Another fine tale by Gerald Morris. There is too much unexplained magic in the book, leaving some parts kind of flat and confusing. The further transformation of Lancelot du Lac is quite compelling. I look forward to his further development in subsequent stories. I retain, however, a fondness for Gawaine and his more Celtic knightliness.

As in some previous books the representative of Christianity is made to appear ridiculous. In this book he is also quite evil. The reference to Chaucer's depiction of a pardoner is fairly direct and obvious, although I believe that Chaucer's pardoner is a whole lot more evil.

This was the only Morris book on the shelf the day I needed some good Arthurian escapism, which is why I own it. Unfortunately, it concentrates on Lancelot rather than Gawain, who is my great love in Arthurian legend; Morris has been turning away from Gawain in his last few books, which is a damn shame -- he writes him brilliantly, and his character Terence, Gawain's squuire, is a marvelous creation. The scenes in this in which they appear are the best in the whole novel, not least because they confuse the hell out of everyone else. Morris is less than technically adept as a novelist; if anyone was surprised by "Oh, I have a name. I am called Sir Lancelot" in this, they need to read some books with real live plot twists, because that show more was telegraphed in letters a foot high. show less

Slightly more violent than anything Morris has written before in this series. But still the world of Arthur, as only Morris can tell it. And it was good to have a spunky girl for a heroine again, to say nothing of meeting our friend "The Woodsman" as well.

I'm not totally thrilled at the half-assed addressing of anti-Semitism, but as for retellings of Arthurian stories, this is still way up there.

a very entertaining story set in and around camalot and king arthur. good for anyo ne to read but especially if you are looking for a good pick me up or quick laugh kind of book.