The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady

A smart and entertaining book. It is amusing to find that Arthur is sloping off to be a knight-errant using a visit to a monastery as a cover story. The introduction of Cuchulain at the very end made me go off and look up Cuchulain's "green knight" encounter. The fact that Gawain kisses the green knight (then in disguise as an unimposing knight) is rather daring.

This read more like a novel than the first one (more focused, last meandering), and I enjoyed it quite a lot (maybe 3.5, but not enough to round up). It was pleasant, gentle, comforting, but not much more than that, for me. A nice rice pudding of a book--I read it before bedtimes, and it was perfect for that. Will happily read more in the series, I just won't be jumping up and down with excitement at the prospect of a new one, say.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).

A fast paced story with endearing characters. A good modern take on the Arthurian legends. The only draw back is the modern language that isn't historically accurate.
Although the books are sold as juvenile, I am left with the impression that they would appeal more to adults.

My favorite treatment of the Guinevere/Lancelot story. Morris is the king of witty banter.

This Arthurian tale is a retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green knight, but focuses on Gawian's squire Terrence. This is the second book in the the series, but it can be easily read alone as the characters are mostly explained in the book. The characters are made to be more human than most Arthurian tales make them. There are faults shown with each, which Morris makes very relevant, which makes this retelling much different then most. The plot is very episodic, each chapter is filled with some sort of action, mostly fighting of some sort. It follows Sir Gawian as he travels to face the Green Knight, but seems to focus on Terrence, who is trying to come to terms with his Otherworldness (he is from Avalon). The theme does not seem to be show more the normal good vs. evil, but seems to deal with learning to deal with your faults and humanity. That is very different then most Arthurian tales where most knights seem to be perfect. This is a good book for middle school age children who have an intrest in Arthurian Tales. Morris' added humor makes all of the Arthurian tales he writes into almost new stories, which highlight the knight's humanity. show less

This Arthurian tale is a retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green knight, but focuses on Gawian's squire Terrence. This is the second book in the the series, but it can be easily read alone as the characters are mostly explained in the book. The characters are made to be more human than most Arthurian tales make them. There are faults shown with each, which Morris makes very relevant, which makes this retelling much different then most. The plot is very episodic, each chapter is filled with some sort of action, mostly fighting of some sort. It follows Sir Gawian as he travels to face the Green Knight, but seems to focus on Terrence, who is trying to come to terms with his Otherworldness (he is from Avalon). The theme does not seem to be show more the normal good vs. evil, but seems to deal with learning to deal with your faults and humanity. That is very different then most Arthurian tales where most knights seem to be perfect. This is a good book for middle school age children who have an intrest in Arthurian Tales. Morris' added humor makes all of the Arthurian tales he writes into almost new stories, which highlight the knight's humanity. show less

This was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. It's packed full of suspensful situations that the squire and knight come across on their quest. Although the writing does seem to jump around a lot, it doesn't take away from the story. I think young adults would really enjoy this book.