Merlin's Bones
by Fred Saberhagen
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Description
After the death of King Arthur, a troupe of strolling players takes refuge in an unfinished castle that contains Merlin's bones while various characters, including visitors from the 21st century, plot to possess the bones.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Sci-fi intersects with Fantasy for this interesting hybrid of Arthurian Saga, Time Travel Conundrum, and Sorcery. Unfortunately it drags on for about 100 pages too many and I had to force myself to finish it.
Merlin wants to restore Camelot and jumps around in time trying to bring that about. It's an interesting idea for a story, but this one is disjointed. There are multiple POVs, no real protagonist, unclear motivations, convoluted sequences of cause and effect, and prose that often 'tells' the story in a distant and disinterested tone. It's not very engaging. I didn't care for it.
This was a nice “not really a re-telling” of the Arthurian legend. This story is mainly about Merlin and how he wanders through time fighting to save Arthur and continue the ideals of Camelot. Saberhagen is a great storyteller, and this book doesn’t disappoint.
This was an interesting take on the Arthurian legend.
Merlin imprisoned still exerts power in 20th cent.
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Published Reviews
ThingScore 75
The recent boomlet in Arthurian novels shows no sign of slowing its pace, but Fred Saberhagen's entry into the lists is easily one of the strangest of the lot. Then again, considering Saberhagen's revisionist treatments of Frankenstein and Dracula, perhaps the oddness of Merlin's Bones is to be expected.
added by Nevov
Author Information
195+ Works 24,551 Members
Author Fred Saberhagen was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 18, 1930. Before writing full time, he served in the Air Force, worked as an electronics technician, and wrote and edited for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His first novel, The Golden People, was published in 1964. He has written science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and historical show more fantasy. The novel Berserker was published in 1967 and became the first book in his popular Berserker series. His company, Berserker Works, Ltd., has produced several computer games based on his characters. He died on June 29, 2007. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Merlin's Bones
- Original publication date
- 1995
- People/Characters
- Elaine Brusen; Merlin; Morgan le Fay; Mordred; Lancelot du Lac
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 284
- Popularity
- 113,772
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.16)
- Languages
- Czech, English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
