Starred Review Powerfully inventive, yet less romanticized than most stories set in the medieval Britain, this novel retells the story of King Arthur from a fresh perspective. Readers first glimpse Gwyna, the novel's disarming narrator, as "a snot-nosed girl" hiding in the brambles from a marauding band of brutes led by Arthur, "the King that Was and Will Be." Taken under the wing of the king's bard and advisor, Myddrin (the Merlin figure), who disguises her first as a lad and then as that fictional lad's half sister, Gwyna takes part in or observes many significant scenes, from the day Arthur takes the sword offered by a lady beneath a lake until the day of his death. In Gwyna's telling, many traditionally esteemed characters are revealed as unworthy, and some reviled ones are shown as heroic. Seemingly supernatural elements of the storied events are shown to be mere conjuring tricks, while the most magical power that Myddrin wields is the creative storytelling that shapes history into legend and makes it immortal. Events rush headlong toward the inevitable ending, but Gwyna's observations illuminate them in a new way. Arthurian lore has inspired many novels for young people, but few as arresting or compelling as this one.

The last word is “Hope,” yet Reeve (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Mortal Engines) injects deep cynicism into every other phrase of this Arthurian fable. As he tells it, Myrddin the “enchanter” is a charlatan of high degree, possessing no magic but a mastery of storytelling and fraud. Gwyna, the narrator, is perhaps nine years old when Myrddin sees her swim down a river to escape a house set afire by callous, marauding warlord Arthur. Myrddin promptly disguises her first as the Lady of the Lake and then as a boy apprentice. Gwyna soon learns to trust no one, doubt everything and scorn both male and female roles. She even becomes skeptical of the empire-building ambition behind Myrddin's efforts to recast Arthur's unremarkable exploits as the stuff of legend. Nodding to canon and history while not particularly following either (Lancelot and Morgan le Fay are notably absent), Reeve, like Myrddin, turns hallowed myth and supple prose to political purposes, neatly skewering the modern-day cult of spin and the age-old trickery behind it. Smart teens will love this. Ages 12–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Nov.)

Narrator Gwyna is rescued by scheming storyteller Myrddin after Arthur's soldiers burn her home. She joins Arthur's band, first disguised as a boy, then as handmaiden to Gwenhwyfar. Reeve's characters remain true to themselves within an ever-intensifying plot. Touchstones of Arthurian legend are cleverly alluded to throughout. The relationship between story and history, myth and reality, is richly explored in this brilliant, brutal re-creation.

Is there room for yet another reworking of the Arthur legend? If it's this one, yes. Reeve imagines a turn-of-the-fifth-century Britain abandoned by the Romans, with Saxons poised in the East to sweep across the West, which is held, uneasily, by a motley collection of warring warlords. Into this disarray rides Arthur's warband, with Myrddin at his side to spin his story. Gwyna, newly homeless by Arthur and his thugs, finds herself pressed into a legend-making role as the Lady of the Lake and then into Myrddin's service as a boy, Gwyn. It's a hard-edged, unromantic examination of Dark Ages realpolitik. As Myrddin tells Gwyna, "There's nothing a man can do that can't be turned into a tale...I am the story-spinning physician who keeps [Arthur's] reputation in good health." But it's Gwyna who, horror-struck, sees Gwenhwyfar and Bedwyr's ill-fated affair and its bloody aftermath, sees Arthur's rout at the hands of his nephew Medrawt, buries Myrddin in the trunk of an oak in midwinter and begins to spin her own tales. Absorbing, thought-provoking and unexpectedly timely. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

Gr 8 Up-Reeve offers up a revisionist retelling of the Arthurian legend, set in southwest Britain in A.D. 500, and exposing the dark side of Camelot. Arthur is a brutal, bullying tyrant, and not terribly bright. His fame stems solely from the stories spun by Myrrdin, a traveling bard and trickster. But this story is not primarily Arthur's. It is Gwyna's, a child who is rescued by Myrddin when her village is sacked and burned. Myrrdin takes her under his care, disguising her first as the Lady of the Lake, and then as a boy. When adolescence arrives, Myrrdin reintroduces her to Arthur's court as a maid and she falls in love with Peredur, who has spent his childhood disguised as a girl. While the switching sexual identities may keep readers a bit off kilter, having the narrator be both Gwyn and Gwyna allows a dual perspective on Arthurian times. Reeve does not shy away from violence and gory battle scenes. When Arthur learns that his wife Gwenhwyfar is committing adultery with his young nephew, he beats and beheads Bedwyr in a particularly bloody episode. Gwenhwyfar is driven to suicide. Gwyna learns that Arthur's heroism and fame stem not from magic and noble deeds but rather from the stories Myrrdin spins. Indeed, with his death, she picks up his mantle. The power of stories is a theme of the novel. Reeve's usual lyrical, cinematic prose underscores the message that in the end perhaps they are the only things that matter. A multilayered tour de force for mature young readers. Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME