Terence's comments (member since Nov 26, 2008)

Terence's comments from the Arthuriana -- all things King Arthur ! group.

I may be in the minority here but for sheer bloody-minded good fun, I've always liked Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex.

And I have fond memories of Phyllis Karr's Idylls of the Queen.

And though he runs out of steam in the later books, A.A. Attanasio's The Dragon and the Unicorn Arthor Book 1 is good.

As for the "classics," Mary Stewart and T.H. White have to top my list.

And then there are the modern continuations: Lawhead's Avalon:: The Return of King Arthur and Mike Barr's Camelot 3000 DC Comics Series.

I haven't reread any of these in years so I can't be terribly specific about what made them "good" but I think that they all dealt with, in whole or in part, the great themes of the Arthurian legend - loyalty, love, good v. evil, justice, etc. - in interesting ways.

If we're looking to key texts we shouldn't forget Chretien de Troyes' works, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. And if you look at the "Matter of Britain" article on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_of_b...) there's a whole section with the Medieval sources for Arthur & related tales, as well as a list of the more notable modern authors.

I don't know if T.H. White or Mary Stewart, for example, will become as important as the pre-Modern authors. Time will tell, I suppose, but they'd certainly be (or should be) contenders for the honor.

As to obscure Arthurian authors, I haven't seen anyone mention A.A. Attanasio and his 4 novels:

The Dragon and the Unicorn
The Eagle and the Sword
The Serpent and the Grail
The Wolf and the Crown

I think Dragon & Unicorn is the first of the series.

Arthur enters the story as a young, blood-thirsty sociopath with few redeeming qualities until he comes under the tutelage of Merlin. I think what most drew me to the series (aside from Attanasio's qualities as a writer) was Merlin's origins - a "demon" born in the Big Bang who impregnates a nun and incarnates as a human being.