The Mammoth Book of Merlin

by Mike Ashley

Over 20 tales chronicling the adventures of Merlin and the magic of the Arthurian world. This is a reissue of the superb collection, to coincide with NBC’s primetime release of 20-part drama Merlin (first released in UK on BBC with record viewing figures, and a second series on the way).

Genres: Fantasy, Arthurian, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, British Literature, Science Fiction Fantasy

576 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.

Reviews

[Crystal Wind]

I enjoyed this book. Full of a variety of stories on the Merlin character. Most were good a couple of the short stories were not so good in my opinion. If you are a fan of this genre and love the Arthurian era then I would recommend this.

[Mackay]

A collection of shorter works about, yeah, Merlin. I liked some of them, but most left me cool.

[L Kyi]

A nice collection of Arthurian/Merlin Stories. Some left me puzzled, others led me to look for other books by the author.

[Shawn]

24 short stories and I really only enjoyed a couple of them. Most of the works were just mediocre at best.
I didn't think the writing was bad. The stories just didn't grab my interest.

[Emma]

As with a lot of short story collections, these ranged from 5 stars to 1 star so the whole book gets 3.

Best:
Namer of Beats, Maker of Souls - Jessica Amanda Salmonson (Very cool and thematically satisfying. The beginning is strange but worth it. I think folklorists have lumpers and splitters just like taxonomists do, and Salmonson is definitely a lumper.)
The Dragon Line- Michael Swanwick (When I started this story I didn't think I'd like it because of the setting, but now I want the novel version of this story. Definitely the best Mordred interpretation I've ever seen, although I haven't read a lot of Mordred-based stuff. This story used a good Mordred and a 50% evil, 100% ambitious Merlin. I think Salmonson's story primed me to accept this version by talking about the two Merlins, Merlin Ambrosius and Merlin Sylvester. The one in Swanwick's story was 100% Ambrosius and 0% Sylvester-- he was willing to kill the entire planet in the modern day and a lot of people in the past in order to achieve his own goals in a sort of mad-scientist way. I still think Merlin needs that forest/druid aspect in his character, but for this story it worked. That's also part of why I want a novel of this; maybe it would include some kind of split where the rest of Merlin was left behind somewhere in the past. Like maybe the whole Nimue thing went down before Arthur was born, and only the Sylvester part of Merlin was trapped in the tree/cave. And I want to see more of Mordred's attempts to preserve life in the modern world and what happens before and after this story. I know it would probably be less interesting if it was expanded, since that's how the format works... but I still want a novel.)


Worst:
The Temptations of Merlin - Peter Treymane (Okay I have to make fun of this story for a minute. I was expecting a lot from Peter Tremayne just because he's written so many books and is apparently an expert on Celtic history, but this story was ridiculous. "Write drunk, edit sober" is one thing, but "Write drunk, never edit" is not recommended. The following are exact quotes:
"even with the bright, new moon, hanging low in the sky, he could hardly see any prospective foothold" -- Yes folks, the new moon is bright for some reason.
"Your mind to my mind" -- Does this sound exactly like a Vulcan mind-meld? That's because it was. No, Star Trek doesn't have a patent on the whole concept of mind-reading or mind-melding, but when you use that exact phrase you can't expect readers to not suddenly see Spock.
"The fortress was a tall grey stone fortress" -- WHAT? The fortress was a FORTRESS? Spoilers!!!
"What manner of phenomenon was this?" and other ridiculous phrases that sound like the way non-nerd writers write nerd characters on TV.)
A Quest Must End - Theodore Goodridge Roberts (not necessarily bad, just tedious)

[Mavis Hewitt]

As with any collection of short stories, they are variable, one I couldn't be bothered to finish and a few irritated me by changing Merlin's character completely (it may be a legend - but you don't mess with it!)

[Phil]

The Jane Yolen story and the Jennifer Roberson story were quite good. Others were decent but not memorable. Still, for a collection, not bad.

[Lady]

The introduction to this book was amazing. Usually when I start a book and read the introduction I just want to blow through it and get it over with so I can start on the 'meat' of the book. Not so in this case! The introduction actually made me more excited to read this book! I was so thoroughly sucked in that I was actually a little sad when it was over and the first story started! So far the intro is the best part of the book but that might have something to do with the fact I've never been a big fan of short stories because they just leave to many questions unanswered.

[Patricia Sullivan]

This collection of 24 short stories explores the mystery of Merlin, Arthur and other characters in the Arthurian tales. The history, the myths and folklore and the magic. Most of the stories were okay, but only two stood out as powerful and really enjoyable: The Death of Nimue, by Esther Friesner, and Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood, by Charles de Lint. They were both beautifully written and moving.

[Laura]

I have posted summaries or mini-reviews of several of the tales on my blog -- it is just too lengthy to post here so please go to this permalink---
http://minnie-apolis.blogspot.com/201...
Thank you.

[Wendy]

A Birthday present from Pete, because I love tales of Merlin.

[David L. Pierce]

Do not waste your time. Maybe one or two of the stories were interesting but it would be better to just find the individual stories.

[Ala]

As mentioned by Jenny Busby, the order of the tales is a bit questionable (although I kind of understood it was by theme), it was a nice read for the beach

[Debbie Ledesma]

This anthology has several interesting and entertaining stories about the wizard Merlin.

[Amy Beth]

3.5 stars. Or maybe, 3.3 stars. Kind of a hit or miss collection.