SOLVED. YA Fantasy Action Adventure. Story about King Arthur's last descendant in the modern world, escorted to fulfill a prophecy by another descendant of the round table! Spoilers ahead, any help is greatly appreciated! [s]

[Ty]

I believe i read this book around 2010 or so, while i was in elementary school or early highschool, it was just in the school library.
It was a story about king Arthur's last descendant, who is asked to take his place at the round table or something, but he first goes on an adventure to find Excalibur along with the last descendant of lancelot or galahad, i can't remember which.

I'm pretty sure the book had a red-themed cover with a corvette and a helicopter on it, with blurred lines of light like you'd see in a timelapse of a highway at night, but this was just about half my life ago and i could be confusing it with something else. If it's not this cover, then i don't know what the book might look like.

Some key things i do remember, and SPOILERS here:



Black swords are mentioned often, i believe most of the enemies the main characters fight use swords of this color.

Galahad/Lancelot's descendant at one point faces off against multiple opponents, and before fighting he promises them something along the lines of "I will open your chest from throat to bladder and string your entrails out for the birds", then the next line basically said that he made good on that promise, but the main character tries not to dwell on it too much, because:

The main character is squeamish. I remember being mildly frustrated at this fact, but the mc is weak to his stomach extremely easily at the sight of even a little blood. It's almost to the point of fainting in the beginning of the story, but gets better with time.

Excalibur has healing properties. The main band of characters gets the sword not too late into the novel, and are either going somewhere or on the run, i can't remember. but the descendant of lancelot/galahad takes a lethal blow at one point, followed by a retreat to safety. the main character had cut himself on his thumb with Excalibur shortly after getting it, and his protector re-opens the wound with his razor, pressing the bleeding cut on mc's thumb against his own wound. the blood which was originally drawn by Excalibur heals him in this scene, saving his life.

The Doozy. In the final fight of the novel, the main character faces down the head villain ( i don't remember his name but there's a good chance he's either another descendant of the round table, or has lived hundreds of years). During the fight, mc is outclassed by his more skilled opponent, and loses Excalibur to him. the villain picks up the sword, and rams it through mc's chest, forcing the blade into a stone/brick wall all the way until the hilt stops the sword from going farther. Mc has a bit of a moment, then says something along the lines of "the sword doesn't answer to a prophecy, the sword must be chosen!" then pulls Excalibur from his chest and lops the head off the main villain. the line is probably a little different, but the "must be chosen" is definitely the point to what he's saying.

After the final battle, mc survives his injuries with surprisingly little complications, likely as a result of excalibur's healing properties. His companion, a woman who was also stricken down (at some point, i don't remember how), survives the battle as well, though i don't remember if he remains with her or not after regaining mobility.

Any help is much appreciated, i'll add more details if i remember anything else!

[Capn]

Maybe The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp? (MANY different covers - see link!)

There are three others, and they have helicopters and motocycles, etc. on the covers: ,

This also came up: The Black Sword Trilogy: The Four Nations..? It could be that 'black swords' aren't unique to your Arthurian book.

You mean Corvette as in the sports car, not the sailing ship, right? :)

I didn't see a cover like the one you described on it, but there's a very thorough list for Arthurian Fiction for Children: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

[Ty]

thank you so much! yes, it was The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp! i've been looking for this for ages, i can't believe the first commenter got it. I've got the audiobook now, I'll have to give it a listen once again.

[Capn]

My pleasure! :) Enjoy!