abbyjennhm's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
vroodles's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This couldn't be nearly as laugh-out-loud funny as the others, given the subject matter, but it's such a worthy end to a series that was clearly a labor of love
misssusan's review
4.0
yesssss, he stuck the ending!
i was at an event yesterday called RA (readers' advisory) In A Day where we had a panel discussion about bad reading experiences
and i was talking about for me bad reading experiences tend to come down to poor endings
because i can usually tell if a book isn't going to work for me! if it's boring i quit and move on with my life
but sometimes books are doing something really interesting and i love the themes i'm seeing and the way the characters are being developed
and then suddenly the ending will abandon that and i'm like ???? what? why? but you were so good before, what even happened, why did you betray your character/narrative/thematic arc like that?
and i knew the ending to this series was going to be hard to pull off because king arthur is a tragedy. it's in the source material morris is working with; the battle of camlann will occur, camelot will fall, no golden age can last forever
and i was fine with that but one of my favourite things about these books have been the thread of pragmatic optimism they follow. you can tell that morris likes his characters and he thinks that people can be pretty great when they put in the effort!
(also terrible, sure, but if you had to address humanity as a whole i think these books subscribe more to locke than hobbes)
and it's hard to pull off a tragedy! it's hard to write honestly about terrible things happening while still allowing for hope. it's pretty dang easy to end up writing a tragedy that ultimately misfires and leaves you feeling like humanity sucks
but he didn't do that, this book remains wonderfully humanist
you stuck the landing, four for you gerald morris
no, i'm serious. 4 stars
i was at an event yesterday called RA (readers' advisory) In A Day where we had a panel discussion about bad reading experiences
and i was talking about for me bad reading experiences tend to come down to poor endings
because i can usually tell if a book isn't going to work for me! if it's boring i quit and move on with my life
but sometimes books are doing something really interesting and i love the themes i'm seeing and the way the characters are being developed
and then suddenly the ending will abandon that and i'm like ???? what? why? but you were so good before, what even happened, why did you betray your character/narrative/thematic arc like that?
and i knew the ending to this series was going to be hard to pull off because king arthur is a tragedy. it's in the source material morris is working with; the battle of camlann will occur, camelot will fall, no golden age can last forever
and i was fine with that but one of my favourite things about these books have been the thread of pragmatic optimism they follow. you can tell that morris likes his characters and he thinks that people can be pretty great when they put in the effort!
(also terrible, sure, but if you had to address humanity as a whole i think these books subscribe more to locke than hobbes)
and it's hard to pull off a tragedy! it's hard to write honestly about terrible things happening while still allowing for hope. it's pretty dang easy to end up writing a tragedy that ultimately misfires and leaves you feeling like humanity sucks
but he didn't do that, this book remains wonderfully humanist
you stuck the landing, four for you gerald morris
no, i'm serious. 4 stars
rachel_abby_reads's review
4.0
This series was an excellent walk through the Arthurian legend. It was mostly a gentle read, aimed probably at middle schoolers, but enjoyable by any age group.
While the Arthurian legend is a tragedy in the end, it is not without hope, and the author did a good job of wrapping up everyone's stories.
While the Arthurian legend is a tragedy in the end, it is not without hope, and the author did a good job of wrapping up everyone's stories.
oworthyfool's review
3.0
I don't believe Morris capable of writing a bad Arthurian retelling. But this is definitely the weakest of his Squire's Tales, focusing as it does on the main tale of the fall of Camelot. Everything rushes towards the final battle of Badon Hill, and the book suffers for losing the focus of the rest of the series. A good and ultimately hopeful conclusion, but unlike the rest, not one I will revisit again and again.
jackieeh's review
4.0
:( D'awww. This hurt my heart a little. It's the tenth and final book in a series I started reading on one of the awkward couches in Mrs. Breault's sixth grade book group. So there goes my childhood.
It was good to see Terence, Gawain, Dinaden, and the rest of the crew again, but I don't think it's much of a surprise to those who know about my love of the third book in the series, The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf, that I was happiest to see Lynet and Gaheris again. And if there's one thing I love that runs a close second to my favorite characters riding off into the sunset together, it's when my favorite characters get kickass death scenes. So there's that.
Of course, this all came with Gerald Morris's creeping anti-Catholicism (par for the course in a lot of Arthuriana, but particularly irritating here since he seems to go out of his way to make all the holy men encountered as Protestant-sounding as possible) and kind of subtle homophobia (mitigated this time around by the eleventh-hour heroism of Sir Griflet and the fact that the only pair of characters who ride off into the sunset together are Dinaden and Palomides even though they-are-totally-straight-omg...or not), but those are things I'm willing to overlook in order to put myself back in my sixth-grade mindset where Gawain was hot and Terence was awesome and nothing else mattered.
Thanks, Gerald. It's been a good ten years.
It was good to see Terence, Gawain, Dinaden, and the rest of the crew again, but I don't think it's much of a surprise to those who know about my love of the third book in the series, The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf, that I was happiest to see Lynet and Gaheris again. And if there's one thing I love that runs a close second to my favorite characters riding off into the sunset together, it's when my favorite characters get kickass death scenes. So there's that.
Of course, this all came with Gerald Morris's creeping anti-Catholicism (par for the course in a lot of Arthuriana, but particularly irritating here since he seems to go out of his way to make all the holy men encountered as Protestant-sounding as possible) and kind of subtle homophobia (mitigated this time around by the eleventh-hour heroism of Sir Griflet and the fact that the only pair of characters who ride off into the sunset together are Dinaden and Palomides even though they-are-totally-straight-omg...or not), but those are things I'm willing to overlook in order to put myself back in my sixth-grade mindset where Gawain was hot and Terence was awesome and nothing else mattered.
Thanks, Gerald. It's been a good ten years.
flyingsails's review
3.0
It's been a long time since I read the 9 previous books in the Squire's Tales series, so I was a little lost with all the characters. Plus, The Legend of the King wasn't nearly as hilarious as I remember the other books being; then again, it's about the downfall of King Arthur's court, so how upbeat can it really be?
I enjoyed it, but it wasn't really what I was expecting.
I enjoyed it, but it wasn't really what I was expecting.
cmbohn's review
5.0
Oh, Morris, I love you while you break my heart. I guess it had to end this way, and I knew it did, but it was so hard to read! Beautiful.
kbuchanan's review
4.0
The last of a really lovely series. I am sorry not to be looking forward to any more. The series is a funny, astute, and accessible re-telling of both classic and obscure Arthurian legends for young people. This last volume is appropriately heartbreaking but also hopeful. Well done, Mr. Morris!
lindzee's review
4.0
Sad in some parts, but ultimately a nice conclusion to the series. I could have read another hundred pages though.