Anybody know good fiction books on the Medieval Times, preferably King Arthur?

[Dragnov]

I woudl like to read something dealing with this stuff. However, it seems most of it is written in old English style so its painfully boring to me.

So have you guys read any fiction books dealing with King Arthur/Medieval Times kinda with a modern style of writing?

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

The Once and Future King and The Mists of Avalon are the two that immediately spring to mind.

 

[AreaCode707]

You can usually buy translations of Middle English (it's not Old English) texts. Chretien De Troyes' "Arthurian Romances"

[Edit] I should mention, this is a collection of Arthurian legends that was written in the Middle Ages but is in translation. De Troyes is pretty authoritative, a text that you will read in Medieval lit classes, and the writings are straightfoward, simple, and easy to read.

 

[EXman]

If you like medevil and Sci-fi "Timeline" is cool

 

[DAM]

a yankee in king aurthur court.


dam()

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: EXman
If you like medevil and Sci-fi "Timeline" is cool

Awesome book!

 

[chiwawa626]

Remember the cartoon where the football players are part of the round table that was awesome.

 

[Dragnov]

Originally posted by: chiwawa626
Remember the cartoon where the football players are part of the round table that was awesome.

Yeah definitely.

Ahh, thers so many books I want to read now. But games seems to be taking a precedence over them.

Thanks for the reccomendations. I'll look into them.

 

[LethalWolfe]

For a very good retelling of the Arthur legend check out A. A. Attanasio's The Dragon and the Unicorn, The Eagel and the Sword, The Wolf and the Crown, the Serpent and the Grail (in that order).


Lethal

 

[Jadow]

does it have to be King Arthur? There' s alot of great swords and sorcery fantasy books out there, check out the works of:

George R.R. Martin
Raymond E. Feist
David Eddings
RA Salvatore

and many more. I should warn you though, George R.R. Martin's series, "A Song of Ice and Fire" is pretty much the best stuff ever written.

 

[N8Magic]

Originally posted by: EXman
If you like medevil and Sci-fi "Timeline" is cool

Werd.

The one point in the book where they find the Doctor's note was chilling. :Q

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

Originally posted by: Jadow
I should warn you though, George R.R. Martin's series, "A Song of Ice and Fire" is pretty much the best stuff ever written.

I've heard his stuff is pretty good. Only $8 on amazon, might as well check it out

 

[Turin39789]

The Once and Future king, hands down

 

[AreaCode707]

All the modern fiction written about the time period that I've read brings in all these modern elements that color the period inaccurately. There are some absolute jewels of writings that were done in the Middle Ages (find some of the translated fableaux, for instance, if you like the humorous and rather bawdy).

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

bump, I'm looking for some good reading too

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: Turin39789
The Once and Future king, hands down

Yeah, that book rocked.

 

[eviltoon]

The Mary Stewart trilogy is very good on the Merlin / King Arthur story. It's fairly long, but well told.
Crystal Cave
Hollow Hill and something else.

 

[DaveSimmons]

David Drake's The Dragon Lord has Arthur as a supporting rather than lead character, but it's a great read.

Another vote for Mary Stewart, and (for Wymynysts ) Mists of Avalon. Mallory's Le Morte de Arthur was pretty good too.

Don't forget to rent Excalibur

 

[440sixpack]

Excalibur, by Gil Kane and John Jakes. Here it ison Amazon. A very realistic story with minimal supernatural/magical type stuff.

 

[XZeroII]

Why read a book when you can watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: DAM
a yankee in king aurthur court.


dam()

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain. Excellent book.

 

[Nitemare]

I'd recommend the Pendragon series by Stephen Lawhead

I thought Orson Scott Card did a series as well but was mistaken. *started out as Uther Pendragon coming from Atlantis as an infant...Merlin helped raise him and then of course your familiar cast of characters and new characters enter the picture.* either a trilogy or set of 4 books

 

[Geekbabe]

Some good reading material being suggested here! Thanks,I love this sort of stuff

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: eviltoon
The Mary Stewart trilogy is very good on the Merlin / King Arthur story. It's fairly long, but well told.
Crystal Cave
Hollow Hill and something else.

Yeah I read those. Good books.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis

Originally posted by: eviltoon
The Mary Stewart trilogy is very good on the Merlin / King Arthur story. It's fairly long, but well told.
Crystal Cave
Hollow Hill and something else.

Yeah I read those. Good books.

There are 4 books in Mary Stewarts series, the last 2 are The Last Enchantment and The Wicked Day. They're pretty good, but tend to focus more on Merlin, not much on Arthur and the knights. As others have mentioned, The Once and Future King is the best of the genre. Don't bother with Le Morte D'Arthur, it reads more like a cub reporter filing scores from a jousting tournament. There are endless pages of who unhorsed whom and it really bogs down in many places. A few others that are must-read for true Arthur fans are Nikolai Tolstoy's "The Coming of the King" and Steven Lawhead's books from The Pendragon Cycle, "Taliesin", "Merlin", "Arthur", "Pendragon" and "Grail". For a more modern spin on the Arthurian legend, try Warren Murphy's "The Forever King" and of course, watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" at least 100 times. Also read Tennyson's "Idylls of the King"