What do you think?
Rate this book
Young Knights Trilogy #1
Young Knights Of The Round Table
Humans are the enemy!
That's what Rick's been taught to believe by the Fey Folk who stole him. Taken to the magical realm of Avalon, he's been trained - alongside other kids like him - into an elite force of warriors.
When rumours start that a new generation of knights are re-forming the Round Table to attack Avalon, the Fey entrust Rick with a mission: go to Earth, find the knights, and stop them.
Simple, right?
Well, not exactly… No training could prepare him for the shock of being a modern teenager. And when he discovers that the Fey have been lying to him, Rick has to ask: if humans aren't the enemy – who is?
That's what Rick's been taught to believe by the Fey Folk who stole him. Taken to the magical realm of Avalon, he's been trained - alongside other kids like him - into an elite force of warriors.
When rumours start that a new generation of knights are re-forming the Round Table to attack Avalon, the Fey entrust Rick with a mission: go to Earth, find the knights, and stop them.
Simple, right?
Well, not exactly… No training could prepare him for the shock of being a modern teenager. And when he discovers that the Fey have been lying to him, Rick has to ask: if humans aren't the enemy – who is?
368 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2013
5 people are currently reading
338 people want to read
About the author
Julia Golding
84 books867 followersMy journey to becoming an author has been a roundabout one, taking in many other careers. I grew up on the edge of Epping Forest and was that dreamy kind of child who was always writing stories. After reading English at Cambridge, I decided to find out as much as I could about the wider world so joined the Foreign Office and served in Poland. My work as a diplomat took me from the high point of town twinning in the Tatra Mountains to the low of inspecting the bottom of a Silesian coal mine.
On leaving Poland, I exchanged diplomacy for academia and took a doctorate in the literature of the English Romantic Period at Oxford. I then joined Oxfam as a lobbyist on conflict issues, campaigning at the UN and with governments to lessen the impact of conflict on civilians living in war zones - a cause about which I still feel very passionate.
Married with three children, I now live in Oxford between two rivers, surrounded by gargoyles, beautiful sandstone buildings and ancient trees.
My first novel, 'The Diamond of Drury Lane', won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2006 and the Nestle Children's Book Prize 2006 (formerly known as the Smarties Prize). I was also chosen by Waterstone's in 2007 as one of their 'Twenty-five authors for the future'. In the US, 'Secret of the Sirens' won the honor book medal of the Green Earth Book Award.
My latest series, which starts with Mel Foster and the Demon Butler, about an intrepid Victorian orphan who lives in a household of monsters, won Bronze in the Primary Teacher awards in 2015. The next part, Mel Foster and the Time Machine, has set the time-dial to arrive in 2016.
On leaving Poland, I exchanged diplomacy for academia and took a doctorate in the literature of the English Romantic Period at Oxford. I then joined Oxfam as a lobbyist on conflict issues, campaigning at the UN and with governments to lessen the impact of conflict on civilians living in war zones - a cause about which I still feel very passionate.
Married with three children, I now live in Oxford between two rivers, surrounded by gargoyles, beautiful sandstone buildings and ancient trees.
My first novel, 'The Diamond of Drury Lane', won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2006 and the Nestle Children's Book Prize 2006 (formerly known as the Smarties Prize). I was also chosen by Waterstone's in 2007 as one of their 'Twenty-five authors for the future'. In the US, 'Secret of the Sirens' won the honor book medal of the Green Earth Book Award.
My latest series, which starts with Mel Foster and the Demon Butler, about an intrepid Victorian orphan who lives in a household of monsters, won Bronze in the Primary Teacher awards in 2015. The next part, Mel Foster and the Time Machine, has set the time-dial to arrive in 2016.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Read
July 17, 2017One of the main characters, Linette, is a wheelchair user; she also uses crutches sometimes, but finds them fatiguing.
"A later scene is even worse about ignoring how her disability would affect her experience. When a magical earthquake hits Oxford, Linette is thrown out of her bed and buried beneath the falling furniture and debris. She calls for help, but no one hears her. After a short while, the changelings come to her rescue. Apart from a brief mention that she never has much feeling in her legs and therefore can’t tell if she’s been hurt, this scene could have been written about a nondisabled character and remained essentially unchanged.
This is not an example of incidental disability; this essentially erases disability."
Read editor Kayla Whaley's full review at Disability in Kidlit.
"A later scene is even worse about ignoring how her disability would affect her experience. When a magical earthquake hits Oxford, Linette is thrown out of her bed and buried beneath the falling furniture and debris. She calls for help, but no one hears her. After a short while, the changelings come to her rescue. Apart from a brief mention that she never has much feeling in her legs and therefore can’t tell if she’s been hurt, this scene could have been written about a nondisabled character and remained essentially unchanged.
This is not an example of incidental disability; this essentially erases disability."
Read editor Kayla Whaley's full review at Disability in Kidlit.
July 26, 2018
Good fun book. Character development sufficent for the target audience, a bit thin for me but enough to keep me interested. (I am at least 15 years older than the aim!) I like the twist on some common elements and I am most certainly looking out for the next one.
July 2, 2018
Fairly dull and uninspiring opening to the trilogy doesn't give me much hope for the rest of it, not sure if i will continue with it, it was pretty forgettable as well.
March 4, 2013
This book says on the cover, “Under threat. Out of time. Pure magic.”
The “under threat” refers to the Earth as its very existence is under attack; the “out of time” refers to the parallel world from which attack is coming, a world where time runs differently, where 1 year passes compared with 100 Earth years, and “pure magic” because magic is involved all through the book.
The story starts in the parallel world where young humans Rick, Roxy and Santiago are being trained to hate humans because they themselves are orphans abandoned by the horrible humans before they were taken there by the Fey. But something is afoot. A magical power is threatening the rule of the world and something needs to be done so these three humans are sent into the human world to investigate, to Oxford to be precise.
There ensues a few funny moments as these three adjust to an alien environment with Rick in particular finding things strange as he infiltrates Earth. Their “foster parents” also stand out a bit, what with them being a Fey and a Pixie and basing their human lives on fictional books such as Sherlock Holmes stories.
As things progress the three children get deeper into finding out what is going on discovering that how the world they have been living has been a lie, and how the setting up of a new round table could be pivotal to linking the two worlds and overthrowing the evil King of the parallel world called Avalon, for it was the time of Arthur and Merlin at the round table before when Avalon was last threatened in the same way.
There is a good crescendo at the end with a Darth Vader moment too, as decisions over which side to represent become harder.
There was the occasional slightly confusing moments as the magic interactions between the two worlds were explained but overall the book is well written, is set up at the end for the next in the series, and should provide a thrilling read for any young or old knights that choose to read it.
The “under threat” refers to the Earth as its very existence is under attack; the “out of time” refers to the parallel world from which attack is coming, a world where time runs differently, where 1 year passes compared with 100 Earth years, and “pure magic” because magic is involved all through the book.
The story starts in the parallel world where young humans Rick, Roxy and Santiago are being trained to hate humans because they themselves are orphans abandoned by the horrible humans before they were taken there by the Fey. But something is afoot. A magical power is threatening the rule of the world and something needs to be done so these three humans are sent into the human world to investigate, to Oxford to be precise.
There ensues a few funny moments as these three adjust to an alien environment with Rick in particular finding things strange as he infiltrates Earth. Their “foster parents” also stand out a bit, what with them being a Fey and a Pixie and basing their human lives on fictional books such as Sherlock Holmes stories.
As things progress the three children get deeper into finding out what is going on discovering that how the world they have been living has been a lie, and how the setting up of a new round table could be pivotal to linking the two worlds and overthrowing the evil King of the parallel world called Avalon, for it was the time of Arthur and Merlin at the round table before when Avalon was last threatened in the same way.
There is a good crescendo at the end with a Darth Vader moment too, as decisions over which side to represent become harder.
There was the occasional slightly confusing moments as the magic interactions between the two worlds were explained but overall the book is well written, is set up at the end for the next in the series, and should provide a thrilling read for any young or old knights that choose to read it.
May 21, 2016
I work in a bookshop and one of the benefits is publishers send us proof books, and this is one of the ones I got. Being that it was an "uncorrected proof book" I ignored the spelling and grammar mistakes as I assume they've been fixed!
I'm a huge fan of Julia Golding's Cat Royal series and her way of telling stories so I was excited to delve into another of hers and I wasn't disappointed. I love this kind of book with the fey and the old Arthur Stories.
This book is centered around the Legendary tales of King Arthur and Merlin and has an entirely different take on the story, being that the round table was assembled to take on the fey and give them some of the fey's magic so they could defeat Morgan/Morgana, whichever name you prefer. In this story Arthur is imprisoned in Avalon which is this story's version of the fey world, with Merlin still at large in our world. It also had the fabulous take of Morgan working with King Oberon to take changelings, another well known story, and train them to hate humans and ultimately fight them when the time came. This story seamlessly weaves the two tales, Arthur and the Fey into one story, creating a totally unique world and a totally unique story where I will admit I was totally fooled by the villian and at a loss for who was behind the crimes, which is highly unusual for me as I tend to find alot of books and stories fairly predictable!
The story was well written, containing a new take on two seperate legends and stories and blending them together, fantastic imagery and as you can see, I read this in a few hours today so it was really hard to put down! I genuinely enjoyed this book and I can't wait for a new book in the series! Atleast, I hope there'll be a new book in the series!
I'm a huge fan of Julia Golding's Cat Royal series and her way of telling stories so I was excited to delve into another of hers and I wasn't disappointed. I love this kind of book with the fey and the old Arthur Stories.
This book is centered around the Legendary tales of King Arthur and Merlin and has an entirely different take on the story, being that the round table was assembled to take on the fey and give them some of the fey's magic so they could defeat Morgan/Morgana, whichever name you prefer. In this story Arthur is imprisoned in Avalon which is this story's version of the fey world, with Merlin still at large in our world. It also had the fabulous take of Morgan working with King Oberon to take changelings, another well known story, and train them to hate humans and ultimately fight them when the time came. This story seamlessly weaves the two tales, Arthur and the Fey into one story, creating a totally unique world and a totally unique story where I will admit I was totally fooled by the villian and at a loss for who was behind the crimes, which is highly unusual for me as I tend to find alot of books and stories fairly predictable!
The story was well written, containing a new take on two seperate legends and stories and blending them together, fantastic imagery and as you can see, I read this in a few hours today so it was really hard to put down! I genuinely enjoyed this book and I can't wait for a new book in the series! Atleast, I hope there'll be a new book in the series!
March 13, 2013
I was really looking forward to this book and it delivered (although it was a little obvious in parts!) The story starts of well and carries on throughout the book with a strong voice. The main characters were really strong and a great group to read about. As there was a mix of girl and boy characters, there were parts that both can relate too and will be able to enjoy. The characters at times were humorous and then serious without seeming too out of place. Overall they were very rounded characters in the way they acted and reacted through the book.
It mixes Earth with Avalon, a fictional magical place filled with Fey that is described really well in parts throughout the book.
The writing, as usual from Julia Golding, was easy to read and fun to read too. She is really good at drawing the reader in and keeping them involved. The ending was great and Julia Golding really brought out the emotions in her characters and readers
This series has kicked off to a great start and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next book. I think this series has great potential and people who enjoyed, Percy Jackson, Pegasus or Artemis Fowl will really get a kick out of it too!
It mixes Earth with Avalon, a fictional magical place filled with Fey that is described really well in parts throughout the book.
The writing, as usual from Julia Golding, was easy to read and fun to read too. She is really good at drawing the reader in and keeping them involved. The ending was great and Julia Golding really brought out the emotions in her characters and readers
This series has kicked off to a great start and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next book. I think this series has great potential and people who enjoyed, Percy Jackson, Pegasus or Artemis Fowl will really get a kick out of it too!
August 14, 2017
Not bad, but not great either.
I definitely enjoyed Golding's Glass Swallow and Cat Royal books more - my personal recommendation is to read them instead of this series :)
There were several aspects of the book that annoyed me (e.g. the characters didn't seem properly fleshed-out, and there were inconsistencies in plot and character development).
In the end though, I guess this isn't really a style I like much so I won't say anything more.
I definitely enjoyed Golding's Glass Swallow and Cat Royal books more - my personal recommendation is to read them instead of this series :)
There were several aspects of the book that annoyed me (e.g. the characters didn't seem properly fleshed-out, and there were inconsistencies in plot and character development).
In the end though, I guess this isn't really a style I like much so I won't say anything more.
November 17, 2013
Young Knights of the Round Table by Julia Golding – Science Fiction/Fantasy, 4/5th grade and up -I enjoyed reading this interesting fantasy book. It was introduced with the premise that Fey Folk kidnapped a boy named Rick who they raised in the magical world of Avalon and tried to convince that humans are the enemy. What an adventure he and two other children go on, sent on a mission to Earth to discover why Avalon might be attacked.
February 23, 2014
I love the way Rick and his friends fit in the human world. Tiego and Roxy fit in really well, but Rick was finding it somewhat more awkward, which doesn’t really surprise me, as he’d lived his whole life believing humans to be bad, but found the opposite true from experienceJulia Golding
July 8, 2015
An enjoyable read. Not my favourite Julia Golding series, but a fun start. Rick made for some scenes that made me laugh out loud and the characters were interesting enough, although I felt like they should have done more to find out what was going on with the round table business. The ending was pretty interesting and had a great setting, so definitely worth a read.
August 12, 2013
A brilliant modern take on the Knights of the Round Table! Julia Golding writes with an easy humourous style that, together with the school setting for the present-day section of the book, should make this series very accessible to readers of around 10+. Also contains sword fights and dragons.
November 13, 2015
Loved it!
I wasn't sure what to make of this one at first, based on Changelings, and the Fey, I was expecting something different, but I was so impressed. The writing is beautiful and the characterisation terrific. A must read for pre-teens and adults a like.
I wasn't sure what to make of this one at first, based on Changelings, and the Fey, I was expecting something different, but I was so impressed. The writing is beautiful and the characterisation terrific. A must read for pre-teens and adults a like.
October 30, 2013
Great adventure story that I think will appeal to both boys and girls. Loved the pace of the book and the characters. Sure to be a winner with the children I know.
December 8, 2015
A good book with enough twists and turns to keep me reading. Sets up nicely the next book on the trilogy.
September 20, 2014
I enjoyed this but the 'son of a troll', 'trolls breath' etc exclamations annoyed me as I found them cringe worthy.
June 29, 2016
So original and amazing!!!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews