The Wolf and the Crown

Arthor #3

by A.A. Attanasio

While Merlin fights the forces of evil in Hell that threaten Arthor's reign, Arthor must guide his people past the sorceries of old and an established empire to save his people, and he must also fulfill his destiny by finding true Earthly love. Reprint.

Genres: Fantasy, Arthurian, Fiction, Historical, Speculative Fiction, Mythology, Science Fiction Fantasy

432 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

I’m a novelist and student of the imagination living in Honolulu. Fantasies, visions, hallucinations or whatever we call those irrational powers that illuminate our inner life fascinate me. I’m particularly intrigued by the creative intelligence that scripts our dreams. And I love carrying this soulful energy outside my mind, into the one form that most precisely defines who we are: story.

Reviews

[D.M. Dutcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3rd book out of 4. Arthur/Arthor is guided by Merlin/Laikamon to become king of britain. A lot of people aren't keen on this, and either need to be won over or killed. Morgana LeFay/Morgae is angry at Merlin for kidnapping the future Mordred/I guess he cant think of a different spelling's soul. She hangs out with old gods and vampires(!) Meanwhile Merlin has problems of his own.

It's a beautiful mess of a book. Attanasio seems to want to make everything as unlike as possible to a standard Arthurian myth, and it gets ridiculous if you look at it too much. You've got Celtic deities and Norse ones all intermingled, as well as a fairly warped take on traditional Christian theology. That take is refreshing for its difference, but it makes the motivations of the nominally Christian characters pointless. Arthor for one has directly experienced every God except Jesus, it seems. That makes for a large gap in the book: if all the deities are true, why is Christ noticeably absent? When he is, why do people believe in him?

The plot is somewhat meh. All the interesting stuff is with Merlin, and Artor feels like he is being pulled around on a chain like a pull toy. Even is constant "Mother Mary" chapter headings don't really make us care about him as opposed to Dagobert or Merlin himself. Merlin has an interesting internal conflict, and is a complex character; he's essentially a christianized demon and has to wrestle with that nature when he tries to act for good.

It's a fun read just to see what Attanasio will pull out of his hat next, but don't look too close.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, the third book in the Arthor cycle feels like a bit of a letdown. Of course, I'm comparing it more to the first and a bit to the second books, both of which spanned great time and scope as well as getting deep into specifics. The first one blew me away. The second was all right because it gave us Arthor (Arthur) as a YA protagonist leading up to the Sword in Stone, giving us a trip through the realms of the World Tree, and some rather awesome storytelling.

This one was merely about the early days of proving himself to be King, discovering what kind of king he would like to be. There was some resolution with the setup in the second book, of course, but oddly enough, this was almost a minor part of the tale.

Now, if I just ignored the Arthor parts and read the book as something else, completely, I thought it was a great collection of druidic legends, a mix of many other mythologies, and a very Fae-ish kind of magical legend. And honestly, I didn't really see why it should have mixed with the Arthurian Legend at all, but there it is.

Was it still pretty fascinating? Yes. Was it imaginative? Yes. But I'm stuck comparing it to the first book which was on a much more epic scale. It's not all that fair to THIS book, especially when it COULD have gone much further and deeper into the whole Grail quest, instead, and ending in the glorious tragedy. Instead, Mordred is still an unborn child throughout books 2 and 3. We had whole GENERATIONS in the first book.

This one is good but NOT to the same level. And that's a shame, because I thought things were going to be much wilder than this.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a good plot here about Arthor going throughout England trying to win the loyalty of the other kings. But there's some weird choices too. Like everything is written in 2-page sections. And those 2-page sections would have worked better in the present tense like the first two books were written in but for some reason, this one isn't. It's the normal past tense. And one of the stories is of Merlin and a dwarf with a really bad lisp (spelled out so it's hard to read) switching bodies then combining bodies and doing all sorts of weird stuff which would have been a lot more fun if I didn't have to read a lisp.

[Steve R]

This third volume in Attanasio's retelling of the Arthur legend has the young king battling both a foreign power and ancient magical powers. Twenty years later, I hardly remember anything about it but for the fact that I really enjoyed reading it.

[Violetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

In which Arthor learns what kind of king he wants to be

[Camila · Rating 1 out of 5]

es de lo peor que he leido

[Mary Slowik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Points for originality. There are passages in here quite definitely different than what you'd find in any other work. I still love the first book in this series, which was one of the first 'big' novels I ever read, and I still intend to read the fourth and final book, but in this one... I couldn't get behind Arthur (Arthor). He represents some cosmic, optimistic brand of Christianity, with no indictment, either in the text or subtext, of the supposed author of all the world's suffering. He kills many men in the name of God, with the Madonna on his shield, then considers it 'evil' for Merlin to try and prevent the king's witchy sister Morgau from having an incest-baby. Meanwhile God, a character, is off dancing with microbes.

Yeah, it's weird. Also, there are vampires. And random time-travel to 1957 England, which I don't think is ever really explained. Also, Merlin does something at the end which requires him to knowingly 'forget' the location of something very important in the Arthurian legend-- but couldn't he have written it down? Plus, all the monotonous prayers to Mother Mary... Blah.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 3rd book in The Perilous Order of Camelot series. I am really enjoying this series. Well-written, believable characters - Arthur is human, not perfect. It really flows well. The only thing I didn't like was the vampyres that Morgeau the Fey found and used. (Really? Vampyres?) Arthor has to go to battle against the chieftains and Lords that refuse to accept him as High King, and proves himself quite worthy of the title.

[johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The third of four books about King Arthur. This series is amazing and i have loved reading every book. In each book there have been lessons and conversations between the characters that have stayed with me, influenced me and touched me. i highly recommend any of these books to those who love science, magic, theories on the universe and the debate between religions.

[Antonio Heras · Rating 2 out of 5]

Demasiadas oraciones, demasiado rollo cristiano para mi gusto. Tampoco me convence la forma de narrar, con capítulos mini, y encuentro demasiadas inspiraciones -o plagios- en otras novelas del género o incluso en películas.

Attanasio, no me lo trago.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit long, this story takes a while to come together. The descriptions are lengthy but add some depth to the story. You really have to enjoy this genre to stick it out to the end.
Worth a read!

[Macha · Rating 2 out of 5]

worst book i've read in years. the two stars are on behalf of the fact that i know this guy can write - from other books. see, i'm really nice, you get that, right?

[Adriana Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buen manejo de personajes.
Me gusto la leyenda Arturica y como llega a Coronarse Rey.
Aunque el lenguaje es de época y se hace complicado de entender. Tiene un buen desarrollo de la trama.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first two, but not too bad. A very quick read.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love this as much as the first two. The narrative style wasn't as smooth; Attanasio breaks up the chapters like every 500 words here. And the Dagonet character was painful to read. Still looking forward to the conclusion, though. A solid continuation of Attanasio's weird, wild version of the Arthur legend.