What do you think?
Rate this book
King & Raven
Forced to watch as Arthur's knights rape and murder his beloved sister, young Raven vows never to be helpless again, and when he demands retribution for the crime, he is taken on as part of the court in a fantastical story of romance, adventure, and revenge. Reprint.
533 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
90 people want to read
About the author
Cary James
12 books1 followerCary James was born in Virginia, and received degrees from the College of William and Mary, and the University of California at Berkeley. For two decades he practiced architecture in the San Francisco Bay area, before becoming a professional writer. He has published short stories, poems, and book reviews, and served as chair of the Fiction Award Committee of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association. He is the author of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel, a photographic essay on that now-demolished building, Julia Morgan, a young person’s biography of the San Francisco architect’ and King & Raven, his first novel. Baranaby Conrad once defined the full life as one in which “you build a house, plant a tree, create a child, and fight a bull.” James regrets that he has not yet met his bull. He lives in Mill Valley California with his wife Elaine.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 25, 2015
I loved this book. It was meticulously researched and accurately portrayed life in medieval Europe. This was not a book that idolized Camelot. It portrays Arthur and his knights as human, and not in their best light. The book starts out with several of Arthur's knights raping the main character's sister, who dies from blood loss soon after. I found the James' portrayal of the rigid class structure throughout the book very interesting, and through the lens of the modern day, disheartening. Finally, a realistic Arthurian novel.
October 7, 2024
I might be the only person who did not fully enjoy this novel. I liked it enough, but it also immensely frustrated me, and I ended up skipping some sections in the middle.
The story follows Micah's (later Michel) journey from the son of a peasant to a knight at the court of King Arthur, taking place from the golden years of Lancelot, Arthur and Guinevere till the destruction of Camelot. It all starts when Michel (who calls himself Raven) sees four of Arthur's knight rape his sister Rebecca. Rebecca later dies of her wounds, and when Michel's father asks for justice, Arthur gives him a horse and the promise to employ Michel at his court as soon as he is of age.
The premise sounded both dark, terrifyng and interesting, and the novel does retains some of these emotions I initially applied to the prologue/blurb. The novel is terrifying, in the sense that it presents a Camelot which is violent and cold. For the whole novel we see Michel fighting to be in two worlds unreconcilable worlds: the world of nobility, where rules and honor reign, and the world of everyone else, where rights and humanity are not even considered part of it. There are many times where Michel sees someone dividing people into knights/noble and peasants, and the protagonist himself at one point needs to make the choice.
Arthur is no different. He is terrifying. The novel builds him and his knights in a way I have rarely seen before: he is a dictator who can enact any kind of justice, whose word must never be contraddicted.
Still, the novel was dry. Unfeeling. I think the lack of emotions was my main problem with it. We see Michel's rage at Rebecca's rape and death, but this is almost forgotten. We never truly know Rebecca or even Michel's family. Rebecca becomes a symbol of angst for Michel himself, but even his desire for revenge is quickly put aside. The conflict that is introduced at the start (where Michel joins the world of knights) is quickly forgotten to talk about endless fights, Michel's journey, a lady he fell for - and . The rapist knights end up actually being more of a nuisance to him for other reasons ().
Events happen, one after the other, and we rarely see any emotion or self reflection from Michel. The other characters are all empty figures with no true characterization. They have no feelings - they just do what the legends tell them to do. Arthur and Lancelot, and maybe Guinevere, are the only ones who get a little bit more, but it was still not enough.
I also was quite bored by the middle of the novel. What started like a fight between two worlds and Michel's desire to remember and avenge his sister became a series of events and names that led Michel to go from a peasant to a knight, but literally no character stuck with me. They could have all called themselves "John" and I would have not minded.
At the end of the day - dry and unfeeling is what I would most associate with this.
The story follows Micah's (later Michel) journey from the son of a peasant to a knight at the court of King Arthur, taking place from the golden years of Lancelot, Arthur and Guinevere till the destruction of Camelot. It all starts when Michel (who calls himself Raven) sees four of Arthur's knight rape his sister Rebecca. Rebecca later dies of her wounds, and when Michel's father asks for justice, Arthur gives him a horse and the promise to employ Michel at his court as soon as he is of age.
The premise sounded both dark, terrifyng and interesting, and the novel does retains some of these emotions I initially applied to the prologue/blurb. The novel is terrifying, in the sense that it presents a Camelot which is violent and cold. For the whole novel we see Michel fighting to be in two worlds unreconcilable worlds: the world of nobility, where rules and honor reign, and the world of everyone else, where rights and humanity are not even considered part of it. There are many times where Michel sees someone dividing people into knights/noble and peasants, and the protagonist himself at one point needs to make the choice.
Arthur is no different. He is terrifying. The novel builds him and his knights in a way I have rarely seen before: he is a dictator who can enact any kind of justice, whose word must never be contraddicted.
Still, the novel was dry. Unfeeling. I think the lack of emotions was my main problem with it. We see Michel's rage at Rebecca's rape and death, but this is almost forgotten. We never truly know Rebecca or even Michel's family. Rebecca becomes a symbol of angst for Michel himself, but even his desire for revenge is quickly put aside. The conflict that is introduced at the start (where Michel joins the world of knights) is quickly forgotten to talk about endless fights, Michel's journey, a lady he fell for - and . The rapist knights end up actually being more of a nuisance to him for other reasons ().
Events happen, one after the other, and we rarely see any emotion or self reflection from Michel. The other characters are all empty figures with no true characterization. They have no feelings - they just do what the legends tell them to do. Arthur and Lancelot, and maybe Guinevere, are the only ones who get a little bit more, but it was still not enough.
I also was quite bored by the middle of the novel. What started like a fight between two worlds and Michel's desire to remember and avenge his sister became a series of events and names that led Michel to go from a peasant to a knight, but literally no character stuck with me. They could have all called themselves "John" and I would have not minded.
At the end of the day - dry and unfeeling is what I would most associate with this.
July 30, 2017
I read this many years ago when it first came out, and recently I re-read it on scribd with my phone, mainly as a portable thing I could carry for a few minutes here and there. It's Arthuriana but was a decent narrative, and the implicit challenges to class structure were interesting. What troubled me a bit was the imperviousness of the protagonist and the late addition of magical explanation for what had already become a standard expectation in the narrative (the imperviousness of the protagonist), but it was still good fun.
April 22, 2022
Compelling
Beautifully written and gorgeously detailed. A new and brilliant imagining of the knights of the Round Table and their king and queen. As poetic as the epic tales sung in the great halls. A worthy addition to the Arthurian canon. ~~~
[Many thanks to Marta Randall, a superb author herself, for urging me to buy this book. I loved it.]
Beautifully written and gorgeously detailed. A new and brilliant imagining of the knights of the Round Table and their king and queen. As poetic as the epic tales sung in the great halls. A worthy addition to the Arthurian canon. ~~~
[Many thanks to Marta Randall, a superb author herself, for urging me to buy this book. I loved it.]
May 10, 2010
This was the fourth or fifth reading of this book since my Aunt gave me the signed copy sometime in Jr. High. Really enjoyed the re-read. 5 stars for the fact that I've been drawn to read it so many times.
March 18, 2025
Read this book when I was in high school. holly crap it’s that long ago ?! This book opened up the nerd vain into fantasy reading !
May 25, 2012
I have read this book multiple times. It is wonderful to see the other side of Camelot
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews