Jeff C: Camelot as you’ve definitely never seen it before!

For a brief time not long ago, it was fashionable in the literary world for authors to write their own narrative of the Arthurian legend. They stayed largely faithful to tradition, and within those constraints, attempted to ascribe motivations to explain character actions that make no sense outside the context of a fairy tale.

In this venture into Camelot, the author succeeds where so many before have failed in finally giving the classic story the emotional depth and humanity that it has always lacked. Where before there were caricatures and cardboard cutouts of chest-beating knights and sighing ladies-in-waiting, Gibby has fashioned truly authentic people of complexity, flaws, and beauty. It was while reading this second novel that I realized how subtly I was drawn in as the reader to be invested in Arthur, his queen and his knights. Most telling of all, though, is that out of all of the tellings of the myth that I’ve read, both classic and contemporary, Gibby’s is the only portrayal of the king’s death that has ever produced any sort of emotional reaction in me.

His Majesty and the Prince brings the author’s brilliant re-imagining of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table to an end with a unique sense of closure often missing from the hero’s tragic end (one that T.H. White’s Once and Future King never did for me). While I have yet to read the remaining volumes in the series, at this point, Gibby’s narrative leaves the reader with the impression that the “original” story that we all know–a sword in the stone, a wizard that speaks in riddles, a cuckolded king and an incongruous fixation on the Grail–isn’t only not “the true story” of the once and future king, but may even be a parody authored by his detractors, revisionist “history”–a deliberate fabrication created by his sworn enemies.


Holly M: Intriguing:

His Majesty and the Prince of Lothian, is an intriguing and gripping tale. The characters are richly developed, especially that of King Arthur. Sir Rene, his horse, and humor are amazing . . . Love is a defining virtue running throughout the book.