What do You think about The Sword In The Stone (1998)?
Let me just say that I am REALLY proud of myself for finishing this book. It's very well written and imaginative and descriptive, it's just not at all my genre. ;) So there were some days I had to tell myself, "Okay, 10 minutes of this book and then you can read whatever you want to read." It's on the Ambleside Year 7 list for two of my kids for next year so I wanted to pre-read it, and if I'm going to have them read it, I figured I'd better read it, too. I loved the character of Wart, and Merlyn is a kind and lovable old wizard. The last several pages were excellent. (Some of the other more fantastical scenes will be loved by my Isaac, for sure, and I think I'll have Mark read this one aloud to the older kids.)
—Stacy
Absolutely enchanting.The first in T.H. White's Once and Future King pentalogy, The Sword and the Stone is an imaginative look at the education of Wart by an old wizard name Merlyn, a man who only grows younger as time goes on.The story, contrary to my expectations, isn't as much a narrative as it is a series of chronological vignettes. Alternating between the adventures of Wart as a boy and the adventures of Wart as an animal, T.H. White, and by proxy, Merlyn, teach Wart and the reader the hard lessons of kingship. Each adventure presents a different facet of the politics of animals, decorated in the joyful masquerade of back-and-forth between shaped human and animal. Unsurprisingly, the two have a lot to learn from each other.I hope I haven't made it sound boring. In fact, the times when Wart is an animal are infinitely more entertaining than the moments where Wart is but a page. While Merlyn is, without question, the most interesting of the minor characters, Wart still manages to have endless amounts of fun beside the ranks of King Pellinore, older half-brother Kay, and the aging guardian Sir Ector.The Sword in the Stone is a powerful start to the remainder of the series. T.H. White has this ability to weave Modern England and Modern Earth with the dark ages, and his similes and metaphors for daily life are certainly timeless.If you've seen the Disney adaptation, which I consider to be a great little film, don't pass this one up. The animated movie only begins to touch on the fascinating tales of Wart, Merlyn, and Archimedes.
—Rucker Manley
A time-traveling Merlin? Stop it, White ol' boy, you're killing me!TH White's version of the King Arthur myth is...unusual. It's not a straight up retelling of the tale that tries to pinpoint any kind of actual date upon when the "real" King Arthur lived and base the story in that period. It floats about, taking little bits of history from here, a legend or two from there, and cobbles them together. It makes for an interesting fantasy.It's also distracting. I'm the sort that likes to get immersed in my fantasy. I want to feel like I'm in that world. So, when a ghost knight is questing after a mythical beast and out of nowhere the author is talking about police officers it breaks up my willing suspension of disbelief. Funny, I know, that something that's real should ruin my belief of something fake. It worked so well in Python's "The Holy Grail"...Ah, but I'm making too much of this and right from the start of my review. The fact is I really enjoyed The Stone in the Stone. The above gripe is a relatively minor one. For the most part I was able to sit back and enjoy the fantastical scenes, colorful imagery and oddball characters cooked up by White. It's an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink kind of book at times, but you just have to go with it, because of course it would be a kooky life, the adolescence of the man who later drew a sword from a stone in order to become king, referenced water spirits for his life choices and overcame the Knights Who Say Ni with a two letter word and a herring. Damn it. Now I'm the one mixing things up!
—Jason Koivu
