Mordred is a fresh retelling of story of King Arthur, Mordred, and the witches of Avalon. Mordred, our protagonist, is a young fisherman’s boy who is torn from the serenity of village by a corrupt wizard coupled with soldiers armed with orders from King Arthur in an attack that annihilates his in a failed attempt to snuff out his life. With anger festering in his heart, Mordred flees from destroyed village and plans his revenge on King Arthur. While on the run, Mordred encounters a small encampment and is befriended by Vivien, a young girl with magical powers that she calls insignificant and he calls wrong. Joining forces with Vivien Mordred sets into motion his plan for revenge against Arthur. But who has he actually joined forces with? What is he willing to sacrifice to acquire aid in his quest for revenge?
Mordred was definitely a fun reading experience for me. I’ve never read a retelling of a strictly King Arthur tale and the “first-ness” of that in this book lent an even more magical air to the story. It is clear from Mordred that Greg Downs has a rampant imagination and no doubt has hundreds more fantastical tales just bottled up inside of him. I was blessed with just a piece of his vivid imagining in Mordred, which I found: Highly creative, excellent in the morals department, a fun retelling of a common story, and excellent in the choice of story setting.
That all said, this is definitely a freshman novels. There were numerous technical aspects of the writing that needed improvement. The Point of view in the story had several slips from standard Point of view into Omniscient Point of view. The book was also largely of a “telling” nature rather than “showing”. I know the book would have been far improved if these things had been fixed.
In conclusion, I can recommend this book as an imaginative tale that has interesting characters and features a fresh twist on King Arthur. However, the book is not very technically sound, so if that bothers you, this is not a book for you.
One note about the cover: The blood on it is pretty much a misnomer. The book is not characterized by graphic violence, :)
You can purchase the E-book on Amazon.com for 2.99 here.
You can purchase the E-book on Amazon.com for 2.99 here.
I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review.
3 comments:
OH MAN, this would be SO COOL... But I have no time to read online. Or else I'D be reviewing it! I'm a King Arthur fan =)
~ Mirriam
Exciting! It looks good! I've heard plenty-much of it on Facebook, but never got it because I only read physical books. >_> *sad* Though perhaps I'll make an exception in this case. o_O There's a first time for everything.
And my hearty congratulations for getting your story into the world, Sir Greg! A most marvelous and courageous accomplishment. :)
I'm slowly reading this. Life keeps dragging me away, but so far, it's good. :)
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