Rating: 
Summary: Good But not Magnificent
Review: T.H. White's The Once and Future King is an incredibly detailed story of King Arthur's life and reign as King of England. While the book looks intimidating as one picks it up, in reality it is somewhat of an easy read. Once into the book, the reading seems to get easier and more exciting. Although White does overwrite many portions, and seems to attempt to make the book longer, sacrificing quality, he does still manage to maintain a flow to the book. The first book, The Sword in the Stone, is the same story that everyone knows from their childhood. King Arthur, known then as The Wart, meets a wizard named Merlyn, who using various animals teaches Arthur what he needs to know to be a king. However, White does a good job of including minute details to keep the book far from basic. Although portions of the book including characters such as Robin Hood really have nothing to do with the basic theme, I enjoyed them. These little additions keep the mood of the book from becoming monotonous, and are very insightful. The second book, The Queen of Air and Darkness was the only book that I truly had trouble reading. It is a poorly written section, and although it does show the Orkney's during the period of their youth, I did not feel it was very important. The only thing it does is to attempt to establish the mindset of the power hungry Orkney family, and to show that their greed and viciousness pose a threat to Arthur later in life. This did not have to be made into another book, and certainly could have been demonstrated in less than a hundred pages. In contrast to book two, the third book , The Ill Made Knight, was very well written. This is the story of Lancelot, beginning in adolescence and moving forward. It tells the story of his worship of Arthur, and the quest to be a perfect knight. Then it progresses to Lancelot jealousy of Guenever, until that changes into love. This book also describes in detail Lancelot's quest, and then the conflict that arises between the two lovers upon his return. Overall, this was a very well written book, and for pure reading enjoyment, was definitely the best.
Although book three was the easiest to read, book four was by far the most thought provoking. The Candle in the Wind told the story of the downfall of Arthur's kingdom, ranging from the Orkney's greed, to the love affair between Lancelot and Guenever, and Arthur's indecision. I could write much more about this final story, but than I would spoil the ending. This was easily my favorite section because of the depth of it. It may seem boring at first, but if gone over closely, the depths of Arthur's feeling become clear, and the book is very, very moving. Overall, this was a fairly good book. Books three and four were easily the best, but book two was awful. It is not the kind of book I would suggest for a younger audience to sit down and read because there is little action. People wanting to read it because of the glory of Arthurian legend may be disappointed, but someone willing to get into a book would probably enjoy it very much. I would not suggest anybody younger than a freshman in high school read it, but for anybody older who is interested in classic books, this is a very good book to read.
Rating: 
Summary: A little longer than necessary
Review: T.H. White's The Once and Future King gets two stars and I rate it just average. While the book did have many different strengths, overall, it was just too long and contained way too much descriptive "filler" and "fluff." The strengths of the book include good character description and variations, solid humor (especially those parts with Sir Grummore and King Pellinore)and compelling scenes of treachery, action and love. Most of the action took place in Books 2-4, when the Wart becomes King Arthur and creates the Round Table, and also when Mordred declares himself the King of England. I particularly enjoyed the scenes in which Lancelot and Guenever are together, because you could almost feel the romantic tension between them. However, the quality of the read was really impacted negatively by the seemingly endless pages of descriptive commentary. For some reason, White thought that readers could stay interested through these long trips that basically lead the reader nowhere. For example, White could not hold my interest as he described (at incredibly great length)the color of an insect on a tulip in the field behind where the main scene is taking place. I wanted to scream: "Get to the point! Get back to the action!" And the worst part is, this desriptive commentary makes up about 1/3 to 1/2 of the book. If White cut out even half of all this description, it would make the book a much more enjoyable read, and much easier to comprehend. For me, reading The Once and Future King was sometimes a painful experience, as I waded through the 600+ pages. In conclusion, if you are the sort of person who enjoys reading an intricate level of detail and description (poetry, really) and you don't mind it taking pages and pages of print to get to any action, then this would be a great read for you. Otherwise, I would steer clear of this book...or just skim through the "fluff" and find the main action (and more interesting) parts of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: It will keep you wanting more.
Review: The Once and Future King is by far one of the best books i have ever read. I was assigned this book as a summer reading book, when I first bought the book I was scared by just looking at the size of it. The first book The Sword in the Stone is about Wart and his adventures with Merlyn, animals like ants, fish, and owl's. The story goes off on tangents occasionally but most of them are pretty interesting and have famous characters like Robin Hood. Books 2,3, and 4 all deal with Arthur growing up to be King and Lancelot becoming the greatest knight of all time. It tells the story of Arthur's rise and fall of his Kingdom. If you enjoy the Arthurian legend or if you just want a great fantasy story than you should read this.
Final Note:
Pellinore owns everyone in the story, what, what?
JHS forever.
Rating:
Summary: Around 300 pages too long
Review: The Once and Future King had many strengths, and it would be a good book except for the one major weakness that i noticed. I feel T.H. White did a good job with the chracters in the book, keeping them close to traditional Arthurian style. The book has many intriguing scenes filled with action, treachery, humor, and love. Now, one would think, based on the review i have given so far, that The Once and Future King is a fine read, but the one weakness that i felt the book had makes the book difficult to enjoy and hard to pay attention to. T.H. White added far too much meaningless commentary and description inbetween the interesting scenes. This made the book quite uninteresting and and, after the loss of interest, hard to follow and comprehend. And, unfortunately for me, almost half the book is made up of this miniscule description. Seeing as i am not an avid reader to begin with, this book made reading less appealing to me than it already was. Concluding, i would recommend this book to readers who enjoy reading 300 pages of wandering commentary, and 300 pages of the actual relevant story. I definitely would not recommend this story to those who dislike reading unless it is packed with action from cover to cover.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: The Once and Future King is the well-known novel of the legendary King Arthur. T.H. White presents in vivid detail the beauty of the Middle Ages and the exigent lives of brave knights living through a score of battles and wars. In the first book of four aptly named, "The Sword In The Stone," Arthur meets Merlyn, the magician, who transforms him into many beasts. From the first page to the last page, the plot thickens and the story of King Arthur and The Knights of the Round Table unfolds. If you want to discover more about Lancelot, the most skilled knight of his time, and Queen Guenever, King Arthur's wife, this is the book for you. The Once and Future King was one of the best, and longest books I have ever read, but I thoroughly enjoyed every page. If you decide to read this book, do not be deterred by its amount of pages or T.H. White's lengthy descriptions.
Rating: 
Summary: short of what could be
Review: argh! argh!
ARGH! ARGH!
To begin: I suppose you should be aware that I was so kindly forced to read this book over the summer for an English class, so my negative feelings could be an offshoot of that.
I found the slapstick humor not funny, and be warned it is laced throughout the entire first book. (this being a collection of 4 books)
White seems enjoy going out on weird whims and throws in many characters, like robin hood, that just don't make sense.
I suppose for this book would be a fine read for a younger audience, but then why is my teacher giving this book to a senior? Anyway I would recommend any number of the Arthurian books that are more loyal to the style and setting of Arthur.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to get into, great once in captures you
Review: This novel is a must-read for anyone interested in classic versions of the King Arthur legend--and anyone simply interested in reading a fantasy story with all the best: delightful humor, grand quests, riviting intrigue, . . . everything. Now I'm not saying it's the best book in the world. At first I was totally confused, seeing as the book just drops you into the middle England back in who-knows-when, and seems to expect you to understand everything about it from the social structure to the specifics of hawking. After a while though, I came to really enjoy it. And one other thing . . . King Pellinore is THE BEST CHARARCTER EVER. *blink* "what what?!" Nevermind, you would have to read it, but I love that guy.
Rating:
Summary: overrated
Review: Don't get me wrong, this is a really good book and I enjoyed it thouroughly.. I just don't believe it's the masterpiece that some people put it out to be. It's a classic fantasy epic that could also be called a fantasy biography, because it tracks most of Arthur's life in his time.
It advertises as a fantasy, but mainly, it isn't. It's historical fiction to be honest, and I was simply expecting something different.
Rating:
Summary: The Once and Future King: A book for Fantasy Games Players
Review: The novel, The Once and Future King, is a unique combination of four books. All of the stories in the book are about King Arthur. Book I is about Wart, who later becomes Arthur, and who lives with his foster father Sir Ector in a palace. Merlyn tutors and teaches Arthur about the world by turning him into various animals. When Uther Pendragon, the king of England dies, they are forced to have a contest to find the heir to the throne. In book II, Arthur has to battle against the Gaelic Kings. One of the kings he must battle is King Lot, one of Arthur's fierce rivals. Arthur establishes a group of Knights to protect the Kingdom and to fight for all that is right and grand. These Knights come to be known as the Knights of the Roundtable. Arthur also receives news of the Orkney fation from which he will have to save his kingdom. They had vowed revenge against the Pendragon line, which directly affects England. The focus is on Sir Lancelot in books number III and IV. Lancelot is just a young boy in the beginning, but he eventually becomes Arthur's' best Knight and friend. Sir Lancelot attempts to find the Holy Grail and he later has an affair with Guenever, Arthur's Queen. The affair hurts King Arthur deeply and Sir Lancelot must find a way to rectify it. I thought that the book was pretty interesting at times. I found the main problem I had with the book was in following the plot line. I really had to pay attention to it. There are a lot of characters and a lot of scenes change. You may have to read certain passages over in order to fully understand everything. I really enjoyed the book because of the excitement I felt. The book was filled with lots of really good action. The book was definitely way above average and I would give it about four stars out of five. Due to the type of details in the book, I think it would be unsuitable for anyone under the age of thirteen. With all of the magic and the violence, it would probably suite the people who play adventure video games. But if you like action, and you like adventurous magic, you will love the book.
Rating:
Summary: The Once and Future King: A Wandering of Words
Review: The Once and Future King: A Wandering of Words
Have you ever wondered what the lives of the great heroes of Camelot were like? If so, then The Once and Future King is a novel worth you time. The author, T.H. White, writes of King Arthur's childhood and his life as the King of England. The novel depicts the famous Round Table and some of the lives of the knights who served it. It shows the problems many of them faced. King Arthur trying to keep his kingdom together and establish Right by using Might. Or the infamous love affair between the King's most trusted knight Sir Lancelot and the Queen, fair Guenever.
I'm going to cut to the chase here and tell you some of the strengths and weaknesses of this novel. First, if someone were to go through the book and cut out at least fifty pages of wandering commentary, I would think very highly of it. It seems to me that T.H. White was a very distracted author who liked to get off on tangents. Whether or not these wanderings were relevant to the story or not, I think they dramatically take away from the reading. Second, the story went on and on with little to punctuate it. Action was scarce, and not very good. Then T.H. White went ahead and wrote the largest section of the book about a love affair. Although between the wandering words and the mushy love affair, the story was very good and had a lot of historical facts.
If you like informative, classical romance stories taking place in the Dark Ages of England, you just might like this novel. Although the story tends to wander and many areas are rather slow, the overall reading is a good experience. The wording can be difficult at times, and the story is often hard to follow, so I wouldn't suggest this book to younger or inexperienced readers. But most any high school student or some younger more advanced readers should be capable of reading his novel and enjoying it.
|
