The Sword in the Stone - TH White

⭐7.5/10

This is a kids version of the Arthurian legend written by White in the late 1930s. It's the start of a 5 part series, better known as The Once and Future King. I really love old kids stuff, love Arthurian stuff, and this is about the same era as The Hobbit. So I was sold! 

Initially, I had sorta mixed feelings. It is VERY funny in an old British sort of way. Lots of silly characters like King Pellanore, and the take on Merlyn is hilarious. His schtick is that he lives his life backwards, so he is only familiar with the future and doesn't remember things that just happened in the past. Obviously this makes no sense, and so the fact is only brought up when it's convenient, and by that, I mostly mean convenient for a joke. And it works! I laughed a lot. 

Along these lines, I love how much freedom the author gives himself. Everything about this is silly, he breaks all the rules, nothing matters. This is not super faithfully Arthurian really at all, not even being in the same era, and Arthur meets Robin Hood in like chapter 4. Basically the only things from the legend are a few names, and Arthur doesn't even hear about the stone (and thus isn't even called Arthur) until the final chapter. It really is just a series of disconnected chapters about Merlyn "educating" Arthur by turning him into animals or taking him on adventures every chapter. 

I dig that. Again, this book is very funny, very entertaining, and superbly written. It's clever and incredibly creative. Rather than the Hobbit, it actually reminded me more of Tolkien's short story Roverandom which had similar qualities. 

With all that said, similar to Roverandom, the issue I had with this book is that it is pretty strictly a kids book. There is plenty of humour for adults to enjoy, but the adventures are all silly little disconnected tales with almost no plot or character development. It's a fun read, but I'm not totally sold on completing the series. 

One last detail I'll mention is that I began this on audiobook, then loved it so much that I thought it would be better on physical. It's not. It's a little tough to read, I find, and the reader, Neville Jason, is phenomenal. I should have never left. Honestly, this is one of the best performances I've ever listened to. So much wit and energy in his voice. Totally recommend this route. 

So yeah, that's it. This book is in a bit of a weird place because while I think it's strictly for kids, I think kids today would have a pretty tough time following the language. It's definitely more challenging than the Hobbit or even Anne, which is much older. But yeah, I just think about all those funny chapters of Knights arguing and wrestling, or Merlyn accusing someone of being a communist, and it's hard to quit this book. So we'll see. It sure is a chunker.